Review: The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Lieber

The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Lieber

I remember this as being Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s greatest tale. It’s a full-length novel instead of the typical collection of long short stories and it’s full of action straight through, proving once again that the two heroes are both truly puissant warriors and very very stupid when it comes to women.

 

The plot is one of the best. The rats are taking over Lankhmar and because the Overlord is truly stupid and gullible, it’s going to be up to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to save the day. The problem? A partially human rat (it’s not really clear that she’s a wererat or anything) is very beautiful, and the two heroes continually take her side even though they know she’s a bad guy who has actually tried to kill them. Evidently, one smile and they are re-hooked. It got a little annoying, but it didn’t actually surprise me that much. Besides, if they had acted intelligently, the whole story would have been over by the end of chapter three.

 

That being said, we do have some great scenes in this novel. The opening chapter is the piece of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser bravado that I remember best of all of their books, and Gray Mouser getting himself shrunk down to rat size is really funny. If you’re going to try this series, this is the book I’d most recommend.