Keeper of the Children by William H. Hallahan.

Eddie Benson is a typical middle-class father with a secure job, a home in suburban Philadelphia, and a seemingly happy family. For Benson life holds no fear or terror.

Then something unusual happens. One day his daughter, Renni, a normal, fun-loving fourteen-year-old, disappears. Soon after, Eddie finds her wandering the streets of Philadelphia with a band of children. Dressed in orange robes, they bear drums and tambourines and cymbals. Moving through the crowds, they dance and sing and proffer metal bowls for coins. The children refuse to return to their homes. The youngsters, their parents have learned, are living with a mysterious Tibetan monk with strange, otherworldly powers.

What follows is a series of bone-chilling incidents, each more violent than the last, all inexplicable. Only Eddie Benson will not abandon hope. And to rescue his child, Eddie must run a terrible risk, one that could cost him his life and his soul. What Eddie Benson finally decides to do brings this novel to a stunning denouement. Eddie must become engaged in an extraordinary combat, battle that no other human has ever fought before. For all of us, his act is the ultimate act of courage.

William H. Hallahan (1925-2018) was an American author, raised in Brooklyn. He served three years in the United States Navy, then attended Temple University in Philadelphia where he obtained degrees in journalism and English.

The Search for Joseph Tully by William H. Hallahan.

This superb and atmospheric novel, first published in 1974 to widespread critical acclaim, is a harrowing story of revenge, alienation, genealogy, history, and the occult. Set in an isolated apartment complex targeted for destruction in a gloomy section of Brooklyn, it is one of the finest horror novels ever written, drenched with superbly drawn characters, symbolism and fear right up to its shocking finale.

With a new introduction by T.M. Wright and a new afterword by the author. Each of the 300 copies is signed by William H. Hallahan and T.M. Wright.

William H. Hallahan (1925-2018) was an American author, raised in Brooklyn. He served three years in the United States Navy, then attended Temple University in Philadelphia where he obtained degrees in journalism and English.

Hjortsberg, William - Falling Angel and Angel’s Inferno

A spellbinding novel of murder, mystery, and the occult, 'Falling Angel' pits a tough New York private eye against the most fearsome adversary a detective ever faced. For Harry Angel, a routine missing-persons case soon turns into a fiendish nightmare of voodoo and black magic, of dizzying peril and violent death. Many people feel that 'Falling Angel' is the greatest American supernatural horror novel of the 20th century.

This new edition has an afterword by William Hjortsberg, the original letter from 1978 by Stephen King, an artwork gallery by Alessandro Boni, and two essays by William Hjortsberg’s friends, with photographs. This box set also features 'Angel’s Inferno', the long-awaited sequel to 'Falling Angel'!

How does Harry Angel escape policy custody? And what compels him to travel to France, start a torrid love affair with another Satanist, and discover the corruption hidden deep in Rome, where a new Satanic majesty awaits? The exploits of Harry Angel are carried an additional 450 pages to a shattering finale.

This marks the first publication ever of William Hjortsberg’s last novel. With both volumes sporting new wraparound dustjacket, endpapers, and title page illustrations by renowned artist Ricardo Martinez, and the books containing archival artwork and other bonus items, as well as essays and photographs of the author

Limited to 500 copies, each signed by Ricardo Martinez and Alessandro Boni, a William Hjortsberg facsimile signature, and various demons and devils.

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

“Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary.”

The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place—a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose—to serve in the name of the One True Faith.

In one of the Sanctuary’s vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old—he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die.

His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt.

But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price... not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.

The Book of the Kranzedan by Michael Hutter

In the 33 short stories collected in this richly illustrated book by the German artist Michael Hutter, the Kranzedan encounters churlish dustbin men, unkempt fairground women, a bearded man of unfathomable malice and many other dubious characters.

He loses himself by the sight of the beautiful tanks in an eerie aquarium store and on the search for the Museum of Extra-terrestrial Cultures, may unveil the eldritch secrets of a chubby neighbor woman and plays a suspicious role in a wedding tragedy. These and many other weird incidents are told and none of the tales has a happy ending.

