Myth-Told Tales

Myth Adventures #13

by Robert Lynn Asprin, Jody Lynn Nye

Readers can take a rollicking ride through the crazy MYTH universe along with Skeeve, Aahz, Massha, Tananda, Bunny, Gleep, and the Fairy Godmother, in this collection that features the authors' favorite stories, as well as some never-before-published myth-adventures. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Comedy, Science Fiction

254 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.

Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.

Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining hodge podge of short stories starring Skeeve and the gang, which also serves as a good introduction to new co-author Jody Lynn Nye. Now I'm facing the fact that there are only a handful of Myth-adventures left that were written with her before Asprin's untimely passing in 2008. I shall soldier on, however, and with any luck can see out a Myth-ic 2022 in style.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three stories set in Asprin's long-running MYTH series that he wrote in collaboration with Jody Lynn Nye, reportedly for tax purposes. It's a slim volume, what we used to call a chapbook, though Ace reissued it a few years later with another half-dozen stories added; they used the same title, which obviously led to some bibliographic nightmares as you'll see if you glance through the other postings here. They're light and amusing fare, rife with lots of puns, in the vein of Anthony's Xanth books, and mostly feature secondary characters from Asprin's earlier novels in the series. Myth-ter Right is about a contest to select a husband for Princess Gloriannamarjolie, Myth Calculations is a look at the Mafia and a beauty parlor, and Myth Congeniality, my favorite, concerns an inter-dimensional beauty contest. It's a fast, funny read.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of short stories. Some were written by Robert Asprin, some by Jody Lynn Nye and some were a collaboration between the two. There are also two slightly versions about how the two came to meet and work together. As short stories go these were worth reading, and deal with different events, from a different characters point of view.

- "Myth Congeniality" takes Skeeve and Bunny to a beauty pageant.

"M.Y.T.H. Inc. Instructions" concerns a wedding present for Massha and General Badaxe.

"Myth-Adventurers" describes the continuing association of Pookie and Spyder.

"Myth-Calculations" puts Guido, Tananda, and Chumley into a confrontation with a rival gang.

"Myth-ter Right" sets Massha and Aahz looking for mysterious things going on during a dragon chase.

"M.Y.T.H. Inc. Proceeds" brings Guido to Skeeve with a king sized problem.

"Mything in Dreamland" drops Skeeve, Aahz and Gleep into Dreamland.

"Myth-Matched" involves Tananda in a marital assassination.

"Myth-Trained" causes Skeeve to seek advice from Big Julie.

[Su · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy this series: Myth Adventures. Robert Asprin had an interesting idea, and ran with it. Then he hooked up with author Jody Lynn Nye and they ran off together. Robert wrote 12 books in the series; he and Jody have written another 4 together. The editor says: "This is the point where an editor is supposed to say something meaningful about the literary work and its social import. Not on your life; Myth Adventures has always been about being fun to read and laughing along with the characters. So all that needs to be said is: Enjoy!"

I totally agree with one added warning. If you don't enjoy a good pun, don't pick up this series. Because you will be hooked. And there won't be anyone around to throw you back.

[Elmer Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have enjoyed Robert Aspirin's gang and sorry that he is gone.

Sadly, I finished his solo Myth lineage with the tales in this book (although I have a few more co-written pieces with Nye) and will greatly miss his contribution to the fantasy world.

Worth reading if only to glimpse the individual team members in smaller bites.

[Strawberry Witch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jodi Lynn Nye and Robert Asprin somehow decided to work together for reasons I haven’t quite figured out, although it seems to have to do with tax issues. So there’s this ass kissing intro by Nye where she goes on about how brilliant Asprin is and how awed she was by him and how he was in a bunch of fancy nerd groups and was friends with a bunch of fantasy nerds I’ve never heard of. Then asprins intro talks about how he was gonna hit on her the first time they met at one of the dozens of cons he attended to try and get people to read his books, but he heard she was dating some other fantasy nerd dude so he backed off. Anyway, some of the stories were a collab and some they wrote individually.

The first story gets a 2. Bunny is living with Skeeve, who’s “retired,” (isn’t he like barely in his early 30s at this point? What the hell is he retiring from?), to “keep house” for him and keep him company. Bunny was once a go getting career woman, but apparently her only goal in life now is just to be around Skeeve in any way she can, whether that’s doing his laundry or just gazing at him adoringly. Anyway, since both authors are seemingly incapable of writing an attractive woman doing anything other than being attractive, this story is about how Bunny has to win a beauty pageant in order to get the prize of the “bub tub,” obviously a tv. Bc we cant have indoor plumbing but we can have television? Skeeve is confused by the “noxious looking green paste” on her eyelids despite knowing full well what eyeshadow is, since he complains about Massha’s all the time. So blah blah blah he saves the day but not without not knowing what a tomato is, despite having eaten them several times. Oh, and Bunny’s half fairy all of a sudden?

