The Event Horizon

3. Book Reviews

3.1 Lean Times in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber, reviewed by Soh Kam Yung

There are plenty of fantasy series lining the bookshelves. Unfortunately, to me, most of them seem to be `generic' stuff being churned out by the trilogies (so, zap me with lightning if you don't agree with me). But some fantasy series stand out from the rest. One overused example is Tolkien's ``The Lord of the Rings'', usually considered as `high fantasy' due to the heroism and `high honour quotient' of its main characters. Another, unfortunately lesser known, series was created by Fritz Leiber and is generally known as the ``Fafhrd and Gray Mouser'' series, after the two main protagonists.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (modeled on Leiber and his friend, Harry O. Fischer, respectively) are generally considered, by fantasy authors, to be in a class of their own and have influenced many authors. Leiber's characters helped to create a whole new field of fantasy; `swords and sorcery', where the heroes are not so heroic, the deeds not so noble and everybody has a romping good time robbing and pillaging everybody else.

My own first encounter with those characters was many years ago, when I picked up a Fafhrd and Gray Mouser book out of curiosity and fell in love with the characters. Unlike the characters in Tolkien's story, these two don't have a care in the world and will willingly go off on a dangerous adventure for money or to steal. If they happen to help some people or kill a few dangerous creatures or meet damsels (not necessarily in distress) along the way, so much the better. In the later part of the series, they acquire sorcerous mentors who ask them to go on strange quests for strange rewards. But they still have a good time while doing it.

The humour and horror content in the series is nicely balanced, unusual in a fantasy series. The world that contains the city of Lankhmar is in a `parallel universe' and are analogues, geographically, to Africa and Europe in the time of Alexandra the Great and shown in nice detail by Leiber.

In this book, second in the series of books being re-released by White Wolf Publications (the first was ``Ill Met in Lankhmar''), more adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are featured. It starts off with a hilarious look at religion in Lankhmar (you can say scandalous things about the Gods in Lankhmar but never, ever, insult the Gods of Lankhmar).

This leads to an adventure by sea where they have a wonderful time with the Sea King's wives. Of course, the Sea King isn't happy about this, leading to a curse being laid upon them. To remove the curse, the pair have no choice but to see Ningauble of the Seven Eyes (Fafhrd's sorcerous mentor) which transports them to Earth.

There, they fight a skillful adept before the curse is lifted (but not before they get another funny curse laid upon them). Back on the world of Lankhmar, they journey north to find `star jewels' and end up finding different kind of jewels instead. Then each unknowingly gets hired by opposing forces, both of which live in a hill (serious).

Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are usually considered `must read' stories and it is good that White Wolf is re-printing the series again. If you have a chance, go out and read them.

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