/lit/ - Literature

After reading The Dispossessed I felt like something simpler, so I picked up a volume of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories from my pulp pile and read The Jewels In The Forest, 1939. Here, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are pursued to a tower among the woods, where they seek an unguarded treasure. This is a story that establishes promises early on and fulfills them; horse chases, sword fighting, mysterious old men, a damsel in peril, tense scenes in a dark skeleton-strewn tower, and between everything the camaraderie of the archetypal thief and his taller barbarian companion. This is the first Lankhmar story I've read. It feels like a more lighthearted and readable Conan story with less purple prose. Instead of the usual dinosaurs I feel like awarding this a Siskel and Ebert inspired two thumbs up; more particular rating is reserved until I get a better grip on Mr Leiber and find out if he is a one-trick-pony or not. In itself, this is good escapism in forty pages.