Fritz Leiber was an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, horror, satire, and supernatural fiction. He is best known for creating Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, two adventurers whose stories helped define modern sword and sorcery.
Leiber’s bibliography is unusually dependent on editions. Many Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books are collections of stories written decades apart, later arranged into an internal sequence. His science fiction and horror collections also overlap heavily, and some novels first appeared in magazines under different titles or in shorter forms.
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The simplest approach is to treat his work as three separate shelves:
- Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
- The Change War
- Standalone novels and story collections
Readers interested in Leiber’s most influential fantasy should begin with Swords and Deviltry (1970). Readers who prefer a single self-contained novel can begin with Conjure Wife (1953), The Big Time (1961), or Our Lady of Darkness (1977).
The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser Sequence
Fafhrd is a tall northern barbarian, while the Gray Mouser is a smaller thief and former student of magic. Their friendship takes them through the city of Lankhmar and across the wider world of Nehwon.
The stories were not written in narrative order. Leiber later arranged them into seven core volumes that move from the heroes’ separate origins to their final adventures.
Read those seven books in this order:
- Swords and Deviltry (1970): Separate origin stories introduce Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser before the award-winning account of their first meeting in Lankhmar.
- Swords Against Death (1970): The new companions pursue treasure and adventure while grieving a shared loss and becoming entangled with two powerful sorcerers.
- Swords in the Mist (1968): Hostility in Lankhmar sends the pair toward stranger journeys involving sea magic, curses, and an unexpected visit to another world.
- Swords Against Wizardry (1968): Four longer adventures take the heroes beyond familiar territory and place them against thieves, priests, sorcerers, and the rulers of Quarmall.
- The Swords of Lankhmar (1968): Fafhrd and the Mouser become involved in a conflict between Lankhmar’s merchants and an organized civilization of intelligent rats.
- Swords and Ice Magic (1977): Later adventures test the heroes through divine wagers, dangerous women, northern voyages, and the changing demands of age.
- The Knight and Knave of Swords (1988): The final volume follows the aging companions as they settle on Rime Isle and confront threats to their new lives.
This is both the standard collected order and the recommended first-reading order.
Why Publication Dates Look Out of Order
The third, fourth, and fifth collected books appeared in 1968. Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death followed in 1970, even though they contain the earliest events in the heroes’ lives.
Leiber had been publishing individual Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories since 1939. When the series was reorganized into books, he placed the stories according to the heroes’ internal history rather than the dates on which each story first appeared.
That is why book numbering matters more than the publication year printed beside each collection.
Swords and Deviltry
The Snow Women
The Snow Women (1970): A young Fafhrd rebels against the customs of his northern people after a visiting actress offers him a glimpse of life beyond the Cold Waste.
The story introduces his mother Mor, his lover Mara, and the conflict between family duty and his attraction to southern civilization.
The Unholy Grail
The Unholy Grail (1962): The young Gray Mouser turns toward forbidden magic after violence destroys his life with the wizard Glavas Rho and the woman he loves.
This is the Mouser’s principal origin story and explains why he combines a thief’s instincts with incomplete magical training.
Ill Met in Lankhmar
Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970): Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser meet while attempting to rob the same thieves, beginning a friendship shaped by humor, rivalry, love, and sudden tragedy.
The novella establishes their partnership and their complicated relationship with the Thieves’ Guild. It won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
Swords Against Death
Swords Against Death gathers early adventures that occur after Fafhrd and the Mouser become companions.
The Circle Curse
The Circle Curse (1970): The grieving heroes leave Lankhmar and spend years wandering before discovering that distance cannot free them from the city’s influence.
The short piece connects Ill Met in Lankhmar to the adventures that follow.
The Jewels in the Forest
The Jewels in the Forest (1939): Fafhrd and the Mouser search an abandoned tower for treasure, only to find that the building has a deadly guardian.
Originally published as Two Sought Adventure, this was the first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story to appear in print.
Thieves’ House
Thieves’ House (1943): The pair enter the headquarters of Lankhmar’s Thieves’ Guild in pursuit of a valuable relic and encounter supernatural consequences.
The story returns directly to the organization responsible for one of the defining tragedies of their early lives.
The Bleak Shore
The Bleak Shore (1940): A mysterious stranger challenges the two companions and draws them toward an unnatural coastline.
