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Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #6
Swords and Ice Magic
Photographic reprint of the 1977 Ace paperback edition. Contents (Numbers equal page number): The Saga of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (frontispiece) interior artwork by Alice D. Phalen [vii] The Land of Nehwon (map) (1961) interior artwork by James Cawthorn [as by Jim Cawthorn ] [viii] A Portion of Lankhmar (map) (1969) interior artwork by Tim Kirk 1 The Sadness of the Executioner [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1973) short story by Fritz Leiber 15 Beauty and the Beasts [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1974) short story by Fritz Leiber 19 Trapped in the Shadowland [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1973) short story by Fritz Leiber 29 The Bait [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1973) short story by Fritz Leiber 33 Under the Thumbs of the Gods [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1975) short story by Fritz Leiber 53 Trapped in the Sea of Stars [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1975) short story by Fritz Leiber 75 The Frost Monstreme [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1976) novelette by Fritz Leiber 119 Rime Isle [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] (1977) novella by Fritz Leiber
243 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1977
70 people are currently reading
1833 people want to read
About the author
Fritz Leiber
1,335 books1,053 followersFritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was one of the more interesting of the young writers who came into HP Lovecraft's orbit, and some of his best early short fiction is horror rather than sf or fantasy. He found his mature voice early in the first of the sword-and-sorcery adventures featuring the large sensitive barbarian Fafhrd and the small street-smart-ish Gray Mouser; he returned to this series at various points in his career, using it sometimes for farce and sometimes for gloomy mood pieces--The Swords of Lankhmar is perhaps the best single volume of their adventures. Leiber's science fiction includes the planet-smashing The Wanderer in which a large cast mostly survive flood, fire, and the sexual attentions of feline aliens, and the satirical A Spectre is Haunting Texas in which a gangling, exo-skeleton-clad actor from the Moon leads a revolution and finds his true love. Leiber's late short fiction, and the fine horror novel Our Lady of Darkness, combine autobiographical issues like his struggle with depression and alcoholism with meditations on the emotional content of the fantastic genres. Leiber's capacity for endless self-reinvention and productive self-examination kept him, until his death, one of the most modern of his sf generation.
Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー
Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
March 14, 2020
This penultimate volume in the series is as interesting but perhaps not as successful as the others.
The novella "Rime Isle"--the longest piece in the book--has a disappointing conclusion--particularly unsatisfying given the vivid, promising beginning. There are, however, many things to like about it too, particularly for the older reader, since the sketchy plots of these individual fictions are also retrospective meditations on the importance of the love of women in a man's life, and how a man's desires and hence his destiny may change as he matures.
Both of our heroes show themselves vulnerable and competent in new ways, and Leiber has the grace and good judgment to let them--and his gods--grow old.
January 20, 2025
This is the sixth book of seven that Leiber wrote chronicling the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser on the world of Nehwon (and sometimes beyond.) The first five books were fantasy classics, in my opinion, and helped to establish the sword and sorcery genre as a distinct category. I thought this one was a disappointing step down and back and wished that our roguish comrades in arms had stayed in Lankhmar and never heard of or headed for Rime Isle. Leiber's lyrical style seems to ramble and lacks the thought and focus of the earlier books. Much has been written about his failing health and economic problems and other such challenges which may have affected the quality of his work. There's a heightened sexual content that's awkward and uncomfortable at best; one wonders if he was thinking that if John Norman and Robert Heinlein were getting away with it that he should, too. On the other hand, had I not had such high expectations for this volume I would not have been disappointed. It has some brilliant scenes and sections but isn't representative of the quality of the earlier books. This one does have a lovely Michael Whelan cover, though.
January 12, 2015
The sixth book in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series and the premise is getting a bit shop-worn. What does it say about me that I am still daffy about Fafhrd after all these books? Love that guy.
The first story in the volume gives some lovely descriptions of Death and how and why he chooses the people that he does. I think it was the best story in the volume for my tastes, although I also did enjoy the small excursion of Odin and Loki into the world of Nehwon. I was, however, distressed by some of its consequences.
Leiber was a fine writer and we get flashes of his immense vocabulary in Ice Magic, but books number 2 (Swords against Death) and 4 (Swords against Wizardry) were for me the best of the series. Book two was their first encounter with Death, culminating in this rematch.
I will undoubtedly read the 7th volume, The Knight and Knave of Swords, to assess the fall out of the Odin/Loki situation and to see what becomes of my beloved Fafhrd.
My 150th book read from the NPR list of classic science fiction and fantasy.
The first story in the volume gives some lovely descriptions of Death and how and why he chooses the people that he does. I think it was the best story in the volume for my tastes, although I also did enjoy the small excursion of Odin and Loki into the world of Nehwon. I was, however, distressed by some of its consequences.
Leiber was a fine writer and we get flashes of his immense vocabulary in Ice Magic, but books number 2 (Swords against Death) and 4 (Swords against Wizardry) were for me the best of the series. Book two was their first encounter with Death, culminating in this rematch.
I will undoubtedly read the 7th volume, The Knight and Knave of Swords, to assess the fall out of the Odin/Loki situation and to see what becomes of my beloved Fafhrd.
My 150th book read from the NPR list of classic science fiction and fantasy.
February 20, 2025
Fritz Leiber published his earliest Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in his debut book, 1947s Night’s Black Agents. Swords and Ice Magic, the penultimate book in the saga, came out in 1977, thirty years later. Perhaps Leiber, then 66, was worn down. Or perhaps, after thirty years of writing his heroes the creative well was running dry. The vibrant energy that characterized the earlier books of his roguish heroes had gone flat. It’s not that the book is entirely without its moments (the first tale is rather fun, and a couple of stories featured interesting dialogue and debate between the heroes), but the old magic was mostly missing.
There is a final book in this series, and I will be reading it to complete my journey with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. But I’m not looking forward to it as much as I would have been before reading this volume.
The Sadness of the Executioner
In which Death has a quota to meet in a given number of heartbeats, and Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are on his list. After dispatching of some lesser mortals, Death improvises when dealing with our heroes. But some other power may be working against Death, (or for our heroes) as they outwit his stratagems and live to fight another day.
4 ⭐️
Beauty and the Beasts
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser pursue a striking female who is split down the middle — one side dark and the other side pale — and dangerous magic and fighting follow. From there this story just kinda noodles around and goes nowhere in particular.
2 ⭐️
Under the Thumb of the God
The heroes anger the gods with their boasting, and the gods punish them by sending them on a tour of many of their past loves who all then reject them. Meh.
2 1/2 ⭐️
Trapped in the Sea of Stars
”Tonight I clearly see that Nehwon is a vast bubble rising through waters of eternity with continents and isles afloat inside.”
The heroes leave Lankhmar and take again to the sea in Black Racer. Here they are haunted by elemental girls, debate strange natural philosophies, and are tossed about between Sun and Moon, Night and Day, and their competing proclivities.
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Four Monstreme
In which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are recruited by a pair of fascinating females (of course!) to raise a force of twenty-four mercenaries, leave Lankhmar, and to sail to a rescue of far off Rime Isle.
I found this tale more tedious and convoluted than exciting.
2 1/2 ⭐️
Rime Isle
The heroes arrive at Rime Island to an inauspicious welcome. This is the longest tale in the collection, and enough of a disappointment that I’m not going to say anything else about it.
2 1/2 ⭐️
There is a final book in this series, and I will be reading it to complete my journey with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. But I’m not looking forward to it as much as I would have been before reading this volume.
The Sadness of the Executioner
In which Death has a quota to meet in a given number of heartbeats, and Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are on his list. After dispatching of some lesser mortals, Death improvises when dealing with our heroes. But some other power may be working against Death, (or for our heroes) as they outwit his stratagems and live to fight another day.
4 ⭐️
Beauty and the Beasts
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser pursue a striking female who is split down the middle — one side dark and the other side pale — and dangerous magic and fighting follow. From there this story just kinda noodles around and goes nowhere in particular.
2 ⭐️
Under the Thumb of the God
The heroes anger the gods with their boasting, and the gods punish them by sending them on a tour of many of their past loves who all then reject them. Meh.
2 1/2 ⭐️
Trapped in the Sea of Stars
”Tonight I clearly see that Nehwon is a vast bubble rising through waters of eternity with continents and isles afloat inside.”
The heroes leave Lankhmar and take again to the sea in Black Racer. Here they are haunted by elemental girls, debate strange natural philosophies, and are tossed about between Sun and Moon, Night and Day, and their competing proclivities.
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Four Monstreme
In which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are recruited by a pair of fascinating females (of course!) to raise a force of twenty-four mercenaries, leave Lankhmar, and to sail to a rescue of far off Rime Isle.
I found this tale more tedious and convoluted than exciting.
2 1/2 ⭐️
Rime Isle
The heroes arrive at Rime Island to an inauspicious welcome. This is the longest tale in the collection, and enough of a disappointment that I’m not going to say anything else about it.
