Customer Reviews

Sweet Myth-tery of Life

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Readers of the Myth books will no doubt notice that most recent few have a tendency to stop the narrative at a moment's notice and enter into drawn out, irritating tangential asides. This book, in light of that trend, is something of a remarkable achievement: it is the first book in the series composed entirely of such tangential asides.

The plot has been well documented through the other reviews on this board, so I won't rehash it here. One thing worth noting, however, is that despite the fact that the plot concerns Skeeve's decision whether to marry Queen Hemlock, the book concerns itself little with that particular line. Queen Hemlock does not play a significant role in this book, appearing in no more than two scenes.

Instead, Robert Asprin has saw it fit to fill his latest Myth book with his thoughts on why relationships break down or become abusive, how salary structures in a corporation are created, and most ridiculously, that a fashion model's life is not all glamorous, among others. Somewhere along the line, Robert Asprin completely lost the notion of a coherent narrative. I feel comfortable in identifying the thought's as Asprin's, because none of the characters have been defined enough for me to recognize the sentiments expressed as their own rather than Asprin's.

And perhaps what's worse, is that Asprin continues to suggest storylines within the book that interest me, but he quickly ignores them in favor of another tangential aside. The book is a remarkable disappointment.

As such, I cannot recommend it. It heartily deserves its one star rating.

Robert Asprin had a great thing going with the Myth series -- it was funny and inspired for a long time. But, I guess all good things must come to an end.

Pretty much everything after the very good 'Little Myth Marker' has been a disappointment to me. That seems to be the point when the books became less about the story and more about the author seemingly using his characters to pontificate about the stock market, relationships, celebrity, and the meaning of friendship. I really got the feeling sometimes that he was using Skeeve and the other characters to work out his own personal issues -- the problem was that it was pretty transparent that this is what he was doing.

The earlier books were more about "adventures" -- what Skeeve, Aahz, Tanda, and company were doing. When this series started to be about "feelings," I just found it harder to keep my interest up. A comic/farcical series like this is just not the forum for rambling on about life, the universe, and everything. Also, when other characters started to serve as the narrator, it just became very annoying and silly for me. The longer the books went on, the more glaring the inconsistencies became.

My investment in the series kept me reading and will likely sustain me if Asprin ever decides to actually release the next book and resolve the cliffhanger that he so rudely left his readers with (if the guy wasn't ready to write the next book in some reasonable time period, then why the heck do the suspense ending with your audience).

This series is wonderful and entertaining -- to a point. The cautionary tale is, I suppose, that authors should not sign deals to write a big handful of other books unless they are sure they can maintain interest, focus, and quality.

Let me start off my review by saying that this is the first and only book in the MYTH series that I've read, as well as the first and only book by Robert Asprin that I've read. The MYTH series was always highly recommended to me, but my local bookseller didn't have any of them, so I waited for the next installment so that I could sample it and see if the rest of the books were worth tracking down.

Well, from reading the reviews on this page, it seems I jumped in on a bad installment, when the series was losing its luster and the author was losing interest. That is not to say that what I read was not at all good. In fact, I thought it was very funny and very well written. However, as a complete novel... well, it just isn't. It seems that the whole purpose of having Skeeve debate whom to love or not to love came up as the result of a situation that had something to do with marrying Queen Hemlock, which I assume was a major plot point begun in the previous installment. Well, the situation was never resolved, so this book accomplishes nothing at all in terms of advancing the series.

The only advancement to speak of comes at the end when something happens to Skeeve's dragon, Gleep, who seems to be able to talk now. There were hints all along that there was something up with the dragon, but the ending still came very suddenly. The good thing is, it left me wanting more. The bad thing is that, so far, there is no more. The new book, if there ever will be one, isn't out yet.

It seems like this series is a lot of fun. A shame that my first impression of it had to be a poorly-crafted installment of it. If you're a follower/fan of the series, you'll probably love the book and should read it (I had fun with it even though I had no idea what was going on). Still, in and of itself, there's not much to it.

...and it is starting to show. The last few books in the series, starting with Number 7 (M.Y.T.H Inc. Link) have taken a real down turn in quality. They haven't been very funny, or very exciting, or very anything. Just 200 pages or so Skeeve learning life lessons. And they've finally hit absolute rock bottom with this stinker. What happens here? Well, Skeeve starts dating and realizes he has a drinking problem. There. I've saved you $5. No magical adventures, no outrageously bad puns, even the fake quotes at the start of each chapter are laboured. What is also upsetting is Asprin's entire attitude. When the last one came out (M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action) there was a forward from Asprin apologizing for how late this was, cursing his writer's block, promising a new episode in a year, etc. etc. That was 1990. Four years later, during which time Asprin wrote many Phule's novels, this half-hearted effort came out. Bleah. It reeks of afterthough and contractual obligations. And there's not even an apologetic forward from the author. Did anyone read Sharon McCrumb's very funny book "Bimbos of the Death Sun?" It's a murder mystery set at a SF convention. The murder victim is an unpleasant character who has been made famous by a serious of Conan style adventures. However the author hates his creation with a passion, feeling resentful that such a vulgar, base, piece of hackwork is why he is a success. I sense the same attitude from Robert Asprin toward his Mythic creations. He just doesn't seem to care. It's interesting to note that the only time this dreary book comes to life is in the last couple of pages, where the peasants of Klah start to rise up against the perceived tyrannies of the Great Skeeve. Personal allegory, anyone? Asprin should spare us all from any further nonsense like this if he can't be bothered to write a decent book. You won't miss it when it's gone, which may be his master plan. Alienate his fans so they stop bugging him to write more stories

If you've read other books in Robert Asprin's Myth Series, you've come to expect a mix of goofy action and humor. This book has neither.