The brief tale emphasizes the dreamlike horror that frequently appears beneath Leiber’s humor.
The Howling Tower
The Howling Tower (1941): Fafhrd and the Mouser investigate a strange tower connected to wolves, madness, and a dangerous form of transformation.
The story combines sword and sorcery with the psychological unease found throughout Leiber’s horror fiction.
The Sunken Land
The Sunken Land (1942): Fafhrd is drawn toward a submerged civilization while the Mouser attempts to understand and interrupt the spell controlling him.
The adventure broadens Nehwon beyond Lankhmar and shows how easily curiosity can overpower the pair’s caution.
The Seven Black Priests
The Seven Black Priests (1953): The companions cross a frozen landscape while being pursued by priests connected to an unusual and dangerous god.
The story uses the northern setting to place Fafhrd closer to the world he left behind.
Claws from the Night
Claws from the Night (1951): Fafhrd and the Mouser become involved with a tower, a hidden treasure, and intelligent birds trained to steal from Lankhmar.
The tale was originally published under the title Dark Vengeance.
The Prince of Pain-Ease
The Prince of Pain-Ease (1970): Each hero enters a strange domain in search of relief from grief, only to discover that surrendering pain can demand an unacceptable price.
The story gives emotional closure to losses that have followed them since Ill Met in Lankhmar.
The Bazaar of the Bizarre
The Bazaar of the Bizarre (1963): The Gray Mouser becomes enchanted by a magical marketplace whose glamorous goods conceal their true nature.
Fafhrd must resist the illusion long enough to save his companion from merchants serving a hostile supernatural power.
Swords in the Mist
The Cloud of Hate
The Cloud of Hate (1963): The accumulated anger of Lankhmar takes physical form and begins moving through the city toward Fafhrd and the Mouser.
The story turns public resentment into a literal supernatural enemy.
Lean Times in Lankhmar
Lean Times in Lankhmar (1959): The companions separate during a period of poverty, leaving Fafhrd attached to a religious movement and the Mouser involved in a scheme surrounding it.
The story satirizes faith, commerce, performance, and the ease with which Lankhmar can turn belief into profit.
Their Mistress, the Sea
Their Mistress, the Sea (1968): Fafhrd and the Mouser return to sailing after circumstances push them away from Lankhmar.
This short bridge moves the pair from city adventures toward the maritime stories that follow.
When the Sea-King’s Away
When the Sea-King’s Away (1960): The companions descend beneath the sea and encounter a palace filled with beauty, danger, and temptation.
The story gives the Mouser and Fafhrd separate romantic distractions inside a supernatural underwater realm.
The Wrong Branch
The Wrong Branch (1968): The heroes’ magical patrons send them through an unusual route that carries them beyond Nehwon.
The brief transition prepares the crossover setting of Adept’s Gambit.
Adept’s Gambit
Adept’s Gambit (1947): Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser arrive in the ancient Mediterranean world and confront a sorcerer whose curse is tied to desire and transformation.
The story is unusual because it places the heroes on Earth rather than in Nehwon.
Swords Against Wizardry
In the Witch’s Tent
In the Witch’s Tent (1968): A prophecy warns the companions about dangers awaiting them in their next expedition.
This short introduction establishes the quest that continues into Stardock.
Stardock
Stardock (1965): Fafhrd and the Mouser attempt to climb an immense mountain in search of treasure while facing rivals, impossible conditions, and hidden inhabitants.
The story is one of the series’ longest expeditions away from Lankhmar.
The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar
The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar (1968): The Mouser’s pride in his skills is tested after a theft involving valuable objects and an opponent he fails to understand.
This compact story turns professional vanity into a trap.
The Lords of Quarmall
The Lords of Quarmall (1964), with material by Harry Otto Fischer: Fafhrd and the Mouser are hired by rival princes competing for control of a vast underground kingdom.
The friends work on opposing sides without initially understanding the full shape of the conflict. Harry Otto Fischer wrote an early portion, which Leiber later completed and expanded.
The Swords of Lankhmar
The Swords of Lankhmar (1968): Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser escort a grain fleet and become drawn into a secret war between Lankhmar and an organized society of intelligent rats beneath the city.
The Mouser’s changing size allows him to enter the rats’ world, while Fafhrd faces political and military problems above ground.
This is the closest the core sequence comes to a conventional standalone novel. It was expanded from the earlier story Scylla’s Daughter.