Myth-instructions was the same story that was at the end of another book that I’d just read so I skipped it. 3.

Myth adventurererers is just Asprin and it’s about Pookie and Spyder, who give off major Xena vibes and are totally fucking. Also Asprin puts Spyder in fishnet stockings and a bustier. Bc women are eye candy. 3.

Myth calculations was a collab. Chumley, in the first person, something something they set up a beauty shop to try and catch some extortionists. Chumley and Tananda call each other “little sister” and “big brother” constantly. They’re totally fucking. Oh, and Chumley now has tusks? 3.

Myth-ter Right is a collab; this one is great bc there’s an interesting story that doesn’t involve some girl looking pretty. Haha just kidding; it’s about some hunt where the prize turns out to be the hand of the princess. But it gets a 3 bc it was Aahz POV and he’s my favorite.

Myth Proceeds was just Nye and I skipped it bc it’s from Gleep’s POV and it’s annoying. 1.

Myth-ing In Dreamland is another sole Nye and it comes off like fanfic. Skeeve and Aahz accidentally fall through a magic mirror into Nye’s Dreamland, which was the basis for a novel she wrote in 1998. I wonder if she was trying to tie her and Asprin’s worlds together or if she just was low on ideas? Anyway it’s actually not that bad. Aahz gets his powers back and there’s some talk about how Skeeve feels guilty and responsible for him having lost them in the first place, which is legit. He should feel bad. Skeeve doesn’t know what a refrigerator is. 4.

Myth Matched is another sole Nye and written in the third person from Tananda’s POV. It’s stupid and boring and it gets a 2.

Myth trained is just Asprin and it’s all right. Skeeve’s unicorn is bored and he thinks up a way to entertain it. He’s at his place in Klah and then goes to visit Big Julie, and then there’s an authors note to note the fact that there was an “abrupt shift in time and location” bc “short stories don’t give you much time for lengthy travel sequences.” Don’t decide to write short stories and then bitch about writing short stories. Nobody cares that you didn’t write about him traveling to his friends house. We’re all thinking about the vast amount of inconsistencies and how out of character your characters are.

There’s such a clear line of demarcation from when Asprin was enjoying writing these books to his IRS crap when he lost his spark and joy. It’s like he resents still having to write about Skeeve and Aahz but at the same time doesn’t want anyone else to write about them either. Nye seems to bring more nuance to Asprin’s sometimes one dimensional characters, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel like these are Asprin’s characters and she shouldn’t be messing with them. Also, it seems like even between the two of them, there’s no cohesive structure or any sense of their actual world. Magic changes as the plot needs it; even the way the characters look changes; who knows how big Gleep really is. And how stupid is Skeeve supposed to be?? Here’s a list of things he didn’t know despite having known of them in previous books:

Eyeshadow
Mascara
TOMATOES
Refrigerator
Phones

[The Neighbor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well... Apparently I liked this book so much I bought it twice. LoL. No seriously, I bought the 2003 edition that features the three short stories, Myth Congeniality, Myth-Calculations, & Myth-ter Right.
My sister, bless her, stood in line for me over the Labor Day weekend at Dragon-Con 2003 and was able to get it Autographed by Jody Lynn Nye because I was unable to attend that year.

In 2007, it was re-released with six more short stories folded in with the original three listed above. The additional stories are; 1. M.Y.T.H. Inc. Instructions, 2. Myth-Adventurers, 3. M.Y.T.H. Inc. Proceeds, 4. Mything In Dreamland, 5. Myth-Matched, and lastly 6. Myth-Trained coming to a grand total of nine stories. Which is interesting to me because on the back cover of the book it says there are eight stories included. So, I'm either the worst math student ever, or it's just another example of poor workmanship from the publishers.

Whether there are eight stories or nine doesn't matter. What does matter is that they are all GOOD stories. It's also clear that Bob & Jody had fun while writing about the "myth-guided" Klahd & Pervect and it shows in the stories. Both authors have us, the readers, laughing out loud both at & with Aahz & Skeeve. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of trouble those two 'demons' can get Into and somehow mysteriously get themselves back Out of.

Go ahead, give yourself permission to escape to a different dimension and join in the adventures for a while. It'll put a well deserved smile on your face.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

We picked this up because it was co-authored, and Josh hadn't been aware of the co-authored sets of these before. (We've both read all the original Asprin Myth tales.)

