MythAdventures
MythAdventures is the collective name for a series of humorous
fantasy novels written by
Robert Lynn Asprin that are popular for their whimsical nature, myriad characters, and liberal use of
puns. Each novel's title makes a pun on the similarity between the word "myth" and either the prefix "mis-" or the word "miss," with the exception of the first, which puns on the phrase "Another fine mess" (which was, incidentally, almost the novel's title, but for a mythunderstanding (har!) with the publisher.)
The stories mostly revolve around the adventures of a few central characters:
*
Skeeve, a youngish journeyman
magician from the backwater
dimension of Klah.
*
Aahz, a green, scaly "demon" (short for "dimension traveler") from the
dimension of Perv, a world known for its foul-tempered
reptilian humanoid inhabitants. Aahz (short for Aahzmandius) takes Skeeve on as his
apprentice, despite having lost his powers through a prank pulled by Skeeve's now-deceased mentor, Garkin, at the beginning of the first novel. Later on, he and Skeeve dissolve their mentor/apprentice relationship and become partners in a magician-for-hire enterprise called M.Y.T.H. Inc.
*
Gleep, a baby
dragon with a one-word eponymous vocabulary, and Skeeve's excitable pet.
*
Massha, a magician of truly monumental girth with bright orange hair and a gaudy fashion sense, who eventually apprentices herself to Skeeve.
*
Guido and
Nunzio, a pair of hulking and highly capable
bodyguards attached to Skeeve as a favor from the interdimensional
Mafia's light-in-the-loafers Fairy Godfather,
Don Bruce. Nunzio seldom talks, while Guido speaks in a
Runyonesque dialect, which is explained as being an aftereffect of having been in a production of
Guys and Dolls.
*
Chumley, an enormous but quite gentle and erudite Troll whose professional persona is a monosyllabic muscle-for-hire called
Big Crunch.
*
Tananda, a.k.a.
Tanda, a professional assassin and Chumley's nymphish Trollop sister.
*
Bunny,
Don Bruce's beautiful niece and
Skeeve's assigned moll; she is an accomplished accountant and is in love with
Skeeve (though he doesn't know it).
*
Klah, Backwater dimension where
Skeeve hails from. General populace (Klahds) is afraid of demons and magik. Kingdom of Possiltum is the only area worth mentioning. The
Mob also resides in Klah, or at least had its origins there.
*
Deva, Merchant capital of the dimensions. Inhabited by the Deveels, traders supreme. As
Aahz puts it, "if you think you've gotten a good deal from a Deveel, first count your arms, then your legs, and then your relatives". The
Bazaar on Deva is the only place of interest, a dimension-wide round-the-clock flea market which sells every conceivable magikal device and artifact.
*
Perv, High-tech dimension where Magik and technology are equal. Pervish cooking is one of the worst smells in all the dimensions (besides
Gleep's breath). Pervects are short-tempered and disquieting rumors circulate about them, which Pervects encourage so that people don't visit. Don't ever call them Perverts.
*
Limbo, Dark dimension filled with vampires and were-things, such as werebears, weresnakes, werewolves, and weretigers. Chief city is Blut, notable people are
Vilhelm the Dispatcher, and
Drahcir and
Idnew, the Woof Writers, a husband and wife team of werewolves (homages to
Wendy and
Richard Pini). The low amount of force-lines limit magic here, and offworlders are viewed as terrifying monsters by the older vampires. Skeeve's house in the Bazaar has a back door which opens into Limbo.
*
Jahk, Humanoid dimension where the average inhabitants are short and obese or extremely thin. Every year, the Big Game is played to determine whether Veygus or Ta-Hoe is the capital of the dimension. Players are practically another species, extremely muscled and large. The winner of the Big Game used to claim the Trophy, but the hideous thing is now in the possession of Aahz, after the Skeeve-founded team "the Demons" won it in a three-way brawl.
*
Avis, Dimension full of sentient birds. No areas of interest. Do not visit Avis unless you are a
magician or you like foods of the crawly variety.
*
Gastropo, A dimension full of slug-like inhabitants. The preferred mode of transport is walking, although that takes hours just to move a block. Unadvisable to visit.
