The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
I never get tired of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — I adore those two rogues! In The Swords of Lankhmar (a full novel rather than the usual story collection), the boys have been hired as guards for a fleet of grain shipments because several ships have recently disappeared. Aboard the ship they meet a couple of enchanting women who are escorting a troupe of performing rats across the sea. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover that these are not ordinary women, and those are not ordinary rats.
Back in Lankhmar they find that the city is dealing with rats, too. The rodents have become belligerent and troublesome. The Mouser begins to suspect that there might be a connection between those two ladies and Lankhmar’s troubles. With the help of his magical patron, the Mouser goes underground to spy on the rat army.
The Swords of Lankhmar is an expansion of Leiber’s novella Scylla’s Daughter (1961, Fantastic Stories of Imagination) which was nominated for a Hugo Award. The Swords of Lankhmar has everything fans have learned to expect from one of Fritz Leiber’s LANKHMAR series. It’s strange, creative, fast-paced, and fun. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are a couple of the best characters in all of fantasy fiction — if you haven’t read any of their adventures, you’re really missing out.
Let me again recommend the audio version of this series which has been produced by Audible Frontiers — Jonathan Davis’s performance is so entertaining!
I’ve so got to get back to these stories. It says much for how many years their stories continued. I think the last on was in the early 2000’s writen with a collaboration author?