Readers should still place it fifth because its relationships with Lankhmar, the sorcerous advisers, and the heroes’ shared history assume the earlier collections.
Swords and Ice Magic
The Sadness of the Executioner
The Sadness of the Executioner (1973): Death attempts to claim one of the two heroes but finds the companions unexpectedly difficult to separate.
The short story begins a group of later tales concerned with fate and mortality.
Beauty and the Beasts
Beauty and the Beasts (1974): The presence of an alluring woman creates tension between Fafhrd, the Mouser, and the dangerous forces surrounding her.
The story treats desire as another contest in the pair’s long friendship.
Trapped in the Shadowland
Trapped in the Shadowland (1973): The companions enter a realm connected to death and struggle against an attempt to keep them there.
This story later inspired the title of an authorized continuation by Robin Wayne Bailey.
The Bait
The Bait (1973): Fafhrd and the Mouser encounter a temptation designed to exploit their predictable weaknesses.
The brief episode uses the heroes’ appetites as both comic material and genuine danger.
Under the Thumbs of the Gods
Under the Thumbs of the Gods (1975): The gods interfere with the companions’ romantic histories and force them to reconsider the women they have known.
The story looks backward across the series while exposing the heroes’ selective memories.
Trapped in the Sea of Stars
Trapped in the Sea of Stars (1975): A voyage leads the pair into a maritime region where ordinary direction and escape no longer function normally.
The adventure moves them toward the northern setting of the collection’s final stories.
The Frost Monstreme
The Frost Monstreme (1976): Fafhrd and the Mouser confront an enormous moving formation of ice that threatens ships and settlements.
Their response begins drawing them into the affairs of Rime Isle.
Rime Isle
Rime Isle (1977): The companions help defend an isolated northern community and begin forming relationships that offer an alternative to their wandering lives.
The novella establishes the location and supporting characters carried into The Knight and Knave of Swords.
The Knight and Knave of Swords
Sea Magic
Sea Magic (1977): Strange events at sea challenge the relative stability Fafhrd and the Mouser have begun building around Rime Isle.
The story continues the maritime and supernatural concerns of the previous volume.
The Mer She
The Mer She (1978): The Gray Mouser encounters a dangerous sea woman whose presence complicates his loyalties and desires.
The tale develops the Mouser’s difficulty adjusting to commitment and settled life.
The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars
The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars (1983): Two curses are directed against the heroes and the people around them, turning apparently minor forces into serious threats.
The story brings Lankhmar’s sorcerous politics into conflict with the companions’ newer responsibilities.
The Mouser Goes Below
The Mouser Goes Below (1988): The Gray Mouser is drawn underground, forcing Fafhrd and their allies to mount a rescue amid magic, memory, and physical transformation.
This long final story closes Leiber’s core sequence while leaving the heroes alive and established in their later roles.
The Authorized Continuation
Swords Against the Shadowland
Swords Against the Shadowland (1998), by Robin Wayne Bailey: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser enter the realm of death while attempting to recover the women whose loss shaped their partnership.
The novel was authorized by Leiber’s estate but written entirely by Robin Wayne Bailey. It is not one of Leiber’s seven original books.
Its events fit after Swords Against Death and before Swords in the Mist. Readers should save it until after completing Leiber’s core sequence because its approach to the characters and mythology comes from another author.
Harry Otto Fischer’s Gray Mouser Story
The Childhood and Youth of the Gray Mouser
The Childhood and Youth of the Gray Mouser (1978), by Harry Otto Fischer: This story presents an alternate or supplementary account of the Mouser’s early years before his partnership with Fafhrd.
Fischer helped create the original concepts for the two heroes, but Leiber wrote nearly all the published adventures.
The story is not part of the standard seven-volume sequence. Treat it as optional background after Swords and Deviltry.
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser Omnibus Editions
Different publishers have combined the seven core books in several ways.
The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Volume One
The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Volume One: This omnibus contains Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist.
It replaces the first three individual books rather than adding a separate adventure.
The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Volume Two
The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Volume Two: This omnibus contains Swords Against Wizardry, The Swords of Lankhmar, Swords and Ice Magic, and The Knight and Knave of Swords.
Combined with Volume One, it provides the complete seven-book core sequence.
Ill Met in Lankhmar
Ill Met in Lankhmar (1995): This White Wolf omnibus combines Swords and Deviltry with Swords Against Death.
