Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
GRANADA (1979), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 192 pages
Description
Stories of sword and sorcery by a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy! In Swords and Ice Magic, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser discover how the sadness of the Executioner creates a macabre dance from the point of view of the choreographer. Beauties and beasts explain the dual nature of all life's creatures. Trapped in the Shadowland, our dogmatic duo finds the dualities of swords and needles, maps and territories, girls and demons, mortals and gods, learning of the mischievous vanity of the gods. Lost at sea, Gray Mouser becomes a natural philosopher, drifting, captive of the Great Equatorial Current. He wonders about fire and ice, about women and men, until they arrive at Rime Isle, a tragic comedy of a place, wandering gods and restless mortals, a comedy with puppets and puppet masters. 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Larou
Swords and Ice Magic is the sixth and penultimate volume and differs from the previous ones in having been first published after a seven year hiatus and collecting stories written in the seventies. It is generally considered to mark a decline in quality for the series, and indeed the volume is not
It begins with a series of vignettes, similar to those Leiber used in earlier volumes to embed his stories into some kind of coherent continuity by connecting previously published works. The earlier vignettes weren’t exactly successful for the most part, and the ones in Swords and Ice Magic, having not even that bridging purpose, seem entirely pointless. They also continue a tendency that was already observable in Swords of Lankhmar, namely of Fafhrd’s and the Grey Mouser’s adventures becoming increasingly over-the-top to the point where, in this volume, they cross the border into the outright silly. Now, I don’t mind humorous Fantasy, and this series always had an underlying comical strand, but it used to be just that – underlying. But it is very much on the surface in these vignettes, and, at least as far as I’m concerned, not to their benefit.
The bulk of the volume, however, consists of the connected novelette “The Frost Monstreme” and novella “Rime Isle” – together, they’re long enough to form a short novel, and indeed its structure (first part mostly taking place on sea, then a longer part on land) is rather reminiscent of Swords of Lankhmar. Different from that novel, though, and in very sharp contrast to the preceding stories in this volume, humor is almost completely absent from “Rime Isle” and its companion story – in fact, they are by a wide margin the grimmest tales in the whole Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series so far.
There are reasons for this darker tone: one of them is – as Leiber emphasizes on several occasions in particular during “The Frost Monstreme” – that Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have left their youth behind them and entered middle age, that their carefree lives are over and they are bearing the burden of responsibility now. Which, as a concept, is very fascinating – usually, you might see Sword & Sorcery gain in power but you never quite get the feeling that they’re actually aging and changing (King Conan would be a case in point here, I think, and most heroes in this genre do not even get that much development). There is also a sense here, which was largely absent in the earlier stories, that the actions of our heroes have consequences, and Fafhrd in particular will have to pay a steep price for his heroism. So everything seems set for “Frost Monstreme / Rime Isle” becoming one of the best stories in the series…. and yet they aren’t. They are good stories, mind you, and definitely an improvement over the vignettes opening this volume, but they come nowhere near earlier highlights of the series like “Bazaar of the Bizarre” or “Lean Times in Lankhmar.”
One reason for this is, I think, that the exuberance and sheer fun was just a huge part of what made this series what it is, and while toning that down towards a more realistic and darker attitude might be commendable in principle, it also cuts into what is essential for the enjoyment of this particular series. A grown-up Fafhrd and a responsible Grey Mouser might be more mature and better people, but they are also a lot less fun to hang out with. Another problem is that for heroes, they both have a surprisingly small amount of agency – and that’s even before the big reveal at the end when it turns out that everything that happened was part of an elaborate plot set in motion by a devious mastermind and that everyone was only a pawn in his scheme. Both Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser barely seem to act in those stories, but only ever re-act and generally are markedly more passive than we are used to (which of course might tie into the growing-up motif). Again, this might enhance realism, but at the cost of putting a dampener on the reader’s enjoyment, too. And finally, a smaller and more personal niggle – Leiber is up to his dimension-crossing ways again as he was way back in “Adept’s Gambit”. This time it is two gods from our world crossing over into Lankhmar, and while watching a tired, pedophile Odin and a fiery, manipulative Loki is not completely without appeal, overall it’s mostly irritating.