Nightmares meet dark fairy tales meet cosmic horror, in these 33 grotesques, all expressing the authors conviction that there is something fundamentally wrong with our world.

This is an unusual book of artwork and small stories that conjures the spirit of Clark Ashton Smith and Max Ernst

Centipede Press unsigned first edition hardcover

Frank Herbert:

Dune

Few people have aggravated as many major film studios as author Frank Herbert.

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

This new edition of Dune  from Centipede Press features over a dozen new color illustrations by Mark Molnar, along with a new fold out map, a gallery of character portraits, illustrated endpapers, a double-sided dustjacket, Nabuka Prestige cloth, ribbon marker, top-edge stain, head and tail bands, inset image on front board, with all of it wrapped up in a custom capped slipcase.

Signed by Brian Herbert, Michael Swanwick, and Mark Molnar, with a family approved facsimile signature by Frank Herbert.

500 signed copies and 250 unsigned copies.

Printed on Mohawk Superfine.

Printed endpapers.

Capped, stamped slipcase.

Folded map.

Book size 7¼ × 11 inches.

James Herbert:

Shirley Jackson:

Alligator by Shelley Katz

In the swamplands of Everglades City, gator hunting is considered sport, akin to bear trapping or deer tracking. It’s all in good fun. That is, until the swamplands cough up a couple of eviscerated bodies. Then it’s no longer sport. It’s called revenge. And the vultures come parading in, bringing with them Rye Whitman.

Rye is as shrewd as they come, serving his company as a president with a winner-take-all attitude. But he also makes Jordan Belfort look like Pope Francis of Assisi. He possesses a short fuse and zero care for those who don’t bend to his will. Simply put, he gets what he wants.

So when word spreads to Miami that a ferocious, elephantine alligator is roaming the local swamplands, Rye isn’t going to allow this potential trophy to slip through his fingers. And with Everglades City as his hometown, he’ll be damned if anyone is going to take a bite out of that gator before him. However, without a skilled guide to navigate the dense, murky swamps, Rye is as good as gator bait.

Local Lee Ferris is the best there is even if his finances have left him up the creek without a paddle. So this job may be the break he needs to steady his ship. But even he knows that accepting Rye’s offer is like making a deal with the devil, for the alligator may be the least of his worries.

Shelley Katz’s Alligator is to downhome, southern hospitality as Jaws is to northern beachfront nobility. It’ll rip you from the comforts of home, cozied up next to the fireplace, and drop you into the sludgy marshes of Everglades City, Florida. It’s a world of Wild Turkey bourbon, Winchester rifles, and swamp cowboys riding airboats by the seat of their wading pants. A sudden hurricane or bear attack is just around the corner. But if you’re lucky enough, they may spare you for the alligator’s main course.

Though, for all the bubbling mire on its surface, Alligator is a work that manages to defy the typical monster thriller. It questions who the real monster is: the hunted or the hunter? Perhaps the alligator is only an enemy of man because man is his enemy. And we all know that man can be his own worst enemy…or even the worst monster.

Alligator proves that even sensationalized monster stories have an appetite for revelations. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pack your rifle for the ride. That gator is real, and he only has eyes for blood.

“ Think Like a Dinosaur ”  takes us on a troubling, sometimes terrifying interstellar journey, as we track a young woman’ s transformation into an alien life-form, with some unexpected results.  “ The Last Judgment ”  is a startlingly original meld of noir and cyberpunk, as a tough private eye gets embroiled in a world dominated by a race of robots. Kelly also adds some murderous extra-terrestrials to the mix. In  “ Ten To The Sixteenth To One, ”  it ’ s 1962, and a young science fiction fan is shoring up his mundane world with comic books and pulp magazines  —  until he ’ s visited by a creature that will alter the fate of the human race.

