*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, we reach the second and concluding part of the works of that very versatile and stylish American author Fritz Leiber, who was equally at home in science fiction, fantasy and horror. Here we concentrate on his work in the fantasy/sword and sorcery sub-genre, with his Swords series featuring the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd is a very tall and strong northern barbarian, skilled at both swordsmanship and singing. The Mouser is a small mercurial thief, gifted and deadly at swordsmanship  as well as a former wizard’s apprentice who retains some skill at magic. Fafhrd talks like a romantic, but his strength and practicality usually wins through, while the cynical-sounding Mouser is prone to showing strains of sentiment at unexpected times. Both are rogues, living in a decadent world where only the ruthless and cynical survive. They spend a lot of time drinking, feasting, wenching, brawling, stealing, and gambling, and are seldom fussy about who hires their swords. Still, they are humane and—most of all—relish true adventure. A nice uniform paperback edition of the first six books in the series was published in the UK by Mayflower in 1979 (several years before the final seventh volume was published), and we have volumes 2-6 in really nice shape. NB all volumes are short stories, except The Swords Of Lankhmar, which is the only Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novel. (Dr Evilla, our web and post mistress, has pointed out that the characters were lampooned by Terry Pratchett in The Colour Of Magic, the first of his Dicsworld novels as Bravd the Hublander and the Weasel).  
PICTURED: ALL BY FRITZ LEIBER
SWORDS 2: SWORDS AGAINST DEATH Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 3: SWORDS IN THE MIST Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 4: SWORDS AGAINST WIZARDRY Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 5: THE SWORDS OF LANKHMAR Mayflower 1979 2nd UK PB VF/NM £10 SOLD
SWORDS 6: SWORDS AND ICE MAGIC Mayflower 1979 1st UK PB VF/NM £10