The total effect on me is that I wouldn’t mind reading some more of his books, but neither would I be too sad if something prevented me from ever reading him again.

When he slips up, he provokes groans and cringing. When he’s good, he’s fun and effective to read. Most of the time his vocabulary is fairly simple and modern, but he’ll keep trying to slip in bigger words or attempts at archaic-sounding sentence structures that never quite work like he wants to. Author Re-readability: Leiber’s prose is easy to read, though sometimes clunky.If you’re already a fan of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, then I could see you returning to it once in awhile. Story Re-readability: None of them were good enough for me to care to reread, although “Ill Met at Lankhmar” is the best of the bunch.Reason for Finishing: Mostly out of obligation, although the stories improve as they go.Figured I should read him for familiarity, and hoped he’d provide some good, old-fashioned adventuring. Reason for Beginning: Fritz Leiber is one of the founders of the sword and sorcery genre, and had a huge influence on Dungeons & Dragons.And “Ill Met at Lankhmar” sees the two meet and join forces to oppose the decadent city’s powerful and brutal Thieves’ Guild. “The Unholy Grail” is the dark, painful tale of young Mouse’s escape from an evil duke and his transformation into the Gray Mouser. “The Snow Women” introduces the young barbarian Fafhrd as he seeks to leave his oppressive and narrow-minded Snow Clan (and its women) for the glamours of “civilization” to the south. Spoiler-free Synopsis: Three stories to launch a series of epic adventures.Series: Volume 1 of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, chronologically arranged.

The best of fritz leiber