Another Fine Myth
Robert Asprin
1978
200 pp, Ace MMPB
I was in a Borders recently, and I noticed that they were reprinting this series, in two-novel omnibuses, and I thought to myself, "I enjoyed those books when I was younger; I wonder if I'd still like them." In these final days of thesis-writing misery, I need to read stuff which is light and diverting, but not so diverting that I can't put it down after 20 minutes or so. So, on a whim, I decided to dig out the old Myth books and give them a try. I always feel some trepidation when I reread books I enjoyed as a kid, or worse, as a teenager. Heinlein-- yikes. Piers Anthony-- double yikes. Lucky for me, Another Fine Myth stands up pretty well.
Skeeve is apprentice to the sorcerer Garkin. He's something of an underachiever, and Garkin isn't exactly the greatest teacher, but they manage. One day, Garkin summons a demon to impress his lazy apprentice. That's all find and dandy, but an assassin kills the old guy, and leaves Skeeve with the scaly, pointy-teethed menace. Fortunately, the demon-- whose name is Aahz-- turns out to be a pretty decent guy, all things considered. He's an old buddy of Garkin's from back in the day-- they had a racket where they'd summon each other to play jokes on their apprentices. Aahz can't get back to his home dimension, however, because Garkin played a joke on him, too, and he's lost his powers. So, Skeeve and Aahz team up to get the guy who sent the assassin, a crazy sorcerer named Isstvan who's bent on World Domination.
The characters are appealing in the usual odd-couple/buddy movie fashion: Aahz is tough, worldly-wise, and one of the most shameless hucksters I've seen in a fantasy novel, while Skeeve is one of those affable but kind of dumb types who populate comedies of all genres. Hm, now that I think about it, I think that Skeeve and Torg from Sluggy Freelance may have been separated at birth. It's not deep or intellectual or anything like that, but it's good, clean fun.