Everyone who doesn"t like Assassin"s Creed Odyssey hasn't played with Cassandra as the Protagonist.

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Swords Against Death, Fritz Leiber (Centipede Press Edition)


Here's book 2 of what Centipede Press labels the definitive 8-volume series that'll collect all of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories written by Fritz Leiber, but also those by his friend Harry Fischer, who naturally also gets credit for the creation of the iconic sword and sorcery duo.


Also included in the series, and as this is new information to me, which is why I've written down more than it actually warrants at this time here, will be an authorized Lankhmar novel, and thus canonical as shit, jow; Swords against the Shadowland, written by Robin Wayne Bailey, which (I'm making a highly educated guess here) will be included, or rather more likely, make up the 8th volume of this series given that it is actually novel length.
Swords against the Shadowland was supposed to be the first of the novels to continue the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but as of yet it is the only novel to have come out.
The story itself is apparently a direct sequel to Ill-Met in Lankhmar meaning it would slot rather neatly between the first and second novel, though there's apparently some overlap with The Circle Curse short story, the first story in Swords Against Death.


Here are the two available volumes together.


Yes, I've taken enough pictures again.


The artwork this time around, is from the hand of Dominick Saponaro, and it's pretty good,
though for some reason Fafhrd comes without his ever-present beard (though I do seem to remember him losing it at one point. Shaving it off for one girl or another, the faithless bastard.) and the Mouser ends up being rather a lot prettier than I ever envisioned him.

What? A man can call another man pretty without making it weird, can't he?
No, I'm not making it weird. You are the one making it weird.


The embossing is wonderful again.


More minimalistic, and in my opinion slightly better than that of the first volume.
I noticed the embossing doesn't match the cover art, which is fine.

Blue reading ribbon. Which is slightly odd as volume 1 had a purple ribbon and blue-ish cover art, and this volume has a blue ribbon and purple cover art.
Again, odd, though it would be a neat trick if we could keep jumping between the two colours for the rest of the series. But then again, that'd be boring maybe?


If that sight doesn't give you tingles, you don't give a damn about books.
Centipede Press delivers yet again.


Swaying wheat; I'd say from Sheelba of the Eyeless Face's swamp?


And the crystal skull glass returns, 
this time doing its best to hide the fact that the book comes with an introduction that foolishly tries to compare Leiber's heroes to Tolkien's work.

I say foolish, because... really, why bother? Comparisons to Tolkien have become trite at this point. We can enjoy one without comparing to the other, no?
Lankhmar might not be as widely known as Middle-Earth, but once visited you'll likely not run the risk of confusing them. I don't know. Maybe it does the trick for new readers, but are new readers likely to pick up collector's editions like these? Leave it out is what I'm saying.
It rankles far out of proportion to how much it even mentions, and I should stop talking about it now.


That is fucking gorgeous.
Dominick Saponaro once again.


Detailed table of contents:
All of the stories of Swords against Death + An introduction Steve Rasnic Trem (Ubo) + and a foreword and introduction by Leiber himself.



Also included are 3 short commentary pieces by Leiber, as himself again.

For the rest we have some more lovely art pieces.


Sheelba, in the house in the swamps, being as usual a conniving bitch, or; a conniving dick, depending on if you'd have asked Harry Fischer or Leiber, respectively.


No idea who these guys are.
A re-read is in order at some point.


Again, a very moody piece of artwork.
Alas, beardless.


Stubble is a beard of sorts, no?




And that concludes it for this volume.







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