5 stars for the first 5 books in the Myth Adventures series. These books are hilarious, have great characters, and have good stories, too. I highly recomend.

Very funny, good story too. Irreverant tale of a mage that becomes a court magician. Easy reading, no profanity or explicit sex.

This is #10 in the Thieves World series and a fine explosive volume it is too.

We find Tempus and the Stepsons abandoning the war torn city of Sanctuary (can you believe the irony of the name?) as vicious rivalries emerge from the rubble. The fate of the city hangs in the balance as the struggle for power lurches on.

So come join this city of outlaws and adventurers in a world of war and wizardry, peopled with colorful characters created by a legion of today's top fantasy adventure writers: Lynn Abbey, Robert Asprin, John Brunner, David Drake, Janet Morris, Andrew Offutt, Mark Perry and more.

A richly drawn journey through the World of Two Moons, this collection of stories spanning thousands of years is a fine addition to the ever unfolding ElfQuest saga. "The Blood of Ten Chiefs" gives us an all too brief glimpse into the lives of the wolfriders before the familiar days of Cutter and his family. Like the best of the ElfQuest tales, these stories are well written, beautifully drawn and easily capture emotions without the need for excess dialogue and narration. The change in styles from story to story, artist to artist, can be distracting at first, but after the first few pages the reader is fully involved and captivated by each artist's unique vision of these wonderful elves and their magical world. Wendi Pini's creative absence, so terribly and painfully obvious in many of the other recent entries in the series, in no way diminishes this collection which features some of the finest work of the "guest" artists I have yet seen.

The stories are varied in style and scope, ranging from the visually stunning "Colors" which tells the epic tale of Timmorn and his struggle to reconcile his elfin and wolf heritage, to the whimsical and innocent "At the Oak's Root" which tells of a young Tanner and his misfit "wolf"-friend who is not a wolf at all.

Taken together the stories serve as an engaging glimpse at the legendary Ten Chiefs. Newcomers to ElfQuest should probably save this collection for last, as the stories assume that the reader comes to them with a full and comfortable command of World of Two Moons and its inhabitants.

In the twenty-one years since Wendy and Richard Pini introduced the graphic series "Elfquest", many readers have been curious about the background of Cutter and his Wolfrider tribe. The Pinis took a first step toward answering these questions by endorsing a fantasy-novel series, "The Blood of Ten Chiefs", which appeared throughout the 1980s; this collection of short prose stories brought to light major events in the lives of the chieftains who lived in the 10,000 years before we meet the elves for the first time. From 1993 to 1995, the spirit - and some of the substance - of these tales was brought into a new EQ graphic serial, "Blood of Ten Chiefs"; the first nine issues retold stories from the prose-books, the last eleven were original tales created specially for this new series. Book 9b reprints issues 1 to 7, and 10-11 (a two-part story).

In these episodes published here the storytelling is always of quality, and two of the tales - "Colors" (issue 1) and "The Broken Circle" (issues 10-11) are among the most memorable and significant in the series. "Colors" is the visual version of Richard Pini's tale about the struggle of the half-wolf Timmorn, the first Wolfrider chieftain, to reconcile the elfin and lupine sides of his soul. The difficulty of illustrating states of mind is handled beautifully here; profound as the prose is, the drawing is even more eloquent, particularly in the last few pages. Even the coloring-work, though reprinted only in black-and-white, yet adds to the total effect (a pleasant surprise in almost all the issues here is the graceful transfer of these originally colorized drawings). No issue in BoTC was less than solid, but this debut issue remains the best of the series.

Other stories include another carryover from the novels, "The Phantom of the Berry Patch" - a tale about the young Bearclaw (the father of Cutter); the grim, disturbing "Swift-Spear", an account of Two-Spear's madness and his resulting campaign against the humans; and the last story in this volume, "The Broken Circle", about young Skywise's discovery of a great relic of the High Ones, ancestors of the elves - and the havoc it wreaks with him and his tribe. Drawn in a completely different style from that of "Colors", it too is ambitious, far-reaching and thought-provoking - with a more unsettling conclusion.