It should not be confused with the individual novella of the same name.
Lean Times in Lankhmar
Lean Times in Lankhmar (1996): This White Wolf omnibus combines Swords in the Mist with Swords Against Wizardry.
The title also belongs to an individual story, so readers should check the contents of the edition.
Return to Lankhmar
Return to Lankhmar (1997): This White Wolf omnibus combines The Swords of Lankhmar with Swords and Ice Magic.
It contains Books Five and Six of the standard sequence.
Farewell to Lankhmar
Farewell to Lankhmar (1998): This edition republishes The Knight and Knave of Swords under a different title.
It is Book Seven, not an eighth original Leiber installment.
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser Graphic Adaptations
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (1991): Howard Chaykin adapted several Leiber stories into comics, with artwork by Mike Mignola and Al Williamson.
The adaptation retells existing prose adventures rather than continuing the sequence.
Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (2007): This collected edition gathers the Chaykin and Mignola comic adaptation into one volume.
Readers can choose the prose originals or the comic version, but the comic does not replace all seven books.
The Change War Reading Order
The Change War is a science fiction setting in which two opposing powers, the Spiders and the Snakes, alter history across time.
The stories share a conflict rather than one continuous cast. Only The Big Time is a full novel.
Use this practical order:
- The Big Time (1961): Enter the Change War through a recovery station outside ordinary time, where soldiers from different eras become trapped with a bomb and a possible traitor.
- The Mind Spider and Other Stories (1961): Continue with shorter Change War stories that show the conflict operating across different people and historical periods.
- Changewar (1983): Use this collection for a broader group of Change War stories, while checking for overlap with material already read.
- No Great Magic (1963): Add this related novella about actors, time travel, and the instability created by interference with history.
The individual stories can be rearranged, but The Big Time offers the clearest introduction.
The Big Time
The Big Time (1961): Greta Forzane works at a station where damaged soldiers recover after missions in a war fought by changing the past.
When a nuclear device appears inside the sealed station, the assembled characters must identify who brought it and whether their own side can still be trusted.
The novel combines time travel, a locked-room mystery, theatrical dialogue, and characters recruited from different historical eras. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
The Mind Spider and Other Stories
The Mind Spider and Other Stories (1961): This collection gathers science fiction stories, including several connected to the Change War.
Its contents vary in emphasis from psychic conflict to altered history. It was originally paired with The Big Time in an Ace Double edition.
Changewar
Changewar (1983): This collection assembles seven stories connected to the Spiders and Snakes’ struggle to alter history.
It overlaps with earlier collections and should be purchased for convenience rather than treated as a sequel to The Big Time.
Fritz Leiber Standalone Novels in Publication Order
Most of Leiber’s novels are independent. They move between supernatural horror, social satire, alternate realities, planetary catastrophe, and literary fantasy.
Conjure Wife
Conjure Wife (1953): A college professor discovers that his wife secretly practices protective magic and makes her stop, leaving them exposed to forces he refused to believe existed.
The novel combines academic satire with supernatural suspense and can be read entirely on its own.
It first appeared in a magazine in 1943 and was later included in the 1952 omnibus Witches Three before receiving a separate hardcover edition.
Gather, Darkness!
Gather, Darkness! (1950): In a future ruled by a technologically supported religion, a resistance movement adopts the appearance of witchcraft to challenge the ruling priesthood.
The story uses staged miracles, secret knowledge, and political rebellion to blur the line between science and magic.
Destiny Times Three
Destiny Times Three (1957): Three alternative versions of humanity become connected, allowing individuals and political systems to interfere across parallel worlds.
The novel explores competing social orders and the danger created when one reality attempts to dominate the others.
It first appeared as a magazine serial in 1945.
The Sinful Ones
The Sinful Ones (1980): A man begins to suspect that most people around him are not fully real and becomes involved with a woman who shares his disturbing awareness.
The novel combines paranoia, shifting reality, and urban isolation.
An earlier altered edition appeared in 1953. The 1980 version restored Leiber’s intended text, which had originally been published in shorter form as You’re All Alone.
The Green Millennium
The Green Millennium (1953): An unhappy man encounters a mysterious green cat whose presence appears to generate happiness and attract competing political and commercial interests.
The novel uses absurdity and satire to examine social control, emotional deprivation, and the commercialization of hope.
