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Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz #1-9
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: The Complete Adult Debut―Godslaying Fantasy Adventures of a Witch Knight and Puppet Sorcerer
"I loved making the acquaintance of SirHereward and Mister Fitz. If you haven't met them yet, you are in for a treat. They are the best partnership in the world of fantasy since Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.” — George R.R. Martin, co-editor “A Cargo of Ivories” New York Times bestselling author Garth Nix’s exciting adult a new collection including all eight stories—plus a never-before-published story—featuring Sir Hereward and his sorcerous puppet companion Mister Fitz, gathered in one magical volume for the first time ever! Sir the only male child of an ancient society of witches. Knight, artillerist, swordsman. Mercenary for hire. Ill-starred lover. Mister puppet, sorcerer, loremaster. Practitioner of arcane arts and wielder of sorcerous needles. Sir Hereward and Mister godslayers. Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with the location and removal of listed extra-dimensional entities, more commonly known as gods. Together, they are relentless travelers in a treacherous world of magic, gunpowder, and adventure. Compiled for the first time ever, these eight magical stories—plus an all-new tale, “The Field of Fallen Foe”—featuring fabulous, quintessential Garth Nix protagonists Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz comprise a must-have adult fantasy collection for fans and those about to discover the witch knight and his puppet sorcerer for the first time.
304 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2023
275 people are currently reading
7706 people want to read
About the author
Garth Nix
236 books14.9k followersGarth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia, to the sound of the Salvation Army band outside playing 'Hail the Conquering Hero Comes' or possibly 'Roll Out the Barrel'. Garth left Melbourne at an early age for Canberra (the federal capital) and stayed there till he was nineteen, when he left to drive around the UK in a beat-up Austin with a boot full of books and a Silver-Reed typewriter.
Despite a wheel literally falling off the Austin, Garth survived to return to Australia and study at the University of Canberra. After finishing his degree in 1986 he worked in a bookshop, then as a book publicist, a publisher's sales representative, and editor. Along the way he was also a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve, serving in an Assault Pioneer platoon for four years. Garth left publishing to work as a public relations and marketing consultant from 1994-1997, till he became a full-time writer in 1998. He did that for a year before joining Curtis Brown Australia as a part-time literary agent in 1999. In January 2002 Garth went back to dedicated writer again, despite his belief that full-time writing explains the strange behaviour of many authors.
He now lives in Sydney with his wife, two sons and lots of books.
Despite a wheel literally falling off the Austin, Garth survived to return to Australia and study at the University of Canberra. After finishing his degree in 1986 he worked in a bookshop, then as a book publicist, a publisher's sales representative, and editor. Along the way he was also a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve, serving in an Assault Pioneer platoon for four years. Garth left publishing to work as a public relations and marketing consultant from 1994-1997, till he became a full-time writer in 1998. He did that for a year before joining Curtis Brown Australia as a part-time literary agent in 1999. In January 2002 Garth went back to dedicated writer again, despite his belief that full-time writing explains the strange behaviour of many authors.
He now lives in Sydney with his wife, two sons and lots of books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
October 16, 2023
4 Stars!
For some reason the cover grabbed me, and I’m happy to say it did not disappoint.
I really like the idea of a collection of short stories about the same MC’s and their adventures, and this compiles such from various publications over the last 16 years plus a new one for fans. Admittedly, this is my first experience with munitions expert Sir Hereward and his companion, sorcerer puppet Mr. Fitz, and I had a grand old time!
Set in a richly layered alternate universe, this medieval-esque backdrop has plenty of swords, explosive armaments, and lots and lots and lots of magic. These two protagonists belong to an ancient council known as the Treaty for the Safety of the World, whose sole mission is to banish evil beings from another dimension who simply exist to corrupt and spread chaos. Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz have been eternally tasked to find and destroy these troublesome beings, and one can only imagine what obstacles they face and what lengths they must go to to carry out their proscribed duty.
What I liked most was the relationship between these two. Hereward was born into this vocation and really has no choice. He’s more than capable - an expert in all forms of weapons, fighting styles, and varied abilities in subterfuge. Thing is, one gets the feeling that he would gladly hang up his guns and settle down or at least sow his wild oats for a spell as he’s the softie here, always trying to spare/save lives, always on the search for some warm comforts. However, Hereward’s basically the right hand man of Fitz, a puppet who long ago was created to wield otherworldly powerful magic and is singular in his mission and thought processes, doggedly focused on pursuing the next baddie on the list. To say the least, their relationship can be slightly contentious and exasperating between the two of them, but also complicatedly comforting and steadfast, as they unfailingly have the other's back in their perilous exploits.
Again, I found this highly entertaining with spurts of adventurous fun, funny, plus plenty of dire danger! Be prepared to encounter all sorts - shifters, cannibals, human sacrifice, duels, possession (both human and inanimate objects), charlatans, dragons, pirates, and a heist! I can confidently say you won’t be bored.
I’ve only read one other Nix short, and my experience with this will guarantee I’ll check out more from this imaginative writer!!
Thank you to the author and publisher for a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
For some reason the cover grabbed me, and I’m happy to say it did not disappoint.
I really like the idea of a collection of short stories about the same MC’s and their adventures, and this compiles such from various publications over the last 16 years plus a new one for fans. Admittedly, this is my first experience with munitions expert Sir Hereward and his companion, sorcerer puppet Mr. Fitz, and I had a grand old time!
Set in a richly layered alternate universe, this medieval-esque backdrop has plenty of swords, explosive armaments, and lots and lots and lots of magic. These two protagonists belong to an ancient council known as the Treaty for the Safety of the World, whose sole mission is to banish evil beings from another dimension who simply exist to corrupt and spread chaos. Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz have been eternally tasked to find and destroy these troublesome beings, and one can only imagine what obstacles they face and what lengths they must go to to carry out their proscribed duty.
What I liked most was the relationship between these two. Hereward was born into this vocation and really has no choice. He’s more than capable - an expert in all forms of weapons, fighting styles, and varied abilities in subterfuge. Thing is, one gets the feeling that he would gladly hang up his guns and settle down or at least sow his wild oats for a spell as he’s the softie here, always trying to spare/save lives, always on the search for some warm comforts. However, Hereward’s basically the right hand man of Fitz, a puppet who long ago was created to wield otherworldly powerful magic and is singular in his mission and thought processes, doggedly focused on pursuing the next baddie on the list. To say the least, their relationship can be slightly contentious and exasperating between the two of them, but also complicatedly comforting and steadfast, as they unfailingly have the other's back in their perilous exploits.
Again, I found this highly entertaining with spurts of adventurous fun, funny, plus plenty of dire danger! Be prepared to encounter all sorts - shifters, cannibals, human sacrifice, duels, possession (both human and inanimate objects), charlatans, dragons, pirates, and a heist! I can confidently say you won’t be bored.
I’ve only read one other Nix short, and my experience with this will guarantee I’ll check out more from this imaginative writer!!
Thank you to the author and publisher for a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
July 17, 2023
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz:
Stories of the Witch and the Puppet Sorcerer
by Garth Nix
Fantasy Short Stories
NetGalley ARC (Re-Publication)
16+
Publication: August 2023
Sir Hereward, the only male child born to a society of witches, and Mister Fitz, a puppet, sorcerer, and practitioner of arcane arts. They are Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with locating and the removal of extra-dimensional entities, or gods, with the use of magic, gunpowder, and a little swordplay.