The series - and this book - are, by design, a literary and artistic grab-bag, with contributions from several different artists, but the level of inspiration is high all around; about the only flaw is a certain blockiness of pencil-work in two of the stories ("Swift-Spear" admittedly being one of those two). As I have said, the art has transferred very well to this lower-price format (not always the case with other volumes in the EQ Reader's Collection).

To summarize: if the "Blood of Ten Chiefs" book had been a mere history of a tribe of elves, it would have been much less interesting. But because it focuses on the major events in the chiefs' lives - and, through them, illuminates their characters and times - these stories will bear repeated reading. Recommended.

I really enjoy Elf Quest comics, but they don't tell you much about what life was like before Cutter's tribe. This book provides you with exelent, well written background information, and detailed drawings of the elves and the incredible world of two moons. It tells you different stories about all the ten cheiftens that came before cutter.

This book was good, but it hold par with the previous six. While there is more character development on Chumley, Massha, Guido, and Gleep, I liked Skeeve's narration better.

I agree with Minh Dang (the first reviewer of this book). This book gives insight into the minds and personalities of all the characters involved. I think Asprin really had to change something or risk becoming repetitive or stagnate (he pretty much says so in his introduction). He tried something new and I enjoyed it, although at a different level. This book didn't have as many laugh-out-loud moments, but it has a bit more plot than normal and since it's the beginning of a 5 book contract he was able to start some multiple/cross book subplots.

Skeeve, the struggling magician, isn't your ordinary story hero. He makes mistakes and has friends there to laugh at and help him. The humor is what makes the book a hit. Without it, it would merely be another dull fantasy involving devils, trolls, and dragons. Full of laughs.

This fifth volume in the Thieves' World series contains stories by Janet Morris, C.J. Cherryh, Asprin, Lynn Abbey, David Drake, and Diana Paxson - with Andrew Offut noticeably and thankfully absent. The stories range from the grotesquely gripping to the merely entertaining, and overall are more enjoyable than most of the previous Thieves' World books. The highlight is Paxson's "Mirror Image," which features the two only endearing characters in all of Thieves' World, the painter Lalo and his wife, Gilla. Lalo, you see, had been cursed/blessed. His portraits revealed the inner soul of the subject, not the exterior facade (thus his large, domineering wife appears as a goddess). In "Mirror Image," Lalo paints a self-portrait and the result is a very moving tale. Despite the false packaging (the "invasion" referenced in the title is hardly that, just an omnipresence of mysterious, powerful foreigners), The Face of Chaos is, perhaps, the first Thieves' World book I'd recommend without reservations.

A collection of top fantasy writers have contributed to this unique experience of tales.

The Dead of winter is an anthology, with several writers exchanging character information. The stories themselves are interesting to say the least. The world in which it is set is as dark, dank and disturbed as anyone could imagine. Theft, murder and worse are common exoeriences here, and taken by the citizens in the same way that a new yorker takes a trafic jam at 5:30. The characters have developed a lot over the past 6 books in the series, and you get a real sense of their plight. Sanctuary the city the book is about is going strait down the toilet, and in many rather intresting ways. A new eliment of the world of sanctuary is the waring factions, which have made the city even more dangerous. Magic, ganges, political intreague, gods, and a pleasent trip to hell, this one has it all.

If you are interested in twists, turns and some descriptive writing, this book is for you. If you can stomach some things that you normally wouldn't like then you can enter the marvelous world of Santuary.

This book is the story of a reporter's interview with Tambu, the greatest pirate & villain in the Universe. The central theme of the story is a challenge to whole concept of heroes & villains. From the interview you would be forced to conclude that whether someone is a hero or villain is just a matter of your point of view. Tambu explains how he came to be considered the greatest villain in the universe. His explanation is logical & you could believe that give the same situation you might make the same decisions he did. Tambu expounds on this idea when he explains his philosophy that all decisions should be B.A.D. decisions (Best Available Data). Make the best decision you can based on the data available within the time parameters allowed. When reviewing a past decision you should be content that given the same situation, same information, and the same amount of time, you would make the same decision again (No 20/20 hindsight allowed). After reading this book you too will be challenging the notion of Heroes & Villains.