The book begins when Skeeve, the narrator through most of the series, is given this choice: marry Queen Hemlock (previously established as a ruthless dictator) or be forced to become king during a severe economic downturn. The choice is offered by the Queen herself, which makes the premise all the more ludicrous.

The story consists primarily of every character in the Myth Universe offering their opinions of marriage and love to Skeeve. In truth, it reads like a thinly disguised statement of the author's philosophy. None of the characters have any identity, and seem to be used as the mouthpieces for the author's diary. The entire story is flat, and rendered irrelevant in the end.

If you've never read any of the Myth series, don't start with this one. It is an amusing and well-written series that has taken a serious nose-dive with this book.

I love the myth series. I really adore it. I have read every book. But Mr. Asprin needs to just close it up and stop adding on installments. This book lost the usual shine and bored me. It was also a clif-hanger ending, and the next book has still not come out yet five years later! In the first books you could read any one in any order and understand them, but in these they are all clifhangers and the jokes just aren't as funny. The whole main plotline of this book is Skeeve falling for Bunny. Oh boy. And it wouldn't be that bad except in the very end a bunch of crazy stuff happens and then it just stops. Like he was sick of writing it or something. I say if you want to read a myth book read Another fine Myth.

This book has no point. The whole book is Skeeve trying to either fall in love or find out who he's in love with. There is no resolution. The only good part in the book is Skeeve's date with the vampire. Overall, lousy.

While Asprins first three books in the Myth series earned their 10 rating easily (I actually fell out of bed laughing - several times) they slowly fell to about 5-6 (including the Phule series) - not as brilliant as the first books and with some contradictions here and there but still worth their money and a good laugh on and off. But this book is the worst excuse of a plot I've ever seen. If Asprin is not up to the task of developing Skeeve further - why not let him die ? This book is either the worst case of writers block under contract pressure I've ever seen or Asprin is in DEEP financial troubles and tries to make a fast buck by "Instant MYTH" (Take Skeeve, Aahz and Gleep and just add water - tastes almost like the real thing !) To bad there is no negative rating...

Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1994) is the tenth Fantasy novel in the Myth series, following M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action. In the previous volume, Guido's Bug Squad confused the logistics operations of the Possiltum army. Unfortunately, their actions actually improved the situation, so Guido was field promoted to a Lieutenant. Then Skeeve returned from Perv with Aahz and Pookie.

In this novel, Skeeve is a Klahd from Klah. He is a magician and the partner of Aahz. Now he is the president of M.Y.T.H. Incorporated with his friends as staff and stockholders.

Aahz is a Pervect from Perv. He had been a master magician until he lost his power from a joke. Now he is Skeeve's partner.

Guido is a senior gangster in the Mob. He is now the personal bodyguard of the Great Skeeve.

Nunzio is Guido's cousin and is also a senior gangster. He is now another personal bodyguard of Skeeve.

Bunny is Skeeve's administrative assistant. She is very good looking, but she is also very smart, particularly with numbers.

Gleep is a very young dragon. He can't talk yet, but he has a mean breath of fire.

Pookie is a Pervect. She was hired by Skeeve as a bodyguard during his visit to Perv.

Queen Hemlock had been the consort of King Rodrick of Possiltum prior to his unfortunate death. She also used to have visions of conquest.

Grimble is the chief account for the kingdom of Possiltum. Skeeve has never liked him.

Spyder is a soldier in the Possiltum army. She is the ultimate tomboy. She had been a member of Guido's Bug Squad during his enlistment.

In this story, Skeeve has thirty days to choose between marrying Queen Hemlock or becoming King of Possiltum. He doesn't like either choice, but sees no other way without hurting the people of Possiltum. He solicits the advice of everybody in the team, including Gleep.

Meanwhile, Skeeve is working on the financial situation in Possiltum. The expansion of its army and the lower taxes have almost bankrupted the kingdom. He introduces Grimble to Bunny and she promptly impresses him with her business sense.

Of course, Skeeve really doesn't understand much about finance. To his astonishment, even Aazh doesn't comprehend finance at this level. But Skeeve perseveres and makes a few good suggestions, including using the spare soldiers as tax collectors.

Skeeve notices that Gleep seems more intelligent than anyone had thought. He suggests this to Nunzio, but the bodyguard thinks that he is kidding. So Skeeve gives Nunzio the task of discovering why Gleep has been acting oddly.

Guido receives some news from General Badaxe via courier. Guido calls a meeting and introduces Spyder to the team. Apparently the populace believes that Skeeve is running the country and raising taxes. The team agrees that this is a bad time to distract Skeeve, so they come up with their own plan.

Guido asks Skeeve to appoint Spyder as a Royal Investigator to check on the new tax collectors. He also suggests that Pookie and himself accompany the Royal Investigator. After Skeeve signs the appointment, Spyder, Pookie and Guido leave the castle to looks for signs of an uprising.

This tale has everyone on the Myth team trying to make Skeeve happy. Yet Skeeve himself doesn't know what will make him happy. His mind is going around in circles until Badaxe intervenes.

Skeeve is confused in his attempts to understand women. The next work in the series is MYTH-ion Improbable, but that book takes place much earlier in the series. The sequel to this volume is Something M.Y.T.H. Inc., which parallels the story in this novel. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Asprin fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of higher finance, sex education, and the maturation of young men. If anyone not familiar with this series, the initial volume is Another Fine Myth.

-Arthur W. Jordin

while in its entirety...its good....i love the book as all the others in the myth series...but.........big but....robert aspirin where are you? this needs to be followed up on! are you going to finish where you left off? sheesh! i love the books and am big fan please continue!