Fritz Leiber

What if half the world's population (the female half) practiced witchcraft and kept it a secret from men? Norman Saylor, a professor of ethnology, discovers his wife Tansy has put his research in the field of "Negro Conjure Magic" into practice for the sake of protecting him from other spell-casting faculty wives who wish to further their own husbands careers. A man of science, Norman has only an academic interest in the subject of magic and superstition and forces Tansy to cease all her workings and to burn all her charms. As soon as Norman burns the last charm, things start to fall apart. He has a run-in with a former student, his student-secretary accuses him of having seduced her, and he is passed over for a promotion that had seemed certain. Norman begins to have more than his fair share of small accidents: cutting himself while shaving, stepping on carpet tacks, cutting his hand with a letter opener, and more. He begins to imagine that there is a dark presence exploiting his fear of trucks. Tansy takes his curse upon herself forcing him to overcome his disbelief and use witchcraft to save his wife's body-and her soul. Originally published in 1953, Conjure Wife is considered a modern classic of horror-fantasy and has been adapted for film three times: 'Burn, Witch Burn' (1962); 'Weird Woman' (1944); and 'Witch's Brew' (1980). Yet another film remake is in the works.

Quiso la fatalidad que Fafhrd, un corpulento bárbaro norteño, y el habilidoso Ratonero Gris (que aún no era el Ratonero, sino un mero Ratón) coincidieran en las calles de la decadente y seductora Lankhmar. Sellaron su amistad en las tabernas, y la búsqueda de nuevos horizontes los hermanó en peripecias sin cuento. Se toparon con los adversarios más temibles, las muchachas más deliciosas y los hechiceros más diabólicos, así como con bestias sobrenaturales y auténticos demonios. Juntos recorrieron las tierras maravillosas de Nehwon y cometieron mil fechorías a ambos lados de los muros de Lankhmar, pero nunca, nunca, nunca trabajaron como mercenarios.

GATHER, DARKNESS! is a science-fiction classic. It tells the story of Armon Jarles, a man on the edge, living amidst the disputes of two rival powers at large in the world. 360 years after a nuclear holocaust ravaged mankind, throwing society back into the dark ages, the world is fraught with chaos and superstition. The new rulers over the masses of humanity are the techno-priests of the Great God, endowed with scientific knowledge lost to the rest of humanity. Jarles, originally of peasant descent, rises to become a priest of the Great God. He knows the gospel propagated by the priests to be a fraud, based on illusion and trickery. Even more offensive to him is the paucity of true believers among the priesthood. One day he rebels against his priestly training and attempts to incite the peasants to rise up and demand freedom, but they are not ready. Jarles is not the only dissenter trying to sabotage and expose the false theocracy of the priesthood witchcraft is slowly gaining strength and support among the populace. about to throw him headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen.

They are the two greatest heroes ever to walk the World of Fafhrd, the giant barbarian warrior from the Cold Waste; and the Gray Mouser, novice wizard, master thief, and swordsman unparalleled. In this one volume, fantasy legend Fritz Leiber takes readers through the first two books of the classic sword-and-sorcery Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death. "Solid entertainment."--Kirkus Reviews.

"Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser faced each other across the two thieves sprawled senseless". So begins the fateful first (well, second...) meeting of two of the most famous heroes of sword-and-sorcery fiction: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The two go on to pursue grand dreams and harrowing adventures, and it all begins in the grand city of Lankhmar, the City of Sevenscore Thousand Smoke. Contents: The Snow Women The Unholy Grail Ill Met in Lankhmar The Circle Curse Jewels in the Forest

Middle-aged San Francisco horror writer Franz Westen is rediscovering ordinary life following a long alcoholic binge. Then one day, peering at his apartment window from atop a nearby hill, he sees a pale brown thing lean out his window…and wave.This encounter sends Westen on a quest through ancient books and modern streets, for the dark forces and paramental entities that thrive amidst the towering skyscrapers of modern urban life…and meanwhile, the entities are also looking for him.A pioneering work of modern urban fantasy, Our Lady of Darkness is perhaps Fritz Leiber’s greatest novel.

Fritz Leiber is one of the great imaginative talents writing fiction today. Ships to the Stars is a collection of six of the stories that have earned him an impressive and well-deserved reputation. It is a book in which you will discover: Elven, the last of the Wild Ones, who carried his entire race in a locket; all the creatures and races from everywhen, parading silently across an infinite desert; and Helen, the girl who was too perfect to be human... and wasn't. You will discover this, and much, much more in Ships to the Stars - all of it fascinating, all of it frighteningly and wonderfully real.

