All is not well in the kingdom of Possiltum. The king's court sorcerer is being eyed with suspicion. Not for dabbling in the black arts...not for consorting with a demon...not for having a dragon as a pet...not even for being mobbed up. But the greatest crime of all: raising taxes!

More and more citizens want something done - and they're willing to do it themselves. In the end, it won't be their skill or their intelligence that wins the day, but the sheer number of those who have rallied themselves against their oppressor - this black-hearted wizard, this terrible tyrant known as...

Skeeve the Great.

God I've missed Skeeve! Before I found Pratchett there was Robert Asprin, who created a comic fantasy world that turned standard fantasy on it's head and rewrote the conventions. The books were less involved that Discworld, but had a more slapstick humour that I absolutely loved. Then about twelve years ago (yes, I'm that old) the books began to dry up, and the wait between new volumes got longer. Each new book now contained a forward resplendent with an apology for the wait, and details about deadlines and publishing problems with the series. The last book I read, Sweet MYTHeries of Life was open-ended and promised to continue shortly. That was in 1994, and I'd almost given up of ever getting my hands on another Skeeve book. Then, about two weeks ago, I nipped over to Amazon and entered Robert Asprin into the search engine and lo, there were two new books! I ordered them right away, and they arrived today. I am so excited, I can't describe it. I'm going to be starting this one as soon as my updates here are done!

 October 31st 2003
The End

The first half of this book felt very much like coming home. It was a M.Y.T.H. Inc. book, which meant that it wasn't told from Skeeve's point of view but one of the other Myth team. In this case it was the beefy heist-talking Guido, body guard to The Great Skeeve and former mob operative. I love his way of speaking (and thinking) so I didn't mind one little bit that the final installment of this series would be primarily Guido's story.

The basic story so far goes thusly, while Skeeve is back at the palace trying to work out how not to marry Queen Hemlock the rest of the Myth crew are trying to stem the flow of discontent growing within the kingdom. Rebels are talking about the evil demon-consorting magician trying to over throw the kingdom and they're not going to stand for it any longer. Guido, accompanied by former army buddy Spyder and Aahz Pervect cousin Pookie, heads out to consult the general populace and try to find out why so many of the palace tax collectors are being robbed.

All of the interaction between Guido, Spyder and Pookie was wonderful and went right back to the tone and humour I remembered so fondly. Asprin managed to get the right mix of explanation (for those who were late to the Myth part) and new ideas, and it was really nice to be reminded every now and again of those old, long forgotten adventures. I had totally forgotten many key elements of the set up, but was delighted to get reacquainted.

So I mentioned that the first half of the book was fabulous...that leaves the second half, which was at best disappointing and at worst a bloody tragedy. In the previous book, Sweet Myth-tery of Life, Asprin put in motion a series of events, namely Skeeve coming outwitting Queen Hemlock, but becoming dissatisfied with his lot and trying to work out what he really wanted to make him happy. I knew from earlier books that Asprin was happy to write concurrent events from slightly different perspectives, so when the story took a big step back and began at the same point Sweet Myth-tery I wasn't worried. At the point the books began to join up, however, it began to get repetitive. What was worse was that the narrative totally lost direction, and it soon became apparent that the author was trying to conclude the series as quickly and cleanly as possible. That sucked! If it had been done with style it would have been great, how it worked out seemed clumsy. There was a whole chunk of the book written from Skeeve's perspective, and at the end there was a very sweet ending for the series. Instead of using it Asprin then added another chapter or two from Aahz's point of view which would have been nice interspersed between the Skeeve narrative, that just trailed off to nowhere, not even referencing the end we'd already been given.

All that it would have taken to give this series the end it deserved was a proof reader willing to tell the author that Aahz's chapter should either have been before Skeeve's or edited in between, with Skeeve having the final word after walking out of the Myth Inc. meeting. It seems such a simple thing looking back, but the lack of finesse spoilt the book.

I keep talking about it being the end of the series, and it very much felt like it, however if Asprin ever decided to revisit these characters I'd be at the front of the line to read them. I've grow very fond of them over the years, and have spent many happy hours chuckling along with their myth-adventures. Although the end of this book was slightly lacking the style and characters were right back on form here and I loved every moment of it. I'd love to see a new installment of Skeeve/Myth Inc novels, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be consigned to rereading if I need a fix in future. It's been a fun ride, and I'll never forget how much I've enjoyed these books. They'll always have a very special place in my heart.