Sounds great, right? Yeah, didn't live up to it. Nine short stories originally written for either magazines or a blog, were brought together to make up a 304-page book.
The stories are fine for their original magazine audience/format, but not so much as a book. I know I'm a hard one to please, I'm spoiled by authors who add layers of details to their characters, worlds, plots, and settings, so these stories were more like summaries, or tales one would tell over a campfire; quick and without a lot of detail that would really pull you down into the story, because the fire is burning out and the tents are calling. But with that said, if a minimum of five hundred words of details and character quirks were added to each of these stories, Bam! Wonderful tales could be exposed.
The stories were each cute enough that if lifted out of the short story dungeon, and brought to life as novellas, I could devour them, but as is, they're forgetful; tales to be read (skimmed) one time with the wish there had been more to them, and then mostly forgotten.
2 Stars
Stories of the Witch and the Puppet Sorcerer
by Garth Nix
Fantasy Short Stories
NetGalley ARC (Re-Publication)
16+
Publication: August 2023
Sir Hereward, the only male child born to a society of witches, and Mister Fitz, a puppet, sorcerer, and practitioner of arcane arts. They are Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with locating and the removal of extra-dimensional entities, or gods, with the use of magic, gunpowder, and a little swordplay.
Sounds great, right? Yeah, didn't live up to it. Nine short stories originally written for either magazines or a blog, were brought together to make up a 304-page book.
The stories are fine for their original magazine audience/format, but not so much as a book. I know I'm a hard one to please, I'm spoiled by authors who add layers of details to their characters, worlds, plots, and settings, so these stories were more like summaries, or tales one would tell over a campfire; quick and without a lot of detail that would really pull you down into the story, because the fire is burning out and the tents are calling. But with that said, if a minimum of five hundred words of details and character quirks were added to each of these stories, Bam! Wonderful tales could be exposed.
The stories were each cute enough that if lifted out of the short story dungeon, and brought to life as novellas, I could devour them, but as is, they're forgetful; tales to be read (skimmed) one time with the wish there had been more to them, and then mostly forgotten.
2 Stars
July 10, 2023
If you like sword and sorcery, read this excellent collection of short stories.
July 9, 2025
(reposted review as the original has mysteriously disappeared...?)
The steampunky setting with extraplanar beings and godlets was interesting and inventive. Mister Fitz was way more interesting than Hereward, which I don't imagine the author meant to happen. The low rating, though, is because once the background exposition was done with, the plotlines were predictable and boring in a very specific, consistent way that entirely had to do with the very repetitive pigeonholing of the female characters.
Don't get me wrong: the stories obviously were supposed to be fantasy homages to the sort of swashbuckling tales where the hero slayed the monster and got the girl (who of course was ready to jump his bones after three seconds in his presence). Such pulpy fun is necessarily predictable, and I can certainly enjoy that. But the characterization was so thin that it just felt like the author was ticking off plot points on a checklist, with different characters slotted in each time. Taken as a whole, though, this collection has a very strong undercurrent of mostly unsympathetic women who either end up dead or in Hereward's bed. Just...ew. This just kept happening over and over and over - I noticed it after the second story, and it just...kept happening, like clockwork. It's like that was the MAIN characterization of women characters that the author leaned on.
Maybe in their original individual publications, this pattern was not so obvious and could be handwaved away as "genre conventions". But put together like this, it's REALLY OBVIOUS and frankly incredibly creepy. Not to mention boring - the second any female character showed up, you knew exactly how things were going to go. It was obviously a convention that the author was not interested in doing anything remotely creative with, and it ruined most of my enjoyment of the setting.
The steampunky setting with extraplanar beings and godlets was interesting and inventive. Mister Fitz was way more interesting than Hereward, which I don't imagine the author meant to happen. The low rating, though, is because once the background exposition was done with, the plotlines were predictable and boring in a very specific, consistent way that entirely had to do with the very repetitive pigeonholing of the female characters.
Don't get me wrong: the stories obviously were supposed to be fantasy homages to the sort of swashbuckling tales where the hero slayed the monster and got the girl (who of course was ready to jump his bones after three seconds in his presence). Such pulpy fun is necessarily predictable, and I can certainly enjoy that. But the characterization was so thin that it just felt like the author was ticking off plot points on a checklist, with different characters slotted in each time. Taken as a whole, though, this collection has a very strong undercurrent of mostly unsympathetic women who either end up dead or in Hereward's bed. Just...ew. This just kept happening over and over and over - I noticed it after the second story, and it just...kept happening, like clockwork. It's like that was the MAIN characterization of women characters that the author leaned on.
Maybe in their original individual publications, this pattern was not so obvious and could be handwaved away as "genre conventions". But put together like this, it's REALLY OBVIOUS and frankly incredibly creepy. Not to mention boring - the second any female character showed up, you knew exactly how things were going to go. It was obviously a convention that the author was not interested in doing anything remotely creative with, and it ruined most of my enjoyment of the setting.
November 4, 2023
Garth Nix has been publishing Sir Hereward & Mr. Fitz stories in anthologies and magazines and such for years; this volume takes all those and puts them in a single collection. I had never read any of these stories, or indeed anything at all by Garth Nix before picking this up.
My overall conclusion: these are fun stories, but I think reading them back-to-back like I did is to their detriment.
Mr. Fitz is a wood and paper-mache puppet, animated by sorcery and centuries old. Sir Hereward is a knight and artillerist. Together they roam the land, Sir Hereward as a mercenary, and Mr. Fitz posing as one of the more common animated puppets who serve as entertainers rather than traveling openly as the powerful sorcerer he is. They are secretly going about their true purpose as members of an ancient order devoted to ridding the world of malevolent minor and not-quite-so-minor gods.
It’s a neat premise, and a great set-up for drop-in episodes like we have here. Each story is well done, and Hereward and Fitz are both great characters.
The problem is, when reading them back to back, I couldn’t help but notice just how many of the women they meet (generally sexy ones) end up dead. None of it seems egregious (which is more than I will say for the story where the sexy novice nun ended up naked for … reasons), but as it went on and woman after woman ended up dead I got distinctly uncomfortable.
A fun read, but better spread out than binged.
My blog
My overall conclusion: these are fun stories, but I think reading them back-to-back like I did is to their detriment.
Mr. Fitz is a wood and paper-mache puppet, animated by sorcery and centuries old. Sir Hereward is a knight and artillerist. Together they roam the land, Sir Hereward as a mercenary, and Mr. Fitz posing as one of the more common animated puppets who serve as entertainers rather than traveling openly as the powerful sorcerer he is. They are secretly going about their true purpose as members of an ancient order devoted to ridding the world of malevolent minor and not-quite-so-minor gods.
It’s a neat premise, and a great set-up for drop-in episodes like we have here. Each story is well done, and Hereward and Fitz are both great characters.
The problem is, when reading them back to back, I couldn’t help but notice just how many of the women they meet (generally sexy ones) end up dead. None of it seems egregious (which is more than I will say for the story where the sexy novice nun ended up naked for … reasons), but as it went on and woman after woman ended up dead I got distinctly uncomfortable.
A fun read, but better spread out than binged.
My blog
April 5, 2024
Stars: 4 out of 5.