The Big Time
The Big Time (1961): Soldiers removed from different periods of history become trapped together at a Change War recovery station after a bomb appears.
It is Leiber’s principal Change War novel and remains readable without the related short stories.
The Silver Eggheads
The Silver Eggheads (1962): Human authors have been replaced by machines that manufacture fiction, creating a crisis involving publishers, preserved brains, robots, and the future of literary culture.
The novel is a satire of commercial publishing, automation, and artistic status.
The Wanderer
The Wanderer (1964): A planet-sized object suddenly appears near Earth, disrupting the Moon, the oceans, and the lives of people around the world.
The novel follows a broad ensemble through a global astronomical disaster and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Tarzan and the Valley of Gold
Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966): Tarzan searches for a kidnapped woman and becomes involved in a struggle surrounding a hidden city and its wealth.
Leiber adapted the screenplay for the film of the same name. The book belongs to the Tarzan continuity created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, not to one of Leiber’s original worlds.
A Specter Is Haunting Texas
A Specter Is Haunting Texas (1969): A tall, physically altered actor from the Moon arrives in a future Texas dominated by exaggerated nationalism and social inequality.
The novel uses political satire, revolution, and grotesque humor to examine power and historical mythology.
Our Lady of Darkness
Our Lady of Darkness (1977): Writer Franz Westen discovers that the view from his San Francisco apartment may be connected to an occult system based on cities and the supernatural force of accumulated objects.
The novel combines autobiographical grief, literary history, urban horror, and invented occult scholarship.
An earlier, shorter version appeared as The Pale Brown Thing.
The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich
The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich (1997): A researcher investigates a case of mass disturbance connected to Daniel Kesserich and experiments that interfere with ordinary reality.
Leiber wrote the work early in his career, but it was discovered and published after his death.
Which Standalone Novel Should You Read First?
Choose according to genre rather than publication date.
Conjure Wife (1953): Begin here for accessible supernatural horror with an academic setting.
The Big Time (1961): Begin here for compact, dialogue-driven science fiction and time travel.
The Wanderer (1964): Begin here for a large-scale planetary disaster.
Our Lady of Darkness (1977): Begin here for mature urban horror and a story shaped by grief, books, and city landscapes.
The Green Millennium (1953): Begin here for strange social satire built around a mysterious cat.
Major Fritz Leiber Collections in Publication Order
Leiber published hundreds of shorter works, and many collections repeat the same stories. The following list covers the major English-language collections rather than every limited chapbook or later reprint.
Night’s Black Agents
Night’s Black Agents (1947): Leiber’s first collection brings together supernatural horror and early fantasy, including the original version of Adept’s Gambit.
Later editions add stories, so contents should be checked before comparing copies.
Two Sought Adventure
Two Sought Adventure (1957): This early Fafhrd and Gray Mouser collection gathers stories published before the seven-volume sequence was finalized.
Its material was later revised and redistributed, mainly into Swords Against Death.
The Mind Spider and Other Stories
The Mind Spider and Other Stories (1961): Six science fiction stories examine psychic abilities, altered history, and unusual social systems.
Several entries connect to the Change War.
Shadows with Eyes
Shadows with Eyes (1962): This science fiction collection focuses on paranoia, perception, social control, and characters confronting hidden structures.
It is independent of the Lankhmar sequence.
A Pail of Air
A Pail of Air (1964): The collection includes the title story about a family surviving on a frozen Earth after the planet is torn away from the Sun.
It remains one of the most useful introductions to Leiber’s shorter science fiction.
Ships to the Stars
Ships to the Stars (1964): These stories use space travel and speculative technology while retaining Leiber’s interest in psychology and satire.
The volume is brief and overlaps in theme with other early science fiction collections.
The Night of the Wolf
The Night of the Wolf (1966): Four stories explore predation, transformation, social breakdown, and the unstable boundary between human and animal behavior.
The title refers to the collection rather than one continuing series.
The Secret Songs
The Secret Songs (1968): This collection gathers science fiction and fantasy stories selected for a British hardcover edition.
Its contents overlap with stories reprinted in later retrospective volumes.
Night Monsters
Night Monsters (1969): The collection brings together horror and dark fantasy involving creatures, fear, and psychological disturbance.
The British edition changes the contents, so two copies with the same title may not contain identical stories.
