03-12-2007, 02:12 PM | #1 |
EIDRIORCQWSDAKLMED
DCWWTIWOATTOPWFIO Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Littleton, CO
Posts: 1,176
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Fritz Leiber
Going through more of the old authors who are seeing a bit of a Renaissance:
Fritz Leiber and his "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" series. "Swords and Deviltry" has been reissued, and I do recommend the series. Kind of a tale of two run-of-the-mill fellows in a medieval type fantasy world. No royal intrigue, no competing powers and fulfillments of ancient prophecies. Fafhrd and Grey Mouser just live their lives in the City of a Thousand Smokes, stealing or renting out their services as they just try to get by. The fact that no magical weapon or long-lost heir to the throne was involved made the books rather refreshing when I read them back in the 70s. I'm glad to see that Fritz' works are making a comeback.
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"...[The Lord of the Rings] is to exemplify most clearly a recurrent theme: the place in 'world politics' of the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts of will, and deeds of virtue of the apparently small, ungreat, fogotten in the places of the Wise and Great (good as well as evil). A moral of the whole (after the primary symbolism of the Ring, as the will to mere power, seeking to make itself objective by physical force and mechanism, and so also inevitably by lies) is the obvious one that without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless." Letters of JRR Tolkien, page 160. |
03-12-2007, 02:25 PM | #2 |
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Reality
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He was a favorite back in my early school years. I'll have to pick up a copy, as it has been ages since I read them.
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03-12-2007, 02:38 PM | #3 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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Hm, I think I've actually read some of this. Did those two characters also feature in one or two short stories? I think I've come across one or two in fantasy anthologies.
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03-26-2007, 10:59 AM | #4 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ilha Formosa
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That's Gray Mouser, thank you very much- Leiber was American.
My favourites, obviously. There are enough short stories to fill six volumes, plus one novel. The time frame is more Hellenistic than medieval, I think- the one story set in our world was in Alexandrian times. More light-hearted than Conan, way more cynical than Tolkien, and like everything Leiber wrote, always some kinky sex. What's not to like?
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04-25-2007, 11:35 PM | #5 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: St. Louis, Mo. USA
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A good read by my account...just great stories...find them and read them!
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