2 1/2 ⭐️
October 15, 2010
Leiber has shown himself capable of vibrant, clever, moody books, but he has lost his touch with age, as regrettably happens to many authors. Every creative mind has its peak, and Leiber has passed his. Though published as separate stories, the chapters of this book form one long, uninterrupted plot, lacking the variance in mood and style which marked his earlier collections.
His attempt to continue a single arc while publishing the chapters as stories is awkward, as Leiber constantly reminds us of characters and plot elements as if we were new readers, but can't seem to find an unobtrusive way to do so. Really, the reminders don't even feel necessary; they weren't in the loosely connected stories that mark his creative peak. He also reintroduces characters and events from several books ago, but oddly enough, rarely prefaces these with reminders.
I lamented the faltering of his once-strong women in the last book, and this one is worse. The first quarter shows a strange obsession with the protagonists' former relationships, culminating in the only example of a clip show I've ever seen in a novel. It would be perfectly natural for characters, as they grow older, to reminisce, or even to obsess over their past, but this is less about the characters' internal hang-ups than a parade of nude women who have lost their personalities.
Happily, we soon move on to the main plot, which starts promisingly with curious worldbuilding involving Death and his demesne. These light-hearted, long-form novellas only seems to grow more and more like Leiber's follower, Pratchett. But this plot is also left behind for an unrelated conflict on a faraway island, an isolated Thule that has little of the charm of Newhon.
Leiber goes off on rather involved asides about the cosmology of the world, with characters acting as encyclopedias, giving unwelcome Tolkienian details about how the stars are meant to work. This is a sudden departure from the Howardian mode, which prefers to reveal the world by small clues, as one might learn about Rome from numerous stories and historians.
The cosmology prefigures some interesting background details from Dungeons & Dragons, which has always been more Leiber than Tolkien or Howard. His portrayal of godhood, worship, and alternate worlds parallels Planescape, one of the most remarkable and unusual roleplaying settings. It's unfortunate that, in this case, the inspiration cannot live up to the idea it spawned.
The story's conclusion, despite a great deal of build-up, is strangely absent, departing not with a bang, but a whimper. The characters are strangely inactive, failing to solve problems and generally relying on literal Dei ex Machinae. The secondary characters have less personality than the last book, and the love interests are defined more by their appearance than by thoughts or decisions.
Leiber does occasionally find his voice, and there are some lovely and evocative passages, as well as exploration of archaic terms and structure, though I couldn't say if that is the result of greater fidelity in a modern edition to the original stories. But by and large, Leiber's dotage has shown an increasing lack of imagination and an almost total loss of the vivid characterization that marked the high water mark of the series.
The final remaining Lankhmar book continues this trend, stranding our heroes in their new, dull land and trading in adventure plots for meandering scenes and uninspired sex comedy. It doesn't lessen the achievement of the earlier books, but I'm glad I started at the beginning of the series, or I might have given up on Leiber altogether as simply another old man working chiefly in cliches and awkward chauvinist obsessions. He still isn't as dull or long-winded as some guilty parties of the genre, but it's sad to see a fruitful mind grow sere.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
His attempt to continue a single arc while publishing the chapters as stories is awkward, as Leiber constantly reminds us of characters and plot elements as if we were new readers, but can't seem to find an unobtrusive way to do so. Really, the reminders don't even feel necessary; they weren't in the loosely connected stories that mark his creative peak. He also reintroduces characters and events from several books ago, but oddly enough, rarely prefaces these with reminders.
I lamented the faltering of his once-strong women in the last book, and this one is worse. The first quarter shows a strange obsession with the protagonists' former relationships, culminating in the only example of a clip show I've ever seen in a novel. It would be perfectly natural for characters, as they grow older, to reminisce, or even to obsess over their past, but this is less about the characters' internal hang-ups than a parade of nude women who have lost their personalities.
Happily, we soon move on to the main plot, which starts promisingly with curious worldbuilding involving Death and his demesne. These light-hearted, long-form novellas only seems to grow more and more like Leiber's follower, Pratchett. But this plot is also left behind for an unrelated conflict on a faraway island, an isolated Thule that has little of the charm of Newhon.
Leiber goes off on rather involved asides about the cosmology of the world, with characters acting as encyclopedias, giving unwelcome Tolkienian details about how the stars are meant to work. This is a sudden departure from the Howardian mode, which prefers to reveal the world by small clues, as one might learn about Rome from numerous stories and historians.
The cosmology prefigures some interesting background details from Dungeons & Dragons, which has always been more Leiber than Tolkien or Howard. His portrayal of godhood, worship, and alternate worlds parallels Planescape, one of the most remarkable and unusual roleplaying settings. It's unfortunate that, in this case, the inspiration cannot live up to the idea it spawned.
The story's conclusion, despite a great deal of build-up, is strangely absent, departing not with a bang, but a whimper. The characters are strangely inactive, failing to solve problems and generally relying on literal Dei ex Machinae. The secondary characters have less personality than the last book, and the love interests are defined more by their appearance than by thoughts or decisions.
Leiber does occasionally find his voice, and there are some lovely and evocative passages, as well as exploration of archaic terms and structure, though I couldn't say if that is the result of greater fidelity in a modern edition to the original stories. But by and large, Leiber's dotage has shown an increasing lack of imagination and an almost total loss of the vivid characterization that marked the high water mark of the series.
The final remaining Lankhmar book continues this trend, stranding our heroes in their new, dull land and trading in adventure plots for meandering scenes and uninspired sex comedy. It doesn't lessen the achievement of the earlier books, but I'm glad I started at the beginning of the series, or I might have given up on Leiber altogether as simply another old man working chiefly in cliches and awkward chauvinist obsessions. He still isn't as dull or long-winded as some guilty parties of the genre, but it's sad to see a fruitful mind grow sere.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
November 27, 2025
Swords and Ice Magic is my least favorite volume of the series so far, the adventures in SaIM seem less enticing as previous five books, I am not sure the last volume, The Knight and Knave of Swords is better than this one, because I haven’t read it yet. But this one has let me read in intermittent pace, so that it is somewhat a bit disappointing to me.
The Sadness of the Executioner, Trapped in the Shadowland, With Under The Thumb of the Gods, three books are about Death planing to lure the duo to their dooms. All three of them are pretty short in lengths. Beauty and the Beast is the shortest novella in this book, (15 pages) about a ghostly woman appeared in the desert city.
The Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle are the coherent novella, the duo Fafhrd and the Mouser were hired to Rime Isle to defeat Mingols. Odin and Loki both are from our world's mythologies had helped the duo defeat Mingols, the intruders of Rime Isle. I think about Odin and Loki as astray deities manipulate the plots and possessed the duo are the most interesting parts of the story.
I've noticed that the writing is quite different that witch compares to the previous five installments, more easy to read but less poetic in prose, is more prosaic. It's a shame that previous installments of the series are delightful and with poetic prose to read; this book is still moderate to read as fast-paced story.
The Sadness of the Executioner, Trapped in the Shadowland, With Under The Thumb of the Gods, three books are about Death planing to lure the duo to their dooms. All three of them are pretty short in lengths. Beauty and the Beast is the shortest novella in this book, (15 pages) about a ghostly woman appeared in the desert city.
The Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle are the coherent novella, the duo Fafhrd and the Mouser were hired to Rime Isle to defeat Mingols. Odin and Loki both are from our world's mythologies had helped the duo defeat Mingols, the intruders of Rime Isle. I think about Odin and Loki as astray deities manipulate the plots and possessed the duo are the most interesting parts of the story.
I've noticed that the writing is quite different that witch compares to the previous five installments, more easy to read but less poetic in prose, is more prosaic. It's a shame that previous installments of the series are delightful and with poetic prose to read; this book is still moderate to read as fast-paced story.
December 20, 2021
A lacklustre collection of late-career Leiber which would have better remained unpublished.
I really wanted to enjoy this one; I have fond memories of reading the Gray Mouser stories as a teen. Sadly, to this middle aged man, this late-career collection of Leiber's stories came across as a publisher-led exercise in barrel-scraping. For sure there were some glorious turns of phrase, but the first four stories all seemed to be little more than fragmentary re-writes of Leiber trying to nail down an idea about symmetry or dualism which he never quite pulled off. The final two were ok, I guess, but with issues. While the heroes of these tales have always been sociopathic sex-pests to an extent, in this one they seemed to cross a line from bawdy to creepy. There's just a little bit too much "barely more than a girl" and "budding breasts" going on here. A shame.
I really wanted to enjoy this one; I have fond memories of reading the Gray Mouser stories as a teen. Sadly, to this middle aged man, this late-career collection of Leiber's stories came across as a publisher-led exercise in barrel-scraping. For sure there were some glorious turns of phrase, but the first four stories all seemed to be little more than fragmentary re-writes of Leiber trying to nail down an idea about symmetry or dualism which he never quite pulled off. The final two were ok, I guess, but with issues. While the heroes of these tales have always been sociopathic sex-pests to an extent, in this one they seemed to cross a line from bawdy to creepy. There's just a little bit too much "barely more than a girl" and "budding breasts" going on here. A shame.
