Juho Pohjalainen's Reviews > Swords Against Death

It's the strength of its characters that truly drives these stories on.

The prose and the setting, the combat and action, are all very well - indeed among the better ones I've read, though I'd hesitate to call them the best in any case - but the main heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, are what truly breathe life into it. They're more grounded protagonists, for one, than the likes of Conan and Elric, easier to relate to and to fear for... and for the other thing their relationship with one another, their friendships and rivalries and snarky conversations, are both humorous and quite human, each conversation worth a thousand fantastic scenes or epic battles. It goes to show that good characters are what a story needs, everything else is gravy.