Nifft The Lean [Import] [Paperback]

Michael Shea (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Panther (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0586064990
• ISBN-13: 978-0586064993
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,798,002 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

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a shame really..., March 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Nifft the Lean (Paperback)

As I sit here gazing fondly at my musty, yellowed first edition DAW paperback of 'Nift the Lean' (did this book Ever come out in hardcover?), I still remember skulking up to the check out counter in a fashionably cool NYC bookstore in early '83. My companion did not want to be seen with me while I purchased this book because the cover art was 'embarassingly bad'. Well, his loss, because after reading a few paragraphs, I didn't care if there was dog's doo on the cover - I was buying it! Not a single review or word of praise was on the back or inside the cover. But someone else must have braved the snotty bookstore clerks, because, low and behold, next thing you know, it wins the world fantasy award. (My companion eats some serious crow, here.)

I've read a lot of fantasy (and science fiction, and science fantasy) over the years. Very few books in this genre hold a candle to Nift. Was there ever a story richer, more inventive or more delightfully horrifying than 'Fishing in the Demon-Sea'? Was there ever a character in all of dark fantasy as strange and evocative as the Privateer? Or an action sequence with more edge-or-your-seat excitement than the hell-ride down the mine shaft? (Did Steven Spielberg read this story before he made 'Temple of Doom' - you bet he did.)

After so many years it is baffling to come here and find that this book is still not recognized for a classic of dark fantasy. That it is Still out of print. All I can say is get your hands on a stinky, dog-eared copy of this book and read it - you can't have mine!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sword&Sorcery on par w/ Moorcock and Leiber; a thief in hell, June 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Nifft the Lean (Paperback)

How many books have you read that begin with a eulogy for the title character? _Nifft the Lean_ starts with a promise of hard-edged, high-intensity dark fantasy, and then delivers in four masterful novelettes.

Set in a lurid, bizarre world reminiscent of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth", these stories relate how Nifft and various partners wager their very souls in the course of pursuing their "art". With atmosphere surpassing that of even the greatest masters of dark fantasy, Shea matches eerie visions with sheer horror to create his own flavor of sword and sorcery.

Shea is able to create a character in Nifft that transcends the common fantasy stereotypes often found in second rate fiction and role-playing game supplements. Nifft and his main partner, Barnar, are not tricksters, silly picaros, or slinking alley trash; they are mercenary hereos with their own amoral code of honor. Like Howard's Conan, and Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Shea's characters are the kind of men who show disdain for wealth by stealing a fortune and then drinking it all away. The cosmology of Nifft's world is reminiscent of that found in the ancient epics of Gilgamesh, or Homer, where a man must strive to live boldly and well, since no paradise lies beyond death.

Where Shea truly shines is in his powers of description. Nifft, Barnar and the other characters tromp through a chaotic landscape rife with gruesome detail. Vivid settings, such as those encountered in the Land of Death, or the first Demon Subworld, are not easily forgotten. Shea also makes masterful use of perspective: one story being narrated by Nifft himself, others being third person accounts, or first person narrations by friends of Nifft, pretending to be Nifft... All in all, Shea provides us with a great variety of narrative styles.

Even those who normally disdain sword and sorcery type fiction as hackneyed and simplistic are urged to read _Nifft the Lean_. Shea brings a new level of intellegence to the genre rarely seen in recent decades. A man is drug forcibly down through the depths of hell. What is the final torture awaiting him there? Probably not what you think....

