Fritz Leiber's Return to Lankhmar: The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser [Hardcover]

Fritz Leiber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are on the trail of mischief and mayhem once again in the third volume of White Wolf's four volume series. Includes The Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magice.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565049284
• ISBN-13: 978-1565049284
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black rats  White shadows. The Mouser goes Below., July 1, 1999

By 

S Smyth (Belfast, Co Antrim United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fritz Leiber's Return to Lankhmar: The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (Hardcover)

Set mostly within Lankhmar - Above and Below - The Swords of Lankhmar is the obvious one here for maximum entertainment value, incorporating lots of great characters, F.L's passion for contact sports, and the Twains' willingness to indulge in such, given opportunity - yet always ready to defend Lankhmar, if coincident with their own interests. This is a book in its own right, with a huge amount of detail and plot for a hair over two hundred pages. A short mid section comprising a half dozen very short stories, leads onto, The Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle ( two parts of a novella, precursor to the fourth volume of the set, Farewell to Lankhmar). Reviews that I have read regarding these last two stories describe them as being below par, and drab. I don't agree with this at all. They are of the same quality as, The Swords of Lankhmar, except Lankhmar isn't much a part of the picture, and the cast of characters aren't as dramatically differentiated: No eight teated rat-queen (Hisvet), white-hot-wire whip wielding mistress ( Samanda), invisible girl-ghoul ( Bonny-bones), bat-carrier albatross, Glipkerio, Skwee, etc. F. L's use of language, and ability to integrate a lot of unlikely themes - not so much the Twains' use of weapons - are the primary factors, which make these stories work so well today. I'm not saying that it's style over content, but without it, they would come across as pulp adventure tales, for which they were geared towards in the first place, and where in-depth character development was inappropriate. So whilst the last two stories are, in essence, as good as the first of the book, with respect to style and construction, they lack colour due to the reduction in location and up-front character dynamics, needing more of the character insight details as used in, The Mouser goes Below (Farewell to Lankhmar ), to compensate.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Men of High Adventure and Low Character Triumph!, October 7, 2002

By 

phimseto (Chestnut Hill, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Lankhmar (Paperback)

Fritz Leiber was a fantasy writer when that genre existed in people's minds, Jeckyll and Hyde style, as either the Christian allegories of the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams) or the garish pulp of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E. Howard. Leiber, no shrinking violet, considered himself the literary equivilent of the former but embraced the visceral stylings of the latter. Indeed, the Lankhmar books, Leiber's penultimate achievement, are a much more enjoyable read when one has seen Leiber's notes and commentary on his contemporaries and predecessors.

This is why White Wolf Publishing's new collection of Leiber's Lankhmar tales is such a fine accomplishment. In addition to the stories themselves, a number of Leiber forwards, postscripts, correspondence, and related writings are included in each volume, giving the readers rare and valuable insight into the author of these fantasy favorites. Indeed, the heart of any literary fan must go aflutter at the possibilities when Leiber writes off-hand about his near-attempts to write stories based on the Cthulhu mythos of contemporary and friend H.P. Lovecraft. Those musings, along with the greatest of Leiber's works, "Swords of Lankhmar", and others are included in this third part of White Wolf's reissue.

"Return to Lankhmar" is, far and away, the most enjoyable and engaging of White Wolf's Lankhmar compendium, both for the casual scholar and voracious fantasy reader. "Swords of Lankhmar", apart from being Leiber's greatest story, is one of the high watermarks in fantasy literature all together - a mix of action, wit, and self-reference that is sure to win over the hearts of any fans of the genre. A must on anyone's "To Read" fantasy list and a book (indeed the whole series) that should find a home on the shelf of any fan.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best modern fantasy novel and short story in one volume., June 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Return to Lankhmar (Paperback)

Leiber is one of the best writers of this century in or out of the fantasy genre. His stories are amazing poetic works -- as well as brilliant tales. His two heroic but flawed and realistic characters were the first complex and adult protaganists in pulp fiction -- far more interesting to watch while saving the world (or simply their own skins) than the belligerent Conan or self absorbed Elric. That Leiber also includes some other elements rare in fantasy lit is a bonus: realistic combat (based on his own fencing knowledge), a wry but understanding knowledge of religion, comments on metaphysics and philosophy, the nature of true friendship, complicated relationship and sexual situations (including more than of a touch of the fetishistic and kinky), unnerving elements of horror, and especially the more than waiting-to-be-rescued women of his stories. The Swords of Lhankmar is his only novel of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser -- and it is easily the best adult fantasy novel ever written. From it's ironic and violent opening to it's last-minute rescue finish, it is better than anything published in this field since. It is strange, violent, a bit perverse, and very funny. The story The Sadness of the Executioner -- which is in Swords and Ice Magic -- gets my vote as the most elegant peice of fantastic literature ever written. A short, short story that is mostly a prose poem about the nature of mortality, it is surprising, somber and funny, all within a dozen pages.

And what of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser themselves? Fafhrd is the surprisingly complex barbarian warrior with a poet's heart and sometimes gullible nature. The Mouser is ever cynical, slightly evil, always self-involved, and too clever by half. The two are unbeatable in battle, but too likely to fall for the right scam or the wrong set of lovely eyes. The argue, brawl, drink, discuss the nature of reality, explore, steal, serve masters good and ill, and swashbuckle their way across the most imaginative stories ever... Read and enjoy.