April 28, 2016
-Espada, brujería, pulp y poco más.-
Género. Relatos.
Lo que nos cuenta. Ocho relatos ambientados en el mundo de Fantasía donde la pareja de (anti)héroes Fahfrd y el Ratonero Grís viven sus aventuras llenas de magos, luchas, mujeres bellas y malos malísimos. Sexto libro de la saga Fafhrd y el Ratonero Gris.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
Género. Relatos.
Lo que nos cuenta. Ocho relatos ambientados en el mundo de Fantasía donde la pareja de (anti)héroes Fahfrd y el Ratonero Grís viven sus aventuras llenas de magos, luchas, mujeres bellas y malos malísimos. Sexto libro de la saga Fafhrd y el Ratonero Gris.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....
November 13, 2020
By this time it's pretty clear that something about the longer Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories rubs me the wrong way. I guess the strange stories and the old-style prose are like a good spice or a dessert: great in short amounts (one of the short stories at the start of this story had me laughing), but quickly wearing me down if there's a lot of it at once, if it's allowed to just pile up without respite.
Four stars for the shorts, but only three for the big one.
Four stars for the shorts, but only three for the big one.
February 20, 2013
"Ahoy, small man! Mouser, well met in wildering waters! And now -- on guard!"
Yarely! I tell you, the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser continue, this time with a theme of sea and cold climates, wizards and foreign gods, old flames and old enemies. The duo of lovable scoundrels ('twain' is how Leiber describes them) remains firmly embedded in my sword & sorcery hall of fame, but I must admit, the sixth volume is my least favorite in the collection. Like a populat TV show that start strong but runs out of ideas in later seasons, I see the stories included here as outtakes, reruns, underdeveloped scripts and repeats of a succesful formula: entertaining and familiar, but running mostly on inertial energy.
The Sadness of the Executioner is a very short piece featuring a personified Death (reminds me of sir Terry Pratchett) trying to get the upper hand in a long term competition with our heroes.
Beauty and the Beast is a curious and rather forgettable short about following a bizarre and alluring woman/ghost through the streets of a desert city.
Trapped in the Shadowland is another piece about Death trying to lure the heroes to their doom.
The Bait is another very short, typical piece, about illusions, temptresses and deadly perils. It ties with the earlier three stories featuring Death.
With Under The Thumb of the Gods the general outlook of the collection improves, by humorously addressing one of the shortcomings in the series, namely the portrayal of women a sex objects. The girls from the 'twain' past get a welcome revenge, with the help of a few gods disgruntled by the heroes atheism. Instead of falling prompty into the heroes's brawny arms, the girls lead them on a merry dance of unfullfilled erotic daydreams.
Trapped In the Sea of Stars has a very interesting dialogue between Fafhrd and Mouser about the geography of Newhon and the really bizarre phenomenons associated with the world's equatorial currents. I didn't expect to find echoes of Larry Niven in a fantasy book.
The Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle are the two linked novellas that make the price of admission worthy, and justify the 'ice' reference in the title.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are shown here rather bored and blase about their adventuring (been there, done that, so what next?), iddling the hours in their regular Lankhmar seedy tavern. The way out is shown by a couple of drop dead gorgeous ladies (of course), who offer them employment in repelling a horde of murderous Mingols bent on ravaging their northern isle (based on Iceland - volcanoes, ice, fishing, hardy locals).
Things are complicated by an evil wizard who creates from ice a monster ship ( My word's analogous ... to bireme ... quadrireme. Monstreme! -- rowed by monsters ; deathberg ) . Leiber gets his groove back and his prose recaptures some of the lurid, flowery style from earlier books:
The weird rays of the rising black sun striking its loadside engendered there a horrid, pale reflection, not natural white light at all, but a loathly, colorless luminescence -- a white to make the flesh crawl, a cave-toad, fish-belly white. And if the substance making the reflection had any texture at all, it was that of ridged and crinkled gray horn -- dead men's fingernails.
Odin and Loki from our own Earth mythology put in a guest star appearance to complicate things even further, but overall my reaction to the spectacular finale was lukewarm rather than enthusiastic. On the plus side, we get a new look at the more mature and responsible heroes, organizers and leaders instead of drifters:
Her beauty and her Rime Isle silver had chained him, and set him on the whole unsuitable course of becoming a responsible captain of men -- he who had been all his days a lone wolf with lone-leopard comrade Mouser
I dont' think Swords and Ice Magic is a good entry point for readers unfamiliar with the two heroes, but it makes an interesting addition for dedicated fans. And it has one of the best covers in the series, courtesy of Michael Whelan:
September 11, 2020
Para mi gusto, bastante inferior a las anteriores entregas. Quizá venga lastrado por una primera mitad plagada de pequeñas historias sin ningún interés, o por el agotamiento de la fórmula. Veremos con el último tomo de las aventuras hacia donde se inclina la balanza. Muy cerca de las dos estrellas.
December 13, 2012
Originally posted at FanLit.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
“I am tired, Gray Mouser, with these little brushes with death.”
“Want a big one?”
“Perhaps.”
Swords and Ice Magic is the sixth collection of Fritz Leiber’s stories about Fafhrd the big northern Barbarian and his small thieving companion the Gray Mouser. The stories in the LANKHMAR series have generally been presented in chronological order, so we’re nearing the end of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s adventures in Nehwon and its famous city Lankhmar. The tales in this particular volume were published in pulp magazines in the mid 1970s and were collected in this volume in 1977. They are:
“The Sadness of the Executioner” — Death is required to kill two heroes before time runs out and he’s got Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in mind. But Death is a sportsman and thinks heroes should go out with style, so when the duo outwits him, he refuses to pull a deus ex machina and the boys live on.
“Beauty and the Beasts” — In this vignette, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser see a beautiful girl who is black on one side and white on the other. Since they can’t decide who she should belong to, they say they’ll split her. Something weird happens when they pursue her.
“Trapped in the Shadowland” — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are dying as they cross a desert and Death is sure he’s going to get them this time because if they survive the desert, they’ll cross into Death’s territory. But Death is foiled again by Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s patron gods. Darn those dei ex machina!
“The bait” — Death baits the boys with the image of a naked “nubile girl.” This short vignette has Mouser saying the repulsive line “She was just the sort of immature dish to kindle your satyrish taste for maids newly budded.” (Ugh! I can’t believe I read this stuff!)
“Under the Thumbs of the Gods” — The gods, upset that the most famous thieves in Lankhmar no longer pay them any attention (not even bothering to use their names in vain!), decide that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser need to be taken down a few notches. They’ve been listening to the boys boast about their romantic exploits, so the gods decide to hit them where it hurts and arrange for the duo to be rejected by every (naked and nubile) female they’ve ever loved.
“Trapped in the Sea of Stars” — While sailing, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser became enchanted with a couple of shimmer-sprites who appear as young nubile girls. (Yes, again!) The sprites have drawn the guys into uncharted waters where no land is in sight. Eventually, after philosophizing about the nature of the sun, moon, and stars in space, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser realize that the sprites may have nefarious motives.
“The Frost Monstreme” and “Rime Isle” — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are bored and reminiscing about past loves in their favorite tavern, The Slippery Eel, when two beautiful (nubile, but not naked) girls walk in and ask them to help the Rime Isle fight an impending invasion by the Sea Mingols. In this novelette and novella, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are possessed by the gods Odin and Loki and they once again cross paths with the two invisible ice princesses who we met a while back in the novella Stardock. Together, these two stories make up most of the page count of Swords and Ice Magic. There are plenty of young nubile girls in this one, and lecherous men fondling their breasts, but there are two strong women, too. I didn’t think the Odin and Loki angle worked very well (Leiber has attempted to tie Newhon to other worlds, including our own, in a few of his stories). There’s a big twist for Fafhrd at the end of “Rime Isle.”
At the time the stories in Swords and Ice Magic were written, Friz Leiber was in his mid 60s and had been writing these adventures for more than 30 years. Now Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser are getting older and talking about retiring and settling down with mates. Generally, this batch of stories is not as exciting or creative as the earlier ones, the setting of decadent Lankhmar plays a disappointingly insignificant role, and Lieber’s prose seems less brilliant. I’ve always had an issue with the way Lieber portrays women, but this volume seems to have an inordinate number of young nubile girls with small breasts who get fondled by older men, and there are numerous references to, for example, a “delicate tidbit of girlflesh.” In “The bait,” we’re told that the girl looked no older than 13 though the expression on her face suggests she’s 17. In the first story, Mouser tames a young female warrior who’s trying to kill him (she shoots spikes from her pointy metal bra) by “ravaging” her. Leiber certainly isn’t the only speculative fiction writer whose writing grew more lecherous as he got older, but it’s disappointing to find it in a series that I have enjoyed so much.
