STEVE CARROLL WRITES

I   have been aware of the tales of Fritz Leiber’s towering barbarian Fafhrd and   his diminutive companion, the thief known as The Gray Mouser, since my   earliest   flirtations with the Sword and Sorcery genre going back into my mid-teens. For   whatever reason though, I never read them back then, opting   instead for Robert   E. Howard’s Conan stories and their many (and typically inferior) pastiche   imitators. In retrospect, I am glad that is the case, as I never   would have   appreciated these stories as a teenager as much as I do now as a seasoned adult   reader.  My first foray into the tales of Lankhmar—the   mythical land where the   stories transpire—comes courtesy of the fourth collection of adventures,  Swords Against Wizardry . These three   stories and one   novella all feature a world-weary, lived-in quality that makes   Lankhmar seem quite tangible. Supernatural elements and magic...