Nifft the Lean

Nifft the Lean #1

by Michael Shea

SHEA'S "INFERNO"!

Follow the adventures of Nifft the Lean, the master thief whose felonious appropriations and larcenous skills will lead through Stygian realms to challenge your most lurid fantasies and errant imaginings. Places where horror, harm and long eerie calms flow past the traveller in endless, unpredictable succession.

Travel the man whose long, rawboned, sticky fingers and stark length of arm will lead you down to the vermiculous grottos of the demon sea, to stand beneath the subworld's lurid sky and battle monsters who seem the spiritual distillation of human evil itself!

We invite to the very gates of Hell and beyond —

COME IF YOU DARE!

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, Horror, Dying Earth, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

For the British author of thrillers and non-fiction see Michael Shea

Michael Shea (1946-2014) was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author who lived in California. He was a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award and his works include Nifft the Lean (1982) (winner of the World Fantasy Award) and The Mines of Behemoth (1997) (later republished together as The Incomplete Nifft, 2000), as well as The ARak (2000) and In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985).

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come then, Mortal. We Will Seek Her Soul:
At the behest of an apparition, Nifft and Haldar kidnap a disgraced warrior and take him to the land of the dead to be reunited with her in exchange for the Wizard's Key. Only things don't go as planned...

The first Nifft story was quite good, a trip to hell with all sorts of horrifying denizens. It was a bit like Fritz Leiber's Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser, only told in the first person and in a meatier style like REH's. Shea's sense of humor and dialogue remind me of Jack Vance's. My favorite part? Having to wrestling the Soultaker, a large manlizard, for a chance to accompany him and the Guide of Ghosts on a trip to the land of the dead.

Pearls of the Vampire Queen:
White gathering pearls in a deadly swamp, Nifft and Barnar learn of a vampire queen and scheme to steal from her.

I liked Pearls even more than the first story. Shea's writing, already quite good, improved a bit in the interval between the tales. The idea of a vampire queen that feeds on blood in exchange for magical protection is a good one. Nifft and Barnar rose a bit in my esteem in this one. Shea never resorts to fantasy stereotypes when it comes to monsters. There were ghuls, lurks, and murderous, pearl-producing polyps.

Fishing the Demon-Sea:
Nifft and Barnar are saved from being torn apart on the rack at the last minute and tasked with traveling to a subworld and braving the Demon-Sea to rescue a noble's spoiled son who was taken by a water demon. Too bad he's such an arrogant little shit...

Nifft and Barnar are a cut above most fantasy characters when it comes to inventiveness. I loved the mine car bit. The giant leeches and scorpion demons were nasty. The subworld was a horrid place I won't soon forget. Gildmirth proved to be a very interesting supporting character. I hope Shea uses him again in the future.

The Goddess in Glass:
Anvil Pastures is in dire peril, in danger of being destroyed by an impending mountain collapse, and it's up to Nifft to lead a force to re-unite the Goddess in Glass with her flock so they can save the day.

The last story was different than the rest in that Nifft wasn't telling it. Other than that, I really liked it. Aliens as gods is always a sf trope that I enjoy.

To sum up, Nifft the Lean was a great read. While slim, the stories are great and the writing is rich. We need more fantasy like this on the racks.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nifft the Lean: Vance’s Cugel reimagined by Hieronymus Bosch
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Back in 1950, Hillman Periodicals published a little book for 25 cents called The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. It could easily have disappeared into obscurity like thousands of other books, but there was something special about it. There weren’t any other books in SF/Fantasy quite like it, depicting an incredibly distant future earth where the sun has cooled to a red color, the moon is gone, and humanity has declined to a pale shadow of former greatness, and struggles to survive amongst the ruins of the past. The world is filled with magicians, sorcerers, maidens, demons, ghouls, brigands, thieves, and adventurers.

The Dying Earth inspired many works ranging from Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun and to Gary Gygax’s Dungeons & Dragons universe. Eventually Vance followed up with a sequel, The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), which introduced his most famous character, the knavish thief and swindler named Cugel the Clever. This book was just as imaginative as The Dying Earth, but was a single story of the misadventures of Cugel after he crosses Iucounu the Laughing Magician. It contains all the same sly, tongue-in-cheek humor, the strong imagery of a decaying and run-down world, and the wonderfully-stilted high language used by all the humans and other creatures of this autumnal far-future world.