Shea, unfortunately not a very prolific author, has shown his mastery in this work (Nifft the Lean even won the World Fantasy award for best novel, 1983!). Be on the lookout for a new edition of this book in the fall, hopefully followed soon by a sequel!.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four unforgettable SciFi adventures, November 21, 2008

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Nifft the Lean (Paperback)

Historian Shag Margold has delivered his eulogy for Nifft The Lean, assuming his longtime friend and acquaintance is now dead. Fortunately, Margold has opened up journals given to him by Nifft for safekeeping; journals that tell the tales of Nifft's adventures with his friend Barnar The Chilite. There are four tales of adventure:

1) Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul

2) The Pearls Of The Vampire Queen

3) The Fishing Of The Demon-Sea

4) The Goddess In Glass

In 'Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul', Nifft documents his tale to Barnar of his adventure with Haldar into a uniquely painted subworld of Hell. Dalissem crawls from under a rock, dead, slowly changing from skeleton to a ravishing beauty, and tells Nifft of how she was betrayed in life by her lover Defalk. Defalk left her in Hell alone, and Dalissem explains to Nifft how to bring her lover to her while he still lives, promising the Key To The Marmian Wizard's Mansion in return. His task is dangerous, difficult, and tricky; and Nifft must see to it that after delivering Defalk, Dalissem will release him alive.

In 'The Pearls Of The Vampire Queen', Nifft has written a letter to his friend Taramat Light-Touch in his homeland of Karkmahn-Ra, telling of his adventures in the swamps where Queen Vulvula rules from her great pyramid. Only there can be harvested the valuable black swamp pearls, from giant and deadly polyps that grow them from blisters on their treacherous bodies. Around the polyps swim lurks, even more deadly and highly poisonous to boot. The pearls are extremely difficult to harvest, but Nifft has come up with a better plan for getting the pearls than diving for them; one involving the Vampire Queen's ceremony called The God-Making Of The Year King. It's one of Nifft's riskier adventures yet!

'The Fishing Of The Demon-Sea' is the longest of Nifft's adventures. In a manuscript of his own handwriting, Nifft tells of entrapment by Kamin, the Rod-Master of Kine-Gather. Just at the moment of his and Barnar's execution, Kamin grants the two thieves a stay...IF they will venture through the Darkvent into Hell and rescue his son Wimfort from the bonshad (a demon) that holds him captive in the Demon Sea below. Charnell, a mediocre magician, tells Nifft to contact Gildmirth, a highly accomplished wizard and shape-shifter once he is in Hell. Below the deepest mining levels they must pass black scorpions traveling through vast webbing, flying insects the size of a horse, leech-like worms rising like towers out of fetid swamps to snap at them, the jewel-crusted flora and fauna that lies along the rock-salt crusted shores of the Demon Sea, and a demon called a Spaalg that sings poetry and annoys them almost to death. First they must find Gildmirth, then Wimfort, and if they survive through that they must find their way home again.

Lastly is 'The Goddess In Glass', the only tale told in third person by an unknown person of Nifft's acquaintance. There's trouble in the city of Anvil Pastures, where Nifft must deliver a packet from Margold to the Oracle Of The Flockwarden; otherwise known as the Goddess In Glass. Anvil Pastures is a city of opportunists, a city made wealthy by supplying both sides of warring Hallam and Baskin-Sharpz with arms. Now the two warring cities have blockaded Anvil Pasture's harbor, though the city faces a much larger crisis. The unique mountain structure surrounding their city has broken down, and only the Goddess can save them. When her request to have her flock of lithivores (who graze on rock and mountains) returned went unfulfilled, a piece of the mountain fell away and now threatens to topple the rest of its mass onto the city. Nifft makes fast friends with summoned mercenary First Captain Kandros, and together they investigate the city's troubles with oracle Dame Lybris against the Aristarchs (ruling government and merchants). Can the city be saved, and what can Nifft do to help?

Michael Shea has written a decisively extraordinary piece of science fiction here; tales of an old fashioned thief and adventurer with amiable bragging, colorful curses, flippant humor, and astonishing talents. Aside from his amazing protagonist, Shea makes the landscapes actually live...you can almost feel them breathing around you. The prose is drawn out to vividly paint the scenes, and the language used a bit "formal" or "archaic", but quite fitting for the story at hand. Each chapter is prefixed with remarks by Shag Margold, giving background to each of Nifft's tales. It's been a long time since I've read a good SciFi adventure such as 'Nifft The Lean'. Ten Stars! I strongly encourage the SciFi lover to grab up a copy of this book as quick as you can. Enjoy!