This book collects two unrelated award-winning novellas from classic author Fritz Leiber. Ill Met in Lankhmar describes the first meeting of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in the city of Lanhkar, and is a sword-and-sorcery classic, with our two heroes up against the evil Thieves Guild, first as part of a drunken con, and then for bloody revenge. Ship of Shadows is scifi, a story of a man named Spar, lowly crewman on massive spaceship falling to pieces, trying to figure out what is happening through an alcoholic daze.

Leiber had the misfortune to win Hugos for two of his worst novels. At his best, which this is, he writes richly layered gothic fiction that is both imaginative and thrilling.