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Fritz Leiber
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Swords Against Death (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Book 2) Paperback – January 1, 2003

by Fritz Leiber (Editor)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 546 ratings
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Swords Against Death, the second story in the Lankhmar series, finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser beginning their real journey. Their hearts altered by the loss of first true love, they embark on a long and winding path of drunken debauchery and womanizing until crossing paths with two cross wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Nigauble of the Seven Eyes. A most violent of clashes ensues.
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Previous page
  1. Book 2 of 8
    Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
  2. Print length
    304 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    UNKNO
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2003
  6. Dimensions
    4.25 x 1 x 6.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0743458281
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0743458283
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ UNKNO (January 1, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743458281
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743458283
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 1 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 546 ratings

About the author

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Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber

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Fritz Leiber is considered one of science fiction's legends. Author of a prodigious number of stories and novels, many of which were made into films, he is best known as creator of the classic Lankhmar fantasy series. Fritz Leiber has won awards too numerous to count including the coveted Hugo and Nebula, and was honored as a lifetime Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. He died in 1992.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
546 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

david harris
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Fritz Leiber
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024
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Your masterful prose infused with humor and satire create a world of delightful, often surprising plots. Much of today's sword and fantasy novels pale in comparison. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are the duality of brawn and intellect that enraptures this reader to the point of rereading and recalling these incredible adventures.
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Joseph Finley
4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Fantasy!
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2020
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“Swords Against Death” is the second book in Fritz Leiber’s series about his two plucky heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who helped define the “sword and sorcery” genre. The book is not a novel but rather a collection of ten short stories Leiber authored between 1939 and 1970. The stories are light, entertaining reads, and most are well worth the modest time it takes to enjoy them. Several have a distinctly Lovecraftian feel, and a number stood out. The third story, “Thieves House” (written in 1943), delves into the dark history of the Thieves Guild of Lankhmar, while the seventh story, titled “The Seven Black Priests” (written in 1953), is one of the more gripping adventures in the book. The one after it, “Claws from the Night” (from 1951), was the book’s best mystery tale and my favorite of the lot. I’ve already started the third book in the series, “Swords in the Mist.” Suffice it to say, the tales of these two rascally rogues are growing on me.
One person found this helpful
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David Kraut
5.0 out of 5 stars Two Heroes For the Price of One
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2017
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This is the second collection in a series about two of the more interesting characters in the history of sword-and-sorcery fiction, the giant red-haired northern barbarian Fafhrd and the quick little city-born thief clad all in grey silk The Grey Mouser. Their unlikely partnership was created by author/actor Fritz Leiber in a series of stories published in the pulps in the 50's and 60's or thereabouts. They were great stories then, and they hold up very well.

I labelled the plot of this book "predictable" because most of the stories follow similar lines: Fafhrd (pronounced "Fafhrd") and The Mouser grow weary of their tavern life in the ancient city of Lanhkmar -- a sort of predecessor of Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork -- chasing wenches and involved in petty theft, or they hear of a great jewel or other treasure in some far-off kingdom, or their wizardly mentors Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes send them off on separate quests that usually end up in the same place. The difference is in the details.

And the details are wonderful. I'm not going to relate any of the stories here -- read the book! -- but these stories are little masterpieces of the genre, and Leiber was the creator of many of the details and set pieces which followed. The stories are funny and they are fun and occupy a place in heroic fiction very close to Robert E. Howard's Conan. They also answer a question posed by Conan: How can a hugely beefy unlettered head-bashing barbarian from the northern wastes also have developed a subtlety of mind and an inherent quickness? Conan is sometimes unbelievable for the range of his abilities. Fritz Leiber's solution: spread those qualities over two characters.

It works. These two guys work. The stories work. Read this book, hell read the whole series.
8 people found this helpful
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slick
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2014
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honestly, i'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I wish i had realized this was the second book when i picked it up, but it really didn't matter when i got into it. As a sci-fi/fantasy geek, this was among the better books i've read recently. not the best, mind you, but still up there.
One person found this helpful
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David G. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of the Genre
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2013
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Hard to go wrong with Lieber's loveable and iconic heroes, Fafhrd amd Grey Mouser. One of the pioneers of the genre, these stories are worth rereading again and again. Haven't read the in years, so after all this time it is like enjoying them again for the first time. Truly worth a read.
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Peter Carrier
5.0 out of 5 stars The word "classic" is often overused, and seldom applied accurately.
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014
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The term will do in this case, however. "Swords Against Death" is a classic of the genre. Immensely entertaining, enjoyable, pithy, droll and just plain fun could be used every bit as interchangeably as 'classic' and still hit the mark.

With passages such as "After all, girls had a way of blotting out all lesser, but not thereby despicable, delights. Girls were for dessert.", how could one see this collection of stories as anything other than a masterpiece of the highest order? Perhaps if one were no fan of fantasy, but only in that rare instance. Otherwise, a careful reader would still take great delight in Leiber's phrasing, rhythm, word selection, vocabulary, structure and use of language in general.