So when Michael Shea asked Jack Vance, he graciously authorized him to write an informal sequel to the first two Dying Earth novels, and this became A Quest for Simbilis (1974). It was well received, but it was not until 1982 that he gave his imagine full rein to reshape Jack Vance’s Dying Earth and make it his own in Nifft the Lean, an obscure Daw paperback without fanfare. And what a bizarre and grotesque vision it was — imagine Cugel the Clever if Hieronymus Bosch was writing it, a dark and often stomach-churning trip into a strange underworld teeming with demons, lurks, scabrous beetles, ghouls, and damned souls. But before you say “that sounds unpleasant,” never fear, brave reader, for Nifft has a world-weary ironic wit that is more than a match for Cugel.

Nifft the Lean consists of four connected novellas, mostly featuring Nifft and his companions Haldar or Barnar, strongly recalling that wonderful pair of rogues, Fritz Leiber’s FAFHRD AND THE GREY MOUSER. The stories have enticing titles like “Come Then, Mortal. We Will Seek Her Soul,” “The Pearls of the Vampire Queen,” “The Fishing of the Demon-Sea,” and “The Goddess in Glass.” They are introduced by Shag Margold, a historian and Nifft’s friend, but narrated by Nifft himself except the last story. These adventures involve Nifft and his companion hoping to recover a valuable talisman, discovering a powerful sorceress or vampire goddess, getting in way over their heads, and finding ingenious (and sometimes ruthless) means to extricate themselves. There are plenty of detours and exotic encounters, just like Cugel the Clever’s tales.

The language is very baroque, much like that of Vance, and his imagination when it comes to grotesque creatures and vivid physical descriptions is boundless. The third story is like diving into Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights for a long and extended trip into multiple netherworlds lit by demonic suns and populated with all forms of nightmare beings I hope to never encounter in dreams. The final story centers on enormous metal-devouring herd animals, a giant dead insect goddess sealed in glass, and attempts by various religious groups to use their powers for their own purposes. It is one of the strangest stories I’ve ever read, and really can’t be described properly here, but I guarantee you won’t forget it.

I have wanted to read Nifft the Lean ever since I found it mentioned in David Pringle’s Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels, and discovering it won the 1983 World Fantasy Award as well. It always seemed like a neglected dark fantasy classic, much like its progenitor The Dying Earth. I’ve had the Daw 1982 paperback with the creepy Michael Whelan cover artwork for over two decades, but it was not till I checked Audible on a lark just in case, and there it was along with two later sequels I didn’t even know about, narrated by John Morgan. He certainly does his best to capture the whimsy, horror, and swashbuckling spirit of the story, which I highly recommend to fans of Vance or Leiber.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of Sword and Sorcery tales that owe more to Moorcock than Howard. In any event, this is some of the best sword and sorcery fiction I have ever read. Whenever I sit down to read some S&S, this is what I am wanting to find (and I am usually left wanting). Bloodsucking vampires, mind-bending demons, trips to hellish underworlds, black magic...this book has it all.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Nifft the Lean, Michael Shea presents a dark vision of a dying Earth. Two of the four tales have the feel of Journey to the Center of the Earth as if written by HP Lovecraft, with Nifft descending to an underworld teeming with eldritch landscapes and demons that are as uncanny as they are disturbing. Shea's writing and style are masterful, with dense prose sometimes bordering on the baroque, yet sprinkled with wit. As much as Shea is compared to Jack Vance, I found his writing more visceral. Whereas Vance keeps things moving swiftly in his The Dying Earth adventures, which can feel jaunty, Shea takes his time painting details of his landscapes, and the stories convey not so much adventures as harrowing journeys for survival rather than enrichment (despite Nifft being a master thief). Highly recommended to fans of dark and/or sword & sorcery fantasy!

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exquisitely written aberration from the early 80s. Lusty, dreamy sword-and-sorcery showing all the passion and thirst of Robert E. Howard with a more advanced prose style. Not much by way of character depth, but lushly beautiful conception and execution. Deserves to be lovingly remembered along with the work of Howard, Leiber, and Vance.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four adventures of Nifft the Northron, known also as Nifft the Lean and Nifft the Nimble. Michael Shea's first book, A Quest For Simbilis, was an authorized sequel to Jack Vance's The Eyes of the Overworld and this book is very firmly in that vein, although several steps removed from Vancean whimsy and into territory more frequented by, say, H.P. Lovecraft (in his Dreamlands books) or Clark Ashton Smith. (And territory more recently trodden by, say, China Miéville in his Bas-Lag books.)