I am not usually a fan of collections of short stories about the same characters. I feel like the format doesn't give the author enough time to develop the characters and tell a compelling story at the same time, especially if the stories aren't in chronological order or were written for different magazines and published at different times. And this compilation suffers from the same drawbacks, but the characters are compelling enough that I derived some genuine enjoyment following them around.
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz make an odd pair, to say the least. One is a human knight, skilled with firearms and swords, also a dandy and a bit of a womanizer. The other one is... a living puppet with a singular mission of exterminating rogue godlets who intend to cause harm to the world. It's also implied that Mister Fitz is a lot older that anyone knows and suspects, older even than the order of Witches from which Sir Hereward originated. Add to that the fact that he used to be Hereward's nanny when he was a little boy, and their relationship is interesting, to say the least.
Sir Hereward himself is a bit harder to read, probably because we don't get to explore his needs and wants as much in these stories. We know that he is the forbidden child to an order of Witches that are supposed to only sire female (Dune anyone?), but since his mother was part of the ruling council, he was allowed to live, and even train with other witches, but then exiled forever to go and hunt down rogue godlets in the world away from the witch stronghold. But we never really explore what Hereward himself wants in life, or how he feels about being a perpetual nomad, not able to put roots anywhere, traveling from one battle to another with only a living puppet for company. I would have loved to have this aspect explored more in the stories I read.
The world these two characters inhabit is also really interesting. It's full of magic and different deities, called godlets. Some are powerful, some less so. Some are benevolent or simply harmless, while others either intentionally cause harm or are just so incompatible with the world they invaded that they slowly destroy everything around them. I loved the fact that Hereward and Fitz aren't heartless killers who eliminate any godlet they are pointed at. They always assess the situation and do what's right, even disobeying direct orders sometimes, when those orders are unjust.
I would love to read more stories about these characters, even maybe a novella or a full blown novel where we can explore their inner workings a bit more and dive deeper into this world.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am not usually a fan of collections of short stories about the same characters. I feel like the format doesn't give the author enough time to develop the characters and tell a compelling story at the same time, especially if the stories aren't in chronological order or were written for different magazines and published at different times. And this compilation suffers from the same drawbacks, but the characters are compelling enough that I derived some genuine enjoyment following them around.
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz make an odd pair, to say the least. One is a human knight, skilled with firearms and swords, also a dandy and a bit of a womanizer. The other one is... a living puppet with a singular mission of exterminating rogue godlets who intend to cause harm to the world. It's also implied that Mister Fitz is a lot older that anyone knows and suspects, older even than the order of Witches from which Sir Hereward originated. Add to that the fact that he used to be Hereward's nanny when he was a little boy, and their relationship is interesting, to say the least.
Sir Hereward himself is a bit harder to read, probably because we don't get to explore his needs and wants as much in these stories. We know that he is the forbidden child to an order of Witches that are supposed to only sire female (Dune anyone?), but since his mother was part of the ruling council, he was allowed to live, and even train with other witches, but then exiled forever to go and hunt down rogue godlets in the world away from the witch stronghold. But we never really explore what Hereward himself wants in life, or how he feels about being a perpetual nomad, not able to put roots anywhere, traveling from one battle to another with only a living puppet for company. I would have loved to have this aspect explored more in the stories I read.
The world these two characters inhabit is also really interesting. It's full of magic and different deities, called godlets. Some are powerful, some less so. Some are benevolent or simply harmless, while others either intentionally cause harm or are just so incompatible with the world they invaded that they slowly destroy everything around them. I loved the fact that Hereward and Fitz aren't heartless killers who eliminate any godlet they are pointed at. They always assess the situation and do what's right, even disobeying direct orders sometimes, when those orders are unjust.
I would love to read more stories about these characters, even maybe a novella or a full blown novel where we can explore their inner workings a bit more and dive deeper into this world.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 29, 2023
Note: review based on an ARC won from a Goodreads giveaway
I read Garth Nix growing up, but was not familiar with the Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories. The knight Hereward and the sorceries puppet Fitz are an odd yet entertaining pairing, with each story charting one of their many adventures to track and take down god-like beings throughout their world. The first story did a good job of drawing you into the world, and each subsequent story was unique enough with the details and challenges faced as to not feel they were rereading the same ground, despite each following a similar through-line. The last story, new to this collection, is unique in that it adds a little more emotional depth to the puppet Fitz. Overall, I enjoyed the adventures and would read more if more were to be written.
I read Garth Nix growing up, but was not familiar with the Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories. The knight Hereward and the sorceries puppet Fitz are an odd yet entertaining pairing, with each story charting one of their many adventures to track and take down god-like beings throughout their world. The first story did a good job of drawing you into the world, and each subsequent story was unique enough with the details and challenges faced as to not feel they were rereading the same ground, despite each following a similar through-line. The last story, new to this collection, is unique in that it adds a little more emotional depth to the puppet Fitz. Overall, I enjoyed the adventures and would read more if more were to be written.
May 14, 2024
Includes all of Garth Nix's 9 tales of these characters. Sword-and-Sorcery akin to Fahrd [sp?] and the Grey Mouser, but not as much fun.
I like the characters, especially the puppet with the papier mâché head. But didn't really draw me in. Stopped after 3.
I like the characters, especially the puppet with the papier mâché head. But didn't really draw me in. Stopped after 3.
September 11, 2023
Ahoy there mateys! I love Garth Nix. This is an omnibus of all eight stories (and a bonus) about mercenary and knight Sir Hereward and the sorcerous puppet Mister Fitz. I actually enjoyed the premise of the two taking down proscribed gods from the list. Woe to anything or anyone who gets in their way. While I loved the characters and the world, I found these stories to overall be unsatisfying. The each felt like sections of a chapter taken out of a larger work. I really wanted the larger work. Where did the Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World come from? I wanted more about Sir Hereward and his life growing up in a society of witches. I certainly wanted way more about Mister Fitz's background and how his magic worked. I also felt that the plot of every story was just a bit too similar. The tactics used by the duo did not seem to vary much. It took me a while to get through the book because I wasn't desperate about what came next. This sounds so negative but I really am glad I read this. I just can't help but want the novel behind the hints of the short stories. Arrr!
I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
June 15, 2025
Rycerz oraz czarownik, wykreowani na obraz Don Kichota oraz Sancho Pansy, w każdym rozdziale mają inną misję do spełnienia, zawsze na śmierć i życie. Na drodze stają im piękne kobiety, które są niebezpieczne, każda ma coś na sumieniu, nie można im zaufać, są wojowniczkami lub potworami. Wraz z bohaterami pokonujemy fale, przeciskamy się przez wąskie gardziele wąwozów, walczymy z atakującym rojem rozgwiazd, aby zdobyć legendarny skarb. Nocą, wśród gwiazd, zakradamy się przez komin, by wykraść relikty. Zimą pokonujemy zaspy, i walczymy z bóstwami. W tym wszystkim towarzyszy nam niemająca końca wyobraźnia autora, sarkastyczny humor i świetne pióro.
Minusy
- forma opowiadań
- buty z futra foki
- sporo scen walk, opisów uzbrojenia
Minusy
- forma opowiadań
- buty z futra foki
- sporo scen walk, opisów uzbrojenia
November 15, 2023
Sword and Sorcery priče zauvek imaju mesto u mom srcu, posebno kada su ovako vešto i vickasto napisane kao Niksove. Moderne, da, ali s dužnim poštovanjem prethodnicima.