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off to a good start.It begins with a series of vignettes, similar to those Leiber used in earlier volumes to embed his stories into some kind of coherent continuity by connecting previously published works. The earlier vignettes weren’t exactly successful for the most part, and the ones in Swords and Ice Magic, having not even that bridging purpose, seem entirely pointless. They also continue a tendency that was already observable in Swords of Lankhmar, namely of Fafhrd’s and the Grey Mouser’s adventures becoming increasingly over-the-top to the point where, in this volume, they cross the border into the outright silly. Now, I don’t mind humorous Fantasy, and this series always had an underlying comical strand, but it used to be just that – underlying. But it is very much on the surface in these vignettes, and, at least as far as I’m concerned, not to their benefit.
The bulk of the volume, however, consists of the connected novelette “The Frost Monstreme” and novella “Rime Isle” – together, they’re long enough to form a short novel, and indeed its structure (first part mostly taking place on sea, then a longer part on land) is rather reminiscent of Swords of Lankhmar. Different from that novel, though, and in very sharp contrast to the preceding stories in this volume, humor is almost completely absent from “Rime Isle” and its companion story – in fact, they are by a wide margin the grimmest tales in the whole Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series so far.
There are reasons for this darker tone: one of them is – as Leiber emphasizes on several occasions in particular during “The Frost Monstreme” – that Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have left their youth behind them and entered middle age, that their carefree lives are over and they are bearing the burden of responsibility now. Which, as a concept, is very fascinating – usually, you might see Sword & Sorcery gain in power but you never quite get the feeling that they’re actually aging and changing (King Conan would be a case in point here, I think, and most heroes in this genre do not even get that much development). There is also a sense here, which was largely absent in the earlier stories, that the actions of our heroes have consequences, and Fafhrd in particular will have to pay a steep price for his heroism. So everything seems set for “Frost Monstreme / Rime Isle” becoming one of the best stories in the series…. and yet they aren’t. They are good stories, mind you, and definitely an improvement over the vignettes opening this volume, but they come nowhere near earlier highlights of the series like “Bazaar of the Bizarre” or “Lean Times in Lankhmar.”
One reason for this is, I think, that the exuberance and sheer fun was just a huge part of what made this series what it is, and while toning that down towards a more realistic and darker attitude might be commendable in principle, it also cuts into what is essential for the enjoyment of this particular series. A grown-up Fafhrd and a responsible Grey Mouser might be more mature and better people, but they are also a lot less fun to hang out with. Another problem is that for heroes, they both have a surprisingly small amount of agency – and that’s even before the big reveal at the end when it turns out that everything that happened was part of an elaborate plot set in motion by a devious mastermind and that everyone was only a pawn in his scheme. Both Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser barely seem to act in those stories, but only ever re-act and generally are markedly more passive than we are used to (which of course might tie into the growing-up motif). Again, this might enhance realism, but at the cost of putting a dampener on the reader’s enjoyment, too. And finally, a smaller and more personal niggle – Leiber is up to his dimension-crossing ways again as he was way back in “Adept’s Gambit”. This time it is two gods from our world crossing over into Lankhmar, and while watching a tired, pedophile Odin and a fiery, manipulative Loki is not completely without appeal, overall it’s mostly irritating.
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LibraryThing member questbird
This time I read this book backwards (or almost so). I began with 'Rime Isle' the best and most developed story in the book, with 'The Frost Monstreme' as its direct prologue. Rime Isle is up there with the classic Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales, though it is set far from Lankhmar city. The two
I'm glad I read 'Rime Isle' first because some of the earlier tales in this volume are a bit disappointing upon this reading, especially 'Beauty and the Beasts' (barely a couple of pages in length) and 'The Bait', which repeat the idea first expressed in 'The Sadness of the Executioner' of Death trying to catch the two heroes by teleporting beautiful girls and deadly berserks into the sleeping chamber of the twain. However 'Trapped in Shadowland' is an interesting variation, where Death extends Shadowland to catch the heroes.
