Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber

The Circle Curse leads Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser all over the world of Newhon, and then right back to Lankhmar once more. For the first time we get to meet Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, the duo's patron wizards. They lay either a curse or a prophesy on the adventurers, who have determined to get away from Lankhmar forever after the deaths of their beloveds.

In The Jewels in the Forest, Fafhrd and Mouser trace down an ancient legend of a marvelous treasure, and play a cat and mouse game with a nobleman and his henchmen who are in search of the same trove. But the wayward pair discover that a centuries old trap is far more deady than anything now living humans will do.

In Thieves' House, our heroes once again tangle with the Thieves Guild and inadvertently play a part in the ascension of a new Guildmaster when they purloin the skull of a powerful thief who is only mostly dead. They get lured into a deadly battle with hatching monstrosities in The Bleak Shore, fight a battle with spirit wolves in The Howling Tower, narrowly avoid being drowned in a massive cataclysm in The Sunken Land, fight a running battle with ruthless assassins and the wrath of the very stones of Newhon itself in The Seven Black Priests.

They have a run in with an avian goddess and her deadly minions, who have been stealing jewels from the ladies of Lankhmar in Claws from the Night, once again encounter their deceased lovers while trying to steal Death's mask in The Prince of Pain-ease and are rescued only by their patron wizards, putting them in bondage to the mysterious magic users, then save the entire world from being looted by unscrupulous merchants in The Bazaar of the Bizare.

Plenty of fun tales here, in which Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser never quite seem to get what they deserve, but manage to lurch from frying pan to fire and back slightly wiser each time, perhaps, but never really getting that big score that they know will set them up for the rest of their lives.

Swords & Deviltry by Fritz Leiber

My friend, Mynx, likes to assert that all "buddy" movies are exploring latent homosexual longings between male partners. As I began re-reading, after many years away, the tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, it came to me that I'd seen this pair of characters more recently, in Jennifer Roberson's tales of Tiger and Del, the Sword series, and I thought that perhaps Roberson had read Leiber's stories and wondered, "what if the Mouser was a woman, and from their first meeting there was always this sexual tension between them?"

In Swords & Deviltry, we get to follow the stories of the adventurous pair from their humble beginnings. Fafhrd comes from the frozen North, where the women weave icy enchantments around their husbands and sons to control them. But Fafhrd has always had an unfortunate fascination with "civilization" in the lands to the South, and when either opportunity presents itself in the form of a damsel, Vlana, in distress, or his "mommy issues" simply become too hard to bear, he breaks away from his roots and journeys to the city of Lankhmar to seek his fortune, and help his lady love to avenge her past there. Though Fafhrd is a callow youth, not at all respected by his barbarian kinsmen, he acquits himself well in a fight against older, stronger members while making his getaway, and uses those and other skills throughout the ongoing saga.

The Gray Mouser began as an apprentice to a hedge wizard, who tried to teach him the whiter magic of life and living things, but he had an unhealthy attraction to the dark side, which serves him well when the local Duke has his men kill the wizard and burn down his hut. The Duke's daughter, Ivrian, also liked to associate with the hedge wizard, and she and the Mouser may have had a bit of a romance budding before the tragedy, but Ivrian's unwitting betrayal of their master makes them enemies for a time, when the Duke's men capture and torture him, until the Mouser's dark magics help him kill the Duke and flee with her to Lankhmar. Where....he meets Fafhrd.

When the pair both target a particular set of thieves from the Thieves Guild for assault and robbery, they immediately recognize a kindred spirit, and set off to celebrate their good fortune together at the Mouser's lair which he has furnished in the heart of the slum to keep Ivrian in something loosely resembling the style to which she was once accustomed. The pair grow boisterously drunk together, and end up being dared by Vlana to invade the Thieves Guild hall and get vengeance on its master, Krovas. They succeed in making their way within, and get an audience with the head thief, but unbeknownst to them, the Guild's black wizard has already sent death stalking the streets to their hideaway, to steal back the jewels from their earlier heist.

I was surprised on re-reading the stories at just how "adult" they were. Many of the tales published in the fantasy genre were G-rated in order to get published. These must have danced around the censors' sensibilities to survive the cutting room floor. Unlike some other books I've revisited, these weather the test of time quite well, aside from a rather florid style that Leiber affects when telling the tall tales of high fantasy. Looking forward to grabbing their next adventure off of my shelves and visiting Lankhmar and points beyond with this inimitable duo.