Synopsis

The Swords of Lankhmar finds the city characteristically plagued by rats. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are in the employ of Glipkerio, the overlord, to guard a grain ship on its journey. Along the way, the rats onboard stage a rebellion and threaten to take the ship until a two-headed sea monster saves the day. If only there were two-headed sea monsters everywhere, Lankhmar would be safe, too.
      Alas, upon returning to the city, the two discover that Lankhmar is controlled by rats. It is a city known for its thieves and swine, but even the city’s muddiest bottom feeders have never seen pillaging and plundering like this. And only the sorcerers Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes can scare this scourge. Mouser must shrink into the rat’s world and Fafhrd must unleash the feared feline War Cats. Then the fun really begins.
      Before The Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Leiber’s fantastic but thoroughly flawed antiheroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, adventured deep within the caves of Inner Earth, albeit a different one. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon’s grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar is Leiber’s fully realized, vivid incarnation of urban decay and civilization’s corroding effect on the human psyche.
      As may be expected from Centipede Press, these are archival editions, lavishly illustrated and featuring guest introductions from some of the top writers in the field. Book five, The Swords of Lankhmar, has a new introduction by Michael Swanwick and stunning color and duotone artwork by Tyler Jacobson.

The fifth book in the series, The Swords of Lankhmar, includes two essays on “Sex and the Fantasist,” “The Mouser & Hisvet,” and The Tale of the Grain Ships.”
      This book features an introduction by Michael Swanwick and artwork by Tyler Jacobsen. It is signed by both of them and also has a family-approved facsimile signature by Fritz Leiber. It features five duotone interior illustrations, a full-color frontispiece, a full color wraparound dustjacket, and custom illustrated endpapers.