I really enjoyed it. The switching between the authors was pretty seamless, and the result is a set of short stories in classic form for the world. I liked the short story format, honestly, because some times the zaniness gets a lot for the longer plots in the novels. It felt fresh, and interesting.

I'm giving it five stars in part to say, yes, this part of the series is also worth it. (And in part because I honestly have no complaints.)

[Elderberrywine · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a change, a collection of short stories, written by both the original author, Asprin, and his new co-writer, Nye. I knocked it down a star for unevenness but it's still his universe, and it's always great fun to send a bit of time in it. Bonus Gleep POV!

[Paul Riches · Rating 3 out of 5]

MYTH INC and Me



A million years back, my older brother picked up a fantasy comedy novel, one that he heard was pretty good, and in typical fashion right after he finished it, I picked it up, and then our younger brother.  Our parents loved when we did this, and then discussed and debated the books endlessly.  This kept on with this one series until years later, when the writer kinda went into more depressing territory and the books became less fun, more of a chore. 

So I stopped reading them, while my brothers kept going, and I had no clue how many books were coming out.  But a year or so back I grabbed most of the rest of the series from them and plunged back in. 

Now this was an experience. 

So what I am babbling about is The Myth Inc Series by the late author Robert Asprin, a fantasy comedy which starts off a medieval place called Klahd, which is pronounced Clod, and a young man named Skeeve who is being trained as a magician.  His master pulls a trick, and is then promptly assassinated, and suddenly Skeeve is left to deal with a green scaly demon man his master conjured up.  Turns out, he is an old friend of the wizard, and has been left powerless by the trick.  Aahz, which is pronounced Oz and is no relation, agrees to team up as Master and Apprentice with Skeeve. 

Thus begins an interesting partnership, as Skeeve and Aahz get a pet dragon, fight a war for a kingdom, join the mob but do no moblike stuff, hop from dimension to dimension, meet vampires, play dragon poker, and meet a ton of new allies who fast become friends.  We get the sexy Tanda the assassin, her brother Chumley the troll, Guido and Nunzio Skeeve’s mob bodyguards, and even more and more as the series progresses.  And we get pun filled titles like Myth Conceptions and Little Myth Marker.  By the time we reach M.Y.T.H. Inc Link, Asprin decides to switch the narrator from Skeeve to all sorts of the rest of the cast.  It is a nice switch up for the series, but could not stop the mountains of subplots spinning everywhere and how stuff had become depressing in some places. 

However one thread that was a bright spot all along was the occasional cartoon, showing scenes from the story, in the trade paperbacks by Phil Foglio, who also did the comics adaptation of the first book. 

Where I exactly left off from decades ago was my first challenge, and a reread of M.Y.T.H. Inc In Action reveals I left this one two chapters short of finishing.  The re-invasion of the kingdom has been settled, largely thanks to Guido and Nunzio joining the army and sabotaging it from the inside. 

With a whole bunch of subplots resolved, we move into my first completely new read of the series this century, Sweet Myth-tery of Life, where Skeeve has brought Aahz back from his dimension of Perv after they had a big falling out.  Now Skeeve has received a marriage proposal from Queen Hemlock and goes back to wondering about love.  Oh, and he needs to fix the kingdoms finances.  And more subplots get resolved.  But it is also gets kinda repetitive. 

Which leads to Something M.Y.T.H. Inc, where the multiple narrator shtick is back as the kingdom is in rebellion against the tyrant who raised taxes, that evil one time Court Magician Skeeve!  The Myth gang set out to quell the insurrections, who are remarkedly like Zorro and Robin Hood, and not let Skeeve know what is going on.  This one takes place at the same time as the last one.  And this one starts off really really good, then falls apart.  And all the subplots get figured out and Skeeve moves into a new place in life, so that the series can rebuild, which leads to….

Myth-Ion Improbable, a flashback tale to Skeeve and Aahz and Tanda going on a treasure hunt in a far off dimension.  It is cute at best.  And the big relaunch happens with…. 

Myth-Told Tales.  Or not.  Asprin gets an official co-writer here with Jody Lynn Nye, and the many narrators idea is back, but it is really just short stories.  It is a mixed bag, like any collection, and still like treading water until whatever the new reality is.  Methinks Asprin and Nye may not have hit it off right away, and this format was a compromise just to keep the Myth series going.  Nye has a track record as a writer before this book, and I believe a real affection for these characters, so I kinda wish Asprin would just hand the series over to her, since he seems not so into it. 