In  “ Going Deep, ” Kelly explores teen-age rebellion in outer space, with a compelling, complex, and cloned heroine whose talent for mind-melds makes texting look antiquated. “ Mr. Boy ” is Peter Cage, who’ s been surgically altered to remain forever young. Ever wish you were twelve years old again? Eternal youth isn’ t all it ’s cracked up to be.

James Patrick Kelly has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards; his fiction has been translated into twenty-two languages. He writes a column on the internet for Asimov ’ s Science Fiction Magazine and is on the faculty of the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.  

Centipede Press - First Edition Hardcover

James Patrick Kelly - Masters of Science Fiction

James Patrick Kelly is much more than an award-winning author. He’s an SF visionary. His writing has redefined the cyberpunk genre, with a uniquely edgy, outr é  style. This book is a literal treasure trove of Kelly’s most memorable stories and novellas. Here you’ ll see classic science fiction blended with New Age technology  —  and an unparalleled understanding of human psychology.

Kiernan, Caitlin R. - Houses Under the Sea

Since H.P. Lovecraft first invited colleagues such as Frank Belknap Long and Robert Bloch (among others) to join in his creation of what has come to be known as  “ The Cthulhu Mythos ”  (over Lovecraft ’ s less invocative name of  “ Yog-Sothery ” ), dozens of authors have tried their hand at adding to this vast tapestry with varying degrees of success.

Some, like the then teen-aged Ramsey Campbell, used the Mythos as a starting point to his own career while still finding his own authorial voice (The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Arkham House 1964); others, like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, did so at the height of their careers, paying homage to an author who had been such a tremendous inspiration to them. But no one, absolutely no one, has contributed such a body of brilliant and profoundly original work to the Mythos as has Caitlín R. Kiernan.

The stories are fully illustrated with over 30 new full page illustrations by Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke. The full wraparound dustjacket and frontispiece are by Piotr Jablonski.

In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s  “ Valentian ”  to her more recent classic  “ A Mountain Walked ”  as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story,  “ M Is for Mars. ”  In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike.

This edition is limited to 500 signed copies, each signed by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, S.T. Joshi, and the artists: Piotr Jablonski, Richard A. Kirk, John Kenn Mortensen, and Vince Locke.  

Oversize at 6 ½   ×  11 inches. 552 pages

Caitlín R. Kiernan:

Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) is regarded as one of the fathers of sword and sorcery fantasy, having in fact coined the term. He excelled in all fields of speculative fiction, writing award-winning work in fantasy, horror, and science fiction.  His legacy has been consolidated by the most famous of his creations, the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, written over a span of 60 years. They are concerned with an unlikely pair of heroes found in and around the city of Lankhmar. Fafhrd was based on Leiber himself and the Mouser on his friend Harry Otto Fischer, and the two characters were created in a series of letters exchanged by the two in the mid-1930s.

The stories were influential in shaping the genre and were influential on other works. Numerous writers have paid homage to the stories. For instance, Terry Pratchett's city of Ankh-Morpork bears something more than a passing resemblance to Lankhmar (acknowledged by Pratchett by the placing of the swordsman-thief "The Weasel" and his giant barbarian comrade "Bravd" in the opening scenes of the first Discworld novel).    

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Series:

Swords and Deviltry published by Centipede Press

Features five color interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, full color wraparound dustjacket, and custom illustrated endpapers.

The introduction is by Michael Moorcock. The book includes all of the stories that make up Swords and Deviltry along with two archival essays by Harry O. Fischer, Fritz Leiber’s 1973 introduction, two “Gray Mouser” poems from The Acolyte, and an interview with Fritz Leiber from 1979.

DJ by Tom Kidd

Signed/Limited

With this volume what really sets the tone for the entire series is that we learn much more about the duo’s supernatural mentors, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes.

This book features an introduction by Steve Rasnic Tem and artwork by Dominick Saponaro. It features five interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, full color wraparound dustjacket, and custom illustrated endpapers.

