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.

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.

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.