Myth Alliances is a Skeeve without Aahz book, where Skeeve and Bunny, his sexy and super smart assistant, have to free the dimension of Wuhses from a group of Perv business women who have become dictators.  Or have they?  This one starts very promising, then keeps going on and on, but still gives a pretty spectacular ending. 

This leads to the Aahz centered book Myth-Taken Identity, where he finds out someone has stolen Skeeve’s id and is wrecking his good name in the mall dimension.  No one does that to his former apprentice and good friend!  This one is just like the last one, starts off well, meanders quite abit, then finishes strong. 

It feels like Nye takes over more with Class Dis-Mythed, where Skeeve is asked by various people to teach a whole bunch of apprentices in magic.  It is a learning curve for Skeeve, and one for the students, and we get a whole bunch of cameos from other characters from the series, some being very very surprising.  Their is a secret the students are keeping through, which leads to the surprise ending chapters.  I really dig the new characters and hope they make reappearances in future books. 

So it seems like whatever Asprin and Nye got working, is really working, and Myth-Gotten Gains is proof of that.  Aahz finds a magic talking sword in a bazaar and is promised money AND getting his powers back if he helps find his family of magical objects.  Turns out they are The Golden Hoard, an ancient and all powerful group who don’t really get along.  Aahz and Tanda travel all over, find the Flute and the Purse and the Book and the Crystal Ball.  And Aahz and Tanda are completely driven crazy by the Hoard’s constant bickering and insults and attitude.  I loved these new additions and their banter read in my head like a Monty Python skit. 

This new groove moves us into Myth-Chief, where Skeeve comes back to adventuring and his Myth Inc aren’t all happy.  So eventually Skeeve and Aahz have a contest with two competing but not so competing goals, to save a kingdom from financial ruin.  Unfortunately, this one backslides to being too long, unfocused, and only one part of the ending making sense.  Their is hope, since the new dynamic of Myth n Inc is finally in place here. 

This is also the last one my brothers got, but Asprin and Nye gave us one more with Myth-Fortunes, and then suddenly Asprin passed away.  Nye continued on with Myth-Quoted and Myth-Fits.  I have no idea what happens in these volumes, or how these go generally with Nye fully in charge. 

Even with the mixed results of this catchup, I am still glad I did it.  It was nice to see how these old friends were doing, and seeing that they were in good hands with Nye.  I think Asprin would be happy.  And my brothers and I can debate this endlessly as well. 

Scoopriches 

[Patricia Hamill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Myth-Told Tales is a collection of short stories, ranging from a few that were already published in previous Myth volumes to a couple of new ones by Robert Aspirin and a few by him and Jody Lynn Nye, his new co-author at the time. I mostly skipped the forewords, yes, there are more than one, which are a common feature of the Myth books, never just the story in these. Sometimes you get an afterword, too. But, my husband read it and let me know that these two authors were feeling each other out in these short stories. That the co-author was needed because Robert had more books he was obligated to write, and that there was such a long gap between this and the last one due to their original publisher going under and them needing to wait out the contract. Good stuff, right?

Anyhow, all that aside, about the stories themselves, most of these are from various points of view, not Skeeve’s. There were two Gleep stories (Gleeps the juvenile dragon who thinks Skeeve is his pet). I loved those the best. But there was also a pretty fun Aahz story set in a great hunt. Most of the stories were good, though the ones with the new author seemed rather obviously so. Just not the same flair and natural timing as Robert. And as for the overall humor, regardless of which author wrote the story, these, like the other Myth books, tend to be punny, rather than funny. There’s a heavy reliance on tongue-in-cheek character, place, and item naming, which I enjoy but don’t always pick up on right away. But when I do pick up on it, it’s always worth at least a giggle or an amused smirk.

I skipped reading the Masha’s wedding story, but only because I read it before. It was in one of the other books (one of the Myth, Inc. ones, since Gleep’s the hero). Pretty great, as I remember, but I just wanted to read the new ones. Also, there was another nod in one of the stories to “the One Ring” though not the same as in the wedding story (there’s one in there or in the alternate POV version of it). Anyhow, it set off my inner geek alarm in a good way.

Besides the Gleep stories and the hunt one, I also really liked the one about the beauty pagent. Pretty funny. That was a Skeeve one, if I remember correctly.

So overall, I really liked the stories. They’re not all quite as naturally funny as previous Myth stories, but they’re good for a bit of a laugh and a couple of groan-worthy moments. I’d recommend these to folks who enjoy some light fiction, magical sleuthing, and cute humor. They’re appropriate for tweens and up.

