The seven books in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series — five short story collections and two novels — although theoretically chronological, are to a very great extent interchangeable. The mood may vary from story to story and the later works are written with more polish than the earlier ones, but everything in the series is at least readable.

Two works, however stand out. Strongly plotted and rather sexy, The Swords of Lankhmar (1968), it can be argued, is one of the two or three finest swordand-sorcery novels ever written. Equally good is the Hugo and Nebula Award winning novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar," one of the finest exercises in pure language that the fantasy field has ever produced.

Titles in the series include The Swords of Lankhmar, 1968, novel; Swords Against Wizardry, 1968, short stories; Swords in the Mist, 1968, short stories; Two Sought Adventure, 1957, revised and expanded as...