If you are in the mood from some fantasy short stories that have a good action pace to them, then this is worth reading.

What I read I liked. My only thing with the book is that it is exactly that...a bunch of short stories that take place in the same universe(I kinda knew this from the start but didnt' really think much of it till I was 2/3rds of the way through).

In my opinion if there were reoccuring characters (if there were I don't remember seeing them) then that would have been more enjoyable to me.

A point to remember - this was the first book in the "shared world" genre. It spawned several copycats - the Hell series comes to mind, as does Wild Cards. Sure, there had been 'round robin' books before, but this was the first shared world.

As the first attempt at a new genre this book is good. Alas, few people used each other's characters, but that was corrected by book two when the concept had come together better. MZB introduced a character that later appeared in another Shared World (kind of violating the premise of both series) which later had its own book (collecting and adding to the short stories about it).

After burning out around book 10 (but struggling on to book 12) the series bunt out, but it seems that Lynn Abbey (ex-wife of teh founding editor) has restarted it - so this book can serve as a base line for the new series.

This is an amazing book! I have one of the very first printings of it-from 1983 that I actually found at a lodge in the middle of the ecuadorian rainforest! The first thing that I love about this book is the idea of many different authors all writing about different people in the same place, even continuing events where the other left off! I read some fantasy books, and this is by far one of my favorites! I am currently looking for the others in the original series, which is proving to be quite a challenge :)

After nearly a decade, Asprin has FINALLY returned to the Myth series. I greatly enjoyed the other books and was over joyed to see he was returning to finish the series. I presumed he simply burned out on ideas and switched to the Phule and Time Scout series to break the monotony. In his preface he explains the delay and attributes it to tax problems. He then tells us that the book is something like a warm up exercise to get back into the flow and style of the Myth books that made them so enjoyable.
The pace is slow, almost dogged. Instead of reading like a light farce, it carries like a mediocre detective novel. The are numerous "goofs" where the characters are knowing or doing something they didn't do when placed in the Myth timeline between books 3 and 4.
I still recommend the book to those who want a complete set of the series, but as a first look into Skeeve's world it lacks the spring and liveliness of the rest of the series. If this your first look into Myth, I'd recommend Myth Adventures One, then Two and Three and read this last.

MYTH-ion Improbable marks Robert Asprin's long-awaited return to the worlds of his popular MYTH series. Although he doesn't exactly pick up where the story left off some years ago, he takes us back to simpler times to spin a yarn from the early days of the series. This book takes place between books three and four of the original series and takes Skeeve, Aahz, and Tananda on a wild treasure hunt through some interesting dimensions we haven't seen before. I for one like the idea of Asprin going back to earlier times in the series. For one thing, I didn't like the direction Sweet MYTH-tery of Life was taking the story and characters. It just wasn't fun anymore. This book returns a sense of fun to the series.

The only real issue I have with this novel is that Asprin never really seems to nail his characters as they were established in the past. Skeeve comes off as being a bit too assertive and sure of himself, when at this point in the series he was still just learning magic and the ways of the world. Aahz and Tananda never really come through with the personalities they once had. Tananda especially just seems to be along for the ride.

Overall this is a fun return to the world of the MYTH series. It's a light, quick read and I recommend it to any fans of Robert Asprin or followers of the MYTH series.

Although this book is #11 in the Myth Adventures series, the story is set in time between books #3 and #4 (Myth Directions and Hit or Myth). In this book, Asprin returns to what is really the heart of the series, "buddy" adventures involving Skeeve and Ahz. This adventure takes them on a treasure hunt following a tricky magical map and the shifty advice of a shape shifter. They end up in Kowtow, a dimension full of spooky (and deadly) cows and some nervous humans. Skeeve and Ahz end up with more gold than you can swing a shovel at, but not everything turns out as expected. This books is a delightful break from the complicated (but interesting) storyline that emerges in Myth-ing Persons and continues over the last five books of the series.