I'll be honest, I figured I'd be giving this book a 1 star review after only a chapter. And for the first 79% of it (according to my Kindle), that is exactly what it was. Pure stubborness was all that kept me going...as in I am extremely stubborn. I was so disappointed. It gets rave reviews because it is supposed to be a humorous fantasy. This was a poor imitation of Terry Pratchet. The Plot: This is a story about a magician's apprentice named Skeeve after his master is killed by an Imp while summoning a magician from another dimension. Unfortunately, and fortunately, for Skeeve the demon his master summoned, a Prevert named Aahz, list his powers enroute. This forces Skeeve and Aahz to not only work together to stop the man who killed Sleeve's master from taking over all the dimensions, but to also have Aahz teach Skeeze what he knows of magic...turns out Skeeve's master was not as forthcoming in his studies as he should have been. The World Building: This book was about a world that lives parallel to multiple dimensions. Each dimension has its own populace with its own threats and levels of magical talents. The descriptions of various dimensions came up as needed and no more detail was given than what was necessary for the role in the story. It was a very TELL rather than SHOW way of writing, but honestly I felt that with the author having so many balls in the air, the telling was necessary. There was very little background or sense of place. One second you are in a cabin, then you are waundering aimlessly in a forest, suddenly you are at an inn. It was schizophrenic displacement. The Characters: Here we come to my real gripe. I couldn't STAND the main characters. Skeeve was a "But..." man. As in always whining, "But Aahz...?" All the darn time. I almost threw my reading across the room. Almost filed it in DNF because it was so very awful. He whined. He was naive. He didn't seem to learn anything. He had no confidence. He was constantly asking questions. He didn't freaking listen or know when to shut up. Quite frankly, he annoyed the ever loving crap out of me and had ZERO character development. As he learned more magic, hishis lack confidence and child-like behavior should have tapered off. Not so. Now we come to main character numero dos, Aahz. The man was a talker. Blabbing all the time. He didn't listen either. Even on the rare occasion when Skeeve had a valid point, Aahz was too busy listening to the sound of his own voice. We all have that family member...you know the one I mean...they talk and talk and at the end of the marathon you realize they never actually SAID anything? That is Aahz. Don't mistake me, on occasion his talking saved the day and it might have been more humorous had the other characters had more meat to their personalities. But as it is, it was mostly grating. At the 79% point when the story finally started to improve, it was because tolerable supporting characters where added. Not the least of which was a dragon who only ate and said "Gleep." Overall: The story went going nowhere fast.The characters were mostly dreadful. The ending was suddenly haphazardly thrown in as if the author suddenly realized there needed to be one but he was too tired so he broad brushed it and went to bed. If it wasn't for the last bit finally picking up speed...well let us just say that 1.5 stars is were I am sitting. It finally started to get amusing at the end.I might be tempted to TRY book number 2 in the series to see if this was just a slow starter...but I would immediately put it down if it didn't vastly improve by the end if the first chapter.
One of my most childhood (well, teenagerhood) possessions is a pair of graphic novels based on Robert Asprin's "Myth" series, illustrated by Phil Foglio. I also read most of the books themselves and enjoyed them nearly as much. When I recently decided to re-read the first three books (Another Fine Myth, Myth Conceptions, and Myth Directions) I was surprised to find out how well they held up. They're still really fun!Now while "fun" isn't the word I'd use to describe most books in the fantasy genre these days, these books certainly are. On the surface they're about a newly master-less magician's apprentice, Skeeve, who is mentored by a demon, Ahz, whose wisdom and experience are only matched by his panache for con jobs and profit. Each book is essentially a caper where Asprin weaves a huge cast of vivid characters into entertaining and often amusing situations. The author has a real gift for plotting to the point where even when the situations are outlandish and complicated, you can trace a clear line of how the characters got into them.And that's the point at which the real entertainment usually starts --when the characters have to get out of one mess and usually end up in another. What I like about these books is that Skeeve and Ahz and company don't win the day by being the strongest or the most powerful. They win it by using guile, trickery, improvisation, wits, and imagination. It's really satisfying to see these traits win out over seemingly impossible odds, and again Asprin has a gift for making it all believable within his own (admittedly self-created) rule set for the world he's constructed.It's also worth noting that the books are consistently upbeat and lighthearted, with minimal violence and only mild sexual inuendo. The humor is situational and character driven, but also makes extensive use of puns and pop culture references (though some of those are a bit dated at this point). I'd highly recommend them to people of just about any age. I plan on reading more of the series whenever I want to take a break between other books for something more refreshing and fun.