Nifft's world, like Vance's Dying Earth, is old, littered with the wrack and ruin of eons-old civilizations, gnawed from within, maggot-like, by demons. All four stories exist primarily as excuses for Nifft to venture through increasingly grotesque landscapes filled with increasingly grotesque creatures. In one of them he rides the Grim Reaper's raft to Hell itself; in another, he and his companion Barnar the Chilite trudge for months through a vast demon-infested underworld in search of the young idiot who, by mangling a spell, got himself abducted to there.

And the less said about the sorry fate of once-great Anvil-Pastures, the better ...

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard a lot about this one but never got around to reading it because copies can be difficult to come by. I paid fifty dollars for my old 1982 DAW first printing, a mass-market paperback. I’m planning to write a longer essay for a website, but I wanted to get some initial thoughts down here.

To begin, this isn’t really a novel. It is a series of four stories--more accurately, novelets or novellas--featuring the same character adventuring in the same world. The second/third story, “The Fishing of the Demon Sea,” is the longest and is unmistakably novella length. The others are more comfortably described as novelets.

If I had to rank them all, I would put “The Fishing of the Demon Sea” first, followed by “Come Then, Mortal--We Will Seek Her Soul,” then “The Goddess in Glass,” and finally “The Pearls of the Vampire Queen.”

The Pearls of the Vampire Queen is probably the most conventional sword-and-sorcery tale, featuring two rogues attempting to pull off a heist in a decadent city ruled by a vampire queen and her cult. “Come Then, Mortal” is Dantean--a mythological excursion into hell that truly surprises. There is a scene in which a spirit incarnates herself that will stick with me: she literally grows from dust to bone and enfleshes herself through sheer force of will.

“The Goddess in Glass” is somewhat classifiable as weird science. It features aliens, giants, and strange lithophagic creatures, but the mode is that of a historical report. The characters are present, but they don’t feel quite like actors--more like observers or chroniclers. I loved this story, and its concluding image gripped me. It serves as a powerful allegory for the way we are all trapped by modernization, i.e. a historical process we initiated and that now incarcerates us. But it is a far cry from street-level sword and sorcery; it reads more like speculative fantasy, pure imagination.

The masterpiece of this whole collection, without a doubt, is “The Fishing of the Demon Sea.” It has pathos and humanity, strangeness and alien vistas, and a mythological resonance that feels earned. It is also Dantean, even metaphysical. One of the characters, a shapeshifting demidevil, gives a speech speculating about the origins of demons, and it was surprisingly thoughtful--unexpectedly so.

It feels a disservice to generalize about a collection that is more like a cabinet of curiosities, a board of weird and bizarre foods: each unique, strange, exotic. But if I were to test a few generalizations, I’d say this: Nifft the Lean is an anthology about the inherent evil or entropy of human civilization. Progress is not depicted as a teleological momentum toward liberation but as a curdling, the way milk curdles or wine sours into vinegar. This far-future world, not unlike the Vancean Dying Earth that inspired Shea, is a world turned against itself, suffocating under layers upon layers of miserable history. Scratch beneath any surface and you’ll find bones.

Nifft--and, to an extent, his various virtuous companions--do not attempt to rehabilitate or “re-story” the world. Instead, they are often mere spectators, survivors, bearing witness to the tragedy. If there is any joy in this world, it lies in the simple, ordinary moments that aren’t properly narrated: the tankards of ale, the board of food, the fire. In their absence, these ordinary moments become aesthetically vital and present, become rich, perhaps even more so than the bizarre. I write this as a finish this review and go downstairs to have dinner.

[Nomadman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book a while back but only got round to reading it now. It's a collection of four longish S&S tales set in a far-future dying Earth where science and magic have merged and demons (aliens?) stalk the land. At the start of the book Nifft, the titular character, is presumed dead, and the tales that follow are arranged as a sort of series of reminiscences by his good friend and chronicler Shag Margold. In addition, each piece has an introduction giving a bit of background to the story that follows whilst the stories are narrated by Nifft, a self-aggrandizing rogue with a flair for words and who, one suspects, cannot entirely be trusted to be telling the entire truth of his exploits. This method of successive removes help the reader form an impression of added richness and depth to the world.

