Define Skeeve

The best thing about this book was that when I got home from picking it up from the library and opened it, I discovered that on the inner title page was the following:

I don’t think I’ve ever actually considered “losing” a library book on purpose before.

About a year or so ago, I read one of the later additions to this series and I enjoyed it, so I decided to see how the whole thing got started. Myth Adventures One is a composite of the first two novellas combined: Another Fine Myth and Myth Conceptions. Maybe it’s because these are more novellas and Myth Fits was more of a novel, but I was a little surprised. The basic premise is a vaguely medieval fantasy dimension where magic exists, and so do other dimensions that can be crossed using magic or devices. The characters are the same, and I liked getting to see how Skeeve, Aahz, and Gleep first get together. Skeeve also gets to meet Tanda as well. It’s been long enough that I don’t remember for sure, but I suspect there’s a few other characters who also get introduced. This was not the surprising part.

I noticed that a lot of gags got repeated, and I noticed a few new ones. As I remember from the first book I read, there is a repetition of Aahz getting annoyed at being called a Pervert; being from Perv, he’s a Prevect. (Get it? eye-roll) I also remembered that Deveels are from Deva. (Get it? eye-roll) I have to admit this time around I caught the jokes in Aahz’s name (Get it? eye-roll), as well as a few others that I guess I’d missed before. I really am considering the possibility of Skeeve’s name, but I’m just not sure about that. Part of me says look at the rest of them, but the other part says but that’s pretty obscure slang since the 1990s. Then again, was this obscure in 1978 when the first novella/story was written? That’s a few years before my time, so I honestly am not sure.

The part that surprised me a little was how slowly the stories moved. I got a little bored. There’s a lot of Skeeve getting confused, then lucky in getting himself out of situations that almost always end in his realizing  that he’s really only put off the inevitable disaster. Rinse, wash, repeat, ad infinitum. There’s a lot more repetitive conversation than I remember too; it seems like it’s meant to be entertaining banter, and at first it is, but then it gets old upon much repetition. I also didn’t remember that Tanda’s arrival apparently means something actually happens, and then once she leaves, there’s a stall.

It’s all mildly amusing though. In the end, if you need something mindless, and not all that content heavy, this might be something you like. Plus, you never know when you might find an autographed copy.