Product Description
Ramsey Campbell, the highly regarded British horror author called him, "the greatest living writer of supernatural horror fiction". Drawing many of his own themes from Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P Lovecraft, master manipulator Franz Leiber is a worldwide legend within the Fantasy genre, actually coining the term "Sword and Sorcery" that would describe the sub-genre he would more than help create. While Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Leiber-s fantastic but thoroughly flawed anti-heroes, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, adventured and stumbled deep within the caves of Inner Earth as well, albeit a different one. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon-s grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar, is Leiber-s fully realized, vivid, incarnation of urban decay and civilization-s corroding effect on the human psyche. Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery. "Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are virtually a genre unto themselves. Urbane, idiosyncratic, comic, erotic and human, spiked with believable action of a master fantasist!" William Gibson "After too long a wait, the master story teller of us all returns with a huge, anecdotal adventure in the magic-drenched lives of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Glowing imagination melds with gorgeous language to make this one of Leiber's very best...which is a better best than this poor world usually has to offer. Leiber's back: rejoice!" -Harlan Ellison "It's all Fritz Leiber's fault. If he weren't such a deadly fine fantasist I wouldn't be stopping everything to read his tales. And if he weren't such a master I wouldn't occasionally look out of the window and wish he'd interrupt my routine again, as he doesn't do it often enough. The Knight and Knave of Swords came into my life and took over an otherwise fully programmed afternoon. I stop everything when a new Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story comes into my hands." Roger Zelazny ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Super Reader
For a Lankhmar book, The Knight and Knave of Swords is quite a weighty tome. Fahrd begins by learning to get along without a left hand, a problem yet again caused by those annoying god types. Hanging around leisurely should be peaceful, shouldn't it? Not when they have two women around, and others that would like a little payback coming.This is the weakest of the series.

Knight and Knave of Swords : 01 Sea Magic - Fritz Leiber
Knight and Knave of Swords : 02 The Mer She - Fritz Leiber
Knight and Knave of Swords : 03 The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars - Fritz Leiber
Knight and Knave of Swords : 04 The Mouser Goes Below - Fritz Leiber


Arrows magical and mundane, with a nasty fish woman on the end of one.

3 out of 5


Stowaway sea demon.

3 out of 5


Archimages decided they need their hero helpers back home, despite a couple of personal Death obstacles.

3.5 out of 5


Godly disagreement, unexpected underneath adventures, a fair bit of girl-on-girl action, and in the case of Sister Pain, running-away-from-girl action.

3.5 out of 5

Original mood and lead characters undermined by voyeurism
I've read this book years ago, at the end of the rest - so obviously I didn't mind the series. But I'm wondering if Book 7 was a particularly low point!
 
Sure, Lieber has created a distinctive world, with some distinctive characters. The mythology underpinning it (of mercurial and at times petty gods) is refreshingly original, and now and then our heroes find themselves caught up in some dreamlike event utterly beyond their control. He creates his own mood.
 
But, blimey, the prurience. Like, really seedy, man. Sure, I could handle the comic 007/Capt. Kirk style antics of swooning bikini clad babes turning up at the most unlikely (and frequent) intervals - as long as they merely work as props/scenery, taking up, say, as much space as the next tavern or horse, and don't distract from the strengths of the book, such as characters, nice genre ideas, and novel plotting. But perhaps Lieber was still caught up with that 70s, Hugh Hefner is cool - everyone else is repressed nonsense. It's not quite 'The erotic adventures of Fafard and the Grey Mouser', but at times he devotes several pages to gratuitous soft porn about bondage and orgies.
 
Were the earlier books quite as bad as this? I don't think so: I read The Swords of Lankhmar a year or so ago and don't remember such extended voyeurism (nor, however, do I remember much in the way of plot). Maybe I excused it before on the basis of the immediately read earlier books, but now I'm quite happy to get rid of the book, even if it jeopardises my chances of having a full set. Like Julian May's Golden Torc series, better to leave some holes.
 
Oh, and I noticed the cover has a ringing endorsement from Michael Moorcock - a very good anti-endorsement in my book. Moorcock was only good when I was 13, and metamorphosed into similarly prurient dross upon re-reading post-puberty.

I just wish this wasn't the end of the series
It's been a long time since I read the first 6 volumes in the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series (about 20 years), and I still can picture the two clearly. The Mouser in particular has always been one of my favorite fictional characters.

This book (a collection of three short stories and a novella) is an excellent addition to the series, and covers some of the Twain's later adventures while in their more settled life on Rime Isle. Leiber's writing style is beautiful, poetic and flows elegantly and smoothly. This is fantasy written for, and meant to be appreciated by adults, rather than for the teenage audience much of the more recent fantasy seems to be written for.

The Good...and the Bad
I'm mixed in my opinion on this book.I loved the third short story (the name of which escapes me) where our heroes are cursed by the gods and vie with assassins.It's perhaps the best Fafhrd & Mouser story I've read.

The novel included in this volume is awful.Leiber includes gratuitoussex to titillate the adolescent reader.Soft-core pornography.The storyis curiously bland as well.The Mouser is trapped underground for ahundred pages, while Fafhrd tries to rescue him.Then Leiber causes Fafhrdto be abducted and pleasured by maidens in a flying airship.It's awful. Really nothing here for the discriminating reader.Leiber should have leftthe Twain alone.

In which the heroes' adventures come to a fitting end.

A fitting, if somewhat unexpected end to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. This book lacks a bit of the majestic prose and black comedy that the previous six were known for, but it gives our beloved pair one last great adventure before retiring.

If you've read the first six books of the 'Swords' cycle (for lack of a better series title) you will enjoy reading this. In it the two heroes retire to live a happy old age, but find much to their own surprise that their legend will live on . . .

In addition the title so perfectly describes the two it is impossible to not have it sitting next to the others on the shelf. I just wish they had included it in the lovely three volume hardcover reprint of the first six books!

David ... Read more

Product Description
Jack Gaughan cover and frontis. Ten tales with introduction to each by Lieber. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sci-Fi Escapism at its Finest
In this futuristic social satire, Phil Gish is a down and out loner who finds peace and contentment in the humble presence of a green cat.His pursuit of this feline takes him on a wild adventure that causes him to cross paths with a dazzling array of professional wrestlers, religious fanatics, parapsychologists, mobsters working for Fun, Inc., agents of the Federal Bureau of Loyalty, and a host of other eccentric individuals, all of whom seem determined to get their hands on the green cat.

The colorful characters are the real strength of this unusually under-plotted book (the story is little more than a long chase after the elusive cat), but the action is breakneck-paced, and the surprises just don't stop, which makes this book almost impossible to put down. Equally unusual in science fiction are the strong female characters, who while by no means perfect or even always likable, manage to make their own decisions and frequently demonstrate their superiority to the weak and/or immoral men in the story. Especially memorable are June Jones, the lady wrestler who wrestles men for a living, but befriends the helpless Phil, and Mitzi Romadka, the courageous daughter of a sadistic doctor, who would rather die than give in to weakness, even while flaunting her femininity.

While there are occasionally some brief lapses into sci-fi sophistry, this book is primarily a comedy: a fast moving, easy to read romp that should please readers young and old, but would not be recommended for those who take their science fiction seriously.The social satire is not especially pointed, and there are relatively few interesting ideas, scientific or otherwise, but for sheer escapist reading pleasure, this book certainly delivers top quality. ... Read more

Product Description
Ace Double D-491. Both sides are paperback originals. ... Read more

Product Description
Science-Fiction short stories ... Read more