Stylistically and in general tone, Nifft the Lean reads like a mixture of Vance, Leiber, Moorcock and Clark Ashton Smith. To say that Shea writes like an elaborate pasticheur, however, would be unfair. These are fine tales, that can stand with the best in the genre. Nifft himself is a marvellous storyteller, a not-quite-lovable rogue who relates his various thefts, rescues and daring crackpot schemes with a zeal and panache that's wonderfully entertaining and, sometimes, touching. His world is a brutal one, but also filled with fascinating details, and much of the pleasure of these tales lies in simply savoring its wonders lying nestled amidst its horrors.

As a writer, Shea has talent. Like Leiber, he knows when to add little touches of realism to counterpoint the fantastic elements. And like Vance, he knows when to temper his imagination to increase its potency. In the wonderfully titled opening story, Come Then Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul, Nifft and his companion embark on a literal descent into hell to reunite the soul of a witch with her lover in return for a key to a tower of untold riches. It's a fantasmagoric ride through a horrific netherworld straight out of the mind of Hieronymus Bosch. Yet the horrors are not merely visual but underline a particular moral or philosophical point. The close of the tale is fitting and poignant.

The second piece, Pearls of the Vampire Queen, is a little more down to earth, being a tale of a rather odd pearl hunting expedition in a marshland that's no less hellish than the setting of the first piece. It's a stronger tale, however, due to the presence of an elegantly developed setting and a stronger cast of characters. Shea creates an entire mini-ecosystem here, as well as a culture revolving around vampire worship that's not only plausible (within the confines of the setting) but, perhaps, preferable as a system of rule compared to the despotic regimes otherwise in abundance.

The third story, Fishing on the Demon Sea, is by far the longest and most ambitious of the tales. It's also my least favorite, however, being marred by some sloppy writing, plotting and unrealistic characterization. Some, mind. Arrested on trumped up charges whilst vacationing in a cattle town on the edge of nowhere, Nifft and his companion Barnar are forcibly coerced into rescuing a rich landowner's spoilt son, who has been taken to hell by an aquatic demon inhabiting the fabled Demon Sea. This is more or less a standard quest plot, and goes on for just a shade too long, though it includes some of Shea's most imaginative conceptions.

The fourth tale, The Goddess in Glass, returns Nifft to the world of men. The city of Anvil Pastures is threatened by the imminent collapse of a nearby mountain after decades of careless mining have destabilised its foundations. The city's "goddess" (really a dead alien encased in a vast glass cage) instructs the townsfolk via her oracle that the only way to deal with the threat is to retrieve a flock of her ancient cattle, giant, rock eating grubs that were lost centuries ago in a vast war that wiped out all trace of the aliens save the goddess herself. Nifft is very much a background character in this one, and whilst the story itself isn't bad, it suffers from a slightly too detached feel which the other pieces (all written in the first person) lack.

Even given these two relatively weaker pieces, the collection as a whole is a work of fine quality and well worth seeking out if you enjoy literate fantasy of the Leiber and Vance variety. Shea wrote two more books involving Nifft, The Mines of Behemoth and The A'rak, the first of which was collected together with the tales I summarised above in The Incompleat Nifft.

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

More appropriately named “Nifft the Tour Guide” since the four short stories comprising this do not develop Nifft’s character or his motivations. His presence is a mere instrument for the author (or the author’s fictional historian, Shag Marigold) to describe entertaining adventures worthy of recording.

Shae offers a strange, effective mix: non-scary, detailed, weird narratives (this is weird fantasy to be sure, but a “fun” version). Readers should expect engaging, detail-packed guided tours through hell and otherworlds. There are battles and adventures, but one should NOT expect being terrified (it is not weird horror like Lovecraft) and do NOT expect heroic battles (Nifft is not Howard’s Conan).

