Swords Against Wizardry
core collection 1968 Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Record
| First published | 1968 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | collection |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.10 (4,652 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 188 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441791941 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Swords Against Wizardry, a 1968 collection, gathers four Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales in which the pair pursue treasure and test their limits as thieves and adventurers. Consulting a witch before attempting to scale the treasure-laden mountain known as Stardock, the two rogues discover along the way that they are not quite the master thieves they had believed themselves to be, facing setbacks that puncture their confidence. Elsewhere in the collection, Fafhrd and the Mouser become entangled in a conflict between rival sorcerers vying for control of the ancient, layered city of Quarmall, a struggle that draws the pair deep into underground intrigue far removed from their usual haunts in Lankhmar.
Where it sits
- Universe: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
- Series: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser core; position 4 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Fritz Leiber
Awards (verified)
- Hugo Award (Best Short Fiction), 1966: nominated; For the constituent story 'Stardock'; lost to Harlan Ellison's '"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman'.
Notes
- Includes 'The Lords of Quarmall', co-written with Harry Otto Fischer (Fischer wrote a 1937 first draft; Leiber completed/revised it for 1964 magazine publication), the sequence's only co-authored piece, credited at story level, not book level.
- From the series record (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser): 7 volumes assembled by Leiber himself from ~35-40 short stories/novellas written 1939-1988 (originally scattered across pulp magazines over five decades) into a fixed internal reading order; collection-publication order does not match this internal order (Swords and Deviltry, internally 1st, was published in 1970, after Swords in the Mist/Against Wizardry/The Swords of Lankhmar, all 1968). Classified Core Canon per the same collection-as-Core exception established for The Witcher's foundational short-story collections: for this universe, the collections ARE the primary/definitive reading unit, not supplementary material.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: position 2 of 7: previous Swords in the Mist (1968) · next The Swords of Lankhmar (1968)
- Internal chronology, within Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: position 4 of 7: previous Swords in the Mist (1968) · next The Swords of Lankhmar (1968)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swords_Against_Wizardry
- https://www.thehugoawards.org
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