Customer Reviews

Myth-taken Identity (Myth Adventure Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I think that after so much time, Robert Asprin has forgotten his own series. There's plenty of obvious glaring mistakes in this and his last book:

1) The dimension Skeeve is from is Klah, not Klahd. People from it are Klahds.
2) The dimension that Cassandra (note two s') was from is Limbo, not Blut. Blut was the main town where the dispatcher lived.
3) The Weasel (in the glossary from Myth Alliances) was not the mob knife-man. That was Snake. Weasel was the owner of the Suspended Sentence on Arcadia (where Tananda went to collect from Mr. Hoos)
4) The kingdom Skeeve was Court Magician for was Possiltum, not Possletum.

Of course, it IS his book, so it's not up to me to correct him, I suppose. But having read these books for years over and over again, I find myself dissapointed at the blatant writing style differences. In seeing these, I can only assume one thing: that it is the new co-author.

What didn't I like about this book?

1) Okay, so Massha's a Jahk. Move to the head of the class. We don't need to hear that she's a Jahk over and over again. It hasn't been mentioned once in any previous books, why now?
2) Massha's now a simpering little harem girl? What happened to the vamp? I doubt Hugh would have quenched that fire!
3) The dialog was horrible! Yes, it was replaced by some great action (which is why it got 2 stars from me instead of 1). But these books used to have both action AND dialog AND real comedy (not stupid puns) all built into one. Take Aahz and Skeeve's triumphant theft of the trophy from Veygus in Myth Directions, for example. Yes, the end of Myth-taken Identity had a great action scene. But it just didn't jive with the rest of the books in the series. No brilliant planning or twists...just go get 'em, got 'em, great, done. Boring.
4) Since when do we care what every single person in the entire story line is wearing? It was fine when it was just Bunny and Skeeve talking clothes a little in Little Myth Marker. But come on, it's like we're reading a book on interdimensional fashion! I don't care about the Pervect Ten's fingernail polish or if it clashes with their scales.
5) What's up with all the new situations? Since Myth Told Tales, we've seen: a beauty contest, a hair salon, an enterprising troupe of Pervect women neat-freaks, a self help specialist, the mall, a garter store...I'm sorry, but it's so clear that the co-author is trying to push forth her "sex in the city" style female-funny situations that it's embarassing.
6) What's up with all the german and yiddish references? Is someone really proud of their german references? After years of nothing but English and maybe some latin from Aahz, we now have women that say "darlink," talk of tchotchkas, bubi, and many other examples. Again, is this a co-author influence? I notice it's mostly the female characters talking this way.
7) The puns are downright ANNOYING. The comedy of this series has always been subtle, with small puns in proper places, and usually the crowd grimaced at them. But now they're on every page, as goofy as they come. The comedy has completely changed; no longer real comedy, but cheap attempts at wordplay.
8) The creativity is gone; the twists that Skeeve and Aahz used to come up with in the story have been replaced with blatantly obvious actions and stupid setups; like making a garter shop to stop mallrats, or making a hair salon to catch pervects.
9) STOP USING LORD OF THE RINGS SO MUCH. The books were out the whole time this series has been in existence! There's no reason to be making references to it everywhere! Such was the case here and DEFINITELY in Something Myth Inc.
10) Cut the third person...these books have always been in the first person and should stay that way; it's what makes them work so well.

Mr. Asprin, I truly truly admire your skill and your writing. All of your books up until (and pretty much including) Something Mythinc were works of pure genious; but since you've taken on a co-author, your previously amazing books are now silly woman oriented obvious jokes and situations that don't keep interest.

As a loyal reader (and re-reader) of the MYTH series I have to say that "Myth-taken Identity" is the worst of the series.

I remember when Mr. Asprin made some commitments to his fans and publisher on the MYTH series that he just couldn't keep and he missed some deadlines. I understand writing is a creative endeavor and as Mr. Asprin wrote in the Author's Note for "M.Y.T.H Inc. in Action", "trying to get a book out of an author when 'it isn't happening' is like pushing on a rope." I've had my share of dressing downs from my bosses, it isn't pleasant, and you strive to never have it happen again.

The upside of this for the readers was that Mr. Asprin never sent out a manuscript that was sub par and was always true to the MYTH series. I never knew when a new book was coming out, but when one did it was like Christmas in July.