Shae’s strength is his meticulous detail of strange worlds which can only be conveyed by using examples:

“Those waters teemed, Banar. They glowed, patchily, with a rotten orange light, and in those swirls of light you could see them by the score: little bug-faced ectoplasms that lifted wet, blind eyes against the gloom, and twiddled their feelers imploringly; and others like tattered snakes of leper’s-flash with single human eyes and lamprey mouths. And there were bigger things too, much bigger, which swam oily curves through the light-blotched soup. One of these lifted a complete human head from the waters on a neck like a polyp’s stalk. It drooled and worked its mouth furiously, but could only babble at us. All these things feared the raft, but you could feel the boil and squirm of their thousands, right through your feet. The heavy logs of the raft seemed as taut and ticklish as a drumskin to the movement of the dead below.” --- From the first story: Come Then Mortal--We Will Seek Her Soul

“Some grottoes, for example, were densely carpeted with victims whose faces alone retained their human form. The rest of their bodies—everted and structurally transformed—now radiated from each face’s perimeter in wormy coronas. They resembled giant sea-anemones. The souls within those faces still—all too eloquently—lived …
And there were others of our species who lay in nude clusters resembling the snarls of kelp which a northern sea will disgorge on the sand in storm season. Their legs and hips merged with central, fleshy stalks, while their arms and upper-bodies endlessly and intricately writhed and interlaced. These were the very image of promiscuous lust, but the multiple voice they raised made a hospital groan, a sick-house dirge of bitter weariness. Crablike giants, hugely genitaled like human hermaphrodites, scuttled over them with proprietary briskness—pausing, probing, nibbling everywhere.” --- From the third story: Fishing of the Demon Sea

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly satisfying. I am definitely seeking out the rest of Shea's fantasy work.

Nifft and his partner Barnar are true thieving professionals, and the stories come off as (mostly) planned heists by mutually trusted, reliable, and exceedingly competent partners, recalling the relationship between Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Shea's unnamed world owes much to Jack Vance and the Dying Earth series, particularly Eyes of the Overworld. Where Shea's follow-on to Eyes, A Quest for Simbilis, felt constrained by an adherance to Vance's style, here he goes his own path in both characters and setting and it just feels more natural.

I wound up enjoying every part of this book. Even the framing device, commentary by the scholar/historian Shag Margold on the provenance and background of the various manuscripts, is entertaining in its own way, and it does smooth over--or at least hang a lampshade on--the different styles between the stories.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this book to be as good as it is. Nifft the Lean, a thief of renown (accompanied by fellow thief Barnar), steals things, insults morons, and goes to hell. Very reminiscent of Fritz Leiber, in a good and not particularly derivative way. Ugly and sensual. Very entertaining, as though Michael Shea wrote a really, really good D&D novel. That is, better than any D&D novel.

[Aaron Singleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nifft the Lean reads like a Vance/Lovecraft/Howard collaboration done in the late sixties. Does that explain anything?

Michael Shea got his start writing a "sequel" to Vance's The Eyes of the Overworld, with Vance's kind permission. He says that Vance told him: "If you can get it published, go right ahead." Shea also offered Vance half of his advance and royalties on the book. Vance politely refused, telling Shea he deserved the money and congratulations. He did get it published, a book called A Quest for Simbilis.

The book I'm reviewing, Nifft the Lean, consists of several (can't remember the exact number) longish short stories featuring the title character and his partner, Barnar the Chilite. The stories are every one great reads and Shea is a hell of a prose stylist, somewhere between Vance and Lovecraft-- bordering on purple, but in a GOOD way.

These stories are rip-roaring adventures, packed with a great setting and unforgettable characters. Each story features a central problem or situation for Nifft to figure out. Grotesque monsters and giant bugs, sea demons and a world beneath our own, magic and vampires, all in a fantasy setting much like the Dying Earth. What's not to like?

Michael Shea has since become one of my favorite writers. He hasn't written as many books as I'd like, but all those he has written are top quality in every way. Nifft is his most well-known creation. There are also two books after this one, which I'll review later.

Great stuff here. Recommended.

[Radoslav · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real gem of sword-and-sorcery storytelling, I was pleasantly surprised. It really deserves to be more popular and widely known. Put it on your shelf next to Vance, Leiber, Moorcock, Howard and Wagner.

Favorite story: The Fishing of the Demon-Sea.

[Oliver Brackenbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has definitely earned its reputation.