Even with these issues, there’s no doubt that fans of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser will want to read Swords and Ice Magic, especially the last two stories about Rime Isle because of what happens to Fafhrd. I highly recommend the wonderful audio version produced by Audible Frontiers. Jonathan Davis narrates these and even though he manages only one female voice for every female he reads, his voice is beautiful and his ear for the dialogue and pacing is exceptional. I love the way he portrays Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
“I am tired, Gray Mouser, with these little brushes with death.”
“Want a big one?”
“Perhaps.”
Swords and Ice Magic is the sixth collection of Fritz Leiber’s stories about Fafhrd the big northern Barbarian and his small thieving companion the Gray Mouser. The stories in the LANKHMAR series have generally been presented in chronological order, so we’re nearing the end of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s adventures in Nehwon and its famous city Lankhmar. The tales in this particular volume were published in pulp magazines in the mid 1970s and were collected in this volume in 1977. They are:
“The Sadness of the Executioner” — Death is required to kill two heroes before time runs out and he’s got Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in mind. But Death is a sportsman and thinks heroes should go out with style, so when the duo outwits him, he refuses to pull a deus ex machina and the boys live on.
“Beauty and the Beasts” — In this vignette, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser see a beautiful girl who is black on one side and white on the other. Since they can’t decide who she should belong to, they say they’ll split her. Something weird happens when they pursue her.
“Trapped in the Shadowland” — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are dying as they cross a desert and Death is sure he’s going to get them this time because if they survive the desert, they’ll cross into Death’s territory. But Death is foiled again by Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s patron gods. Darn those dei ex machina!
“The bait” — Death baits the boys with the image of a naked “nubile girl.” This short vignette has Mouser saying the repulsive line “She was just the sort of immature dish to kindle your satyrish taste for maids newly budded.” (Ugh! I can’t believe I read this stuff!)
“Under the Thumbs of the Gods” — The gods, upset that the most famous thieves in Lankhmar no longer pay them any attention (not even bothering to use their names in vain!), decide that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser need to be taken down a few notches. They’ve been listening to the boys boast about their romantic exploits, so the gods decide to hit them where it hurts and arrange for the duo to be rejected by every (naked and nubile) female they’ve ever loved.
“Trapped in the Sea of Stars” — While sailing, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser became enchanted with a couple of shimmer-sprites who appear as young nubile girls. (Yes, again!) The sprites have drawn the guys into uncharted waters where no land is in sight. Eventually, after philosophizing about the nature of the sun, moon, and stars in space, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser realize that the sprites may have nefarious motives.
“The Frost Monstreme” and “Rime Isle” — Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are bored and reminiscing about past loves in their favorite tavern, The Slippery Eel, when two beautiful (nubile, but not naked) girls walk in and ask them to help the Rime Isle fight an impending invasion by the Sea Mingols. In this novelette and novella, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are possessed by the gods Odin and Loki and they once again cross paths with the two invisible ice princesses who we met a while back in the novella Stardock. Together, these two stories make up most of the page count of Swords and Ice Magic. There are plenty of young nubile girls in this one, and lecherous men fondling their breasts, but there are two strong women, too. I didn’t think the Odin and Loki angle worked very well (Leiber has attempted to tie Newhon to other worlds, including our own, in a few of his stories). There’s a big twist for Fafhrd at the end of “Rime Isle.”
At the time the stories in Swords and Ice Magic were written, Friz Leiber was in his mid 60s and had been writing these adventures for more than 30 years. Now Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser are getting older and talking about retiring and settling down with mates. Generally, this batch of stories is not as exciting or creative as the earlier ones, the setting of decadent Lankhmar plays a disappointingly insignificant role, and Lieber’s prose seems less brilliant. I’ve always had an issue with the way Lieber portrays women, but this volume seems to have an inordinate number of young nubile girls with small breasts who get fondled by older men, and there are numerous references to, for example, a “delicate tidbit of girlflesh.” In “The bait,” we’re told that the girl looked no older than 13 though the expression on her face suggests she’s 17. In the first story, Mouser tames a young female warrior who’s trying to kill him (she shoots spikes from her pointy metal bra) by “ravaging” her. Leiber certainly isn’t the only speculative fiction writer whose writing grew more lecherous as he got older, but it’s disappointing to find it in a series that I have enjoyed so much.
Even with these issues, there’s no doubt that fans of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser will want to read Swords and Ice Magic, especially the last two stories about Rime Isle because of what happens to Fafhrd. I highly recommend the wonderful audio version produced by Audible Frontiers. Jonathan Davis narrates these and even though he manages only one female voice for every female he reads, his voice is beautiful and his ear for the dialogue and pacing is exceptional. I love the way he portrays Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
July 1, 2024
This is another tricky one. For a long time, this was the final Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser collection, containing stories he wrote between 1973 & 1977; at that point, Leiber himself was getting older (in his 60s) and these stories were also set near what was shaping up to be the end of the duo's wanderings, but the results are unfortunately something of a mixed bag.
Roughly, the book breaks into two halves. The first section starts relatively strongly enough, with "The Sadness of the Executioner" (where Nehwon's Death has a quota to fill, including two Heroes, and he just happens to know of a pair who may fit the bill), but things go off the rails pretty quickly as the stories in that first half (all relatively short) are all about F&GM encountering their (lengthy assortment of) lost, sometimes dead, loves in a variety of contexts, which could have given a sort of elegiac tone, but instead ends up being a bit ... skeevy, because so many of those lost loves range, in fact, from nubile to barely pubescent. And especially coming all in a row like this, it becomes a bit much to handle.
The second half of the book I think is a much more successful return to form as the Duo leave Lankhmar for distant Rime Isle in "The Frost Monstreme" and then help the Rimers defend themselves from a Sea-Mingol invasion in Rime Isle. And again there are some lovely ladies to chivvy them along, but this time, the ladies come much closer to being able to hold their own; and in the end, it does seem like F&GM might actually be ready to settle down (well, at least until The Knight and Knave of Swords is published in 1988).
So yeah, I'm going to give this 4 stars (probably rounding up from something closer to 3.5) on the strength of Leiber's prose, which remains characteristically elegant & witty, but caveat lector.
Oh, also, I was reading the Open Road eBook, which I believe I got from the Baen Electronic Library some years ago, and the last section of the book is just riddled with typos, mostly of the obvious OCR error variety.
Roughly, the book breaks into two halves. The first section starts relatively strongly enough, with "The Sadness of the Executioner" (where Nehwon's Death has a quota to fill, including two Heroes, and he just happens to know of a pair who may fit the bill), but things go off the rails pretty quickly as the stories in that first half (all relatively short) are all about F&GM encountering their (lengthy assortment of) lost, sometimes dead, loves in a variety of contexts, which could have given a sort of elegiac tone, but instead ends up being a bit ... skeevy, because so many of those lost loves range, in fact, from nubile to barely pubescent. And especially coming all in a row like this, it becomes a bit much to handle.
The second half of the book I think is a much more successful return to form as the Duo leave Lankhmar for distant Rime Isle in "The Frost Monstreme" and then help the Rimers defend themselves from a Sea-Mingol invasion in Rime Isle. And again there are some lovely ladies to chivvy them along, but this time, the ladies come much closer to being able to hold their own; and in the end, it does seem like F&GM might actually be ready to settle down (well, at least until The Knight and Knave of Swords is published in 1988).
So yeah, I'm going to give this 4 stars (probably rounding up from something closer to 3.5) on the strength of Leiber's prose, which remains characteristically elegant & witty, but caveat lector.
Oh, also, I was reading the Open Road eBook, which I believe I got from the Baen Electronic Library some years ago, and the last section of the book is just riddled with typos, mostly of the obvious OCR error variety.
October 1, 2013
I'll say it straight off--Swords and Ice Magic is not that great.
Oh sure, there are some good parts. "The Frost Monstreme" is a good story in the old Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser model, where they're approached in a tavern and given a task for hope of gold and glory. While on that task, they run into an inexplicable weirdness that threatens them, and they have to overcome it. It's not too long, it has evocative imagery, and after the earlier stories in this book it was like a cup of water after crawling a week in the desert.
"Rime Isle" also wasn't bad, though it dragged in places and I was not a fan of the main conflict. There is way too much deus ex machina, in both the literary technique sense and in the literal gods solve problems sense. As an example, one of the main conflicts in the story is the reception of the Rime Islers to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, which is quite chilly (get it? get it?). There's a lot of worry early on about whether their mercenary force is actually wanted by the Islers, and how they're going to get paid, and what it means if they don't have a mandate from the council like they thought they did, and whether the Mingols are even invading at all, since the Islers point out that the Mingols are their fast friends and trading partners, and indeed, there are Mingol ships at anchor in the harbor at the time this is mentioned. How is this all dealt with?
Well, the Gray Mouser gets possessed, gives a speech which is glossed over because he's possessed, and then the Islers are all, "Man the barricades!"
