Swords in the Mist is author Fritz Leiber's collection of short stories. Comprised of six separate, but connected, stories, Swords in the Mist follows Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as the two heroes travel across the world of Nehwon, finding adventure at every step of their journey.
As with Leiber's other novels, Swords in the Mist is focused primarily on being entertaining to readers. Its academic value is fairly limited beyond that. But the novel does explore a number of very complex and important themes. Primarily, the short stories in the novel focus on the power and importance of friendship, family, dealing with guilt and grief, and entering unknown and forbidden places.
The first short story contained in the novel ("The Cloud of Hate"), follows Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as the two travel to the complicated and not always friendly town of Lankhmar. The citizens of that town give the duo a hard time as they travel through their town and they have to deal with those ill feelings. This short story explores themes related to getting along with people who have preconceived notions about you that may not necessarily be correct. It also explores how friends must stick together in hard times.
The second short story contained in the novel ("Lean Times in Lankhmar") starts where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser ended: with the two parting ways. Fafhrd has become an enforcement thug; the Gray Mouser has become an adherent to a new religion. But the two eventually find each other again and start their adventures once again, unphased by what was happening in their lives and bound by the bond of friendship.
When Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser start to sail the high sea, they run into trouble after they enter the boudoir of a sea God that the God no longer lives in (in the novel's third short story, "Their Mistress, the Sea"). That God, who is able to see what is happening in his former abode, gets upset and tries to take his wrath out on the Mouser and Fafhrd, much to their displeasure (as detailed in the penultimate short story of the novel, "The Wrong Branch.")
In the final short story contained in the novel ("Adept's Gambit") the duo must go on a quest near the Castle of Mist to break a curse that had been placed on them after some of their previous misadventures. The short story is a testament to the power of friendship and how important it is for friends to stick together in times of hardship.
