Fritz Leiber

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser take to the sea in the third installment of this seminal sword and sorcery series that “has lost none of its luminous magic” (San Francisco Chronicle). Swords in the Mist, book three in the Lankhmar series, thrusts our indentured, sword-swinging servants into the question of hate, its power, and its purpose. Times are lean in Lankhmar, illuminating the link between money and love. Luckily, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser don’t always believe in love. When Lankhmar gets too gritty, our travelers take to their other, less harsh mistress, the sea. But the sea can play tricks on men, and so can the sea king. He can break a man, or worse yet, curse him. But when he is away, it’s all play for the formidable swordsmen and the Triple Goddess . . . and two luscious sea queens. But luck may not always be there, as they discover on the way to see Ningauble, their wizard employer. After a long journey in defense of their control over their own fates, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser find themselves pawns in a life-and-death chess game, all of Lankhmar being the pieces. How many pawns will be left on the board before someone wins? Before The Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Leiber’s fantastic but thoroughly flawed antiheroes, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, adventured deep within the caves of Inner Earth, albeit a different one. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon’s grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar is Leiber’s fully realized, vivid incarnation of urban decay and civilization’s corroding effect on the human psyche. Drawing on themes from Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft, master manipulator Fritz Leiber is a worldwide legend within the fantasy genre and actually coined the term Sword and Sorcery that describes the subgenre he helped create.

The award-winning sword and sorcery classic that introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy. First in the influential fan-favorite series, Swords and Deviltry collects four fantastical adventure stories from Fritz Leiber, the author who coined the phrase “sword and sorcery” and helped birth an entire genre. In “Induction,” in the realm of Nehwon, fate brings young prince Fafhrd and apprentice magician the Gray Mouser together to mark the beginning of a loyal and lifelong friendship. Consumed by his wicked mother’s enchantments, Fafhrd finds freedom by pursuing the love of a beautiful actress in the Nebula and Hugo Award–nominated “The Snow Women.” Studying sorcery under a great wizard in a land where it is forbidden, Mouse crosses the thin line between white and black magic to avenge a great wrong in “The Unholy Grail.” And in the Nebula and Hugo Award–winning novella “Ill Met in Lankhmar,” Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser disguise themselves as beggars to infiltrate the Thieves’ Guild—only to pay a horrible price for their greed when they come face-to-face with a monstrous evil.

Join the renowned barbarian and thief in this sword-and-sorcery adventure from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy. While The Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Fritz Leiber’s fantastic but thoroughly flawed antiheroes, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, adventured and stumbled deep within the caves of Inner Earth as well. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon, and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon’s grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar, is Leiber’s fully realized, vivid incarnation of urban decay and civilization’s corroding effect on the human psyche. Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery. Swords Against Death, the second volume in the Lankhmar series, finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser beginning their real journey. Their hearts altered by the loss of first true love, they embark on a long and winding path of drunken debauchery and womanizing until crossing paths with two cross wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. A most violent of clashes ensues. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser descend into Thieves House to discover the exacting skill of the united backstabbing Thieves of Lankhmar and their rival guild, the Slayer’s Brotherhood, the city’s unionized killers. They would wander along the Bleak Shore to a howling tower to show how fear is not the product of murder but the cause. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser must resume their plundering and drunken debauchery until once again darkness had taken the balance for its favor and then a change would come. These are just a few of the encounters our swindling swordsmen will willingly endure in ridding their hearts of their first true loves. But did they know it would make them indentured swordsman servants to their former foes, the formidable Sheelba and Ningauble?

From a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy: In a post-apocalyptic future, a priest must fight the forces of evil in order to bring freedom to humanity. Three-hundred and sixty years after a nuclear holocaust ravaged mankind, the world is fraught with chaos and superstition. Endowed with scientific knowledge lost to the rest of humanity, Techno-priests of the Great God now rule. Jarles, originally of peasant descent, rises to become a priest of the Great God. He knows that the gospel is nothing but trickery propagated by non-believers. One day, he defies his priestly training and attempts to incite the peasants to rebel—but Jarles is not the only dissenter trying to bring down the priesthood—witchcraft is slowly gaining strength and support among the populace. Little does Jarles know his rebellion is about to throw him headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen.