*
Arcadia, A pleasant dimension 'controlled' by a hard-working
philanthropist named Hoos.
*
Kow-Tow, An extremely remote dimension that superficially resembles the American "Wild West," but is actually a breeding ground for humans so that the vampire cows can suck their blood.
*
Scamaroni, A dimension with a smell-oriented race that has a reputation for being made up of suckers.
*
Kobol, A dimension of technology enthusiasts.
*
Ronko, A dimension filled with televisions and advertising.
*
Wuh, Rural dimension that is home to cowardly, sheep-like shopaholics called Wuhses.
*
Sear, A bleak desert dimension inhabited by tiny soil-dwelling critters.
Dimensions that have been mentioned but not explicitly depicted:
*
Imper, Not much is known about Imper except that it is close to Deva and the Imps were wiped out financially by the Deveels. The Imps have since tried to mimic the Deveels (who they physically resemble) with only marginal success. The kindest thing anyone has said about Imps is that they are snappy dressers.
*
Trollia, Chumley and Tanda's home dimension. The males are Trolls, and the females are Trollops.
*
Rinasp, A dimension that suffered a ghastly fate when Tanda was hired to go there on a collection job.
*
Archiah, The dimension that "invented archery."
*
Zoorik, Home of the Gnomes, who are implied to be financial wizards.
*
Ratislava, whose inhabitants created an extremely powerful magical device that was then stolen and taken off-dimension.
*
Mantico, Home of the formidable Manticore race.
The 'first' series was written under a 13-book contract with the now-defunct publishing house
Donning Starblaze and includes these novels:
*
Another Fine Myth (1978) ISBN 0-441-02359-2
*
Myth Conceptions (1980) ISBN 0-441-55519-5
*
Myth Directions (1982) ISBN 0-441-55525-x
*
Hit or Myth (1983) ISBN 0-441-33850-x
*
Myth-ing Persons (1984) ISBN 0-441-55276-5
*
Little Myth Marker (1985) ISBN 0-441-46499-9
*
M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link (1986) ISBN 0-441-55277-3
*
Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections (1987)
*
M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action (1990)
*
Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1993)
*
Myth-Ion Improbable (2001)
*
Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. (2002)(The last two were published by
Meisha Merlin, which picked up the contract from Donning.)
The 'new' MythAdventures series, co-authored with
Jody Lynn Nye, currently includes four novels:
*
Myth-Told Tales (2003)
*
Myth Alliances (2003)
*
Myth-Taken Identity (2004)
*
Class Dis-Mythed (2005)
Novels in progress:
*
Myth-Gotten Gains (Sept. 25 2006)
The first novel was adapted into an eight-part
WaRP Graphics comic book series in the mid-
1980s. Illustrated and heavily rewritten by
Phil Foglio, the series was later collected into two full-color
graphic novels published by
Starblaze Graphics. Four more issues followed, featuring an original story by Asprin and artist
valentino which attempts to bridge the action between the first and second novels in the series. (
Apple Comics took over the second series halfway through.) The second novel was later adapted into another eight-part comic series by
Ken and
Beth Mitchroney and published by Apple from
1987 through
1989. Neither of these two later series enjoyed a graphic novel collection.
Foglio has also done the cover art and accompanying illustrations for the first editions of most of the novels.
Short-lived rumors circulated in the
1980s that
Wendy and
Richard Pini, owners of
WaRP Graphics, were considering turning their adaption of
Another Fine Myth into a feature-length
movie after doing so with their own property,
ElfQuest, though the latter has yet to even make it past concept to this day.
Myth Adventures is the name of a
1997 play by
Eric Coble, but it appears to be a retelling of some ancient
Greek myths, and have nothing to do with Mr. Asprin's work.
A board game called "Myth Fortunes" was developed by
Mayfair Games. [
1]
Featuring more of Foglio's artwork, the game assigns each player an identity from the series, which they attempt to keep hidden from the other players as they work their way around the board. It includes a "subgame" which offers the opportunity to play the infinitely complicated card game "Dragon Poker", from the series entry
Little Myth Marker.
Designers included: Micki Niebling, John Danovich, Matt Forbeck and Bryan Winter.
