Myth-Nomers And Im-Pervections (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
This was a bit of an odd addition to the Myth series. Usually Skeeve and his friends team up to deal with some sort of task or mishap, but in this one Skeeve is off on his own solo quest. After Queen Hemlock pretty much sent a deceleration of war at the end of M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link Skeeve decides to send the M.Y.T.H. Inc team to Klah to try to put a stop to whatever she is plotting. Skeeve himself heads to Aahz, his mentors, home world of Pervect in a last gasp attempt to lure him back to the M.Y.T.H. Inc team. He stormed off at the end of the last book convinced he was dead weight without his magical powers! This story only focused on Skeeve's mission on Pervect. I gather the next book will be the action from Klah. The result was that got a strangely introspective entry into the Myth series. While Skeeve did meet a few new friends, including the Djinn Kalvin he picked up in one of the earlier book, this was a coming of age quest. Skeeve had to learn how to deal with things on his own and how to trust his own judgement. The poor guy even got drunk for the first time, with hilarious consequences, and opened his first bank account! The story was still an enjoyable one. It was good to see Skeeve developing as a character and we still had plenty of funny moments in Pervect. The most hilarious of the bunch had to be Skeeve's shopping trip where he tried to buy a luggage bag. We also meet a few new characters that I'm sure will pop up again in the later books. Rating: 3.5 stars.Audio Note: Noah Michael Levine does a good job with this series. Not that I'm without complaints as his annoying mispronunciation of the word Djinn even made one of the jokes fall flat!!!
The basic plot is reasonable enough, but it's also pretty straightforward (Skeeve goes looking for Aahz). So, a book like this really relies on the way the story is told, and it seems to fall flat compared to earlier books in the series: it just doesn't have the same spark of humour.There are also a couple of odd quirks that don't really work. (view spoiler)[The first time JR pops up in the story, he's working as a street vendor. The book doesn't go into any detail about what he's selling, but presumably he had the relevant items out on display, so it would have been obvious to Skeeve. Later on, after Skeeve decides to invest in JR's business, Kalvin points out that they don't know what type of merchandise he's selling, but I think it's reasonable to assume that he'd carry on with what he's already doing, just on a larger scale.Then there's the taxi driver, Edvik, named after someone who won a charity auction to get his name in the book. I'm quite happy for the author to do this type of Tuckerisation, but I don't like him shattering the fourth wall in the process. That type of exposition would be much better off in an afterword, i.e. told by the author rather than the (character) narrator. As it stands, it's the equivalent of watching a film when one of the extras suddenly starts waving at the camera and shouting "Hey, look at me, I'm on TV!" (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Myth-Nomers And Im-Pervections (2006)?
I absolutely adore this book. Skeeve's visit to the mysterious and anti-social world of Perv is hysterically funny. The nastiest and most dangerous dimension isn't even safe against the insanity that follows Skeeve. Following along after his partner Aahz, Skeeve travels to Perv hoping to be able to find the trail of Aahz.First he gets in trouble with the police for being polite and one thing leads to another until the same kind of trouble that follows Skeeve everywhere collides with some of the local population. Some fabulous characters are introduced and we finally get to see the Skeeve of old.
—Keziah Wallis
I love these books so much. This is my first time reading this series and I love it. I've yet to be disappointed. Skeeve is on Perv looking for Aahz. They had a falling out and Aahz went back to his dimension. This book is all Skeeve centric and introduces a few new characters that I really hope continue with the next books.The humor is still as prevalent in this one as it was in the first. Chock full of puns as usually. You can tell Robert Asprin was a giant nerd; one of the headings for the chapter is a quote by S. Strange, M.D. (Doctor Strange for those not in the loop).To everyone complaining about Perv not living up to the expectations from Aahz's descriptions; remember, Pervs always uptalk everything. It would make sense for the Perv Aahz describes and the real Perv to be two different things. The only problem I have with this book is that it felt too short. Aahz is missing until the last few pages of the book and BAM! Him and Skeeve are best friends again and off to save the universe. Or, well, Skeeve's home dimension. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with Aahz and Skeeve before they teamed up again.Can't wait to listen to the next one. I've done all of them on audio and honestly have no desire to actually read them
—Heather