What do You think about Another Fine Myth (2005)?
I read quite a few of the books in this series several years ago. I remembered enjoying it then, so I thought I'd give it a re-read now and see if the magik was still there. Indeed it is! Another Fine Myth is a highly entertaining light read that I couldn't put down.The story revolves around the adventures of a young magician's apprentice, Skeeve. Skeeve is a likable character, if a bit naive and the misadventures that he gets into with his friends are a magical romp through a universe of magik, demons, dragons and all sorts of other fantastical creatures. Because Asprin has incorporated different levels of technology in each dimension, there are really no limits on what might appear to challenge or aid our heroes. It's a lot of fun and always keeps you guessing as to what will happen next.Also, at only 200 pages, this book makes for a nice, quick break from other more weighty readings. I hope that I'm right in remembering that the rest of the series continues to be this enjoyable and I look forward to joining Skeeve and the gang again very soon.
—Stefan Yates
I recently had a conversation about how many movies are wish fulfillment about slacker everymen who are thrust into importance, causing everyone else in the world to put their lives on hold to assist their mission. And while I loved The LEGO Movie, Another Fine Myth is a fine alternative: it's the story of a slacker everyman who's roped into a demon's scheme and is dragged along, his life being put on hold for the antics of the journey. Our loser-boy is the aptly-named "Skeeve," and his teacher just summoned a demon before getting whacked by an assassin. The assassin went down as well, leaving the demon (the great and powerful "Aahz") stranded in the human world with no powers left. Skeeve, now without a magic teacher and employer, becomes Aahz's pupil, mostly learning to dupe people on a grand quest to regain the demon's powers and get him back home. Skeeve will have to survive some dire straits before he gets any respect (and, just like the modern slacker-hero, finding a girlfriend who's out of his league).It can be funny or cheesy, which is par for 70's/80's Fantasy humor, and it's something I wish I'd read when I was younger. Asprin's penchant for worldbuilding-via-funny-banter, and habit of resolving life-and-death conflicts with scumbag wheeling and dealing, is just fun and funny. I loved the demon trying to sell a crappy sword to a demon hunter under the pretense that the gems weren't garbage – they were so expensive they were *disguised* to look like garbage to protect them. Delightful as well is the Aahz's argument that he's only a demon in our dimension, and that if Skeeve were sucked into his dimension, everybody would be just as disgusted with him. A lot of this wit holds up.This is a short review for a short book, but Asprin also deserves credit for his brevity. At under 200 pages, Another Fine Myth never wears out its jokes, characters or quests. I've dropped too many books this year that ran out of creativity halfway through, whereas this novel, at less than half their length, wisely wraps itself up. If you want more, there are sequels. I'm going to check my library system for them.
—John Wiswell
This was a lighthearted and humorous fantasy novel packed full of witty dialogue, action, and magic. I'm not a massive fan of books that have the main focus on humor, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I laughed while reading this. It was a surprisingly enjoyable read. Skeeve is an apprentice magician who's master is unfortunately assassinated while summoning a demon. Skeeve and the Demon are forced into an unlikely alliance with hilarious consequences and they flee the assassins and plot to foil the plans of the mad wizard who hired them. The characters were likable and interesting. I loved the banter between Skeeve and Ahaz. The secondary characters were a diverse bunch who provided plenty of laughs. My favorite was probably the naive demon hunter Quigley, who was tricked by the quick witted Ahaz into all sorts of unfortunate mishaps. The world building was pretty good for such a short book. Skeeve's world of Klah is just one of many in a diverse universe. I'm eager to explore some of the others. Rating: 3.5 stars. Audio Note: Jeff Woodman gave an almost perfect performance. His character voices were well chosen and his sense of comic timing was excellent.
—Gavin