Also, the being that possesses him is a god from another world. I'm not sure why this annoyed me so much, because things popping into Nehwon goes back at least to "The Bazaar of the Bizarre" and probably something earlier I'm forgetting, but what with all the deus ex machina it just seemed like I was watching a chess game that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were pieces in rather than the wandering adventures of two sword and sorcery protagonists. If that doesn't bother you, though, the other parts of "Rime Isle" are good.
But the other stories are pretty bad. Not necessarily for their writing, though honestly I didn't think it was up to Leiber's usual quality, but their content ranges from "meh" to "offensively awful." In "The Sadness of the Executioner," Death is screwing with the heroes for no obvious reason, which leads to a rape scene where the Gray Mouser"ravishes"rapes the slave girl that Death teleports into his room to kill him, because that's an obviously reasonable reaction. But it's okay, because she stops hating humanity as much and goes on to become a successful merchant! Ah, yes, what I wanted to read was another variant on how the proper solution to a woman's "attitude" is rape. Thanks, Leiber! (┛ಠ益ಠ)┛彡 ┻━┻
"Beauty and the Beasts," "Trapped in the Shadowland," and "The Bait" were all so unmemorable that I had to go back and reread them to even remember what they were about. "Beauty and the Beasts" and "The Bait" can both be summed up as "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are attacked for no reason, they win, the end," which isn't enough to hold my interest. "Trapped in the Shadowland" seems like an obvious bridge story between this book and The Swords of Lankhmar, but for some reason it comes third instead of first.
"Under the Thumb of the Gods" is just weird. Back in "Lean Times in Lankhmar" in Swords in the Mist, Issek's religion is set up as a scam. It's even referred to as "Issekianity" to make sure all the obvious parallels get drawn. But here, all of a sudden Issek is a real god, and he's annoyed that Fafhrd isn't as devoted to him anymore. It kind of undermines the major points of "Lean Times in Lankhmar" and the whole idea of the Street of the Gods if all the gods there are real. Furthermore, the gods' vengeance is basically just, "Remember all those women Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser hooked up with in the past? Well, in case you forget, here they are again." It's a giant recap, and is pretty much as exciting as an actual recap with the added benefit of ruining the previous mood of Lankhmar. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be turning the tables on the pair by showing that all the woman they loved and left don't care about them at all, but it just fell flat.
"Trapped in the Sea of Stars" is the Gray Mouser engaging in pretentious cosmological babble. Also there are waterspouts. There, you don't need to read it unless you think that "Nehwon is a bubble floating through the seas of infinity" is an idea that needs a detailed explanation that may or may not be true. I suspect that's why I liked "Stardock" from Swords Against Wizardry but didn't like this one--"Stardock" doesn't have all the discussion in it.
On the other hand, it wasn't until I read this book that I really understood exactly what Terry Pratchett was riffing off of when he wrote The Color of Magic and launched the Discworld. It's all here: the world of the heroes is but one among an infinite of worlds, it's possible for beings to travel from world to world, the gods meddle in mortals lives for basically no reason, Death, barbarians from the north with unpronounceable names... Even the world is similar. Nehwon isn't flat (though it may be bubble-shaped), but only half of it has been explored.
Apparently there's a version that's just "The Frost Monstreme" and "Rime Isle" bundled together called Rime Isle. If you can, get that collection and skip this one. Those two are the only parts of Swords and Ice Magic worth reading.
Previous Review: The Swords of Lankhmar
Next Review: The Knight and Knave of Swords.
Oh sure, there are some good parts. "The Frost Monstreme" is a good story in the old Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser model, where they're approached in a tavern and given a task for hope of gold and glory. While on that task, they run into an inexplicable weirdness that threatens them, and they have to overcome it. It's not too long, it has evocative imagery, and after the earlier stories in this book it was like a cup of water after crawling a week in the desert.
"Rime Isle" also wasn't bad, though it dragged in places and I was not a fan of the main conflict. There is way too much deus ex machina, in both the literary technique sense and in the literal gods solve problems sense. As an example, one of the main conflicts in the story is the reception of the Rime Islers to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, which is quite chilly (get it? get it?). There's a lot of worry early on about whether their mercenary force is actually wanted by the Islers, and how they're going to get paid, and what it means if they don't have a mandate from the council like they thought they did, and whether the Mingols are even invading at all, since the Islers point out that the Mingols are their fast friends and trading partners, and indeed, there are Mingol ships at anchor in the harbor at the time this is mentioned. How is this all dealt with?
Well, the Gray Mouser gets possessed, gives a speech which is glossed over because he's possessed, and then the Islers are all, "Man the barricades!"
Also, the being that possesses him is a god from another world. I'm not sure why this annoyed me so much, because things popping into Nehwon goes back at least to "The Bazaar of the Bizarre" and probably something earlier I'm forgetting, but what with all the deus ex machina it just seemed like I was watching a chess game that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were pieces in rather than the wandering adventures of two sword and sorcery protagonists. If that doesn't bother you, though, the other parts of "Rime Isle" are good.
But the other stories are pretty bad. Not necessarily for their writing, though honestly I didn't think it was up to Leiber's usual quality, but their content ranges from "meh" to "offensively awful." In "The Sadness of the Executioner," Death is screwing with the heroes for no obvious reason, which leads to a rape scene where the Gray Mouser
"Beauty and the Beasts," "Trapped in the Shadowland," and "The Bait" were all so unmemorable that I had to go back and reread them to even remember what they were about. "Beauty and the Beasts" and "The Bait" can both be summed up as "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are attacked for no reason, they win, the end," which isn't enough to hold my interest. "Trapped in the Shadowland" seems like an obvious bridge story between this book and The Swords of Lankhmar, but for some reason it comes third instead of first.
"Under the Thumb of the Gods" is just weird. Back in "Lean Times in Lankhmar" in Swords in the Mist, Issek's religion is set up as a scam. It's even referred to as "Issekianity" to make sure all the obvious parallels get drawn. But here, all of a sudden Issek is a real god, and he's annoyed that Fafhrd isn't as devoted to him anymore. It kind of undermines the major points of "Lean Times in Lankhmar" and the whole idea of the Street of the Gods if all the gods there are real. Furthermore, the gods' vengeance is basically just, "Remember all those women Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser hooked up with in the past? Well, in case you forget, here they are again." It's a giant recap, and is pretty much as exciting as an actual recap with the added benefit of ruining the previous mood of Lankhmar. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be turning the tables on the pair by showing that all the woman they loved and left don't care about them at all, but it just fell flat.
"Trapped in the Sea of Stars" is the Gray Mouser engaging in pretentious cosmological babble. Also there are waterspouts. There, you don't need to read it unless you think that "Nehwon is a bubble floating through the seas of infinity" is an idea that needs a detailed explanation that may or may not be true. I suspect that's why I liked "Stardock" from Swords Against Wizardry but didn't like this one--"Stardock" doesn't have all the discussion in it.
On the other hand, it wasn't until I read this book that I really understood exactly what Terry Pratchett was riffing off of when he wrote The Color of Magic and launched the Discworld. It's all here: the world of the heroes is but one among an infinite of worlds, it's possible for beings to travel from world to world, the gods meddle in mortals lives for basically no reason, Death, barbarians from the north with unpronounceable names... Even the world is similar. Nehwon isn't flat (though it may be bubble-shaped), but only half of it has been explored.
Apparently there's a version that's just "The Frost Monstreme" and "Rime Isle" bundled together called Rime Isle. If you can, get that collection and skip this one. Those two are the only parts of Swords and Ice Magic worth reading.
Previous Review: The Swords of Lankhmar
Next Review: The Knight and Knave of Swords.
July 23, 2022
Yeah, the sexual stuff a little weirder in this one (rape and underage relationships, fyi) but in other ways it’s still the classic Twain. It’s witty and fierce, and I think the Frost Monstreme is one heck of a rememberable horror.
Read
August 17, 2024"The Sadness of the Executioner," the first story of this collection, was the last good Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story, in my opinion. The quality of the rest of the series, I'm sorry to say, ranged from bearable to bad. It was a disappointing conclusion, no doubt, but perhaps the marvel is less that the quality of the series declined than that it took so long.
"Sword and sorcery" is to fantasy literature what heavy metal is to popular music: a young man's genre, if ever there was one. Fritz Leiber was in his 60's before the long-running saga finally began to break bad. One wonders why he continued to write it at all after his passion seemed to wane so precipitously. The answer, in all likelihood, was money. Leiber is reputed to have struggled with poverty and alcoholism during his last, lonely years. Then as now, the Fafhrd and Mouser stories were his most popular works. Continuing their adventures may have been motivated by brute financial desperation. I don't begrudge him the necessity, but the most inspired and iconic duo of fantasy fiction deserved a better send off.
Despite adorning the cover of a substandard volume, the cover painting of this edition of Swords and Ice Magic, by Michael Whelan, remains the definitive visual depiction of Fafhrd and the Mouser.