Neil Gaiman Presents: the second book in Fritz Leiber's classic sword-and-sorcery series. In Swords Against Death, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser journey from the ancient city of Lankhmar, searching for a little adventure and debauchery to ease their broken hearts. When a stranger challenges them to find and fight Death on the Bleak Shore, they battle demonic birds, living mountains, and evil monks on the way to their heroic fate. The late Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser launched the sword-and-sorcery genre, and were the inspiration for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Fahrd and the Gray Mouser, master swordsmen, are determined to climb to the summit of Stardock, a dangerously steep mountain, in search of treasure.

For the first time-the story of how the greatest heroes in fantastic literature first met. 'The two thieves had themselves been robbed by two youths, who eyed each other suspiciously over the sprawled, senseless bodies. Fafhrd said: 'Our motives for being here seem identical.' 'Surely, they must be!' the Mouser answered curtly, fiercely eyeing his huge, potential foe. Fafhrd glanced down at the belts and money-pouches of the fallen thieves. Then he looked up at the Mouser with an honest, open, ingenuous smile. 'Sixty-sixty?' he suggested. Thus was born the most improbable relationship in the whole history of swords and sorceries. Contains: 7 • Induction • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1957) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber 11 • The Snow Women • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1970) • novella by Fritz Leiber 91 • The Unholy Grail • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1962) • novelette by Fritz Leiber 123 • Ill Met in Lankhmar • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • (1970) • novella by Fritz Leiber

Contents: · The Sadness of the Executioner · ss Flashing Swords! #1, ed. Lin Carter, Dell, 1973 · Beauty and the Beasts · vi The Book of Fritz Leiber, DAW, 1974 · Trapped in the Shadowland · ss Fantastic Nov ’73 · The Bait · vi Whispers Dec ’73 · Under the Thumbs of the Gods · ss Fantastic Apr ’75 · Trapped in the Sea of Stars · ss The Second Book of Fritz Leiber, DAW, 1975 · The Frost Monstreme · nv Flashing Swords! #3, ed. Lin Carter, Dell, 1976 · Rime Isle · na Cosmos SF&F Magazine May ’77 (+1)

In Swords in the Mist, lean times in Lankhmar force brothers-in-arms Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to part ways. Only after a joust of wits and swords do the friends join together again, stealing the ship the Black Treasurer and sailing round and through The Claws. Fighting sea kings, curses and seven-eyed wizards, the pair set out on their heroic wanderings through the wilds of Nehwon. The late Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser launched the sword-and-sorcery genre, and were the inspiration for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning series of swords and sorcery, featuring two unorthodox heroes, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.   Many decades before George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, Grand Master Fritz Leiber ruled the sword-and-sorcery universe. These three short story collections chronicle the unconventional adventures of Leiber’s endearing barbarian Fafhrd and former wizard’s apprentice, the Gray Mouser.  Swords and Deviltry: Fafhrd, a handsome barbarian of the Steppes, is seduced by a beautiful prostitute and her equally intoxicating city, while the Gray Mouser, a slum rat wizard-in-training, is tempted by the dark arts. The two men meet on a night of multiple thieveries and an enduring partnership is born.  Swords Against Death: Rogue swordsmen and devoted companions Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pursue ill-gotten fortunes within the confines of Lankhmar. They cross paths with two wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, and a most violent clash ensues. Eventually, following further adventures, the two antiheroes end up as indentured swordsman servants to their former foes.  Swords in the Mist: A cloud of concentrated hatred and lean times in Lankhmar compels Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to temporarily depart the most corrupt metropolis in all of Nehwon as they seek adventure in the realm of the Sea-King—and on a different world entirely.   This must-read collection of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser short stories features multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated tales, and includes the acclaimed novella Ill Met in Lankhmar.

Have you ever worried about your memory, because it doesn't seem to recall exactly the same past from one day to the next? Have you ever thought that the whole universe might be a crazy, mixed-up dream? If you have, then you've had hints of the Change War. It's been going on for a billion years and it will last another billion or so. Up and down the timeline, the two sides--"Spiders" and "Snakes"--battle endlessly to change the future and the past. Our lives, our memories, are their battleground. And in the midst of the war is the Place, outside space and time, where Greta Forzane and the other Entertainers provide solace and r-&-r for tired time warriors.

