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Leiber, Fritz
SWORDS AGAINST WIZARDRY [FafhrdGM 4]
book-date: 1968
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GRADING:
Ace (H-73)
1968
1st
Paperback
Jeff Jones
.60
VG+ or better

Ace (H-73, 1st edition) 1968 paperback. Cover, frontispiece (and map?) by Jeff Jones, 188 pages, 60 cent cover price. Condition is VG+ or better: very tight and square with flat spine; short raised wrinkle (as printed) 1" from top of spine; mild uniform age tanning (slightly darker on insides of covers.) Back cover has a couple of vertical impressions (the sort that come on new books from packing conditions.)

Everything about this book looks new/unread - except for the front cover, which has a faint 2" line at upper left corner and a couple of 1" finger-creases at middle left side. This is the only printing which has the complete cover by Jeff Jones (all others with this art were cropped or reduced in size.) You will have great difficulty finding better.

Leiber has always been known for his fantasy as well as his SF - he coined the term "Sword and Sorcery," and his first "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" story appeared in Unknown in 1939. In 1968, Ace Books began collecting new and old stories - while Leiber was still filling in the series. After a story about Fafhrd’s youth, and the award-winning story of his team-up with the Gray Mouser - 2 more Ace collections were added in 1970, the previous 3 from 1968 were reprinted, and the "proper" order of the "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" books was established.

Swords Against Wizardry, by Fritz Leiber. 4th in the "Fafhrd and Grey Mouser" series as codified in the early Seventies - he'd been writing stories in this series for decades, and the early adventures were fleshed out and the series put out in order by internal chronology.

In the Witch's Tent
Stardock
The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar
The Lords of Quarmall

The first story is original; the rest apppeared in Fantastic from 1964-1968. ("The Lords of Quarmall" was a 2-part serial, co-author credited to Harry Fisher.)