Swords and Deviltry

The start of one of the best sword & sorcery series ever created.

While I personally feel that sword & sorcery heroes don't really need origin stories (Conan did fine without one), there are three presented here. "The Snow Women" introduces Fafhrd, "The Unholy Grail" focuses on The Gray Mouser, and "Ill Met in Lankhmar" shows how the two heroes joined forces.

"Ill Met in Lankhmar" is an absolute classic in the genre, and is a delight to read and re-read. While it left me cold, so to speak, when I first encountered it as a teenager, I gained a whole new appreciation of "The Snow Women" and the fraught gender politics contained within as a married adult.

I found "The Unholy Grail" to be the weakest of the three stories, and that's particularly disappointing given that The Gray Mouser is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. His origin story is pretty flat and disappointing. He starts off as a magician's apprentice little different from those seen in many other fantasy stories, and there's little hint of the wry sybaritic thief he becomes in the later stories. The ending has a hint of deus ex machina to it, as well. That being said, it's not a bad story, it's just not as good as its companions.

One thing that struck me during this reread was how Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's ill-fated lady loves are presented in the stories here. It threw me off a bit when I was a teenager, but Fafhrd's Vlana and Mouser's Ivrian are not the idealized women so often portrayed in fantasy fiction. Vlana has been around the block a few times, and she displays a mercenary tendency to attach herself to any strong-seeming man that can advance her agenda. When Fafhrd calls her out on this, she immediately shuts him down, telling him that he hasn't a clue how hard it has been for her in a male-dominated world. Ivrian, on the other hand, is a bit frail and silly, and her presentation put me in mind of chivalric love, making me think that maybe the Mouser didn't love her so much as he did the IDEA of her and having an audience for his gallantry.

These stories are classics in the field, and worthwhile reads for any fantasy fan.

I read [b:Swords Against Death|218716|Swords Against Death (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, #2)|Fritz Leiber|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1441810943s/218716.jpg|1807521] in high school, in Hungarian. That is the second book of this series. I do not have very good memory, which is why I like to write up my thoughts after reading a book. But I recall it was enjoyable. It was cliché fantasy in its outline, but had a lot of creativity in the details, making it a unique experience. The only actual detail I remember is that it had furry arctic snakes. I think that captures its approach well.

So I was happy when I figured out what this book was. (I did not remember the title, just the furry arctic snakes.) I decided to re-read it. I am not sure which book I had read, so I am going in order. But it is probably the second book.

It is hard to rate this book, partially due to nostalgia coloring my thoughts. It has a number of attributes that must put off readers. It is about two guys. Women are to be won and lost. Names are all ridiculous. "Fafhrd" is on the cover, but "Urgaan of Angarngi" is also a good example. There is a lot of bloodshed and cruelty with little thought given to it, but also a lot of humor. A lot of clichés (the goal can be as simple as finding the treasure), and awesome details (arctic snakes). Every character is eloquent to the point that you need a dictionary to read it. It is hard to decide how serious the whole thing is meant to be.

Multiple points are illustrated by this dialog, when the northern barbarian and the street urchin meet:

Fafhrd stopped, again wiped right hand on robe, and held it out. "Name's Fafhrd. Ef ay ef aitch ar dee."

Again the Mouser shook it. "Gray Mouser," he said a touch defiantly, as if challenging anyone to laugh at the sobriquet. "Excuse me, but how exactly do you pronounce that? Faf-hrud?"

"Just Faf-erd.”

I must confess, I had heard of neither Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, nor Fritz Leiber, before I picked up this book. Apparently, he won numerous awards, and is considered by many to have invented the phrase "Sword & Sorcery" as a sub-genre of fantasy.

I wasn't particularly impressed.

This is a collection of three short stories. In the first, The Snow Women, we meet Fafhrd for the first time, as he is struggling to break free of his rural life and experience civilization. I really struggled to into this story, though. The language is INCREDIBLY outdated and obtuse, for a book published in 1970, and Fafhrd's use of it is even more so. I'm aware that Fafhrd's over-the-top way of speaking was meant to be humourous, but I just found it frustrating, annoying, and distracting.

The second story, The Unholy Grail, introduces Mouse, he who is to become the Gray Mouser, and Fafhrd's eventual companion. I'll admit I rather enjoyed this story; by this time, I was used to the writing style (sort of) and antiquated language, so I was able to sit back and enjoy the ride a bit more.

In the third, Ill Met in Lankhmar, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser come together. I decided that I STILL don't like Fafhrd. His way of speaking is anything but funny. Still, it was a good story, and I chuckled more than once at the antics.

Aside from the outdated language, this author has (or had - he's dead now) a very strange writing style, commonly using a weird "Object, subject, verb" sentence construction ("The ball, he kicked"), reminiscent of Yoda. I guess it would've been amusing, if it didn't happen quite so often.

Even had I been alive in 1970 (when this book was first published), I would've struggled with this book. I understand that lots of people consider it a classic of modern fantasy literature, but it's not my cup of tea. Maybe it just went right over my head.