[Invadozer Misothorax Circular-thallus Popewaffensquat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dante styled journey through tour-ture quibbling quavering horrors into banter muck-about with stupid or sharp witted demons tug at my jaw getting a drool from the side of my lip instead of a full adult tear from my eye. Enjoyed this so much would like to tattoo most of it on my body to enjoy rereading it when stranded in the boondocks which happens often enough. Inspired mind terror with many a maggot, wasp, egg laying, screaming...descriptions beyond what any human can imagine with nerves tangled into jaws from men-flocks crushing urchin tongues for the anguish.. High recommendations from a Circular-thallus.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came as a recommendation from a visitor to my old website, and I
was lucky enough to come across it at my favorite used book store.
This store, btw, is The Book Gallery, in Carleton Place, Ont., and it's an old creaky house converted into a book store. On both floors, floor to ceiling is crammed with books. It's glorious.

Anyways. Nifft.

This is a highly rated novel by most who have read it. It's very literate, long on description, and short on character development.
This is a read that requires some patience. I had a false start with it
while struggling through the prefaces, so this was my second attempt.
I can tell you that you can safely skim through Shag's prefaces to the stories. I did; it was simply too much brain power (and I've been tapped enough these past weeks at work) to visualise and understand the whole setup.

Once you get into the stories, though, the writing is much easier. These are tales of Nifft and his buddy Barnar, two thieves, and their travels to demonic underworlds in their quest for riches.

As I said, the stories are incredibly rich in description, and the landscapes and inhabitants are among the grimmest I've come across. But, the plotlines themselves were merely OK, and the characters quite thin. Thus, I lost interest about halfway through the second story.
As rich as the writing was, it was a bit too rich for my liking, and I need more than descriptive writing to keep me going. I need to care, and I didn't. Too bad.

Your mileage will vary, I'm sure. Writing like this needs to be tasted, at least.

[Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I didn't care for "Goddess in Glass," the final novella in this book, the first three pieces were so imaginative, so unique, and so utterly, coruscatingly beautiful that I can't imagine taking even a single star away from its rating. If you're a fan of fantasy, horror, or just of lyrical writing in general, I urge you to track down a copy of this wonderful book and get lost in the singularly vivid imagination of Michael Shea.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beat Fevre Dream and The Sword of the Lictor for best fantasy novel at the World Fantasy Awards in 1983.

Does it deserve that W over two of my favorite speculative fiction novels?
Maybe...

The book is a refreshing framed narrative about Nifft the Lean's adventures over his lifetime. A scholar and friend of his is the narrator compiling the stories.
Each story has a different feel because in world each one was written by a different person. The narrator has a preface for each story that is almost as interesting as the story itself.

This oozes creepiness. I can understand why people say it reminds them of Dark Souls. The first three adventures could be quests in a game like that.

I really enjoyed this book but it lost a star because the last two stories really dragged. I think it was a mix of me reading them too close together and it just getting repetitive.

My advice is read a story and take a break for a few days and let it ruminate. Then read the next one. This works best if you don't binge it.

Michael Shea is a fantastic writer and I highly recommend this to anyone that likes Gene Wolfe, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, or Jack Vance.
Even people that aren't familiar with those writers would enjoy this book if they want some very well executed dark fantasy.

[Attentive · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific book, that I think would earn five stars within the straitened confines of the verbose, Vancian genre of fantasy that it increments, asymptotically, to such a satisfyingly extreme pitch.

Considered against all books, the constraints of its genre - which keep it a bit short on character development, emotional heft, and drama - limit it to a four star review.

It's broken up into several separate stories. The Boschian horrors of the second last, in particular, are quite memorable, but I think "The Goddess in Glass" was my favourite.

M John Harrison probably took this niche further forward with the Viriconium stories that started around 1970. Shea's work is more like premium Vance than something altogether new, but the language and visions it presents to the reader do scintillate brightly.

[Paul McNamee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing stuff. Every sword-&-sorcery fan should read. Or, as in my case, listen to the excellent audiobook.

Four tales of Nifft's thieving exploits are told. A story of traversing the underworld - sort of an ode to Dante's INFERNO, a tale of larceny involving black pearls and a vampire queen, the longest of the tales is another journey/quest through the sub-world of the demon seas and finally an odd tale of a kingdom that once was visited by aliens.

My only slight dissatisfaction is with the final story, because Nifft really isn't the protagonist - he is just a witness to events.

Stellar storytelling.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked the first story. The second is even better. The third gets slow during the middle. And the fourth never really engaged me.

[Ivan Stoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty good fantasy, but I have no idea how it's supposed to be a Dying Earth/Cugel sequel. It really doesn't seem to owe anything to Vance.