On the other hand, this book feels like it was written to fulfill a publishing commitment. Mr. Asprin/Ms. Nye had a contract and a deadline to write a MYTH book and they pushed on the rope to get this book out.

Pretty much everything about the book was disappointing: the plot, the characterizations, the dialogue, and the continuity. It took me forever to finish this book. I could only read it for a short while before I got so annoyed that I had to put it down.

Will I be re-reading this book in the series? No.

I was so happy to find this book in the local bookstore, and, just like I always do when I see a new Asprin book, I snatched it up, paid for it immediately and began to read it the moment I was out the door. I typically will sit down and read an Asprin book in a day, putting aside all others but this book...well...it's been 2 weeks since I bought the and I'm still trying to slog through it.

My issues:
- I miss the parody and comedy. This book is filled with silly and stupid puns.
- I miss the quotes at the start of each chapter (yeah, I know, it's a small detail but still!)
- The dialog didn't match the speaker. I've read the other M.Y.T.H. books many times and through out them all, the main characters have been constant in their tone and language. This book took the past and ripped it all up.
- I could tell which chapters Asprin wrote and which one's his co-author wrote. The 2 authors' writing styles do not mesh well. He seems to be handicapping himself, trying to match her, and she just can't come close his caliber of writing.

My tip to you: Don't waste your money on this book. If you want to complete your collection, wait until the paperback comes out.

And Mr. Asprin: PLEASE DITCH THE CO-AUTHOR!

I have been a big fan of Robert Asprin's (especially the MYTH series) as long as I can remember. However, I didn't think this latest book (or really any of the books Jody Lynn Nye has co-wrote, but this book more than the others) have measured up to the caliber of the original 10 of this series. I don't know if it is the influence or writing style of the new partner, or if the long break in writing for this series got Mr. Asprin out of the "MYTH groove"... but something is lacking.

Apart from the name discontinuities (character names and places getting swapped around or renamed) this book just didn't make me laugh like the others did. The plot line had great potential, but ended up being kinda dumb and seemed to just drag on and on and on and on (almost like the publishing company wasn't happy with the length of the book and forced the authors to stretch it out... like some highschool student and his/her term paper).

I truly hope that this isn't a new direction this series is taking. I was so overjoyed to hear of it's comeback, but other than Myth-Ion Improbable I haven't been that happy with the newer books.

As the title says, perhaps the best part of this book is the return of Phil Foglio as the illustrator!

I have not liked the turn that these books have taken, but then again, no one forces me to buy them - it is more an increasingly waning hope that they will recapture some of the magik of the earlier series.

..is the best way I can describe this installment of the resurrected MYTH series. While I was very fond of the last book (and the first one JLN co-authored), this one just doesn't ring true.

While it is good to see Aahz, Chumley, and Mashha back in action, and while I found the identity theft hook intriguing, almost everything else just fell flat. The whole Mall setting gets dull real fast. (And the depiction of the store owners in the mall as a closely knit community? As someone who has worked in retail, that's just bull-pucky. Mr. Asprin got it right in the adventure when Skeeve went to Perv and had to deal with the indifferent staff at a department store.)

And that's another thing: In Myth-Nomers and Im-Perv-ections, THERE ARE LARGE DEPARTMENT STORES! Almost mall like! Why is Aahz so stunned by the existence of a mall? I dunno. Just more of the lazy writing that has plagued the last few books of the series. In fact, any pretense of the medieval feel of the first few books is long gone. People chat on cell phones at Starbucks and type on their laptops.

The villain in this novel is pathetic and it is not really explained why he has suddenly evolved into this super magical being. The last 2/3rds of the book are just repetitious, as the gang sets up a plan to catch him and he foils it. Repeat. Again. And there really is no reason why it should take this long to catch him. (And Robert? Jody? The last Lord of the Rings movie came out two years ago. Let's move on. Please.)

On the plus side, the characters are starting to seem more like the ones I remember reading a decade ago. However, this is the first Myth book that I haven't actually bought. Since the quality has varied so much over the last few installments, I thought it best to get it out of the library. I think I'm going to keep that up for a while.

Another great writer sells out. Read the original series but forget the rest. Nothing but pap, bad puns, and even worse dialoque. It's obvious that Mr Asprin does very little in regards to providing imput on the new books. I was barely able to finish the book instead of throwing it away in disgust. To sum it up; this and the other myth books with the co-authors are pure garbage. The death of a good series and not a dignify one.