From the moment when they first met, in the commission of the same, audacious theft, Fafhrd, the giant barbarian warrior from the Cold Waste, and the Gray Mouser, master thief, novice wizard and expert swordsman, felt no ordinary affinity. Forged over the gleam of sharpened steel as, back to back, they faced their foes, theirs was a friendship that would take them from adventure to misadventure across all of Nehwon, from the caves of the inner earth to the waves of the outer sea. But it was in the dark alleys and noisome back streets of the great fog-shrouded city of Lankhmar that they became legends. The First Book of Lankhmar includes the first four volumes of the hugely enjoyable Swords series.

Ramsey Campbell, the highly regarded British horror author, called him: "the greatest living writer of supernatural horror fiction". Drawing many of his own themes from Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, master manipulator Franz Leiber is a worldwide legend within the Fantasy genre, actually coining the term "Sword and Sorcery", which would describe the sub-genre he would more than help create. While Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Leiber's fantastic but thoroughly flawed anti-heroes, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, adventured and stumbled deep within the caves of Inner Earth as well, 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. Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery. "Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are virtually a genre unto themselves. Urbane, idiosyncratic, comic, erotic and human, spiked with believable action of a master fantasist!" - William Gibson "After too long a wait, the master story teller of us all returns with a huge, anecdotal adventure in the magic-drenched lives of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Glowing imagination melds with gorgeous language to make this one of Leiber's very best... which is a better best than this poor world usually has to offer. Leiber's back: rejoice!" - Harlan Ellison "It's all Fritz Leiber's fault. If he weren't such a deadly fine fantasist I wouldn't be stopping everything to read his tales. And if he weren't such a master I wouldn't occasionally look out of the window and wish he'd interrupt my routine again, as he doesn't do it often enough. The Knight and Knave of Swords came into my life and took over an otherwise fully programmed afternoon. I stop everything when a new Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story comes into my hands." - Roger Zelazny Contents: 9 · Sea Magic · ss The Dragon, December 1977 29 · The Mer She · nv Heroes & Horrors, Whispers Press, 1978 63 · The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars · na Heroic Visions, ed. Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Ace, 1983 117 · The Mouser Goes Below · na - portions first printed as “The Mouser Goes Below” (Whispers #23, 1987) and “Slack Lankhmar Afternoon Featuring Hisvet” (Terry’s Universe, ed. Beth Meacham, Tor, 1988)

"They were two desperate scavengers in a no-man's land of radiation and death. Living in a kill or be killed world. Can they fin a new life and hope? A grim, grisly post-apocalypse story."

After their legendary adventures in the northern wastes and beyond, Fafhrd, the giant barbarian warrior, and the Gray Mouser, master thief, novice wizard and expert swordsman, are back home in Lankhmar again, and looking for an easy time. But Lankhmar is under attack from a strange horde of invaders, including a two-headed dragon and an army of miniature wanderers ...Once those threats are seen off, a quest to the farthest reaches of Nehwon is in prospect. And then, in the last book of their adventures, Fafhrd goes sailing through the clouds, and the Mouser takes to the seas, before we finally bid a fond, if sad, farewell to Lankhmar. THE SECOND BOOK OF LANKHMAR includes the last three volumes of the hugely enjoyable series.

A plague of rats overrun Lankhmar, the capitol city and glittering gem of the land of Nehwon. Commissioned to guard a ship of grain from the cursed rodents, brother-in-arms Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover the plague has progressed to a fatal point. Mustering the strength of sorcery, they descend into the depths of Lankhmar and rise to battle in order to save the soul of the ill-fated city.

All eyes were watching the eclipse of the Moon when the Wanderer--a huge, garishly colored artificial world--emerged. Only a few scientists even suspected its presence, and then, suddenly and silently, it arrived, dwarfing and threatening the Moon and wreaking havoc on Earth's tides and weather. Though the Wanderer is stopping in the solar system only to refuel, its mere presence is catastrophic. A tense, thrilling, and towering achievement. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best SF Novel of the Year!

This collection contains ten stories in the "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series, seven originally collected in Swords Against Death, two originally collected in Swords in the Mist, plus "Bazaar of the Bizarre", as follows, with dates of original publication: Thieves' House * Unknown, February 1943 The Bleak Shore * Unknown, November 1940 The Howling Tower * Unknown, June 1941 The Sunken Land * Unknown, February 1942 The Seven Black Priests * Other Worlds, May 1953 Claws from the Night ["Dark Vengeance"] * Suspense, November 1951 The Price of Pain-Ease * ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970 Bazaar of the Bizarre * Fantastic, August 1963 The Cloud of Hate * Fantastic, May 1963 Lean Times in Lankhmar * Fantastic, November 1959