Reads a lot more like Fritz Leiber -- which is sort of good, but the protagonist isn't as charming as Fafhrd or the Mouser.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four absolutely delightful sword & sorcery novellas in the best tradition of low fantasy -- not just entertaining world-building, characters, and their hijinks, but also countless clever and whimsical asides about existence and human nature along the way.

[Jeroen · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 50%

[Quinell Hajari · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel truly deserving of it's accolades.
Some of the best sword and sorcery tales I have read!

[Lance Schonberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel almost bad reviewing this book, considering how little I have to say about it, and none of that more than neutral. This seemed like pretty standard Sword & Sorcery fare to me, and I frequently found myself skimming and frequently without the desire to make sure I hadn’t missed anything when I caught myself.

The writing is fairly typically overwritten and flowery for the subgenre. Description drowns the action at almost every opportunity. Every character other than Nifft is pretty flat and one-dimensional. Nifft himself isn’t quite 2D, though he’s stronger than the average cardboard cut-out. There isn’t enough personality collected together to make a well-rounded individual, though that may be mainly because every character is there to serve a single purpose or define a single trait or emotion.

Every story (this is a collection) has a preface, ostensibly written by an old friend of Nifft’s as part of a long eulogy. Or eulogizing story. Or something. You can miss these and miss nothing.

Actually, unless you’re a big fan of the author, or of S&S generally, you can probably miss the book and miss nothing.

Overall rating: 2 stars. Meh. I’m really not sure why this collection won a World Fantasy Award. Or even got nominated. Or why the stories were collected into one volume in the first place. Mr. Shea published quite a few books and an awful lot of short stories. To my reading, the stories here are basically forgettable as soon as you’ve finished them. I’ve got to believe there’s better work of his out there.

[Darryl Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy the Brontë sisters and nurse romances you will not want to essay the picaresque NIFFT THE LEAN. Michael Shea, a man incapable of writing badly, could do things with English other writers couldn't. He could crack the language like a whip, run it silkily across your skin like a feather's caress or make it cold and sharp as a murderer's dagger. His words can elicit belly laughter one paragraph then creep into your brain the next to evoke some sticky, nauseating horror. Shea's style reminds one of the elegant tapestries woven by Gene Wolfe and Clive Barker. Without equivocation I'll say Shea writes every bit as good as all those literary darlings with serious writing chops doing their bestselling non-fiction novels: Vidal, Mailer, Capote. Like those heavyweights, Shea never dumbed anything down. He wrote for attentive, alert readers, ones unafraid to read slowly or re-read a sentence or a whole page if necessary; those not too lazy to look up words. That's a lot to expect from audiences accustomed to newspapers and magazines written at an 8th grade level, but Shea rewards them generously. If you've already read Shea you know, if you haven't it won't take long to find out. Welcome to Shea's Inferno.

[Norman Van Der Linde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This group of stories revolving around the anti-hero Nifft and his partner Barnar as told by Shag Margold are an absolute treasure to read.

Taking you all over their world, including a trip to the demon infested underworld, the tales are rich in both imagination and depth and following their exploits are a pleasure, the schemes are crafty and the results not always what they planned. It is difficult to find fault with this book the characters are likable (despite themselves often)the world is believable and the plots are intriguing.It also has the best I want to say zombie but will say back from the dead scene I have ever read. Why are you still reading this get the book and read it instead!

[keatssycamore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember thinking this book was awesome when I read it as a thirteen year-old farm geek. A little too horrific, but I knew that was more about my tastes as a person than what the author delivered. Then I went to college and found out the Michael Shea just kind of ripped off Dante. But I still liked it. Wish I still had the book.

On re-read, I think above is a disservice to Shea. He built the bones on Dante but there's a lot more in the book about Shea's thoughts on, for instance aging or creating (much of it approaching meta commentary on the author and his writings respectively). I think it is fair to say the book is relatively literary and was intended that way.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Michael Shea's words. He has good prose.
But the stories themselves, while quite eloquent and incredibly imaginative, shaking the lines between sci-fi and fantasy, are also a bit...bland.
I don't think that's the right word. Some of the stories are utterly devoid of stakes or surprises, while still being well told and well thought up.
I do however perfectly understand why Jack Vance thought Michael Shea would be an excellent choice for continuing the Dying Earth.

Reminded me a lot of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.

Reread, 3 years later: I don't know. They weren't quite as good this time around. Had to go from 4 stars to 3.