First, some housecleaning: (1) not for everyone, (2) definitely written during a different time, not an excuse but something that should be mentioned (2 stories originally published in 1970, and the other main story published in 1962, there's a fourth story but it's basically a preamble that was published in 1957), (3) going into this one, I knew nothing about Fafhrd, Grey Mouser, or the author besides that it was mentioned as one of the original inspirations and/or source material for swords and sourcery type novels (yes, I can't help but spell sourcery like the knight himself, Terry Pratchett).

All that being said, I found the individual origin stories for Fafhrd and Gray Mouser (respectively, The Snow Women for Fafhrd and The Unholy Grail for the Gray Mouser) to be...a bit of a slog. I can't recommend them, and if push came to shove, skip them in favor of Ill Met in Lankhmar, which brings the duo together and serves as an origin story for their partnership. While there are certainly...moments...in these first two stories that I enjoyed, I'd be hard-pressed to mention them.

On the other hand, you can tell that Leiber is starting to find his stride in Ill Met in Lankhmar. The writing picks up, the dialogue starts to sing, and you finally get a feel for why Fafhrd and Gray Mouser left a lasting impression on the fantasy genre. I also didn't mind that Leiber had fun with these tales - a defining characteristic in each story - that came to the forefront in this final story. For instance, in Ill Met in Lankhmar our two protagonists are inebriated to varying degrees throughout the story to comedic effect.

Last but not least, I noticed similarities in tone and writing style that can be found in the works of Christopher Buehlman, Raymond St. Elmo, K. J. Parker, and even Terry Pratchett (all authors with more than a few books in my TBR pile).