Swords' Masters is the second book club omnibus of Leiber's Fafhrd and Mouser stories, including the fourth through sixth volumes of their previous book format, which collected them from earlier publication in periodicals, with one novel as an exception.

The four stories of Swords against Wizardry alternate between substantial novellas written in the mid-1960s and short bridging pieces written later by Leiber to pull them together into a consolidated volume. The bridging stories, "In the Witch's Tent" and "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar," are both great fun, though. "Stardock" is a wonderful story of fantasy mountaineering, and it is complemented by "The Lords of Quarmall," set in an underearth kingdom with its dynasty of sorcerers. This last story (the first of them to be written) was grown by Leiber from an unfinished manuscript by his friend Harry Fischer.

Swords of Lankhmar is the only full-fledged novel of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser that I've read. At first, it seems like it might not even be such, because a preliminary nautical adventure seems to set it up to be episodic, but indeed, the whole thing is a single, complicated tale centering on an attempted conquest of Lankhmar undertaken by "Lankhmar Below," i.e. the city of rats underneath Lankhmar. There are love interests for both heroes--likely the oddest such in all their adventures--assistance from their sorcerer-patrons, and more detail than previously available about the unimpressive upper reaches of Lankhmarian aristocracy. In this edition, Swords of Lankhmar is prefaced with a map of the world of Nehwon--a welcome feature which is nevertheless awfully difficult to read, owing to varied calligraphy and an odd quasi-global projection.

The last book Swords and Ice Magic is full of retrospective glances at the earlier adventures of the two heroes, and is in many respects a sequel to "Stardock." It starts with short stories, but these wax interdependent, so that by the time the reader reaches the long culminating novella "Rime Isle," it feels as if they had merely been opening chapters of a novel. "Rime Isle" itself has more than a little taste of Neil Gaiman's American Gods about it, concerning as it does fugitive gods trying to reestablish their bases of worship. It is strange that the conclusion of six volumes of Leiber's stories leaves the heroes somewhere quite remote from the City of Lankhmar, i.e. the titular Rime Isle far out to the north in the Frozen Sea. Although I don't know if it will assuage this particular discomfort, the fact inclines me to seek out and read the fugitive seventh book: The Knight and Knave of Swords.

From this omnibus, read only Book 4, the stories gathered as Swords Against Wizardry. These are more closely linked than the previous books, with the close of one leading directly to the opening of the next, despite having been written piecemeal.

Across the four books I've read, it's not surprising that some passages are written better than others, but I found the poorer writing is equally distributed (Leiber isn't better earlier or later), and stems from being clunky (for example, Mouser's dialogue to Fafhrd as he peers at thieves loitering nearby, in "Two Best Thieves"), or from trying too hard (but the resulting florid prose often reads better in context than when quoted in isolation). In most cases, it is distinctive and accomplished, characterised by adding archaic prefixes or subtracting modern ones.

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"In the Witch's Tent" (1968 / newly written for this book)
"Stardock" (1965 / Fantastic)
In effect a preface in base camp and a long novella of the ascent. A classic example of Leiber's use of specialist terminology but never in a show-off way, here for mountaineering but elsewhere in the series for seafaring and fencing / swordplay. I'm no judge of veracity of it, but it reads well, not as technical as O'Brian but giving the impression Leiber was personally familiar with the activity and not merely the vocabulary.

"The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar" (1968 / Fantastic)
Egos and Achilles Heels, and knowing manipulation of both. Leiber again departs from the party line with a tale in which our heroes emphatically do not triumph, a theme of the series.

"The Lords of Quarmall" (1964 / Fantastic Stories of Imagination
The classic story first envisioned in 1936 and 10,000 words written by Leiber's pal Harry Otto Fischer. Elaborated and finished a quarter century later, and reminiscent of Gormenghast but uncertain whether Peake was any influence even if familiar to Leiber, given how much was written before Titus Groan (1946). The odd origins of this tale makes it all the more impressive for how tightly fitted are the stories leading up to it. And each story here absolutely necessary for an understanding of the characters overall, and the story cycle.

(wikipedia, LT and Leiber's prefaces again used here) ( )

The prologue by Fritz Leiber says it all "...Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are the undoubtedly the greatest swordsmen who ever lived, or ever will live, in any of the many universes...". While very tongue in cheek and open to much debate, these stories are excellent sword and sorcery fantasy. Leiber created a quirky and funny universe and two quirky thieves and swordsmen to roam around in it. To me this is somewhat of a combination of Vance's eccentric world and Moorcock's dreamy, gloomy and strange one. This second collection starts to drift more into the dreamy and strange, compared to the first collection. ( )

Good collection, great short stories of heroic fantasy. The first book in the collection is better though. However, both books are must reads if you like heroic fantasy. ( )