The Best of Fritz Leiber
The Best of Fritz Leiber (1974): A broad selection of twenty-two stories presents Leiber’s fantasy, science fiction, horror, and satire.
It remains a strong single-volume introduction, although later retrospective collections repeat several selections.
The Book of Fritz Leiber
The Book of Fritz Leiber (1974): Fiction and essays provide a mixed view of Leiber’s stories, ideas, and interests.
It was followed by a second companion collection.
The Second Book of Fritz Leiber
The Second Book of Fritz Leiber (1975): Additional stories, a play, and nonfiction continue the retrospective approach of the first Book of Fritz Leiber.
The two books were later combined in an omnibus.
The Worlds of Fritz Leiber
The Worlds of Fritz Leiber (1976): Twenty-two stories survey multiple parts of Leiber’s career without duplicating the selections in several earlier retrospectives.
The collection is useful for readers who already own The Best of Fritz Leiber.
Bazaar of the Bizarre
Bazaar of the Bizarre (1978): This collection selects Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories for readers seeking a shorter sample of the Lankhmar adventures.
It does not replace the complete seven-volume sequence.
Heroes and Horrors
Heroes and Horrors (1978): Nine stories move between heroic fantasy and supernatural fear.
The collection demonstrates how closely Leiber’s sword and sorcery can sit beside his horror fiction.
Ship of Shadows
Ship of Shadows (1979): Award-winning shorter fiction appears alongside The Big Time in a compact career sampler.
Some paperback editions remove one story, so contents vary.
Changewar
Changewar (1983): Seven connected stories present different fronts and consequences of the war fought through changing history.
It is the most convenient focused Change War story collection.
The Ghost Light
The Ghost Light (1984): Nine stories are joined by autobiographical material and photographs.
The book combines fiction with a more personal view of Leiber’s life and creative history.
The Leiber Chronicles
The Leiber Chronicles (1990): This large retrospective gathers forty-four stories from roughly fifty years of Leiber’s career.
It is one of the broadest single-volume collections, although it substantially overlaps earlier books.
Gummitch and Friends
Gummitch and Friends (1992): Cat-centered stories include several tales about Gummitch, a feline who understands his life through imaginative theories about humans and identity.
The collection highlights Leiber’s recurring affection for cats.
The Black Gondolier
The Black Gondolier (2000): Eighteen stories emphasize supernatural horror, urban unease, and hidden forces attached to modern life.
The title story imagines petroleum as something more active and sinister than an ordinary resource.
Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions
Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions (2002): Eighteen stories focus on ghosts, modern anxiety, city landscapes, and supernatural intrusions.
It includes some of Leiber’s most influential urban horror.
Day Dark, Night Bright
Day Dark, Night Bright (2002): Twenty previously uncollected or less accessible stories expand the available record of Leiber’s shorter fiction.
The book is better suited to established readers than to first-time sampling.
Horrible Imaginings
Horrible Imaginings (2004): Fifteen horror stories bring together psychological fear, sexuality, death, and the threatening possibilities of ordinary surroundings.
The collection provides a concentrated route through Leiber’s darker work.
Strange Wonders
Strange Wonders (2010): Drafts, fragments, poems, essays, a play, and previously unpublished pieces present material from across Leiber’s working life.
This is an archival collection rather than a beginner’s anthology.
Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories
Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories (2010): Seventeen stories selected by editors Jonathan Strahan and Charles N. Brown offer a modern overview of Leiber’s range.
It is one of the easiest places for a new reader to sample his fantasy, science fiction, and horror without committing to older overlapping collections.
The Most Practical Collection Choices
Readers do not need every Fritz Leiber collection.
For a broad introduction, choose one of these:
- The Best of Fritz Leiber (1974): A substantial classic selection from several genres.
- The Leiber Chronicles (1990): A larger career retrospective with extensive coverage.
- Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories (2010): A shorter modern selection designed as an entry point.
For horror, choose:
- Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions (2002): Urban and supernatural horror.
- Horrible Imaginings (2004): Darker psychological and supernatural fiction.
- The Black Gondolier (2000): Stories about modern systems taking on sinister life.
For science fiction, choose:
- A Pail of Air (1964): Classic speculative stories with accessible premises.
- The Worlds of Fritz Leiber (1976): A wider selection from his science fiction career.
- Changewar (1983): Stories from one shared time-war setting.
