Barely 3 stars. Not nearly as funny as the earlier books. The plot went nowhere and the characters vacillated between smart and ridiculously inept. ( )

So fun, so many bad puns, such awesome mobsters. ( )

Author: Robert Asprin   3.5 Stars of 5   Synopsis Guido and Nunzio must somehow stop Possiltum's army from invading everybody. So they join the army to destroy it from within. And hijinks ensue.     My Thoughts   The whole book is written from Guido's point of view, along with his language. So instead of Skeeve blundering through the narration, we get Guido skillfully informing us of the events.   It was a refreshing change at first, but then started getting a little old after nothing was happening. You can only take so much 'mob talk' with loquacious asides for so long.  Thankfully, there was a bar fight between the soldiers, the town police, the bar patrons and the military police. I was crying I was laughing so hard. But ymmv.   Overall, I found this a refreshing change from Skeeve's fake it and make it approach to life, and the bickering between him and Ahzz, I didn't miss that either. A good addition to the Myth books.     crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.wordpress.blogspot.com " ( )

A childhood favorite re-visited.

Is the story as good as I remember? – Yes

What ages would I recommend it too? – Twelve and up. While ten to twelve might enjoy it, there are many ideas they will not understand. Though, they will certainly get many of the jokes.

Length? – Most of a day’s read.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters.

Setting? – Fantasy, alternate dimensions.

Written approximately? – 1990.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Ready to read more.

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? No.

Short storyline: Aahz, frustrated with the loss of Skeeve’s emotions has skipped town to return home. Skeeve finally sees the error of his ways, and feels he must go and try to make amends with his long time friend and partner. In the meantime, a serious assignment has come up, that he leaves for the rest of the crew. They must return to Possiltum, the kingdom Skeeve originally worked in, to stop the impending war. Problem is, this goes against his contract with the mob (though he likely never thought about it), and everything the team does seems to backfire, and make the army more efficient instead of less so. (This story is actually resolved in the next volume, which I do not currently have.)

Notes for the reader: In this story, this author takes the emotions of his characters seriously. The characters don’t just race through the story full of action without emotion. The author realized the importance of the reader connecting to the characters by giving us the emotions, and even the reasons behind those sometimes odd emotions for the situation. While the first few times, it is a shock to the system to actually read of a character having an emotion, soon, it just becomes an enhancement to the story. In fact, when the lack of emotions by the main character becomes apparent in a later story, even that is noted by all the characters, until it is resolved. ( )

I've heard of this series of books with the punning Myth titles, but I haven't read any of them. After reading the first two chapters I decided that this book isn't for me.