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cafedetinta's review against another edition
4.0
Muy entretenida, llena de aventuras y divertida. Con ganas de más entregas!
Reseña completa: https://cafedetinta.com/2019/07/09/espadas-contra-la-muerte-de-fritz-leiber/
Reseña completa: https://cafedetinta.com/2019/07/09/espadas-contra-la-muerte-de-fritz-leiber/
btony's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 if i could give half stars
I liked it more than the 1st one
I liked it more than the 1st one
jeteitsworth's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mathiasblack's review against another edition
4.0
When I first heard about Leiber, and his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories were described as vintage sword and sorcery, I assumed I would enjoy in a pulpy kind of way. I started with the first book, Swords and Deviltry, and got bogged down in the first story, the Snow Women. Maybe I just didn't get it. Or maybe Leiber's stories had not stood the test of time. So I put Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser aside.
Yet time and again, I would come across recommendations of the duo's escapades. And then I read somewhere that the overarching narrative only really gets going with "Ill Met in Lankhmar," the gloomy last story in the first collection. Gloomy always sounds good to me, so I gave it a try. Hallelujah! This was inventive, fun fiction, with the kind of magic and mystery that got me all riled up as an adolescent playing Dungeons & Dragons but with the narrative chops and prose style to please a veteran reader like myself. It's pulpy, yes, but in the best possible way.
Swords Against Death picks up where "Ill Met in Lankhmar" left off, and my recommendation to Nehwon newbies is to start with the latter story and go on to this collection. I'll be circling back to the earlier stories at some point, but right now I'm happy to plow on and count on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser continuing their daring--and often frankly harebrained--adventures. Bravo!
Yet time and again, I would come across recommendations of the duo's escapades. And then I read somewhere that the overarching narrative only really gets going with "Ill Met in Lankhmar," the gloomy last story in the first collection. Gloomy always sounds good to me, so I gave it a try. Hallelujah! This was inventive, fun fiction, with the kind of magic and mystery that got me all riled up as an adolescent playing Dungeons & Dragons but with the narrative chops and prose style to please a veteran reader like myself. It's pulpy, yes, but in the best possible way.
Swords Against Death picks up where "Ill Met in Lankhmar" left off, and my recommendation to Nehwon newbies is to start with the latter story and go on to this collection. I'll be circling back to the earlier stories at some point, but right now I'm happy to plow on and count on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser continuing their daring--and often frankly harebrained--adventures. Bravo!
luana420's review against another edition
4.0
The short stories Lieber wrote in the 30s-40s-50s are all imaginative, witty and exciting. I laughed out loud several times with the wacky situations Fafhrd and the Mouser found themselves in: an ensorcelled Mouser sitting in an actual coffin laughing at Fafhrd fighting a statue which he sees as a jester? Wonderful! The dungeon they're in has an unseen guardian... and it's the structure itself? Delightful! A wave of magpies is terrorizing the city's nobles? Far out!
But that's all the original stories, and whenever we have to remind ourselves that he came up with an origin and a shared tragedy for his two heroes (which he added in decades later) it's total cringe. Leiber's almost Tarantino where I kinda love his genre pastiche and his wit, but you add a woman into it? Uh oh this is gonna suck! You see women are vain and incomprehensible and oh ho ho abort abort!
Shame, cuz they didn't really need a dead wives origin -- we meet Sheelba and Ningauble here, their archmage patrons who are respectively curt and verbose to a comical degree. That's what binds them together, that's funny and awesome!
But that's all the original stories, and whenever we have to remind ourselves that he came up with an origin and a shared tragedy for his two heroes (which he added in decades later) it's total cringe. Leiber's almost Tarantino where I kinda love his genre pastiche and his wit, but you add a woman into it? Uh oh this is gonna suck! You see women are vain and incomprehensible and oh ho ho abort abort!
Shame, cuz they didn't really need a dead wives origin -- we meet Sheelba and Ningauble here, their archmage patrons who are respectively curt and verbose to a comical degree. That's what binds them together, that's funny and awesome!
angrywombat's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fantastic collection.
10 short stories that full of crazy ideas and shenanigans! Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are great characters that seem to find themselves in all sorts of problems, often of their own creation! There is a real sense of vibrancy and joy in these stories - even when horrific they feel HORROR!
These stories were written over decades and out of order, but here they have been placed in rough chronological order as seen by the characters in them, but there is no overarching metaplot, just a couple of guys trying to ale the most out of their lives.
I love that so many of the tropes that seem common over the last decades are very evident, but all seem played with a little here - Mouser is the civilised man of town, but also a superstitious rube :) Fafhrd is the giant barbarian, but also a trained singer and linguist. They name their weapons, even though they keep loosing and replacing them they keep the names :)
Definitely going to read more. It seems that these are classics for a damn good reason!
10 short stories that full of crazy ideas and shenanigans! Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are great characters that seem to find themselves in all sorts of problems, often of their own creation! There is a real sense of vibrancy and joy in these stories - even when horrific they feel HORROR!
These stories were written over decades and out of order, but here they have been placed in rough chronological order as seen by the characters in them, but there is no overarching metaplot, just a couple of guys trying to ale the most out of their lives.
I love that so many of the tropes that seem common over the last decades are very evident, but all seem played with a little here - Mouser is the civilised man of town, but also a superstitious rube :) Fafhrd is the giant barbarian, but also a trained singer and linguist. They name their weapons, even though they keep loosing and replacing them they keep the names :)
Definitely going to read more. It seems that these are classics for a damn good reason!
cwebb's review against another edition
4.0
Fafhrd und der Gray Mouser sind wieder unterwegs. Wieder spannend und lustig, nicht ganz so witzig wie der erste Teil, daher ein Punkt Abzug. Auch weil die Kurzgeschichten eben kurz sind und einige Sprünge in der Handlung vornehmen.
jeffhall's review against another edition
4.0
The second volume of Frtiz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series is solid, featuring a few workmanlike stories, but also featuring a handful of real gems. "The Jewels in the Forest" and "Bazaar of the Bizarre" are both excellent, and "The Seven Black Priests" is a surprisingly comic romp, with enough pratfalls to keep a Marx Brothers fan happy.
skippen's review against another edition
3.0
Not as quite as good as the first entry, but solid. I have heard of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books for years, but I have never read them. I wish I had found them younger. It is always nice to read fantasy in which the characters don't go on a quest. Don't get me wrong, I love me some quest books, but it is refreshing to see, as Leiber call his own text and therefore naming all text after, Sword and Sorcery. This fantasy fiction type was rare when he was righting. The text is a bit antiquated at time, despite being written in the seventies, but he is solid writer.
My only complaint in this novel is it seems the Leiber likes to make Fafhrd the bumbler of the two--always getting captured, lost, etc with the Grey Mouser rescuing him. I would prefer some balance there, but it seems the dumb barbarian is always at fault.
My only complaint in this novel is it seems the Leiber likes to make Fafhrd the bumbler of the two--always getting captured, lost, etc with the Grey Mouser rescuing him. I would prefer some balance there, but it seems the dumb barbarian is always at fault.
jeremiah_mccoy's review against another edition
5.0
There is a list in the back of the old D&D Dungeons Masters Guide. It is called Appendix N. I have been reading books from that list of late. Fritz Leiber's work is absolutely part of that list and I am glad it made me come around to reading these stories. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are vastly entertaining rogues and these short stories show you why. The narrative style is florid but not ridiculous, and you come away wanting more of this world. I absolutely recommend these anthologies. Probably the best fantasy I have read in years.