Book Log 14/2011 - Fritz Leiber: Swords and Deviltry

[jacey]

Fritz Leiber: Swords and Deviltry
(in Lankhmar – omnibus edition, Gollancz, 2001)

I missed out on reading Leiber in my youth, and knew nothing about him or his writing. The stories of Fahfrd and Grey Mouser were recommended to me by a friend and I must admit my hopes were high, but  this didn't quite grab me as I'd expected it to. It turns out (upon googling) that the omnibus edition is in itself a collection of collections and all the Fahfrd and Grey Mouser stories (bar one, I think) were originally short stories or novellas, here collected in internal chronological order. If there had been an introduction which explained this I think I'd have read it in a different frame of mind. So I read Swords and Deviltry as if it were a novel. It isn't, though the stories hang together reasonably well as a single unit in which we see out two heroes independently leaving their homes and joining up in Lankmar. This is mostly their individual stories of them and their first loves. Perhaps Fahfrd and GM will grow on me with successive adventures.  My main beef is with the edition and the lack of introduction, index and dates of first publication. A bit of a cheat, really. For now I'm not reading on in the omnibus, but now that I know each chapter can be read as an individual story, I might dip into it again sometime.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

They're worth sticking with: Leiber wrote them in a different order to the internal chronological one, and they do grow on one, really.

[charlieallery.livejournal.com]

I've read some F&GM stories, but they didn't strike me enough to really stick in my memory. I do think Leiber was a genius though, but for just the one story that's always stuck with me since I read it - Space-time for Springers - the best cat story ever. :)

Here you go ...

http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Leiber--SpaceTime%20for%20Springers.htm

Enjoy. :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I did.
:-)

Leiber fans

[wswears.livejournal.com]

I'm a Leiber fan. I'm also a F&GM fan. I met Fahfrd and Grey Mouser when I was at just the perfect age to respond to the adventures, so have them sort of always niggling away at my subconscious when I write about buddies. As with so many iconic notions, I'm forced to either write toward or away from F&GM when I enter that ouve. I also have a friend who is slightly younger than me whose e-mail name is GreyMouser@something or other.

But I don't generally advise people to go find those adventurers. The times have been a-changing. I don't generally send people looking for Retief anymore, either, though I really love those books. Hey, Charlie Allery!

Re: Leiber fans

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I think you hit the nail on the head. You found them when you were the perfect age. Sadly I am long past the perfect age.
:-)
I find I'm getting harder and harder to please. Though I find many books are enjoyable, there are few these days I find perfect.

Sadly I think that's also got a lot to do with the more I write, the more critically I read. The stuff I read when much younger I swallowed whole and never spotted the flaws.