My husband gave me this book as a gift, which earned him a lot of bonus points. Robert Aspirin is one of my favorite authors, and I hadn’t known this last batch was out there or that another person had taken up his Myth stories after he passed away.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short stories, continuing the "Myth" series written by Robert Asprin. The stories are mostly co-written with Jody Lynn Nye.

I'm really sorry to give this a low rating. I was rooting for it. I loved the first handful of Myth books, and have a warm spot in my heart for Skeeve, Aahz, Gleep, Tanda, Chumley, et al. It was wonderful to see these old friends again, but somehow the experience felt more leaden.

Imagine returning to the verdant fields where once you'd gamboled in the freshness of youth!

Now imagine that, upon returning, you find that yourself in a group of extremely out-of-shape people, all huffing and puffing, and talking loudly about anything except the lovely greenery.

I'll recommend the earlier books in the series (each of which are very short), and tell you to skip this one.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Early Myth books, but after awhile they grew stale and repetitive and became boring.

However, I picked this one as a bargain, and it proved to be a worthwhile read. First, the stories are short enough to be a quick read. Second, the stories feature different characters from the MYTH novels, with Skeez and Aahz sort of taking a back seat to everyone else for the most part.

The jokes were there.. the mispelled names of real life people used as parody were there. Every story was pretty much spot on for me.

Not the greatest literature, but a decent book to read if you like the MYTH characters.

[Michael Tildsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

This collection of short stories was not all that great to me. I enjoyed a few of the tales here, but others I just could not get into. It's tough to admit, but Asprin seems to have lost a comedic and entertainment step here in gaining Nye as a co-author.

A couple of the shorts, mostly the ones written by Asprin alone, are enjoyable and retain that same flavor of Myth from before. Others don't feel the same. There is a pretension to the diction, a heavy-handedness to the approach of the narrative where before Asprin had tread with great care of brilliant comedic flourishes.

This can be skipped over.

[April Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

What ages would I recommend it too? – Twelve and up.

Length? – Most of a day’s read.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters.

Setting? – Fantasy, alternate dimensions.

Written approximately? – 2007.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Ready to read more.

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? No.

Notes for the reader: This was an excellent collection of short stories with two stories about Gleep. Would happily read more stories about Gleep!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this....long over due collection (if you can call three stories a collection) My only gripe is that with an $8 price tag I would have liked a little more book for the buck. It was good to see the characters back in action but.....a little more would have been nice. For true, die hard, fans only.

[Lumos Ktbspa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a collaboration and it is a collection of stories, not a what-happened-next, but a few easy-going stories of nothing I liked. Anyway I am going to read the 14th book in hope to find the sense of the collab with short stories :P

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

For short stories, they were good, but I would rather have had a full novel.

[Trip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, like in all the Myth books past the first half-dozen or so, nothing changes. Not the team, not any of their personalities, not their situation. It's pretty much self-fanfic.

[Glenn Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always fun, always entertaining to the end

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 13 of Myth Adventures. The crew is at it again, between a beauty contest, a gold heist, even a stint in Dreamland the laughs continue. Skeeve being retired doesn’t stop him from getting into a little action. Albeit most of the stories in this one do not feature him. This book continues the strength of the series and if you’re reading too, not one to miss. Besides, who can stop laughing at the hijinks that could happen if you added magic into a beauty contest, pure gold. Hope you enjoy it too.

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories, one of which also appears in book #12. They seem to take place shortly after the events of the previous book. Some are written by Robert Asprin, some by Jody Lynn Nye, and some by both. There is a noticeable difference in the prose they use (in my opinion, Asprin's is somewhat better), but it's all entertaining.

[Robbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these are pretty good and some are pretty weak but mostly they're just decent. There's nothing really exciting about them and I kind of feel like they're slightly changing some of the characters a little, but nothing too extreme. The silly humor is more fun to me when it's cleverly fitted into a longer narrative rather than a somewhat more contrived feeling short story.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories features the wonderful characters from the earlier books in the series, and it has the same humor and imagination in dialogue and plots. But almost all the stories lack the combination of cleverness and heart that made the early books so great.

[Scott Fogel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a few good short stories. I especially liked the ones where Gleep could talk and think. I especially liked Myth-Calculations, with Tananda, Chumley, and Guido.

Most of the rest were slow and dull.

Also, I really don't remember Skeeve retiring.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

More fun from the crew. I like that the stories were told for a lot of points of view. This is the first I have read with Jody Lynn Nye writing the series and I have to say that she gets it.

[Cheri Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked these stories

[Nancy Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful escapism -dragons, trolls, trollops, and other monsters overseen by Skeeve, the great magician.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny short fantasies

[Vader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.35

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not complete it