The Incompleat Nifft [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Shea (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Baen (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671578693
• ISBN-13: 978-0671578695
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,158,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael A. Shea's writing career began when he was thirteen, and his published writing career commenced in 1973 with the publication of A Quest For Simbilis--an hommage to the great Jack Vance, and sequel to his Eyes of the Overworld. Shea callowly offered Mr. Vance co-credit if he allowed Shea to publish it. Mr. Vance, graceful and kind, assured the novice that he should sell it if he could, and the neophyte contented himself with an acknowledgment that introduced the text.

Shea quit his natal L.A. and repaired to Frisco's Mission District, where he met his life-mate, artist and author Linda Cesar. They lived by teaching, painting, and writing--preponderantly the former two. Through the years of their union, and the growth of their remarkable son and daughter, Shea produced his works of science fiction and fantasy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Back in Print, June 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Incompleat Nifft (Mass Market Paperback)

Michael Shea opens up new doors for readers of Horror andFantasy Literature with the "The Incomplete Nifft". In thisvolume the lucky reader is treated to a reprint of the now out of print and hard to find Nifft the Lean, plus the latest Nifft novel. It's two for the price of one. Both feature the irrepressible Nifft the Lean and his trusty sidekick Barnar the Chilite. Yes, in some ways this is the age old buddy theme, but the resemblance to, say, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser is superficial. Nifft is the real hero.

But why should you read Shea when you can pick up the latest flabby offering from the fantasy trilogy factory? Unlike most fantasy writers nowadays Michael Shea deals in the fantastic. Nifft's adventures to Hell or his sojourn in the belly of the Behemoth resonate deep within the reader's imagination. These stories are literally the stuff of legend and myth. What's more, Shea tells his tales in a voice you aren't likely to come across in most contemporary fantasy. Intelligent, shrewd, and literate, Shea writes for the thinker, but his images are more suitable for the sensualist who relishes the frisson of the grotesque and the fantastic. It is a tribute to Shea's skill as a writer that his fervid pen always serves his intelligence. The horrors and grotesqueries found in his pages appear there in order to make a very clear point, usually an old fashioned moral point, about the power of the human spirit to withstand, and in some small but important way to triumph over, the terrors to which life (and Michael Shea) subjects us. For Shea is above all a Stoic. Probably an agnostic Stoic, but a disciple of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus all the same.

So go ahead and give The Incomplete Nifft the Lean a try. You may be shocked, but you won't be disappointed.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding adventure/fantasy, May 15, 2000

By 

R. L. Scherer (Carlsbad, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Incompleat Nifft (Mass Market Paperback)

This book in a combination of two previous books, Nifft the Lean, and The Mines of Behemoth. When I first read Nifft the Lean, I was bowled over by the astonishingly vivid and incredible descriptions, and the adventure plots are riveting. The level of imagination in the various stories is also exceptional. As I recall, the book won a world fantasy award, and it was well deserved. I've re-read it a few times since, and it continues to hold up quite well. The book falls into a odd category of horror/adventure.

The sequel, The Mines of Behemth, is a short novel (as opposed to half a dozen or so short stories for the first book), and I would rate it a little weaker (only 4 stars out of five). Still, any book that takes Nifft back on an expedition into the Underworld (i.e., Hell) is good news indeed (for the reader, anyway).

This edition also has a foreword from a friend of Nifft's, commenting on each of the adventures and generally adding some amusing grace notes.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Incomparable Nifft the Lean, May 25, 2000

By 

M. Pitcavage (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Incompleat Nifft (Mass Market Paperback)

Few people have had the ability to enjoy the dark pleasures offered by Michael Shea. The original Nifft the Lean was a DAW book back in the days when that meant a quick oblivion. Nevertheless, it won a World Fantasy Award. Imagine Jack Vance with a twist of Heironymous Bosch and you have Michael Shea.

No reader of quality fantasy should ever, EVER pass up a chance to have this book rest on their shelves.