Myth-Gotten Gains (Myth Adventures) [Paperback]

Robert Asprin (Author), Jody Lynn Nye (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2006 | Series: Myth Adventures

Aahz discovers that the shabby-looking sword he bought at a flea market in a remote dimension is Ersatz, leader of the Golden Hoard, a fabled collection of powerful magical treasures that can turn any ordinary being into a hero. They go in search of the other members of the Hoard, only to find that they're not the only ones looking. A dancer named Calypsa, working with Aahz's old friend Tananda, is seeking to collect them to free her grandfather from the dreaded wizard Barrik. Trouble is, everyone wants the treasures for themselves, and there are good reasons why the Golden Hoard is never all in the same dimension at one time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stuffed with rowdy fun." - Philadelphia Inquirer

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he has written some stand alone novels such as Cold Cash War, Tambu, The Bug Wars and also the Duncan and Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series: The Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve; the Phule novels; and, more recently, the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves World anthologies with Lynn Abbey. His most recent collaboration is License Invoked written with Jody Lynn Nye. It is set in the French Quarter, New Orleans where he currently lives.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc. (October 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159222105X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592221059
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the origionals, but better than most recient, November 22, 2006

By 

Daniel Thomas Colpi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Myth-Gotten Gains (Myth Adventures) (Hardcover)

I would put this book on par with Class Dis-Mythed (not as good as the origional 10 books in the series, but better than they more recient examples of the MYTH series).

Overall, I am pretty happy with this book. I am a fan of the MYTH series, and in my opinion this book stays true to form. Not everyone will like it, but fans of the series certainly will.

The idea was great (Aahz tracks down a set of legendary treasures each with a long history and special powerful magic powers... the only thing is these treasures don't get along with eachother), and leave avenues open for further stories down the line. Other than the seven "hoard treasures" that Aahz is tracking down, there is one new character that I think could have been a bit better developed, I actually thought that the personalities from the individual treasures themselves were more interesting (however with personalities such as Aahz and Tanda to be compaired against I can see how she might seem "small").

My biggest complaint with the last book (Class Dis-Mythed) was that there wasn't enough Aahz. My biggest complaint with this book was that there wasn't enough Skeeve. A better title would have been "M.Y.T.H. INC Treasurers" since this book is from the point of view of Aahz (vs Skeeve)... if you are a fan of the earlier books of the series you will know what I mean. However, I get the feeling that this book and Class Dis-Mythed occured at the same time (since there are no characters that are shared between the two books). I hope that the next book brings everyone back together (it seemed to hint at this throughout the book).

Another complaint I had with this is that there were numerious punctuation errors throughout the book. Obviously this didn't detract from the story itself, but it was rather distracting and gave the book a more "amature" feel than I believe it deserves.


If you are a fan of the earlier MYTH books, liked the previous MYTH book (Class Dis-Mythed), or like titles from Piers Anthony or The Bartimaeus Trilogy (by Jonathan Stroud) then you will probably like this book. I certainly enjoyed reading it and would recomend it to anyone who would be interested in a fantasy/comedy combo.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mind-Numbing and Uninspired, March 20, 2008

By 

L. A. Kane (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Myth-Gotten Gains (Myth Series) (Paperback)

There are two good things about this latest installment in the MYTH series: First off it's written from Aahz's perspective, something that sheds a few interesting tidbits and some marginally new insight into Asprin's verse. The second is that it came out in paperback so it's relatively cheap, at least when compared to hardcover offerings. Unfortunately that's about all I can really say about this lackluster book... sigh.

The quirky, imaginative humor we'd come to expect from the original series has been replaced by juvenile jest, absurd and unfunny scenes like a mind-numbingly protracted argument between three narcissistic magical objects, a sword, a cup, and a crystal ball. They may be sentient, but they're clearly neither witty nor charming. The plot is infantile, the dialog is pointless, and the pacing is glacial.

I can't stand it any more. I'm done with this boring, formulaic series. Don't waste your hard-earned money on it either.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Worst Of The Lot - But That's Still Not Bad, April 19, 2007

By 

Joshua S. Spell "Maijstral" (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Myth-Gotten Gains (Myth Adventures) (Paperback)

First off - if you are new to the series, don't start here. You'll probably be turned off. However, if you are a fan, this is a must read. Don't expect the bouts of gut-busting laughs and tender moments though - this is a purely average bit of work.

The authors/publishers broke tradition in that this is not a Myth book from Skeeve's perspective, but from Aahz's. While this has been done before of course, the standard that was set was that any book from a perspective other than Skeeve's would be a M.Y.T.H. INC title, instead of just MYTH. A minor point, but it shows a disturbing lack of detail that occurs throughout the book.

My main pet-peeve though was the constant stream of typos and over-all bad editing in the book. Whole sentences are dropped after the first word, quotation marks are missing half the time so you're not sure whether someone is talking or it's just narrative, whenever there is supposed to be a hyphen is supposed to be used, they use an apostrophe, and there are dozens of times when a word is missing from a sentence, or a word is duplicated, and so on. Very aggravating and distracting.

Worst of all though is the lack of character control. Especially with Aahz, the characters just don't seem all that dynamic, and at times are competely out-of-character. Many of the scenarios the characters get themselves into (and the ways they get themselves out) are either over-simplistic and unbelievable, or even flat-out contradict precedents of possibility established in previous books. Of course, since JLN (whom I love) joined the team, it seems like alot of things that were set down in previous books have gone by the wayside (anyone remember the rule that impressed dragons couldn't be controlled by control sticks? The authors sure don't seem to anymore.)

All in all though, it is a solid MYTH story, if poorly told. I personally was disappointed in the way the ending seemed to be sudden and short-changed, as if the authors' deadline was coming up and they just had to finish it right away. However, if you are a fan of the series, you should definitely grab this book, just lower your expectations a bit.