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A review by luana420
Swords and Ice Magic by Fritz Leiber
3.0
The first half is a bunch of short stories, followed by a novelette and novella. For the first time, a Fafhrd & Grey Mouser collection feels like it has thematic cohesion, it not being a gathering of stories from different decades placed together chronologically.
That theme is "Fafhrd & Mouser gotta settle down!" which is nice, I suppose. It's funny that Leiber just kind of provides Girl Fafhrd & Girl Mouser to make this happen. The shorts are generally good fun (the "offended gods" one is so Pratchett) but I am still not a fan of descriptions of maritime maneuvers and jargon so the "moon and sun are blowholes" one was a big bore to me.
The Frost Monstreme/Rime Isle latter half of the book was also plagued by this, as it is with the very impersonal threat of the two Mingol fleets; Khakht the Baxter Stockman of Newhon is a fun bad guy who doesn't get too much to do, unfortunately.
However, I liked where Rime Isle ended up, with the plot being essentially the very same as American Gods -- down to the Norse Gods specifics -- and it is very interesting to see how the same basic plot dressed up as sword & sorcery or as urban fantasy can result in an entirely different experience.
Also LOLOL "maybe fondling teenage girls is bad" our boy Leiber is growing up....
That theme is "Fafhrd & Mouser gotta settle down!" which is nice, I suppose. It's funny that Leiber just kind of provides Girl Fafhrd & Girl Mouser to make this happen. The shorts are generally good fun (the "offended gods" one is so Pratchett) but I am still not a fan of descriptions of maritime maneuvers and jargon so the "moon and sun are blowholes" one was a big bore to me.
The Frost Monstreme/Rime Isle latter half of the book was also plagued by this, as it is with the very impersonal threat of the two Mingol fleets; Khakht the Baxter Stockman of Newhon is a fun bad guy who doesn't get too much to do, unfortunately.
However, I liked where Rime Isle ended up, with the plot being essentially the very same as American Gods -- down to the Norse Gods specifics -- and it is very interesting to see how the same basic plot dressed up as sword & sorcery or as urban fantasy can result in an entirely different experience.
Also LOLOL "maybe fondling teenage girls is bad" our boy Leiber is growing up....