"Sword and sorcery" is to fantasy literature what heavy metal is to popular music: a young man's genre, if ever there was one. Fritz Leiber was in his 60's before the long-running saga finally began to break bad. One wonders why he continued to write it at all after his passion seemed to wane so precipitously. The answer, in all likelihood, was money. Leiber is reputed to have struggled with poverty and alcoholism during his last, lonely years. Then as now, the Fafhrd and Mouser stories were his most popular works. Continuing their adventures may have been motivated by brute financial desperation. I don't begrudge him the necessity, but the most inspired and iconic duo of fantasy fiction deserved a better send off.
Despite adorning the cover of a substandard volume, the cover painting of this edition of Swords and Ice Magic, by Michael Whelan, remains the definitive visual depiction of Fafhrd and the Mouser.
March 3, 2020
In which our heroes become all gwowed up—still lechers, but also leaders, and no longer really able to deal quite so entirely cavalierly with the challenges they are called to face.
Unlike many of the earlier stories, which might mention still earlier events in passing, this one builds on knowledge the reader would not have without having read Swords Against Wizardry first, particularly the Hugo Award-winning "Stardock." Passing knowledge of "When the Sea-King's Away" from Swords in the Mist, and the original Swords and Deviltry would be advantageous, but lacking those probably would not result in losing the plot, just missing some added color. But it probably works best as I encountered it, being the penultimate cap on a lengthy joy ride.
Unlike many of the earlier stories, which might mention still earlier events in passing, this one builds on knowledge the reader would not have without having read Swords Against Wizardry first, particularly the Hugo Award-winning "Stardock." Passing knowledge of "When the Sea-King's Away" from Swords in the Mist, and the original Swords and Deviltry would be advantageous, but lacking those probably would not result in losing the plot, just missing some added color. But it probably works best as I encountered it, being the penultimate cap on a lengthy joy ride.
February 2, 2024
Este libro se continúa con el anterior, me resulta curioso como todas las historias, a pesar de los años transcurridos entre su escritura, tienen una coherencia muy firme, hay algunas historias que me han gustado más y otras menos, no me ha gustado el aspecto de mujeriegos que se les da en este libro a los dos héroes cuando siempre han sido bastante sensatos, pero la historia principal de la lucha contra los mingoles me ha resultado muy interesante tanto su desarrollo como sus giros y un final que no me esperaba.
Ahora a por el último.
Ahora a por el último.
August 5, 2021
Uf uf uf, desde la violación justificada de la primera historia he tenido el libro atravesado. Los dos personajes me han parecido caer en el cliché de dos viejas glorias convertidas en viejos verdes.
No sé, quizá lo he cogido con muy mala gana pero me hace plantearme el resto de la saga.
No sé, quizá lo he cogido con muy mala gana pero me hace plantearme el resto de la saga.
June 8, 2021
Read the whole series back in the 80s. Some of the best, most imaginative high fantasy one will come across. And, the characters grow and learn from novel to novel.
December 12, 2021
It was OK, but nothing to write home about.
February 22, 2024
The Sadness of the Executioner: 4 Stars
Beauty and the Beasts: 3 Stars
Trapped in the Shadowland: 3 Stars
The Bait: 3 Stars
Thunder the Thumb of the Gods: 5 Stars
Trapped in the Sea of Stars: 4 Stars
The Frost Monstreme: 5 Stars
Rime Isle: 4 Stars
Beauty and the Beasts: 3 Stars
Trapped in the Shadowland: 3 Stars
The Bait: 3 Stars
Thunder the Thumb of the Gods: 5 Stars
Trapped in the Sea of Stars: 4 Stars
The Frost Monstreme: 5 Stars
Rime Isle: 4 Stars
April 19, 2019
Mixed feels is the best I can say of this. Overall, an average read that never shines, but falters only slightly. The F&GM stories range from “rollicking and awesome” (volumes 2 and 4) to “muddled and murky” (volumes 3 and 5); this one lands in the middle of the two poles alongside volume 1.
I like that we are following these two adventurers from excited beginnings to retirement. I’m anxious to see how lackadaisical that retirement ends only to be finished with the reading of. I hope for a bang, but as these progress downwards, I expect a whimper. Take none of that as a slam against the ideal Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. When they are great, I set them upon the shelf with my favorite Robert E Howard yarns; perhaps some on a shelf slightly above. They are just too inconsistent to call marvelous.
This volume showed promise. The short stories which start it off are of little consequence and fade from memory only weeks after reading; however, the novella that makes up the bulk of the volume has a promising start that simmers but never boils leaving much to be explained (hopefully) in the final volume.
I was interested to see the return (or rather mention of) the dimension hopping, wyrm ridding German from the last book. I am keen to find answers in the next/last book.
I like that we are following these two adventurers from excited beginnings to retirement. I’m anxious to see how lackadaisical that retirement ends only to be finished with the reading of. I hope for a bang, but as these progress downwards, I expect a whimper. Take none of that as a slam against the ideal Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. When they are great, I set them upon the shelf with my favorite Robert E Howard yarns; perhaps some on a shelf slightly above. They are just too inconsistent to call marvelous.
This volume showed promise. The short stories which start it off are of little consequence and fade from memory only weeks after reading; however, the novella that makes up the bulk of the volume has a promising start that simmers but never boils leaving much to be explained (hopefully) in the final volume.
I was interested to see the return (or rather mention of) the dimension hopping, wyrm ridding German from the last book. I am keen to find answers in the next/last book.
July 26, 2018
Swords, Death, Girls, and Ice Magic
Swords and Ice Magic (1977), the sixth book in Fritz Leiber's atypical sword and sorcery series about the complementary anti-heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, is comprised of eight stories. The first six are short and variously depict the attempts of Death to deal with the heroes and/or of the heroes to deal with exotic sexy "girls." The last two tales are a linked novelette and novella that occupy twice as much space in the book as the first six. This is good, because while the first six works are mostly disappointing, the last two are mostly excellent and make the book worth reading.
The Sadness of the Executioner (1973) is a turgid vignette in which Death finds it a bit harder to dispatch our two heroes in twenty of his heartbeats than he'd expected, not entirely to his chagrin. There is no suspense or joy, and the story seems less organic than programmatic. The earlier stories in the series were usually more exuberant and less mean-spirited. This one features a rape that's supposed to be funny.
In "Beauty and the Beasts" (1974) the Mouser and Fafhrd are stalking a beautiful girl who happens to be entirely white (and "sorcerous blonde") on one side and entirely black (and "witching brunette") on the other, when the Mouser suggests physically splitting her with his comrade, and something surprising and unpleasant happens. They are the beasts in the title, but the vignette has nothing in common with the fairy tale.
In "Trapped in Shadowland" (1973) Fafhrd and the Mouser are again targeted by Death, who, finding them lost in a terrible desert surrounds them with a Shadowland (his home) that follows them wherever they go. They want to escape because they fear meeting their dead first loves Vlana and Ivrian again.
"The Bait" (1973) is yet another unsavory and unamusing vignette. The two friends are dreaming of treasure when they wake up to find a "delicious chit" in their bedroom ("It looked thirteen, but the lips smiled a cool self-infatuated seventeen… Naturally, she was naked") and are about to fight over her when they are attacked by demons. While in earlier stories Fafhrd is attracted to womanly women like Vlana, here he has, like the Mouser, turned his mind to "nubile girls."
"Under the Thumbs of the Gods" (1975) is an enjoyable short story. In it three ignored gods decide to teach Fafhrd and the Mouser a lesson when they hear the friends bragging about romantic conquests. "I believe, gentlemen, it is time they suffered the divine displeasure." The gods arrange a series of tantalizing fantasy scenes featuring the heroes' past amours, all of whom caustically reject the guys--until they really meet again the two best thieves in Lankhmar, Eyes of Ogo and Nemia, now aged, who quickly get the men making dinner, washing their feet, going out for wine, etc.
Though still too turgid and fixated on "girls," "Trapped in the Sea of Stars" (1975) is fine. While the friends are sailing in their compact ship, they are visited in dream by "beautiful, slim, translucent girls, mirror-image twins," one of whom tells the Mouser to go south to "Life and immortality and paradise," the other of whom tells Fafhrd to go north "to Shadowland and Death." Which way will they go?
"The Frost Monstreme" (1976), is a solid "novelette." Two mysterious women, one tall (Afreyt), one short (Cif), hire the now nearly middle-aged heroes as mercenaries, each being told to bring 12 men just like him to legendary Rime Isle in the north to prevent a Sea Mingol horde (aided by the Wizard of Ice Khahkht) from raping the world. The women pay the friends before vanishing. Leiber writes some neat descriptions (e.g., of the ice magical Frost Monstreme) and some funny touches (e.g., the Mouser hiring 12 thieves who are all shorter than he and Fafhrd hiring 12 giant berserks in need of some refining).