To think that so many of Leiber's works remain ahead of me... I can hardly contain my eagerness.
3 people found this helpful
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MomOf4
3.0 out of 5 stars not as good as I remember
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2014
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Read these books as a teenager back mid 80's. It was enjoyable to read again but the stories seem rather formulaic now. N
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Melinda Maidens
5.0 out of 5 stars "Traditional" sword-and-sorcery told in "traditional" style
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020
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Lieber was the "grand old man" of D&D-like fantasy. His two characters, a beefy fighter named Fafrd and a lithe thief named The Gray Mouser, go after treasure and brave traps, monsters and bad guys with pluck but not always with efficiency. Still, they escape by the skin of their teeth to adventure another day. Each adventure stands on its own so the reader doesn't have to go through the whole book in one reading. The style is closer to 19th-century prose than to modern colloquial, which serves to underline the tongue-in-cheek fun of it all. A genuine master!
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

chris neuberger
5.0 out of 5 stars perfect thanx.
Reviewed in Canada on April 7, 2024
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solid entertainment.
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Henk Beentje
5.0 out of 5 stars Second in the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser series
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2013
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Our two heroes have left Lankhmar as they mourn the death of their two first loves (see 'Swords and deviltry') and seek forgetfulness. But can they really stay out of Lankhmar, as they have sworn?
Stories:
"The Circle Curse"
"The Jewels in the Forest"
"Thieves' House"
"The Bleak Shore"
"The Howling Tower"
"The Sunken Land"
"The Seven Black Priests"
"Claws from the Night"
Strangely, not in the table of contets of this Kindle version, but present, are also "The Price of Pain-Ease" and "Bazaar of the Bizarre".
The second story was written as long ago as 1939, most are from the 1940s and 1950s, and the first and last-but-one are from 1970.

My opinion: the weird thing is that some of these are not particularly good, but the overall impression and memory after reading is of a wonderful world with likeable (if faulty) heroes, real menace at times, humour, and an atmosphere that persists for years. I first read these when they were published by New English Library in 1972, and have been coming back to them ever since, at intervals; I have now bought them on Kindle, and the magic persists. Five Full Stars!
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Henk Beentje
5.0 out of 5 stars Second in the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser series
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2013
Our two heroes have left Lankhmar as they mourn the death of their two first loves (see 'Swords and deviltry') and seek forgetfulness. But can they really stay out of Lankhmar, as they have sworn?
Stories:
"The Circle Curse"
"The Jewels in the Forest"
"Thieves' House"
"The Bleak Shore"
"The Howling Tower"
"The Sunken Land"
"The Seven Black Priests"
"Claws from the Night"
Strangely, not in the table of contets of this Kindle version, but present, are also "The Price of Pain-Ease" and "Bazaar of the Bizarre".
The second story was written as long ago as 1939, most are from the 1940s and 1950s, and the first and last-but-one are from 1970.

My opinion: the weird thing is that some of these are not particularly good, but the overall impression and memory after reading is of a wonderful world with likeable (if faulty) heroes, real menace at times, humour, and an atmosphere that persists for years. I first read these when they were published by New English Library in 1972, and have been coming back to them ever since, at intervals; I have now bought them on Kindle, and the magic persists. Five Full Stars!
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3 people found this helpful
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mendel
5.0 out of 5 stars a classic book, cheap
Reviewed in Germany on July 8, 2012
Verified Purchase
Fritz Leiber's protagonists Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are legends; they rate an instant 5 stars because even though the protagonists would do well in any sword & sorcery caper, Fritz Leiber pits them against the darkness in the minds of men; in this second installment of the series even more so than in the first. (Yes, they do raid the Guild of Thieves again - and what they find inside is even ore ghastly than the last time.)

I bought the Gateway edition because it is the cheapest I could find; it's not a cheap edition though, as the text reads well on my Kindle, even the chapters are marked in the progress bar. I don't need a fancy cover images; I want good stories on my Kindle, and judging by their Fritz Leiber edition, Gateway delivers.
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Zarathustra
4.0 out of 5 stars A Fantasy masterclass
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2015
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I absolutely love Fritz L! Highly recommended for anyone of the Swords and Sorcery mindset. L brings a unique style to the genre - its fantasy adventure in the grand manner- but with a great deal of humour as well. I would say that L is to Fantasy as Harry Harrison is to SF. Nough said!
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Rob J P
3.0 out of 5 stars More good fantasy ideas but not quite hitting its stride yet
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2014
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Second book featuring the Grey Mouser and his Northern comrade. Struggling to shake off the mood of melancholy from the first book, so not a laugh a minute, but some nice fantasy tales. I hope the ending means more variety of mood in future volumes, but still enjoyable.

Essential reading if you want to know where so many authors of fantasy got their ideas from!
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