The book includes all of the stories that make up Swords Against Death along with Fritz Leiber’s introduction to Bazaar of the Bizarre, some movie notes by Fritz Leiber, and a rare bonus essay, “Lankhmar and Lands Around.”

The second book in the series, Swords Against Death, features work produced over a thirty-year period, including five classic novelettes of the genre that show Leiber’s progression from excellent to perhaps the very best that the field has ever produced. These five novelettes are ably bolstered by five terrific short stories, demonstrating Leiber’s ability to excel at any length.

For bonus materials, we have a rare photograph of Fritz Leiber, plus Leiber’s introduction from Night’s Black Agents, an essay by Fritz Leiber called “H.P. Lovecraft meets Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser,” some story fragments and a “Few Fafhrd & Gray Mouser Firsts,” and H.P. Lovecraft’s letters to Fritz Leiber regarding “Adept’s Gambit.”

This book features an introduction by Tim Powers and artwork by Grant Griffin. It features six color interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, full color wraparound dustjacket, and custom illustrated endpapers.

The book includes all of the stories that make up Swords in the Mist along with the bonus material mentioned above.

The third book in the series, Swords in the Mist, includes “The Cloud of Hate,” “Lean Times in Lankhmar,” “Their Mistress, The Sea,” “When the Sea-King’s Away,” “The Wrong Branch,” and “Adept’s Gambit.”

This book features an introduction by John Pelan and artwork by Jim & Ruth Keegan. It is signed by both of them and also has a family-approved facsimile signature by Fritz Leiber.

It features four color interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, full color wraparound dustjacket, several black & white interior illustrations, and custom illustrated endpapers.

The book includes all of the stories that make up Swords Against Wizardry along with the bonus material mentioned above.

The fourth book in the series, 'Swords Against Wizardry', includes “In the Witch’s Tent,” “Stardock,” “The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar,” and “The Lords of Quarmall.” In addition, there is a lengthy biographical piece, “Fafhrd & Me” by Fritz Leiber, three other short essays by Fritz Leiber, plus Leiber’s obituaries of the Fischers, two essays by Harry O. Fischer (including the rare “The Original Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser,” another essay by Franklin C. MacKnight (“The Formative Years of Fafhrd and the Mouser”) and an interview with Fritz Leiber by Darrell Schweitzer from the First World Fantasy Convention, Providence, Rhode Island, on November 1, 1975! Holy smoke!

Fafhrd and the Mouser 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. With 'Swords Against Wizardry', the story unfolds behind the curtain in the Witch’s Tent. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are there to consult a sorceress who holds the secret to their escape, but when would they ever need to escape? Would they need this knowledge when they journey to Stardock? Where is there to escape up there? No doubt the icy seduction of “the cruel one,” with her greed for both gore and graciousness, could offer them several ways out. Their luck has been good so far; one way out should work. Their luck continues as thieves. They are the best thieves in Lankhmar until better positions arise: the Lords of Quarmall. Gray Mouser and Fafhrd steal a kingdom within a hill and declare themselves lords.

Fritz Leiber:

The Swords of Lankhmar finds the city characteristically plagued by rats. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are in the employ of Glipkerio, the overlord, to guard a grain ship on its journey. Along the way, the rats onboard stage a rebellion and threaten to take the ship until a two-headed sea monster saves the day. If only there were two-headed sea monsters everywhere, Lankhmar would be safe, too.

Alas, upon returning to the city, the two discover that Lankhmar is controlled by rats. It is a city known for its thieves and swine, but even the city’s muddiest bottom feeders have never seen pillaging and plundering like this. And only the sorcerers Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes can scare this scourge. Mouser must shrink into the rat’s world and Fafhrd must unleash the feared feline War Cats. Then the fun really begins.

Before The Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Leiber’s fantastic but thoroughly flawed antiheroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adventured deep within the caves of Inner Earth, 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.

Book five, The Swords of Lankhmar, has a new introduction by Michael Swanwick and stunning color and duotone artwork by Tyler Jacobson. It is signed by both of them and also has a family-approved facsimile signature by Fritz Leiber.

