Adventure. Understand why these are part of the Appendix N reads.

First read 10/2024

Finally getting back to my Lankhmar readthrough. [Just looked it up and realised I read the previous book in December last year. Did not realise it had been that long.] Unfortunately this book seems to have been written to showcase Leiber at his most unpleasant, as the Twain's taste for increasingly young girls (and, on one occasion, rape) becomes more prominent than ever. I like a good antihero, but this is too much. Were it not for those moments, though, and the generally gratuitous horniness, the book would be really very good. 'The Sadness of the Executioner' would be just about perfect, were it not for the ending; 'Trapped in the Shadowland' has a good premise, even if it is squandered; and the opening to 'The Bait' is sublime, even if the rest of the story is odious.

'The Frost Monstreme' was a blast, up there with the best of them. Not as funny as some (though it has its moments), this is an adventure that flexes on Conan by telling us, more explicitly than ever before, that the Twain are growing old. Their desires are changing! Somewhat. Plus it's setting the scene nicely for 'Rime Isle'. This novella makes up the bulk of the book and in many ways still feels fresh when compared with today's fantasy offerings. The Twain get involved in fewer heroics, but oversee events, and tend towards setting others in motion rather than accomplishing things themselves. The ending comes across as an attempt to buck the trend, and if it doesn't quite satisfy, Leiber should nonetheless be commended for not doing the easy thing.