August 3, 2023
The only complaint I have about Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz is the fact that there are not more stories! It is impossible to categorize these into a pigeonhole theme. Swashbuckling pirates? Got those! Mystical entities? Got those too. Bumbling inconvenient side character? Present and accounted for. The general gist is that the titular characters are charged with eliminating "proscribed" godlets and other trans-dimensional entities, but even straightforward adventures often do not go as planned. Between Sir Hereward's dissembling and ability to break anybody on whom deception is ineffective and his companion Mister Fitz's magic needle, they survive and triumph in a number of situations that look otherwise impossible. Well worth the read, and an absolute romp.
December 7, 2023
So much fun!
Do you enjoy:
- Garth Nix?
- sword and sorcery?
- adventures of bite-sized length?
- unlikely duos?
- unlikely duos where one half of the duo is a sorcerous, genderfluid puppet?
If yes to any of the above, give these short stories a try! They've got charm to spare, and they definitely won me over.
Do you enjoy:
- Garth Nix?
- sword and sorcery?
- adventures of bite-sized length?
- unlikely duos?
- unlikely duos where one half of the duo is a sorcerous, genderfluid puppet?
If yes to any of the above, give these short stories a try! They've got charm to spare, and they definitely won me over.
2023
January 29, 2025$4.99 @ Libro.fm
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager
November 19, 2024
The contribution of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories to this volume's DNA is strong and clear, not only in the general feel of the world and the partnership between the two protagonists, but in the tone of the stories. The various encounters they have do not tend to end well for other characters, or even for Sir Hereward; he frequently desires to dally with women they encounter, but even if they're not outright antagonists they're often victims and/or agents of the otherworldly entities that the pair hunt down and exterminate on behalf of the Committee for the Safety of the World.
The language, too, is similar to the prose of Fritz Lieber (author of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales). It's not as over-elaborate as, say, Jack Vance, whose stories I particularly dislike, mainly for the alienated, dark characters, but also for the overwrought prose, which unfortunately gets imitated by other writers who don't have the chops to pull it off. Nor is it the highly charged, dramatic prose of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. It's formal in cadence, but mostly straightforward in syntax, and progresses at a steady pace through these shadowy mini-tragedies, helping to insulate the reader by its very matter-of-factness from the horror of some of the events.
There is the odd dangling modifier, and there are a few too many commas between adjectives sometimes (including one after "one," which is an adjective, technically, but should never have a coordinate comma after it). Otherwise, the copy editing is good, and while the author sometimes uses an old-fashioned piece of technical vocabulary as part of his worldbuilding and tonebuilding, he always seems to use it correctly.
I'd read three of these stories when they were collected before, but was happy to come back round again and read several more. While they're darker than I usually prefer, they're well written, and I enjoyed them.
The language, too, is similar to the prose of Fritz Lieber (author of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales). It's not as over-elaborate as, say, Jack Vance, whose stories I particularly dislike, mainly for the alienated, dark characters, but also for the overwrought prose, which unfortunately gets imitated by other writers who don't have the chops to pull it off. Nor is it the highly charged, dramatic prose of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. It's formal in cadence, but mostly straightforward in syntax, and progresses at a steady pace through these shadowy mini-tragedies, helping to insulate the reader by its very matter-of-factness from the horror of some of the events.
There is the odd dangling modifier, and there are a few too many commas between adjectives sometimes (including one after "one," which is an adjective, technically, but should never have a coordinate comma after it). Otherwise, the copy editing is good, and while the author sometimes uses an old-fashioned piece of technical vocabulary as part of his worldbuilding and tonebuilding, he always seems to use it correctly.
I'd read three of these stories when they were collected before, but was happy to come back round again and read several more. While they're darker than I usually prefer, they're well written, and I enjoyed them.
December 28, 2023
A bit shallow and formulaic
October 21, 2023
1 star
Dnf @25%
It was my mistake picking it up. I have no patience for slow burn stories. All I read now is mysteries. And this book did not agree with my current mood.
Happy reading!!
Dnf @25%
It was my mistake picking it up. I have no patience for slow burn stories. All I read now is mysteries. And this book did not agree with my current mood.
Happy reading!!
September 3, 2023
I love nix and think of him as good at short stories but most of these were barely passable. also way too pro-military
April 3, 2024
An excitingly eldritch selection of musket-era fantasy, sprinkled with cosmic horror and framed from the perspective of two lesser-deity hunters.
I took my time reading the last few stories in this collection not because it was boring, but rather the opposite; I didn't want it to end. I was first introduced to the world of Sir Hereward & Mister Fitz (and the work of Garth Nix in general) by 'A Cargo of Ivories', one of the stories featured here. Each has been written as a standalone adventure, and every one has something to like about it.
I found the world of Hereward & Fitz to be a fascinating one. In an era where medieval fantasy is very much the default, I found refreshing and enticing a take on fantasy that brings matters into the later renaissance with flintlock pistols and gunpowdered armaments. The protagonists themselves are likeable and distinct, with an interesting relationship that blurs the familial and the professional. Nix's dialogue is convincingly era-appropriate (or at least appears to be to my untrained eye), and his prose is exciting and imaginative. While not afraid to dabble with humour in the face of great strife, he thankfully also doesn't fall into the modernised, quippy trap that Whedon and Marvel have made so common in modern dialogue. Throw into the mix a touch of cosmic horror in each story with the eldritch entities known as godlets, and you have a recipe that is uniquely (almost oddly) specific to my personal tastes, and I fear I won't find anything else that's quite like it.
My only gripe with the series stems I think from the nature of the short story, and of traditional fantasy as a medium. Specifically, the portrayal of women in earlier stories is reduced to two archetypes; either the powerful villainess that must be slain, or the damsel to be won. This tired trope became a bit noticable by the midpoint of the collection. However, after finishing the whole book this seems to me more a symptom of a reliance on the same narrative beats during the writing process rather than intentional mallace. Written and read years apart, I feel that these same story beats wouldn't have stood out as much as they do in a collection such as this. This issue is also not prevalent in the last few stories, implying to me that the author may have become aware of this flaw and taken steps not to fall back on the same tropes again. I fully admit that this could be giving too much credit however, as I did enjoy the stories despite this anyway.
All in all, a delightful series that I truly hope continues on. Oh, and Damonza's/Jean Reina's artwork for this hardback edition might be my favourite cover art in recent memory.
I took my time reading the last few stories in this collection not because it was boring, but rather the opposite; I didn't want it to end. I was first introduced to the world of Sir Hereward & Mister Fitz (and the work of Garth Nix in general) by 'A Cargo of Ivories', one of the stories featured here. Each has been written as a standalone adventure, and every one has something to like about it.
I found the world of Hereward & Fitz to be a fascinating one. In an era where medieval fantasy is very much the default, I found refreshing and enticing a take on fantasy that brings matters into the later renaissance with flintlock pistols and gunpowdered armaments. The protagonists themselves are likeable and distinct, with an interesting relationship that blurs the familial and the professional. Nix's dialogue is convincingly era-appropriate (or at least appears to be to my untrained eye), and his prose is exciting and imaginative. While not afraid to dabble with humour in the face of great strife, he thankfully also doesn't fall into the modernised, quippy trap that Whedon and Marvel have made so common in modern dialogue. Throw into the mix a touch of cosmic horror in each story with the eldritch entities known as godlets, and you have a recipe that is uniquely (almost oddly) specific to my personal tastes, and I fear I won't find anything else that's quite like it.