Myth-Taken Identity is the 14th book in the Myth series so there is a kind of familiarity among followers of the series. Even with the long hiatus that took place because of Bob Asprin's IRS troubles, there is a significant body of work that one can read and appreciate the Myth world and what it represents and how it is written. In this case, this book is clearly written by someone other than Bob Asprin.

The Myth series has always relied on a kind of light humor with gentle touches - in the book just prior to this one, Skeeve goes to help the lamb-like denizen of the Wuhs dimension (that's right - wusses!). In this book there is none of that gentle humor and fun puns. Instead we are treated to a 290+ page screed against the american mall culture, wrapped around a storyline that has no mystery to it, enveloped in a pure action sequence. to give some examples of what I mean: the mall manager is named Moa (Mall of America); Many of the escapades revolve around selling "exclusive" merchandise in "exclusive" events; the main trinket that is the object of many characters is the Gold Master Card; and on and on and on.

The story is told from Aahz's perspective which is actually a first. Supposedly this happens while Skeeve is on Wuhs so only Aahz, Massha, and Chumley are involved. Chumley is described as being purple with mismatched eyes in different sizes - VERY different than the descriptions of his green sister Tananda! Since Aahz does not have magical powers, he has to solve the problem by brute force - which he does - but the problem for me is that Aahz was always the more brainy operator who could figure things out and not need to use his strength. So, this is another degradation of the Myth mythology.

The troublemakers in this story are Mall Rats (huh, huh) who try to get powerful magic by stealing people's identities (huh huh, again) and who shoplift and steal stuff for the joy of it. The Myth gang is accompanied by a few new characters who were fun to read about and eventually the gang is captured. An incongruity here is that the gang leader is supposedly a stupid janitor yet he manages to outsmart Aahz and gang repeatedly. Until the end of the book, every trap that the Myth'ers lay is foiled and the mall rats are always outprepared and outthink Aahz and his cronies.

The front cover illustration is another miss. Massha is depicted as a female pervect while Aahz is given an orange beard (!!) Obviously the illustrator had very imperfect knowledge of the characters and the story line!

So, was there anything good about this story? Well, if you set aside the expectations you might have from Asprin's previous work, then this was a pretty fun and mindless action story. The final sequence when Aahz and the gang manage to get their hands on the culprit is well paced. It is completely nonsensical in that everytime the culprit changes his shape he manages to gain the powers of that being while Aahz's changes do nothing, but overall it is a fun conclusion.

So, if you are an Asprin fan, this will irritate you. If you have no idea what Myth, Aahz, Skeeve mean, then enjoy it.

First let me say that I'm a recent convert to the Myth fan persuasion. I recently ready the first twelve books and by and large enjoyed all of them. Myth-Taken Identity, however, just is not the same. Sure the characters in this book have the same names and some of the same descriptions as the rest the characters in the rest of the series, but it just has a different feel.

At first it grated on me (actually Chumley's speech still does... just adding "what?" to the end of a sentence doesn't make it British). After about 1/3 of the way through I settled down and decided that since this isn't really a Myth book, I'll just take it on its own and see how it is. The result: nothing stellar. It's not terrible, but not particularly good. Say about 2.5, maybe 3 stars. But try as I may, I keep coming back to thinking what this book could have been. Take the same basic plot line and write a book that's really the same feel and humor as the Myth series, and that would be a good book.

Actually, my number one complaint of this book is that things are described in too much detail. One of Robert Asprin's great skills was giving enough of a description to pass on important character information and perhaps a few important physical traits. The rest is left to the reader to fill in. This book drastically deviated from my mental model of several characters. I liked mine better because they were mine. In my opinion it would have been better to stick with the original style.

The characters are flat, the story plods on and on and on. I used to not be able to put the Myth books down; now I almost have to force myself to finish them. This time it's credit cards and identify theft - once again, they aren't part of the story like Asprin used to write, they are the entire purpose of the story. Now with gratuitous violence and a formulaic protracted cliffhanger ending in the form of a big fight scene between Aahz and the Skeeve imposter - totally out of character and NOT what I read Myth books for. I've bought one or two more after this one, but I see there's a new one out (Myth-Chief) and I don't think I'll bother.