It features five duotone interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, a full color wraparound dustjacket, and custom illustrated endpapers.

Masters of Science Fiction

Poet, actor, playwright, chess expert, master of fantastic fiction. Fritz Leiber was a true Renaissance Man. His writing crossed all boundaries, from horror to sword and sorcery. This book goes deep into Leiber’s underrated science fiction oeuvre. It’s a comprehensive, page-turning cache that captures Leiber’s thoroughly original style — altogether mystical, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing.

“The Foxholes of Mars” is a literary assault: a frightening, nitro-fueled tale of war on Mars, with one soldier questioning the futility and purpose of the battle against bug-eyed aliens — a distant mirror-image of our own times. “Space-Time for Springers” is told through the glaring eyes of Gummitch, a cat who happens to possess a genius IQ and a voracious appetite for scientific knowledge.

“Night Passage” takes us on a dark journey into a Las Vegas where Earthlings and extra-terrestrials mingle and gamble — and where one man takes a moonlit ride with a mystery woman from Mercury, tailed by some very scary pursuers.  

The literally chilling “A Pail of Air” takes place in an underground nest, where a family fights to survive in a sunless, moonless, post-apocalyptic world where even helium and carbon dioxide become crawling, shapeless threats.

Fritz Leiber was a storyteller and prophet for the ages. His work will never be dated or irrelevant. Treat this book like a crystal ball. These pages chronicle the world to come. You’ve been warned.

Centipede Press, Hardcover First Edition.

I’ll See You In Hell by John McPartland

Centipede Press classic crime is back! This legendary, fast-paced novel by John McPartland features one of the best villains in noir fiction, deputy sherrif Merl McKinstry, with our hero, Lee Farr, cast in absolutely hopeless situations.

This new edition of 'I’ll See You In Hell' features a new introduction by Duane Swierczynski, and a short bonus novella: “Step Down to Terror,” seeing its first-ever reprint since its original publication in Argosy in 1954, and the first time it has ever been reprinted in book form.

Combined with cover art by John Tedrick and a gorgeous frontispiece by renowned artist Enric Torres-Prat, this new edition of 'I’ll See You' In Hell is essential noir reading.

Perhaps just as important, this publication of 'I’ll See You In Hell' marks its first-ever hardcover appearance!

New introduction by Duane Swierczynski.

Signed by Duane Swierczynski and cover artist John Tedrick.

Frontispiece artwork by Enric Torres-Prat.

In 1932, Merrit set out to prove that he could master the field of supernatural horror, as well. His first foray in the occult, Burn, Witch, Burn! first appeared in the pages of Argosy magazine in 1932, and was then expanded into book form the following year.

In it, we meet Dr. Lowell, an eminent neurologist who becomes curious when a series of mysterious deaths comes to his attention. Men and women in the NYC area have been dying of no apparent cause, but with horrible grimaces on their faces and with very rapid onsets of rigor mortis. Lowell is aided in his investigation by Ricori, a mobster chieftain, as well as by Ricori’s very efficient gang. The trail of bizarre deaths leads to one Madame Mandilip and her doll shop, and before long the reader is immersed in a world of supernaturalism and escalating tension. Lowell, hardheaded man of the 20th century, is hard put to explain the unfolding creepy events by the lights of his mundane science.

Burn, Witch, Burn! is a gripping tale of science and superstition. Aficionados of early 20th century fantasy, horror, and weird fiction are sure to enjoy it.

Writing under the byline of A. Merritt, Abraham Grace Merritt (1884Ð1943) was an American journalist, editor, and author of fantasy. A writer’s writer, Merritt’s literary admirers are many. H.P. Lovecraft called him “a real genius in the weird.” Robert Bloch and Karl Edward Wagner likewise esteemed his work, in particular Burn, Witch, Burn!, which they both judged among the best horror stories ever written.