My only gripe with the series stems I think from the nature of the short story, and of traditional fantasy as a medium. Specifically, the portrayal of women in earlier stories is reduced to two archetypes; either the powerful villainess that must be slain, or the damsel to be won. This tired trope became a bit noticable by the midpoint of the collection. However, after finishing the whole book this seems to me more a symptom of a reliance on the same narrative beats during the writing process rather than intentional mallace. Written and read years apart, I feel that these same story beats wouldn't have stood out as much as they do in a collection such as this. This issue is also not prevalent in the last few stories, implying to me that the author may have become aware of this flaw and taken steps not to fall back on the same tropes again. I fully admit that this could be giving too much credit however, as I did enjoy the stories despite this anyway.
All in all, a delightful series that I truly hope continues on. Oh, and Damonza's/Jean Reina's artwork for this hardback edition might be my favourite cover art in recent memory.
December 24, 2023
I feel feral and confused about this short story collection. Lots to enjoy, lots to be intensely frustrated about.
The premise is great: old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery with a paladin-like hero, his puppet-sorcerer sidekick, and a touch of the eldritch. (The cosmic horror in this is done exactly how I like it, creeping in around the edges of the story to slowly be revealed.) Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz have an odd and amusing dynamic that every single other review on the internet has commented on, so I won't.
I love short stories but can never muster up the activation energy to initialize reading each new one, so for me, a collection with interrelated stories and characters is ideal.
The main problem here is that, because Sir Hereward is a romantic-paladin-type hero, there are a lot of women in this who exist only to a) serve as love interests, b) eventually end up dead, c) both at once. Garth Nix was writing excellent female characters in the fantasy genre a LONG time before most other male authors (see: the Abhorsen books), so I don't know what's going on here. Maybe a reflection of the genre he's seeking to emulate. Maybe an oversight that only becomes obvious when you read all the stories back-to-back?
The aspect of this collection that fascinates me is that Sir Hereward is both very much a trope and also, maybe a bit repressed and suicidal? He's a bit of a blunt object -- affable, doesn't think too much or too hard, likes women and simple comforts (like women). But you also get the sense that this is because of the kind of life he has to lead. He was raised by a secret society to be a weapon; he has internalized that his life is expendable, and his purpose is to sacrifice himself for others' safety. He is constantly in danger, experiencing terrors and killing. He doesn't get to have "normal" things -- comfort, warmth, love, connection. (This is a theme of the Abhorsen books, as well: Abhorsens have to sacrifice much in order to keep The People safe. I wonder where Nix's preoccupation with romanticizing this idea comes from.)
If you look closely, the stories imply that Sir Hereward's life is extremely bad, and that he never thinks too deeply about anything that happens to him, on purpose, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to bear it. The stories dance on the knife's-edge of this, to the point where I honestly can't tell if it's intentional -- or something that I'm reading into too much. Anyway, that ambiguity is why I felt compelled to write this review.
The premise is great: old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery with a paladin-like hero, his puppet-sorcerer sidekick, and a touch of the eldritch. (The cosmic horror in this is done exactly how I like it, creeping in around the edges of the story to slowly be revealed.) Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz have an odd and amusing dynamic that every single other review on the internet has commented on, so I won't.
I love short stories but can never muster up the activation energy to initialize reading each new one, so for me, a collection with interrelated stories and characters is ideal.
The main problem here is that, because Sir Hereward is a romantic-paladin-type hero, there are a lot of women in this who exist only to a) serve as love interests, b) eventually end up dead, c) both at once. Garth Nix was writing excellent female characters in the fantasy genre a LONG time before most other male authors (see: the Abhorsen books), so I don't know what's going on here. Maybe a reflection of the genre he's seeking to emulate. Maybe an oversight that only becomes obvious when you read all the stories back-to-back?
The aspect of this collection that fascinates me is that Sir Hereward is both very much a trope and also, maybe a bit repressed and suicidal? He's a bit of a blunt object -- affable, doesn't think too much or too hard, likes women and simple comforts (like women). But you also get the sense that this is because of the kind of life he has to lead. He was raised by a secret society to be a weapon; he has internalized that his life is expendable, and his purpose is to sacrifice himself for others' safety. He is constantly in danger, experiencing terrors and killing. He doesn't get to have "normal" things -- comfort, warmth, love, connection. (This is a theme of the Abhorsen books, as well: Abhorsens have to sacrifice much in order to keep The People safe. I wonder where Nix's preoccupation with romanticizing this idea comes from.)
If you look closely, the stories imply that Sir Hereward's life is extremely bad, and that he never thinks too deeply about anything that happens to him, on purpose, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to bear it. The stories dance on the knife's-edge of this, to the point where I honestly can't tell if it's intentional -- or something that I'm reading into too much. Anyway, that ambiguity is why I felt compelled to write this review.
April 23, 2025
Not a fan of how females were largely treated in every single story. DNF
The idea behind the world and the kind of adventures that want to be told are there. There are even a number of enjoyable characters. However, I couldn't keep reading story after story with how females were being treated. It is not necessarily about the romancing Hereward did, nor was it about the lack thereof in some stories, nor was it necessarily about the ogling of the females he found "mostly" attractive. Because they were only mildly attractive when they didn't have facial scarring. Which was a refreshing take for about the first two stories afterwards the gag got a bit old.
The root of the issue for me is the consistency with which each and every single female character largely falls into one of two options evil or dead, and unsurprisingly sometimes both. They never really fulfilled any other role. Arguably the only female character who was an aid in one of their quests was Rosie. The moklek.
The original publication of these stories probably had a different effect on the reader since it was serially released in a magazine over time. As they are, set in a collection and read back to back that effect is greatly changed since patterns are more easily picked up on. I have no issue with him having a large support cast of female side characters. But I find fault in the logic that by having two male MCs that a balance is immediately stricken by having a large cast of females on the other side.
I think, and personally prefer, that a balance is having those female support characters fulfill a range of roles within the narrative from story to story. Some evil antagonist, some neutral support, some rebuff his advances and not due to vows, some platonic, some willingly aid in their quest to banish evil godlets because they too wish to see that godlet removed.
That was the missing key.
The idea behind the world and the kind of adventures that want to be told are there. There are even a number of enjoyable characters. However, I couldn't keep reading story after story with how females were being treated. It is not necessarily about the romancing Hereward did, nor was it about the lack thereof in some stories, nor was it necessarily about the ogling of the females he found "mostly" attractive. Because they were only mildly attractive when they didn't have facial scarring. Which was a refreshing take for about the first two stories afterwards the gag got a bit old.
The root of the issue for me is the consistency with which each and every single female character largely falls into one of two options evil or dead, and unsurprisingly sometimes both. They never really fulfilled any other role. Arguably the only female character who was an aid in one of their quests was Rosie. The moklek.
The original publication of these stories probably had a different effect on the reader since it was serially released in a magazine over time. As they are, set in a collection and read back to back that effect is greatly changed since patterns are more easily picked up on. I have no issue with him having a large support cast of female side characters. But I find fault in the logic that by having two male MCs that a balance is immediately stricken by having a large cast of females on the other side.