The last story in the book, "Rime Isle" (1977), is the longest and best. The apocalyptic invasion manipulated by the Ice Wizard Khahkht looms ever closer as Fafhrd and the Mouser show up at Rime Isle. Their involvement with the affairs of the atheistic population of the island in the face of the frenzied Mingols is complicated by the presence of two renegade gods from our own world with agendas of their own. The story features a surprising climax and a satisfying resolution, as well as much humor (especially involving the Mouser) and melancholy (especially involving Fafhrd). It's a neat story for things like Leiber's idiosyncratic take on the traditional heroic fantasy climactic battle, his development of the two aging heroes into leaders, his exploration of gender (ranging from cringeworthy to cool), his nostalgic frame of mind as his heroes recall past loves and family members and homes, some sublime scenes (like the possession of a god and the whelming of a whirlpool), and plenty of great lines ranging from the comical to the Shakesperean to the numinous, like the following.
-"We two-footed fantasies will believe anything."
-"A small sound close by, perhaps that of a lemming moving off through the heather, broke his reverie. He was already mounting the gentle slope of the hill he sought. After a moment he continued to the top, stepping softly and keeping his distance from the gibbet and the area that lay immediately beneath its beam. He had a feeling of something uncanny close at hand and he scanned around in the silence."
-"He and Cif were brought up against the taffrail along with a clutter of thieves, whores, witches (well, one witch), and Mingol sailors."
-"The sail sang and the small waves, advancing in ranked array, slapped the creaming prow. The sunlight was bright everywhere."
-"Even Mingols relish life."
Although this sixth book should probably be called something like, Swords, Death, Girls, and Ice Magic, although readers new to Leiber should begin with the first entry in the series, Swords Against Deviltry (1970), and although I detect Leiber goatishly, morosely, and verbosely if not imaginatively aging in this collection, thanks to its last two stories, this is finally a fine, rewarding, unique sword and sorcery book.
Swords and Ice Magic (1977), the sixth book in Fritz Leiber's atypical sword and sorcery series about the complementary anti-heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, is comprised of eight stories. The first six are short and variously depict the attempts of Death to deal with the heroes and/or of the heroes to deal with exotic sexy "girls." The last two tales are a linked novelette and novella that occupy twice as much space in the book as the first six. This is good, because while the first six works are mostly disappointing, the last two are mostly excellent and make the book worth reading.
The Sadness of the Executioner (1973) is a turgid vignette in which Death finds it a bit harder to dispatch our two heroes in twenty of his heartbeats than he'd expected, not entirely to his chagrin. There is no suspense or joy, and the story seems less organic than programmatic. The earlier stories in the series were usually more exuberant and less mean-spirited. This one features a rape that's supposed to be funny.
In "Beauty and the Beasts" (1974) the Mouser and Fafhrd are stalking a beautiful girl who happens to be entirely white (and "sorcerous blonde") on one side and entirely black (and "witching brunette") on the other, when the Mouser suggests physically splitting her with his comrade, and something surprising and unpleasant happens. They are the beasts in the title, but the vignette has nothing in common with the fairy tale.
In "Trapped in Shadowland" (1973) Fafhrd and the Mouser are again targeted by Death, who, finding them lost in a terrible desert surrounds them with a Shadowland (his home) that follows them wherever they go. They want to escape because they fear meeting their dead first loves Vlana and Ivrian again.
"The Bait" (1973) is yet another unsavory and unamusing vignette. The two friends are dreaming of treasure when they wake up to find a "delicious chit" in their bedroom ("It looked thirteen, but the lips smiled a cool self-infatuated seventeen… Naturally, she was naked") and are about to fight over her when they are attacked by demons. While in earlier stories Fafhrd is attracted to womanly women like Vlana, here he has, like the Mouser, turned his mind to "nubile girls."
"Under the Thumbs of the Gods" (1975) is an enjoyable short story. In it three ignored gods decide to teach Fafhrd and the Mouser a lesson when they hear the friends bragging about romantic conquests. "I believe, gentlemen, it is time they suffered the divine displeasure." The gods arrange a series of tantalizing fantasy scenes featuring the heroes' past amours, all of whom caustically reject the guys--until they really meet again the two best thieves in Lankhmar, Eyes of Ogo and Nemia, now aged, who quickly get the men making dinner, washing their feet, going out for wine, etc.
Though still too turgid and fixated on "girls," "Trapped in the Sea of Stars" (1975) is fine. While the friends are sailing in their compact ship, they are visited in dream by "beautiful, slim, translucent girls, mirror-image twins," one of whom tells the Mouser to go south to "Life and immortality and paradise," the other of whom tells Fafhrd to go north "to Shadowland and Death." Which way will they go?
"The Frost Monstreme" (1976), is a solid "novelette." Two mysterious women, one tall (Afreyt), one short (Cif), hire the now nearly middle-aged heroes as mercenaries, each being told to bring 12 men just like him to legendary Rime Isle in the north to prevent a Sea Mingol horde (aided by the Wizard of Ice Khahkht) from raping the world. The women pay the friends before vanishing. Leiber writes some neat descriptions (e.g., of the ice magical Frost Monstreme) and some funny touches (e.g., the Mouser hiring 12 thieves who are all shorter than he and Fafhrd hiring 12 giant berserks in need of some refining).
The last story in the book, "Rime Isle" (1977), is the longest and best. The apocalyptic invasion manipulated by the Ice Wizard Khahkht looms ever closer as Fafhrd and the Mouser show up at Rime Isle. Their involvement with the affairs of the atheistic population of the island in the face of the frenzied Mingols is complicated by the presence of two renegade gods from our own world with agendas of their own. The story features a surprising climax and a satisfying resolution, as well as much humor (especially involving the Mouser) and melancholy (especially involving Fafhrd). It's a neat story for things like Leiber's idiosyncratic take on the traditional heroic fantasy climactic battle, his development of the two aging heroes into leaders, his exploration of gender (ranging from cringeworthy to cool), his nostalgic frame of mind as his heroes recall past loves and family members and homes, some sublime scenes (like the possession of a god and the whelming of a whirlpool), and plenty of great lines ranging from the comical to the Shakesperean to the numinous, like the following.
-"We two-footed fantasies will believe anything."
-"A small sound close by, perhaps that of a lemming moving off through the heather, broke his reverie. He was already mounting the gentle slope of the hill he sought. After a moment he continued to the top, stepping softly and keeping his distance from the gibbet and the area that lay immediately beneath its beam. He had a feeling of something uncanny close at hand and he scanned around in the silence."
-"He and Cif were brought up against the taffrail along with a clutter of thieves, whores, witches (well, one witch), and Mingol sailors."
-"The sail sang and the small waves, advancing in ranked array, slapped the creaming prow. The sunlight was bright everywhere."
-"Even Mingols relish life."
Although this sixth book should probably be called something like, Swords, Death, Girls, and Ice Magic, although readers new to Leiber should begin with the first entry in the series, Swords Against Deviltry (1970), and although I detect Leiber goatishly, morosely, and verbosely if not imaginatively aging in this collection, thanks to its last two stories, this is finally a fine, rewarding, unique sword and sorcery book.
August 6, 2021
I remember reading a couple of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories more than ten years ago and really liking them. Either my tastes really changed or I was unlucky this time or the stories got worse as he wrote (though I'm not sure if the ones first chronologically have also been written first). The ones here completely failed to grip me, being mostly about the two protagonist chasing around women. In addition most were way too short to properly make me invested. The last one, the novella, wasn't actually that bad - or rather the concept wasn't - as the prose fell flat for me. To give credit where credit is due, Leiber is a fantasy classic and I sure hope other stories are better than this one.
February 20, 2023
“Swords and Ice Magic” begins in such a way that I was quickly thinking it really ought to be entitled “Swords and Girls” as at least the first few stories are themed that way. Don’t believe me? Well, then perhaps read this passage from “Trapped in the Sea of Stars” wherein our heroes sail further than anyone ever has before while pursuing two supernatural willo-wisp style girls:
“It was a reason they spoke of seldom to each other and then only most guardedly, in low tones after long silences in the long silent watched of the night. It was this: that on the edge of darkest sleep, or sluggishly rousing from sail-shadowed nap by day, they briefly saw the shimmer-sprites as beautiful, slim, translucent girls, mirror-image twins, with loving faces and great, glimmering wings. Girls with fine hair like gold or silver clouds and distant eyes that yet brimmed with thought and Witcher, girls slim beyond belief yet not too slim for the act of love, if only they might wax sufficiently substantial, which was something their smiles and gazes seemed to promise might come to pass. And the two adventurers felt a yearning for these shimmer-girls such as they had never felt for mortal woman, so they could no more turn back then men wholly ensorcelled or stark lockjaw’s med mad.”