This new edition of Burn, Witch, Burn! has new dustjacket and frontispiece art by Dan Rempel, and also includes the Virgil Finlay artwork as well. It features a new introduction by James Maliszewski, and two short essays by A. Merritt.

That swashbuckling, debonair duo, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, are back at it again in Swords and Ice Magic, indulging in their vices while evading their mortal enemies and scoffing at the Gods. All in a day’s work for these strapping lads who are only too cavalier to check their six when a token wench walks past. Age may be catching up with them, making the tides of war give way to calmer waters. But that doesn’t mean they still don’t have a trick up their leather bootstraps.

Enter the fray and join in their exploits as they: outwit the eternal clutches of Death in cheeky style (and on more than one occasion!), pontificate their existence while confined to their faithful ship at sea, and defy the frigid monsters of Frost Monstreme after heeding the call from none other than two distressed warrior women.

Watch as the pair are aided by their sorcerer mentors, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, who prevent their dried-out bodies from populating the barren desert lands of Nehwon. And visit them making amends with the people of Rime Isle, who they swore to save from a throng of Sea Mingols.

No extreme heat, godly ice bath, or societal upheaval is powerful enough to keep them from acting out their escapades and collecting the priceless booty vowed to them at the end of a long-fought journey.

With Fritz Lieber’s Swords and Ice Magic, readers will be regaled by the infusion of magick, mirth, marauding, and enough steely envy to upset even the Gods. And with language and action that harks back to a time of antiquity and romanticism not unlike a Greek comedy, you won’t soon be disappointed by the ride you’ve embarked on. Not while Fafhrd takes the drink orders and Gray Mouser toasts to victory.

The sixth book in the series, Swords and Ice Magic, includes “The Sadness of the Executioner,” “Beauty and the Beasts,” “Trapped in the Shadowland,” “The Bait,” “Under the Thumbs of the Gods,” “Trapped in the Sea of Stars,” “The Frost Monstreme,” and “Rime Isle.”

Bonus materials include three interviews: by Darrell Schweitzer from Philcon, 1990; by Eric M. Heideman, Rodger Gerberding, and Terry A. Garey from the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota on March 25, 1989; and by Robert P. Barger for his Fafhrd & Gray Mouser fanzine, The Silver Eel (1978). Plus, there’s one discussion by uncredited with Fritz Lieber in addition to two essays by Fritz Leiber (“Weird and Wonderful” and “Monsters & Monster Lovers”).

That swashbuckling, debonair duo, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, are back at it again in The Knight and Knave of Swords, indulging in their vices while evading their mortal enemies and scoffing at the Gods. All in a day’s work for these strapping lads who are only too cavalier to check their six when a token wench walks past. Age may be catching up with them, making the tides of war give way to calmer waters. But that doesn’t mean they still don’t have a trick up their leather bootstraps.

After their adventures in Swords and Ice Magic, Fafhrd the barbarian and Gray Mouser the thief remain on Rime Isle with their loves, seeking lives of respectability and peace. Fafhrd works to regain his archery skills after losing his left hand to Odin in battle. Meanwhile, the Gray Mouser embarks on a trading expedition aboard the ship Seahawk. But their respite will soon come to an end — for on the world of Nehwon, a brother and sister plot to regain the treasures stolen from them by the pirates of Rime Isle. Soon Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, alone and together, are plagued by dreams and curses that will force them to confront the vengeful siblings, destructive temptations, sea demons, and ancient obsessions.

Master manipulator Fritz Leiber is a worldwide legend within the fantasy genre, actually having coined the term sword and sorcery that would describe the subgenre he would more than help create.

The seventh book in the series, The Knight and Knave of Swords, includes “Sea Magic,” “The Mer She,” “The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars,” “The Mouser Goes Below,” and four short bonus items.

This book features an introduction by Marc Laidlaw and artwork by Tim Kirk. It is signed by both of them and also has a family-approved facsimile signature by Fritz Leiber. It features seven interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, two maps, a full color wraparound dustjacket, and illustrated endpapers.