I think, and personally prefer, that a balance is having those female support characters fulfill a range of roles within the narrative from story to story. Some evil antagonist, some neutral support, some rebuff his advances and not due to vows, some platonic, some willingly aid in their quest to banish evil godlets because they too wish to see that godlet removed.
That was the missing key.
November 1, 2023
Ok so like, is Mr Nix under the impression that Sir Hereward is the interesting one here? Because on one hand, you have a centuries-old, animated, sentient, sorcerous, gender-fluid puppet who is bad ass and has raised this guy since he was a child. On the other, you have Sir H, who is stereotypically fantasy-“masculine”, generically heroic, vaguely witty, kind of whiny, and a womanizer - my first born for more original male characters, PLEASE (especially given his unique background?? Why are you doing this to me). And yet he’s the primary narrator. I think this could have been an interesting collection if Nix had actually bothered to do anything with Sir H, but as-is it feels outdated and not particularly worth your time.
June 2, 2023
An amalgamation of short adventure stories designed to capture the imagination. I prefer the one-story line with multiple quests interleaved. I get that when you’re after various godlets, each has its own story to tell but it tends to run short in presentation. Way too short.
The characters are wonderfully staged and the world building, although limited, was good. Count me as a fan of this duo.
The characters are wonderfully staged and the world building, although limited, was good. Count me as a fan of this duo.
April 21, 2024
Don't read all of these stories at once. They weren't meant for that.
Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz are wandering godslayers, agents of an ancient treaty among the nations to seek and kill gods judged dangerous to humanity. After thousands of years, the major nations who created the treaty are defunct, but its agents are not. Cannons and guns have spread far and wide, but blades are still common and industrialism has yet to truly emerge.
Hereward is a man born to a sect of witches who uphold the treaty, and Mr. Fitz is a wooden puppet, as old as the treaty, and a master sorcerer. Mr. Fitz is both the brains and brawn of the operation, with Hereward being a combination apprentice and son (Mr. Fitz was once Mistress Fitz and Hereward's nanny, until Hereward decided he wanted his teacher to be a man). However, Hereward has to play the part of the leader of the operation to avoid blowing their various covers, and most of the stories involve them concocting identities and operating under false pretences to accomplish their goals. The premise is solid, the characters have a dynamic ripe for both comedy and drama, and it's got the edgiest tomboys Nix has written yet* (and never let it be said that Nix isn't a man of culture). And yet...
The biggest problem is that these stories were intended to be read standalone. Bloodier and sexier than Nix's middle grade books, they were originally published in magazines and anthologies aimed at adult readers. Because of this every story (except the one new to this collection) has to reestablish the setting and characters. There is an insane amount of repetition. A line or concept that is intriguing ceases to be so when it's been repeated a half dozen times without elaboration. If any editing was done to the stories for this publication, it clearly wasn't enough. Worsening the issue is that there is no development of plot or character. Hereward's state as a wandering misfit, or Mr. Fitz's quasi-maternal feelings for Hereward are never really addressed to satisfaction, because each story must exist in isolation. There's not even any clearly discernible chronology between the stories, other than that two of them likely took place before "Home is the Haunter". Some kind of frame story that can connect to the individual stories and develop itself is desperately needed. All of that could be forgiven if the stories themselves were keeping it fresh. Unfortunately, half of them are some variation of "H and F lie about what they're doing, meet a tomboy, H ends up having to fight her due to the circumstances of the mission, some kind of action climax where F saves the day". The weirdness factor is fairly low for Nix, though it does crop up.
If you read the stories months apart, they would probably maintain what lustre they do have, better. The stories do generally improve the further on they are, as they were written over more than ten years. Some of them are worth highlighting:
"Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz Go to War Again" - H and F seek employment as mercenaries in the city of Shume, but realize they must go back to their primary profession of godslayers once they arrive. As their debut, it's worth reading as the prototypical H and F story from which the others derive. Everything repeated nauseatingly in the later stories originated here, and it goes into slightly more detail about things. Not mindblowing, and later stories have better locations and action, but it would've been a solid starting point for an actual storyline of some kind. Has the funniest bit in the whole book:
"Losing Her Divinity" - A monologue from a man being interrogated by H and F. the changeup of the format, the many digressions away from the main point, and the one-sided "dialogue" presented are a breath of fresh air. The actual story the man relates is a strange encounter between himself and a rogue goddess who isn't careful enough of what she wished for.
"Home is the Haunter" - H and F are forced to find shelter at a convent in the middle of nowhere while transporting an absolutely massive cannon and a talking dagger to a faraway city. Good mainly because the action conclusion and accompanying set piece is really good, a cut above the rest and extremely bombastic.
"A Long, Cold Trail" - H and F await the aid of a magical artifact from one of H's cousins, but they don't get what they were expecting when they're accosted by a fraudulent godslayer. Nor does the reader when Funny, and much less formulaic than the rest. It's like this one was ripped from an alternate universe where Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz had a plot, a side cast, and character development. Alas, the rest of it is not.
"The Field of Fallen Foe" - H and F are charged with killing a benevolent god because of an old grudge H's clan holds. This story is original to the collection and is at the end, so it can assume you already read at least one other and don't need to be tutorialized again. It develops H's estrangement from his clan, makes him wonder where his loyalties ultimately lie, and softens F slightly. While the stories make it clear that F does care for H, and wouldn't put H in harm's way unless F believed H could plausibly survive it, F can seem robotic with his singleminded determination to kill evil gods. This final story gives him a moment of real heart that shows he ultimately believes in certain principles that put him on the path he's on, not that he does things because an ancient piece of paper says he should. The field of poison-oozing, jewel-encrusted bones of giant monsters was cool too.
I would absolutely read more about Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz, especially if it was explicitly set after "The Field of Fallen Foe" and brought back the minor characters from "A Long, Cold Trail". If I had read these stories spaced well apart, I likely would have enjoyed them a great deal more. As it is, not Nix's best but leagues better than Angel Mage. Nix hasn't lost his touch completely.
As a complete side note, Nix mentions that Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories inspired H and F, while Leiber cites Spendius of Salammbo as partly inspiring the Gray Mouser. I was not aware of this when choosing to read this right after Salammbo.
*As a fake Nix fan I have not read any of the Sabriel books yet, but unless there's a tomboy who eats people alive, I'm correct
Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz are wandering godslayers, agents of an ancient treaty among the nations to seek and kill gods judged dangerous to humanity. After thousands of years, the major nations who created the treaty are defunct, but its agents are not. Cannons and guns have spread far and wide, but blades are still common and industrialism has yet to truly emerge.
Hereward is a man born to a sect of witches who uphold the treaty, and Mr. Fitz is a wooden puppet, as old as the treaty, and a master sorcerer. Mr. Fitz is both the brains and brawn of the operation, with Hereward being a combination apprentice and son (Mr. Fitz was once Mistress Fitz and Hereward's nanny, until Hereward decided he wanted his teacher to be a man). However, Hereward has to play the part of the leader of the operation to avoid blowing their various covers, and most of the stories involve them concocting identities and operating under false pretences to accomplish their goals. The premise is solid, the characters have a dynamic ripe for both comedy and drama, and it's got the edgiest tomboys Nix has written yet* (and never let it be said that Nix isn't a man of culture). And yet...