This volume probably suffers because of the close proximity of all the Death-is-after-the-heroes stories. Perhaps it is not as clumsy in the larger omnibus The Second Book of Lankhmar. But 'Rime Isle' is a gem, and several of the other stories have some nice Leiber touches.
Some of the acknowledgments in the front list authors other than Fritz Leiber. However I'm not sure if 'Sadness of the Executioner', 'Trapped in the Shadowland', 'The Bait', 'Under the Thumbs of the Gods' and 'The Frost Monstreme' were written by Leiber or simply had different copyright holders (ie. Leiber sold the rights to those individuals).
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heroes have matured and now seek wives, commands and eventual retirement from the adventuring life. The island and its inhabitants are nicely detailed, as are their enemies, the wizard Khaahkht and the Sea Mingols. And the shonky Norse gods Odin and Loki are a nice twist.I'm glad I read 'Rime Isle' first because some of the earlier tales in this volume are a bit disappointing upon this reading, especially 'Beauty and the Beasts' (barely a couple of pages in length) and 'The Bait', which repeat the idea first expressed in 'The Sadness of the Executioner' of Death trying to catch the two heroes by teleporting beautiful girls and deadly berserks into the sleeping chamber of the twain. However 'Trapped in Shadowland' is an interesting variation, where Death extends Shadowland to catch the heroes.
This volume probably suffers because of the close proximity of all the Death-is-after-the-heroes stories. Perhaps it is not as clumsy in the larger omnibus The Second Book of Lankhmar. But 'Rime Isle' is a gem, and several of the other stories have some nice Leiber touches.
Some of the acknowledgments in the front list authors other than Fritz Leiber. However I'm not sure if 'Sadness of the Executioner', 'Trapped in the Shadowland', 'The Bait', 'Under the Thumbs of the Gods' and 'The Frost Monstreme' were written by Leiber or simply had different copyright holders (ie. Leiber sold the rights to those individuals).
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
Compared to the previous five books in the series, this one clearly shows signs of starting to wear down. Its not as fresh, original or interesting as the others. Additionally, several of the stories aren't written by Fritz Leiber, they are written by other authors. Also, while this won't matter to
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some, they tend to be shorter, with 8 stories in this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lyndatrue
"The sixth book of Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser wherein the gods, the sea, and Death himself conspire to lure our heroes into the Shadow Lands, but they follow their true mistress, Adventure."
Remember when we used to haunt the bookstores, looking for books that we knew were about to be published?
I remind anyone who pats themselves on the back for having digital copies that they can vanish overnight (Amazon has done this to me enough times for collections that I purchased, that I only get Kindle books now when it's something I'm likely to read only once).
Remember when we used to haunt the bookstores, looking for books that we knew were about to be published?
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When we hoped that something wonderful would show, perhaps another marvel from Asimov, or Heinlein, or (Poul) Anderson, or (Keith) Laumer? The list is endless, even now. Bookstores, sadly, are far fewer than they were.I remind anyone who pats themselves on the back for having digital copies that they can vanish overnight (Amazon has done this to me enough times for collections that I purchased, that I only get Kindle books now when it's something I'm likely to read only once).
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LibraryThing member wvlibrarydude
This collection of tales dropped in quality. The final story was good, but Leiber seems to have run the adventures of Fafhrd and the Mouser too far.
Awards
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Collection / Anthology — 1978)
Locus All-Time Best (Fantasy Novel — 35.6 — 1998)
Language
Original publication date
1977
Physical description
192 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0583131131 / 9780583131131