Fritz Leiber Books in Broad Publication Order
This condensed bibliography lists the principal novels, core series books, and major original collections. Magazine appearances and many later reprints are omitted.
- Night’s Black Agents (1947): An early collection of horror, fantasy, and supernatural fiction.
- Gather, Darkness! (1950): A false religion supported by technology faces rebels who present science as witchcraft.
- Conjure Wife (1953): A professor removes his wife’s magical protections and exposes them both to supernatural attack.
- The Green Millennium (1953): A mysterious green cat becomes the center of a struggle over happiness and control.
- Two Sought Adventure (1957): Early Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories appear in a collection later superseded by the Swords sequence.
- Destiny Times Three (1957): Three parallel societies interfere with one another across alternate realities.
- The Mind Spider and Other Stories (1961): Science fiction stories explore psychic and historical manipulation.
- The Big Time (1961): Soldiers from different eras become trapped at a station outside normal time.
- The Silver Eggheads (1962): Machines replace human novelists in a satire of publishing and automation.
- Shadows with Eyes (1962): Six stories examine perception, identity, and hidden systems.
- A Pail of Air (1964): The title story follows survival on a frozen Earth, supported by a varied science fiction collection.
- Ships to the Stars (1964): Space travel and speculative technology shape six shorter works.
- The Wanderer (1964): A planet-sized object appears beside Earth and causes global catastrophe.
- The Night of the Wolf (1966): Four stories explore human and animal violence.
- Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966): Tarzan enters a hidden-city adventure adapted from a film screenplay.
- Swords in the Mist (1968): Fafhrd and the Mouser leave Lankhmar for sea voyages and stranger worlds.
- Swords Against Wizardry (1968): The companions climb Stardock and enter the underground realm of Quarmall.
- The Swords of Lankhmar (1968): Intelligent rats wage a hidden war against the city.
- The Secret Songs (1968): A British collection gathers fantasy and science fiction stories.
- A Specter Is Haunting Texas (1969): A lunar actor enters a satirical future Texas divided by power and inequality.
- Night Monsters (1969): Horror and dark fantasy stories focus on creatures and psychological fear.
- Swords and Deviltry (1970): The heroes’ origins and first meeting establish the beginning of the internal Lankhmar chronology.
- Swords Against Death (1970): Early adventures follow the companions through grief, treasure hunts, and supernatural dangers.
- The Best of Fritz Leiber (1974): Twenty-two stories survey his major genres.
- The Book of Fritz Leiber (1974): Fiction and essays present a mixed personal retrospective.
- The Second Book of Fritz Leiber (1975): More stories, nonfiction, and a play continue the retrospective.
- The Worlds of Fritz Leiber (1976): Twenty-two stories broaden the available selection of his shorter fiction.
- Swords and Ice Magic (1977): Later Fafhrd and Mouser stories move toward Rime Isle and questions of aging.
- Our Lady of Darkness (1977): A San Francisco writer uncovers an occult theory tied to cities and accumulated objects.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre (1978): Selected Lankhmar stories provide a shorter sample of the series.
- Heroes and Horrors (1978): Fantasy and horror share one nine-story collection.
- Ship of Shadows (1979): Award-winning fiction appears with The Big Time.
- The Sinful Ones (1980): The restored novel follows a man who sees through an apparently unreal social world.
- Changewar (1983): Seven stories explore a conflict fought by altering history.
- The Ghost Light (1984): Fiction and autobiographical material offer a personal career survey.
- The Knight and Knave of Swords (1988): The aging companions defend their later lives on Rime Isle.
- The Leiber Chronicles (1990): Forty-four stories create a large career retrospective.
- Gummitch and Friends (1992): Cat stories feature Gummitch and other memorable felines.
- The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich (1997): An early unpublished work appears posthumously as a study of reality-altering events.
- The Black Gondolier (2000): Eighteen stories concentrate on horror and modern unease.
- Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions (2002): Urban ghost stories and supernatural fiction receive a focused collection.
- Day Dark, Night Bright (2002): Twenty less accessible stories return to print.
- Horrible Imaginings (2004): Fifteen dark stories highlight Leiber’s horror writing.
- Strange Wonders (2010): Unpublished and uncollected material offers an archival view of his work.
- Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories (2010): Seventeen stories provide a concise modern retrospective.