The biggest problem is that these stories were intended to be read standalone. Bloodier and sexier than Nix's middle grade books, they were originally published in magazines and anthologies aimed at adult readers. Because of this every story (except the one new to this collection) has to reestablish the setting and characters. There is an insane amount of repetition. A line or concept that is intriguing ceases to be so when it's been repeated a half dozen times without elaboration. If any editing was done to the stories for this publication, it clearly wasn't enough. Worsening the issue is that there is no development of plot or character. Hereward's state as a wandering misfit, or Mr. Fitz's quasi-maternal feelings for Hereward are never really addressed to satisfaction, because each story must exist in isolation. There's not even any clearly discernible chronology between the stories, other than that two of them likely took place before "Home is the Haunter". Some kind of frame story that can connect to the individual stories and develop itself is desperately needed. All of that could be forgiven if the stories themselves were keeping it fresh. Unfortunately, half of them are some variation of "H and F lie about what they're doing, meet a tomboy, H ends up having to fight her due to the circumstances of the mission, some kind of action climax where F saves the day". The weirdness factor is fairly low for Nix, though it does crop up.
If you read the stories months apart, they would probably maintain what lustre they do have, better. The stories do generally improve the further on they are, as they were written over more than ten years. Some of them are worth highlighting:
"Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz Go to War Again" - H and F seek employment as mercenaries in the city of Shume, but realize they must go back to their primary profession of godslayers once they arrive. As their debut, it's worth reading as the prototypical H and F story from which the others derive. Everything repeated nauseatingly in the later stories originated here, and it goes into slightly more detail about things. Not mindblowing, and later stories have better locations and action, but it would've been a solid starting point for an actual storyline of some kind. Has the funniest bit in the whole book:
"Losing Her Divinity" - A monologue from a man being interrogated by H and F. the changeup of the format, the many digressions away from the main point, and the one-sided "dialogue" presented are a breath of fresh air. The actual story the man relates is a strange encounter between himself and a rogue goddess who isn't careful enough of what she wished for.
"Home is the Haunter" - H and F are forced to find shelter at a convent in the middle of nowhere while transporting an absolutely massive cannon and a talking dagger to a faraway city. Good mainly because the action conclusion and accompanying set piece is really good, a cut above the rest and extremely bombastic.
"A Long, Cold Trail" - H and F await the aid of a magical artifact from one of H's cousins, but they don't get what they were expecting when they're accosted by a fraudulent godslayer. Nor does the reader when Funny, and much less formulaic than the rest. It's like this one was ripped from an alternate universe where Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz had a plot, a side cast, and character development. Alas, the rest of it is not.
"The Field of Fallen Foe" - H and F are charged with killing a benevolent god because of an old grudge H's clan holds. This story is original to the collection and is at the end, so it can assume you already read at least one other and don't need to be tutorialized again. It develops H's estrangement from his clan, makes him wonder where his loyalties ultimately lie, and softens F slightly. While the stories make it clear that F does care for H, and wouldn't put H in harm's way unless F believed H could plausibly survive it, F can seem robotic with his singleminded determination to kill evil gods. This final story gives him a moment of real heart that shows he ultimately believes in certain principles that put him on the path he's on, not that he does things because an ancient piece of paper says he should. The field of poison-oozing, jewel-encrusted bones of giant monsters was cool too.
I would absolutely read more about Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz, especially if it was explicitly set after "The Field of Fallen Foe" and brought back the minor characters from "A Long, Cold Trail". If I had read these stories spaced well apart, I likely would have enjoyed them a great deal more. As it is, not Nix's best but leagues better than Angel Mage. Nix hasn't lost his touch completely.
As a complete side note, Nix mentions that Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories inspired H and F, while Leiber cites Spendius of Salammbo as partly inspiring the Gray Mouser. I was not aware of this when choosing to read this right after Salammbo.
*As a fake Nix fan I have not read any of the Sabriel books yet, but unless there's a tomboy who eats people alive, I'm correct
November 21, 2024
a fun little collection of short stories, creative and unique but ultimately still limited by the format. it got repetitive being introduced to hereward and fitz every story, but thats the nature of them being published separately originally. i would have bumped this collection up a star but hereward's horniness was just a little too annoying for me
sir hereward and mister fitz go to war again - ☆☆☆ - our introductory story and a fun little adventure. definitely sets the expectation that fitz is the pro and while hereward isnt untalented, he's not involved in the magical aspects
beyond the sea gate of the scholar-pirates of sarskoe - ☆☆ - if this had been the only story to have hereward hitting on the female secondary character than i could have handled it. i didnt find the action sequences very good, i found it hard to picture the seastar monsers and the general geography of where the ships were.
a suitable present for a sorcerous puppet - ☆ - this felt very dated and corny, it was easy to predict the mystery of the body swap and so was kind of disappointing
losing her divinity - ☆ - i didnt like the switch to first person and really didnt care for the new narrator, again another weirdly horny story in a dated sexist way. i think nix is trying to make me dislike this narrator but i wasnt totally sure, and even if it was intentional it still doesnt make it pleasant to read
a cargo of ivories - ☆☆ - i was intensely grateful this one wasnt horny as the secondary female character is a teenager. otherwise its just a fun little adventure and really only was a relief because the previous stories were unenjoyable
home is the haunter - ☆☆☆☆ - really liked this one as i found the secondary characters more believable, the sisters felt like they had history and preexisting relationships and hereward and fitz have just stumbled into something. also found the action scene much easier to follow and was actually engaging and tense
a long cold trail - ☆☆☆☆ - the first story i read in the book of swords anthology which gave me too good an impression of hereward and fitz. i liked getting more of a peek at herewards family and i thought fyltak was a fun side character
cut me another quill, mister fitz - ☆☆☆ - i figured out hereward and fitz ruse very quickly but it was still a fun read. i enjoy a humanoid dragon mystery
the field of fallen foe - ☆☆☆ - the plot here is just fine, but whats really interesting is getting into fitz as a character and his unshakable devotion to his own code and set of rules regardless of what hereward has been order to do. i wish more of the stories had this kind of conflict, duty vs honor kind of things
overall glad i read this but its hard to recommend because of how mixed a bag this is
sir hereward and mister fitz go to war again - ☆☆☆ - our introductory story and a fun little adventure. definitely sets the expectation that fitz is the pro and while hereward isnt untalented, he's not involved in the magical aspects
beyond the sea gate of the scholar-pirates of sarskoe - ☆☆ - if this had been the only story to have hereward hitting on the female secondary character than i could have handled it. i didnt find the action sequences very good, i found it hard to picture the seastar monsers and the general geography of where the ships were.
a suitable present for a sorcerous puppet - ☆ - this felt very dated and corny, it was easy to predict the mystery of the body swap and so was kind of disappointing
losing her divinity - ☆ - i didnt like the switch to first person and really didnt care for the new narrator, again another weirdly horny story in a dated sexist way. i think nix is trying to make me dislike this narrator but i wasnt totally sure, and even if it was intentional it still doesnt make it pleasant to read
a cargo of ivories - ☆☆ - i was intensely grateful this one wasnt horny as the secondary female character is a teenager. otherwise its just a fun little adventure and really only was a relief because the previous stories were unenjoyable
home is the haunter - ☆☆☆☆ - really liked this one as i found the secondary characters more believable, the sisters felt like they had history and preexisting relationships and hereward and fitz have just stumbled into something. also found the action scene much easier to follow and was actually engaging and tense
a long cold trail - ☆☆☆☆ - the first story i read in the book of swords anthology which gave me too good an impression of hereward and fitz. i liked getting more of a peek at herewards family and i thought fyltak was a fun side character
cut me another quill, mister fitz - ☆☆☆ - i figured out hereward and fitz ruse very quickly but it was still a fun read. i enjoy a humanoid dragon mystery
the field of fallen foe - ☆☆☆ - the plot here is just fine, but whats really interesting is getting into fitz as a character and his unshakable devotion to his own code and set of rules regardless of what hereward has been order to do. i wish more of the stories had this kind of conflict, duty vs honor kind of things
overall glad i read this but its hard to recommend because of how mixed a bag this is
December 6, 2023
I requested this because I love Garth Nix's Sabriel, but this has a very different feel. The overall tone is a similar overarching darkness full of monsters to Sabriel's tone, but the characters are vastly different.
