The Myth Adventures by Robert Asprin are a series of comic-fantasy novels that make liberal use of puns and cheap gags. They are short, simple, and quite silly.
I love them.
The plot of the series is quite simple. The main character Skeeve is an apprentice magician in a fairly generic fantasy world, studying and failing to make headway with his magical training. His tutor, a cranky old master sorcerer who lives alone in a wooden hut in the middle of a forest, is killed whilst summoning an evil demon from a far-away dimension, leaving Skeeve all alone in the world; except for the angry-looking scaly green demon who had just been summoned. The demon, Aahz, reveals that he is more cranky than evil, and that being a magician is more about image than actual power; he takes on Skeeve as his apprentice and, after teaching him a few rudimentary tricks (levitation, and a spell to disguise ones outward appearance; and that's pretty much it), they set off in order to con their way through the Magic business.
A 'demon', it turns out, is just a term used to refer to someone who travels between dimensions, people who more often than not are travelling salesmen or con-men. The plot of each book usually involves Aahz and Skeeve getting into a major problem, and with Skeeve having very little magic to call upon, they have to scam their way out of it. In the second book, for instance, Aahz pressures Skeeve into getting a job as a court magician. Having bluffed his way into the job using little more than his disguise spell, Skeeve then finds out that his first duty as court magician is to repel an invading army, using nothing but his own magical abilities and half a dozen down-at-heel mercenaries he accidentally hires in a fast food restaurant.
Robert Asprin is not the greatest writer ever to walk the Earth, and his works are definitely not ground-breaking in the originality department (he openly admits that he 'swipes plots to parody), but this really does not detract from my appreciation of these books. The titles themselves show you the levels of the puns involved, including ones such as: Another Fine Myth, Myth Conceptions, Hit or Myth, and Sweet Myth-tery of Life.
Predictable, but nonetheless hilarious. That's how I would describe these books. And that's why I continue to re-read them. There's nothing to think too long about, if a joke falls flat on its face you just have to groan, and the dynamic between Aahz and Skeeve will keep you going onwards throughout the books. And the wackiness of the plots is something that I love about them with all my heart; a plot in which the hero solves one of his problems by introducing organised crime to another dimension, only to be later hired by the authorities of that same dimension to stop the organised crime that he is responsible for having set up, is a truly magnificent thing, and shame on me for trying to do it justice here.
As a series they work quite well, at least for the first six books. They are short, easily readable, and keep you wanting more. Book 1 is a tad shallow and plotless in comparison with later installments, mostly consisting of introductions to the concepts, characters and skills which will become the bread and butter of the series, all set on a trudging journey to a defeat a vaguely threatening master wizard opponent. With this set in place, the following books can focus more on the plots, which usually consist of a situation spiraling out of all proportions, to a wonderful degree. Books seven to twelve are not quite so good, I have to say; they lose a bit of the essential fun and groan-worthiness that I get from the first six, the plots are a bit more serious, too whimsical, the same characters appearing again and again more by obligation than reason, and the struggle of contract-writing is quite evident on Asprin's style. But they are still worth reading. There are times during reading them that I still find myself laughing, though I find it happens less often during this later period than for the earlier books. There are gems to found, but it requires just slightly more effort during these. And as for the subsequent Myth books, I confess I have not read them; well, I read Myth-Alliances, but it was a far-cry from the wild days of yester-year. Apparently these later installments were co-written with Jody Lynn Nye, and after Apsrin's death in 2008 Nye has continued to write for the series. (Note: Upon providing slight edits to this review years later, I can add that a couple of new Myth books were published in 2013 and 2016. I have still not read anything past Myth-Alliances).
So yes, although I am happy to criticize them, I fully recommend Aspin's Myth series. Start at the beginning, with Another Fine Myth, and work your way through them to at least book six, undoubtedly the golden years. Finding them might be a problem, I know I had a bit of trouble hunting down the earlier books, but I consider it more than worth it.
If you want intelligent humour, impeccable writing-skill, originality, or a realistic plot, I can assure you there are better places to look, but if you just want pure and honest fun, characters you cannot help but like, and something you can read just for the pleasure of reading, then these are more than worthy a slice of time.
Bibliography
Asprin, Robert Lynn
- Another Fine Myth (1978)
- Myth Conceptions (1980)
- Myth Directions (1982)
- Hit or Myth (1983)
- Myth-ing Persons (1984)
- Little Myth Marker (1985)
- M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link (1986)
- Myth-nomers and Im-Pervections (1987)
- M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action (1990)
- Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1993)
- Myth-ion Improbable (2001)
- Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. (2002)
Asprin, Robert Lynn and Jody Lynn Nye
- Myth-told Tales (2003)
- Myth Alliances (2003)
- Myth-taken Identity (2004)
- Class Dis-Mythed (2005)
- Myth-Gotten Gains (2006)
- Myth-Chief (2008)
- Myth-Fortunes (2008)
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