Fantasy Review: Myth-Taken Identity by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye

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Myth-Taken Identity by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good, but way longer than it needed to be.

I received this book as a gift from my husband. He was poking around on Amazon and noticed this series had more books. We'd both thought that was done with since the author (Aspirin) passed away, but apparently he wrote a few more and transitioned the series into the hands of another author (Nye) before then.

Anyhow, about the book. It's pretty much what I was expecting: a bit of fantasy, a lot of puns, and some humorous multi-dimension sleuthing. If you like that sort of thing, I think you'll like this. I'm a big fan of the Myth series, but though I liked this book, I didn't love it.

It seemed like the authors were working towards a word count, trying to stretch the story to what is more readily accepted as novel length. It didn't really work, though. About halfway through, I felt like the story should be wrapping up, but it just spun off into another approach to the problem the characters were facing. And even when the thing seemed near resolution, the final chase was drawn out to the point I had no problem setting the book down for the night.

So, overall, it's a mildly amusing story with some cute characters, lots more content than needed, and not quite the spark that Aspirin's earlier Myth stories emit. I liked it, but I couldn't say I'd drop everything to read it again.

(And as an aside, what's up with that cover? Who's the pervect lady, I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be Masha, but she's not a pervect and isn't she supposed to have bright orange hair? Also, why the heck is Chumley now a fuzzy, purple teddy bear? I'm pretty sure he wasn't that furry before, but in these last few books suddenly he is. I think the cover artist looked at some earlier covers and didn't bother reading the book. Not his or her fault. Someone at the publisher should have been paying attention.)

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Humorous Fantasy Review: Myth Alliances by Robert Aspirin and Jody Lynn Nye

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Myth Alliances by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye    
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Myth Alliances was a surprise for me. I thought there were no more Myth books from Robert Aspirin (and would be no more), but my husband found them and got them for me. Yay!


This one is the first collaboration work in this series, which gives the name a funny double meaning, applying both to this new alliance between Robert Aspirin and Jody Lynn Nye in writing the series and to the oddball coalition of characters in the book.

It took a while for the two styles to meld, but the story smoothed out and picked up about halfway through. As usual for a Myth book, the story is propped up by a lot of punny jokes and oddball characters. This one features a self-help guru who’s great at winning hearts, minds, and book sales and a showdown between the passive-aggressive Wuhses and their Pervect oppressors. Skeeve has his hands full figuring things out and combatting some seriously dangerous magic.

I couldn’t help but feel that the authors missed an opportunity to build suspense and mystery by revealing a certain key bit of information incredibly early in the book. It didn’t kill the book, but I think that it was mostly responsible for the slow start.

Overall, I really liked this story. I’m glad that the co-author joined in and is keeping the series alive. Folks who enjoy the Myth series will likely enjoy this one, but may not love it because it isn’t quite on par with some of the earlier books.


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