Sir Hereward is kind of a dudebro. He's sexist, prefers to ogle women (though his definition of beautiful isn't the standard so, yay him I guess but that doesn't make it any less sexist), and is definitely the brawn of their duo.
Mister Fitz is... unsettling. Kinda creepy. He's very ominous and has lots of secrets to kill things with magic. He also seems to view most people other than Sir Hereward as expendable.
Each story introduces a new setting and cast of characters, at least one beautiful woman for him to ogle and attempt to hook up with... and then they all die gruesomely and Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz move on to their next target.
I never felt like any of it was more than sketched in. Which makes sense, since this is a collection of short stories, but I didn't realize they were going to be as unconnected as they were. I didn't really feel like we learned much new information with each story. They also began to feel very similar to one another, as if they were all the same basic plot told and retold with new gods and monsters. It just got dull and I decided I had better things to read since I was really struggling to pick it up.
I listened to the audiobook and I think I found Sir Hereward more annoying and Mister Fitz more creepy and unsettling because of it.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing an early copy for review.
Sir Hereward is kind of a dudebro. He's sexist, prefers to ogle women (though his definition of beautiful isn't the standard so, yay him I guess but that doesn't make it any less sexist), and is definitely the brawn of their duo.
Mister Fitz is... unsettling. Kinda creepy. He's very ominous and has lots of secrets to kill things with magic. He also seems to view most people other than Sir Hereward as expendable.
Each story introduces a new setting and cast of characters, at least one beautiful woman for him to ogle and attempt to hook up with... and then they all die gruesomely and Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz move on to their next target.
I never felt like any of it was more than sketched in. Which makes sense, since this is a collection of short stories, but I didn't realize they were going to be as unconnected as they were. I didn't really feel like we learned much new information with each story. They also began to feel very similar to one another, as if they were all the same basic plot told and retold with new gods and monsters. It just got dull and I decided I had better things to read since I was really struggling to pick it up.
I listened to the audiobook and I think I found Sir Hereward more annoying and Mister Fitz more creepy and unsettling because of it.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing an early copy for review.
November 17, 2023
Garth Nix is an instant-read author for me because I have loved so many of this other books, but this one just didn't do it for me. To be fair, these stories were not originally meant to be compiled in this way and be read back-to-back, and I think that doing so takes away from the experience. Because when going straight from one story to the next, you realize that almost all of these stories use the same formula, with very little deviation. Now, I did enjoy the writing (the descriptive language Nix uses makes this honestly one of the best examples of his writing ability) and the characters fun, the world-building intriguing. But these stories just made me want to read more in this world, with more development and variety, instead of these choppy vignettes. I wanted more background, more purpose to what the characters were doing. I also wanted more from Fitz's perspective, because he is by far the more interesting of the pair, and we lose some of the adventure with sticking so closely to Hereward. I mean, in the very first story, we don't even get to see how the big-bad is dispatched, because Fitz does so off-page while Hereward guards the door. I felt robbed of the most interesting part of the story! Also, I did notice after awhile that there was a bit of a troublesome pattern with the portrayal of women in the stories. The formula seemed to be that Hereward would show interest in them (maybe even objectifying them), only for them to be revealed to be the villain or be allied with villain, and so then they had to be killed. If I hadn't read so much of the rest of Nix's catalogue (which is so full of strong heroines), I would honestly think that he hates women.
August 7, 2024
Not my favourite from Garth Nix, although I did become more invested in the later stories.
Obviously with a collection of previously published short stories about the same characters, there's bound to be some repetition of information, so I won't mark it down for that. I liked the setting, the magic system and main characters. But the female characters, especially in the first few stories, seemed to be there for Hereward to fancy, and to then end up being villainous and, finally, dead. I know that this is styled after more classic fantasies, but I could have done with out this element featuring so heavily, even if they are slightly self-aware.
I'd really like to see this world and characters in full-length novels that have the time to develop the characters a little more and explore what is already a really interesting world
Obviously with a collection of previously published short stories about the same characters, there's bound to be some repetition of information, so I won't mark it down for that. I liked the setting, the magic system and main characters. But the female characters, especially in the first few stories, seemed to be there for Hereward to fancy, and to then end up being villainous and, finally, dead. I know that this is styled after more classic fantasies, but I could have done with out this element featuring so heavily, even if they are slightly self-aware.
I'd really like to see this world and characters in full-length novels that have the time to develop the characters a little more and explore what is already a really interesting world
May 8, 2024
These stories were originally published serially in magazines over the course of more than a decade. Because of that, there is a lot of repetition in the book to remind you of who the characters are, what they look like, what their mission is, etc. I would argue that this book is best enjoyed over the course of time. It took me three days, and while I liked it... I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd spread the reading out over a few weeks.
October 5, 2024
Short story collections aren't a favorite of mine. I'd have enjoyed these more the way they were printed, in anthologies and such, rather than back to back. The format of each story was too similar for this format.
That said, the writing was tremendous. I was immediately comfortable in the setting and believed everything about the characters and their activities without question. The swashbuckling time frame, with pistols and cannons but also swords (and sorcery) is right up my alley and there was a perfect amount of detail regarding the weapons and spells to whet my appetite.
The characters we follow are a knight/artillerist and a sentient puppet, the second one being the sort of thing that concerns me when learning about a story, but he was an excellent character. The pair are tasked with dispatching "godlets", supernatural entities that have started to cause trouble in their region. The organization that tasks our heroes is not spelled out, but hinted at throughout the stories very adeptly, like most of the details of the world. You know just enough to be intrigued without distraction.
I'd like to read a proper novel by Garth Nix now.
That said, the writing was tremendous. I was immediately comfortable in the setting and believed everything about the characters and their activities without question. The swashbuckling time frame, with pistols and cannons but also swords (and sorcery) is right up my alley and there was a perfect amount of detail regarding the weapons and spells to whet my appetite.
The characters we follow are a knight/artillerist and a sentient puppet, the second one being the sort of thing that concerns me when learning about a story, but he was an excellent character. The pair are tasked with dispatching "godlets", supernatural entities that have started to cause trouble in their region. The organization that tasks our heroes is not spelled out, but hinted at throughout the stories very adeptly, like most of the details of the world. You know just enough to be intrigued without distraction.
I'd like to read a proper novel by Garth Nix now.
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