Fafhrd the Barbarian and the theif Grey Mouser continue their adventures in their quest for treasure, booze and pretty girls.

As with the other books in this collection, this one has a forward. In this case it's Neil Gaiman, recollecting his childhood encounters with the dynamic duo.

This book opens with the novella 'The Swords of Lankhmar'. Here the two are hired to investigate why ships are going missing. Their marine adventures cause them to get embroiled in an attempted rodent coup in Lankhmar. The following short stories also follow up the the events in this story.

As their adventures have gone along Leiber's writing just gets better. The influence on Pratchett's deritive Discworld series is obvious. And Leiber now makes space for self mockery; comaparing the grim reaper's ability to just use magic to kill people as a cheesy deus ex machine only used by hack writers, for example.

If you like heroic and humerous fantasy you have to read this. 'Nuff said.