A collection of supernatural horror stories by a multiple award-winning master of the fantastic. From the author of Swords and Deviltry and many other classic novels, a recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, this is a treasure trove of horrific tales, many of which remained out of print for decades after appearing in such magazines as Unknown, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the acclaimed horror specialty magazine Whispers 13–14. In addition to the title story, this collection also includes: “Cry Witch!” (1951), “I’m Looking for Jeff” (1952), “Ms. Found in a Maelstrom” (1959), “The Button Molder” (1979), “Dark Wings” (1976), and “The Enormous Bedroom” (2001), which is original to this volume.

A collection of supernatural horror stories from the SFWA Grand Master and Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novels. Assembled here is a selection of Mr. Leiber's best horrific tales, many of which have been virtually unobtainable for decades. From the riveting “Spider Mansion” and “The Phantom Slayer” from Weird Tales to the more recent “Lie Still, Snow White” and “Black Has Its Charms” from rare, small-press magazines, this collection provides an overview of Leiber’s fifty-plus years as an acknowledged master of the weird tale. This edition was edited by John Pelan and Steve Savile.

This Hugo Award–winning disaster epic from the Science Fiction Grand Master “ranks among [his] most ambitious works” (SFSite). The Wanderer inspires feelings of pure terror in the hearts of the five billion human beings inhabiting Planet Earth. The presence of an alien planet causes increasingly severe tragedies and chaos. However, one man stands apart from the mass of frightened humanity. For him, the legendary Wanderer is a mere tale of bizarre alien domination and human submission. His conception of the Wanderer bleeds into unrequited love for the mysterious “she” who owns him.

Stories of suspense, surprise, wit, and weirdness from Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy—as well as a must-read horror author—Fritz Leiber. Assembled from magazine submissions, fanzines, and even “lost” manuscripts discovered among the author’s personal papers, Day Dark, Night Bright includes the following short stories: “Time Fighter,” “Femmequin 973,” “Night Passage,” “Moon Duel,” “Later Than You Think,” “Mirror,” “The 64‑Square MadHouse,” “All the Weed in the World,” “The Mutant’s Brother,” “The Man Who Was Married to Space and Time,” “Thought” “Crystal Prison,” “Bullet Was His Name,” “Success,” “To Make a Roman Holiday,” “Bread Overhead,” “The Reward,” “Taboo,” “Business of Killing,” and “Day Dark, Night Bright.”

A collection of fifteen tales of horror by the award-winning Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy and author of the Lankhmar series. In Horrible Imaginings, buckle up for a disturbing ride. Meet a mysterious woman in black, a gun with a score to settle, a man who seeks eternal life, a peculiar painting of a dead woman, and more . . . Assembled from magazine submissions, fanzines, and even “lost” manuscripts discovered among the author’s personal papers, this book features two Nebula Award finalists: “Horrible Imaginings” and “Answering Service,” as well as the stories “The Automatic Pistol,” “Crazy Annaoj,” “The Hound,” “Alice and the Allergy,” “Skinny’s Wonderful,” “Scream Wolf,” “Mysterious Doings in the Metropolitan Museum,” “When Brahma Wakes,” “The Glove,” “The Girl With the Hungry Eyes,” “While Set Fled,” “Diary in the Snow,” and “The Ghost Light.” Find out why Fritz Leiber is a must-read for any fan of science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Suspense, surprise, wit, and weirdness—they’re all here for fans both old and new. Praise for Fritz Leiber “For anyone who loves great literature, Fritz Leiber walked on water.” —Harlan Ellison, author of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream “A master . . . The prose should be savored.” —Locus “High quality.” —The New York Times