Post by Shelby on Nov 5, 2021 18:26:49 GMT -8
Posted a review on Goodreads and thought I'd share it here directly too. It's of the Seventh Volume of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, The Knight and Knave of Swords.
I just finished another re-read of this series, and I’m currently steeped in the lives of our adventurous pair. Leiber’s influence on genre literature cannot be denied, nor his overwhelming influence on Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy role-playing games (arguably moreso than that creator of hobbits, JRRT). He was loved and praised, and lived a long life as a prolific writer.
Fafhrd and the Mouser’s adventures are outlandish and fun. They face tragedy and danger with equal aplomb. Their personalities are writ large. Leiber’s style is well-crafted and artistic, a delight in a sea of sameness. We’re very fortunate that he was able to gather all of these various stories and assemble them into a series of volumes with connective matter to make a cohesive account of the pair’s adventures.
It’s a surprise reading some of the opinions posted about this particular collection, and I take exception to the criticism I’ve seen here.
Allow me to address your comments relating to Leiber’s age. Try growing older. When you get there, look back. You’ll see that you’re pretty much still the same person you were when you were twenty years old. Your body may have aged, but you’re the same within. Essentially. Sure, you may have picked up a longer perspective, you may have mellowed. But the same person. So why is it that a young person and an older person can write about the same things, the same topics, and describe the same events, but the older writer is regarded negatively while the younger is accepted? Anne Rice was a middle-aged woman writing erotic fantasy and she was lauded. The same for Tanith Lee. Fritz Leiber was an older man writing erotic fantasy and you lambaste him for it. That’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.
There are also comments here about Fafhrd and the Mouser having grown old, wearying of adventure like old men, and ready to settle down into domesticity and even implied dotterage! How old do you really think they are in this book? My thought is about forty. Is that old? Ready for retirement? Out to pasture? I don’t know what book you all just read, but the one I read has them taking on all comers as they always have. Just because most of their adventures take place in one location, and they’ve been there for a year or two, doesn’t make them sedentary. They spent years living in Lankhmar after all. Were they stodgy and set in their ways there, or were they adventurers? Ahem.
And finally some folks think Leiber’s writing in this volume isn’t comparable to what came before. From where I’m sitting, this writing is just as playful, and just as full of wonder, as always. Perhaps you’re struggling with the changes in structure between writing a short story for a periodical, and having the freedom to write a novella. I find plenty of exotic concepts woven throughout this volume, and I’m grateful to have access to this work by a Grand Master (the actual award, not my words).
You’re entitled to an opinion, but we’re entitled to consider the source. When you have the reputation Leiber does, we might lend your opinion more credence.
I just finished another re-read of this series, and I’m currently steeped in the lives of our adventurous pair. Leiber’s influence on genre literature cannot be denied, nor his overwhelming influence on Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy role-playing games (arguably moreso than that creator of hobbits, JRRT). He was loved and praised, and lived a long life as a prolific writer.
Fafhrd and the Mouser’s adventures are outlandish and fun. They face tragedy and danger with equal aplomb. Their personalities are writ large. Leiber’s style is well-crafted and artistic, a delight in a sea of sameness. We’re very fortunate that he was able to gather all of these various stories and assemble them into a series of volumes with connective matter to make a cohesive account of the pair’s adventures.
It’s a surprise reading some of the opinions posted about this particular collection, and I take exception to the criticism I’ve seen here.
Allow me to address your comments relating to Leiber’s age. Try growing older. When you get there, look back. You’ll see that you’re pretty much still the same person you were when you were twenty years old. Your body may have aged, but you’re the same within. Essentially. Sure, you may have picked up a longer perspective, you may have mellowed. But the same person. So why is it that a young person and an older person can write about the same things, the same topics, and describe the same events, but the older writer is regarded negatively while the younger is accepted? Anne Rice was a middle-aged woman writing erotic fantasy and she was lauded. The same for Tanith Lee. Fritz Leiber was an older man writing erotic fantasy and you lambaste him for it. That’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.
There are also comments here about Fafhrd and the Mouser having grown old, wearying of adventure like old men, and ready to settle down into domesticity and even implied dotterage! How old do you really think they are in this book? My thought is about forty. Is that old? Ready for retirement? Out to pasture? I don’t know what book you all just read, but the one I read has them taking on all comers as they always have. Just because most of their adventures take place in one location, and they’ve been there for a year or two, doesn’t make them sedentary. They spent years living in Lankhmar after all. Were they stodgy and set in their ways there, or were they adventurers? Ahem.
And finally some folks think Leiber’s writing in this volume isn’t comparable to what came before. From where I’m sitting, this writing is just as playful, and just as full of wonder, as always. Perhaps you’re struggling with the changes in structure between writing a short story for a periodical, and having the freedom to write a novella. I find plenty of exotic concepts woven throughout this volume, and I’m grateful to have access to this work by a Grand Master (the actual award, not my words).
You’re entitled to an opinion, but we’re entitled to consider the source. When you have the reputation Leiber does, we might lend your opinion more credence.