And this story and passage is hardly alone. *spoilers* Observe, what heroic reason do our heroes go the borders of the shadowed land of Death? Yup, girls. The solution to get out? Other girls (which was doubly a let down as pretty much the whole previous novel was a build up those romances and here they were dealt with casually and cheekily.) even “Under the Thumbs of the Gods” has our heroes tortured by Gods by having every one of their prior romances refuse them (again problems, as here the Gods are dealt with cheeply, in particular Isek-he has taken on Fafhrad’s story elements without proper explanation.) everywhere we look, our heroes seek and deal with matters if girls and lust and amorous feelings . . .
Despite all this, in the sudden flickers of this writing one can see the outline of the late, great Terry Pratchet’s disk world fully coming into being-the rather silly tone with flecks of philosophy, gobs of gorgeous writing, charicatures of the fantastic: all these make up Pratchet’s disk world and here is its clear literary ancestor; albeit an ancestor lost in lusty passages which thankfully as far as I recall Pratchet never borrowed as his characters are not lost in lust as Fafrhad and the Mouser seemingly are.
Not that it’s all a storm of lust in Leiber’s writing-there are also those quaint philosophical asides, which remind me toneally of Monty Python perhaps; though I won’t claim that I love all of them. The bit with the water spouts pretty much made me lost altogether. Still, the philosophious diologues have a humor that I enjoyed and added well to the work.
Also as usual there are some brilliant bits of good writing:
“At that instant Fafhrd’s dream was snatched from him and he roused numbly to the Mouser’s sharp cries and to the chilling fugitive glimpse of a face narrow, beauteous, and of the most melancholy mien, pale violet-blue of hue and with eyes like black holes. This above wraithlike, like-complected figure, and all receding swift as though amidst a beating of black wings.”
*
“Fafhrd said,”Part of me wishes I’d followed my melancholy maid to dwell in the pale moon, spending the summer months mayhap in Shadowland.’ Then, after a silent space,’But man was not meant for paradise, I trow, whether of warmth or coolth. No, never, never, never, never.’”
*
“Black water foamed white. Sea and sky churned as one. And through that hell of winds’ howling and the waves’ crash there came a rumbling earth-shaking thunder and the red flash of huge distant flames as Darkfire erupted, compounding pandemonium, adding the strokes of earth and fire to those of water and air, completing the uproar and riot of the four elements. All ships were chips in chaos, glimpsed dimly if at all, to which men clung like ants. Squalls blew from every compass-point, it seemed, warring together. Foam covered decks, mounded to mast tops.”
I should note, for fans of old Norse mythology like myself, there are some nice bits in here on Odin and Loki. You’ll have to read to see-overall, I feel like they fit brilliantly and are a fine, creative hat nod.
Overall I was once more torn on how to rate this. In many ways the trials and travels of the Mouser and Fafhrd remind me of a d&d campaign that begins serious and stern with occasional bursts of merriment that stand as an offset to the dour tone-if the campaign goes on long enough, mark me, it shall devolve into a silly series of comic moments where the adventure is ancillary only to the amusement. Same here-while much of the beautiful writing and literary tone has fallen away in this later work of Leiber, there is a far more practiced pen at work here, where the writer is so confident that he writes with perhaps less finesse but more at ease; he writes as he pleases, positive of his writing and his audience and his writing and audience are perhaps awash with an easy irreverence and patriarchal posture. In the end, to me at least often the writing is worse and the story is worse-yet-yet!-there are so many moments where it all clicks and the reader can’t help but love it all. So, what to rate it? A 2? A 2.5? At times surely, but other times no. A 4? Yes, at other times that too. The clear answer is a lazy split to 3 lost gods out of 5.
“It was a reason they spoke of seldom to each other and then only most guardedly, in low tones after long silences in the long silent watched of the night. It was this: that on the edge of darkest sleep, or sluggishly rousing from sail-shadowed nap by day, they briefly saw the shimmer-sprites as beautiful, slim, translucent girls, mirror-image twins, with loving faces and great, glimmering wings. Girls with fine hair like gold or silver clouds and distant eyes that yet brimmed with thought and Witcher, girls slim beyond belief yet not too slim for the act of love, if only they might wax sufficiently substantial, which was something their smiles and gazes seemed to promise might come to pass. And the two adventurers felt a yearning for these shimmer-girls such as they had never felt for mortal woman, so they could no more turn back then men wholly ensorcelled or stark lockjaw’s med mad.”
And this story and passage is hardly alone. *spoilers* Observe, what heroic reason do our heroes go the borders of the shadowed land of Death? Yup, girls. The solution to get out? Other girls (which was doubly a let down as pretty much the whole previous novel was a build up those romances and here they were dealt with casually and cheekily.) even “Under the Thumbs of the Gods” has our heroes tortured by Gods by having every one of their prior romances refuse them (again problems, as here the Gods are dealt with cheeply, in particular Isek-he has taken on Fafhrad’s story elements without proper explanation.) everywhere we look, our heroes seek and deal with matters if girls and lust and amorous feelings . . .
Despite all this, in the sudden flickers of this writing one can see the outline of the late, great Terry Pratchet’s disk world fully coming into being-the rather silly tone with flecks of philosophy, gobs of gorgeous writing, charicatures of the fantastic: all these make up Pratchet’s disk world and here is its clear literary ancestor; albeit an ancestor lost in lusty passages which thankfully as far as I recall Pratchet never borrowed as his characters are not lost in lust as Fafrhad and the Mouser seemingly are.
Not that it’s all a storm of lust in Leiber’s writing-there are also those quaint philosophical asides, which remind me toneally of Monty Python perhaps; though I won’t claim that I love all of them. The bit with the water spouts pretty much made me lost altogether. Still, the philosophious diologues have a humor that I enjoyed and added well to the work.
Also as usual there are some brilliant bits of good writing:
“At that instant Fafhrd’s dream was snatched from him and he roused numbly to the Mouser’s sharp cries and to the chilling fugitive glimpse of a face narrow, beauteous, and of the most melancholy mien, pale violet-blue of hue and with eyes like black holes. This above wraithlike, like-complected figure, and all receding swift as though amidst a beating of black wings.”
*
“Fafhrd said,”Part of me wishes I’d followed my melancholy maid to dwell in the pale moon, spending the summer months mayhap in Shadowland.’ Then, after a silent space,’But man was not meant for paradise, I trow, whether of warmth or coolth. No, never, never, never, never.’”
*
“Black water foamed white. Sea and sky churned as one. And through that hell of winds’ howling and the waves’ crash there came a rumbling earth-shaking thunder and the red flash of huge distant flames as Darkfire erupted, compounding pandemonium, adding the strokes of earth and fire to those of water and air, completing the uproar and riot of the four elements. All ships were chips in chaos, glimpsed dimly if at all, to which men clung like ants. Squalls blew from every compass-point, it seemed, warring together. Foam covered decks, mounded to mast tops.”
I should note, for fans of old Norse mythology like myself, there are some nice bits in here on Odin and Loki. You’ll have to read to see-overall, I feel like they fit brilliantly and are a fine, creative hat nod.
Overall I was once more torn on how to rate this. In many ways the trials and travels of the Mouser and Fafhrd remind me of a d&d campaign that begins serious and stern with occasional bursts of merriment that stand as an offset to the dour tone-if the campaign goes on long enough, mark me, it shall devolve into a silly series of comic moments where the adventure is ancillary only to the amusement. Same here-while much of the beautiful writing and literary tone has fallen away in this later work of Leiber, there is a far more practiced pen at work here, where the writer is so confident that he writes with perhaps less finesse but more at ease; he writes as he pleases, positive of his writing and his audience and his writing and audience are perhaps awash with an easy irreverence and patriarchal posture. In the end, to me at least often the writing is worse and the story is worse-yet-yet!-there are so many moments where it all clicks and the reader can’t help but love it all. So, what to rate it? A 2? A 2.5? At times surely, but other times no. A 4? Yes, at other times that too. The clear answer is a lazy split to 3 lost gods out of 5.
January 23, 2010
Classic stuff. I doubt Leiber could get away with the over-the-top language these days, but the way the man strung alliterative adjectives together was uniquely delightful (in other words, I'll only take it from Fritz). And, let's face it, I've been in love with the Gray Mouser since I was 12. So I might be biased.
Book 7 is on the shelf, awaiting my attention, as soon as I catch up on a couple of other things.
Book 7 is on the shelf, awaiting my attention, as soon as I catch up on a couple of other things.
September 16, 2015
What a disappointment! The series had only shifted between good and great to this point, but this ... The first 70 pages isn't even worth reading. The main story of the volume consisting of the Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle is at least entertaining, but our heroes don't even really do much. All the big fights are aborted. To anyone else reading the series - stop at 5.
November 29, 2009
Leiber was in his late sixties when he wrote these stories and not surprisingly he had his heroes considering retiring from adventuring. It is to Leiber's credit that he let his characters age from young men to older men during the series rather than leaving them frozen in everlasting youth.
October 23, 2022
A mostly solid entry into the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser saga. Some interesting things happening, but a rambling second half and a weak ending. My least favorite in the series so far, but still makes my favorites shelf.
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