Although I read numerous short stories by the late Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) and had lunch with him on one memorable afternoon in 1989, it wasn't until I read The Swords of Lankhmar, his sole novel-length entry into the long (the first tale appeared in 1939, the final in 1988) and delightful adventures of his famed rogue heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, that I became an ardent fan of the series.
I assume most readers are already well aware of F & the GM -- Fafhrd, the hulking barbarian from the North, based on Leiber himself, and the small, sly, clever thief the Gray Mouser, based on Leiber's lifelong friend Harry Otto Fischer (1910-1986). These stories are different from the fun of the mill sword and sorcery tale, not only in the beauty and depth of the writing -- Leiber was a trained Shakespearian actor and trod the boards in his father's touring company in his youth -- but in their humor.
The stories aren't all funny, and certainly not the frothy sort of pun-based goofy fantasy that has dominated the bookshelves for years, but you might say F & the GM know how to have a good time, love the ladies, love a good drink, and in short love their lives of adventure.
Possibly The Swords of Lankhmar is my favorite because I read it first. Impossible to say now. Too much water under that bridge. But when I re-read it a few days ago, it held up. Lankhmar, the central city of Leiber's fantasy world Newhon, besieged by intelligent rats, the Mouser dallying with the affections of the beautiful-but-deadly (and yes, herself of rattish heritage!) Hisvet, Fahrd's romance with a girl Ghoul (their flesh is transparent, leaving only their skeletons visible!), swordplay, ineffectual overlords, a frisson of S&M, even the Mouser's shrunken foray into the underworld kingdom of the rats: this one has it all! (I quote Wikipedia here, on Leiber's "often dark sense of humour, which ranges from the subtle and character-based to the Pythonesque.")
Buy it and read it. If you like it, there are many more. There won't be any more, though, unless Robin Wayne Bailey, who wrote one authorized sequel in 1998, SWORDS AGAINST THE SHADOWLAND, can be persuaded to do another.
In the meantime, enjoy!
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