Latest Fritz Leiber Publications
Fritz Leiber died in 1992, so all later releases are posthumous editions, rediscoveries, reprints, or collections.
No new Leiber-written novel is forthcoming as of August 6, 2026.
Recent digital and print catalogs continue to reissue:
- The seven Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books: The core Lankhmar sequence remains available individually and in two large omnibus volumes.
- The Big Time: The Change War novel continues to appear in standalone and combined editions.
- Conjure Wife, Gather, Darkness!, and Our Lady of Darkness: Leiber’s major horror and speculative novels remain in modern ebook and paperback circulation.
- Posthumous story collections: Publishers continue repackaging older stories, but these releases do not extend any continuity.
A newly dated edition should not be mistaken for a newly written book.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Fritz Leiber book should I read first?
Begin with Swords and Deviltry (1970) for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
For a standalone novel, begin with Conjure Wife (1953) for supernatural horror or The Big Time (1961) for science fiction.
Is Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser a novel series?
Mostly no.
The core sequence is composed primarily of short stories and novellas collected into seven books. The Swords of Lankhmar is the most novel-like individual volume.
Why were Books Three to Five published before Books One and Two?
The stories were written over several decades and later organized according to internal chronology.
Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death collect the heroes’ earliest experiences even though those collections appeared after several later-numbered books.
Should I read the Fafhrd stories in original magazine order?
Not on a first reading.
Magazine order demonstrates how Leiber developed the characters, but it jumps across their lives. The seven collected Swords books create a clearer narrative progression.
Is Two Sought Adventure Book One?
No longer.
It was an early collection of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. Its contents were revised and reorganized when Leiber established the seven-volume sequence.
Begin with Swords and Deviltry.
Is Farewell to Lankhmar a separate eighth book?
No.
Farewell to Lankhmar is an alternate title for The Knight and Knave of Swords, the seventh core book.
Is Ill Met in Lankhmar a novella or an omnibus?
Both titles exist.
Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970): The novella tells how Fafhrd and the Mouser first meet.
Ill Met in Lankhmar (1995): The omnibus combines Swords and Deviltry with Swords Against Death.
Check the edition and contents before purchasing.
Is Lean Times in Lankhmar a story or a book?
Both.
Lean Times in Lankhmar (1959): The original story appears in Swords in the Mist.
Lean Times in Lankhmar (1996): The omnibus combines Swords in the Mist with Swords Against Wizardry.
Did Fritz Leiber write Swords Against the Shadowland?
No.
Robin Wayne Bailey wrote the authorized novel using Leiber’s characters. It should be treated as optional estate-approved continuation fiction.
Is The Big Time part of a series?
Yes, but it can stand alone.
It belongs to the Change War setting, which also appears in several shorter stories. The novel explains enough of the conflict for readers who do not continue to the collections.
Are Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness connected?
No direct continuity links them.
They are sometimes combined in the omnibus Dark Ladies because both are major supernatural novels by Leiber, not because they share characters or a storyline.
What is Dark Ladies?
Dark Ladies (1999): This omnibus contains Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness.
It offers two complete horror novels and does not add a third story.
Which Fritz Leiber collections overlap?
Most of the large retrospectives repeat at least some earlier stories.
The Best of Fritz Leiber, The Leiber Chronicles, The Worlds of Fritz Leiber, and Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories are alternative samplers rather than consecutive volumes.
What is the best Fritz Leiber horror collection?
Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions is the most focused starting point for urban and supernatural horror.
Horrible Imaginings offers another strong concentration of dark fiction.
What is the last Fafhrd and Gray Mouser book?
The Knight and Knave of Swords (1988): This is the final core volume written by Leiber.
It was later republished as Farewell to Lankhmar.
The Recommended Fritz Leiber Route
Begin with the seven Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books in their established sequence, starting with Swords and Deviltry and ending with The Knight and Knave of Swords.
Do not rebuild the order from the original publication dates of individual stories. The collected sequence was designed to follow the heroes from youth and first friendship into older age.
After Lankhmar, read The Big Time for Leiber’s central science fiction series, then choose standalone novels by genre. Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness provide the strongest horror route, while The Wanderer and The Silver Eggheads show two very different sides of his science fiction.
For shorter work, select one broad retrospective before buying multiple collections. Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories is the most compact modern entry, while The Leiber Chronicles offers a much larger survey.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.