Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/sir-hereward-and-mister-fitz-three-adventures/

When I think of Garth Nix I think of excellent fantasy literature for children, but Nix writes for adults, too. Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures is a collection of three previously published stories about a knight and artillerist named Sir Hereward and a magically animated puppet called Mr. Fitz. The duo works for the Council for the Saftey of the World and they???ve taken a vow to hunt down and exterminate the supernatural beings who are on a proscribed list of evil godlets. Sir Hereward contributes his skill with explosives while Fitz does the magic. Each of the adventures in this collection tells how they dealt with one of the godlets.

???Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again??? (originally published in Jim Baen???s Universe, April 2007, edited by Eric Flint) ??? Hereward and Fitz travel to a pastoral community where a proscribed godlet is leaching the land of its strength. They must fight their way into his inner sanctuary so they can slay the god.

???Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe??? (originally published in the anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by the Vandermeers) ??? The knight and the puppet team up with a lovely female pirate and her crew to blast a sea-gate which protects the hideout of a god who takes the form of a giant yellow starfish.

???A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet??? (originally published in the anthology Swords and Dark Magic, edited by Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan) ??? Sir Hereward is recuperating at a monastery and trying to find a birthday present for Mr. Fitz when he discovers a god in the monastery???s attic.

I enjoyed these adventures of Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz. Hereward is an appealing rogue ??? he???s open and charming and he???s a sucker for a woman with scars. Fitz is the real hero, though ??? an inscrutable puppet with unknown powers. He???s quite creepy to the reader but he???s been with Hereward since childhood, so we tend to trust him, but we???re not sure where his arcane arts or his motivation come from. Nix???s world is intriguing, too, and there???s some great scenery. I???d like to spend more time exploring it. Nix???s prose is perhaps most appealing to me. The setting and action are succinctly but adequately described with a deadpan tone that???s frequently amusing (though these stories would be better categorized as horror than comedy).

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures was previously self-published as an e-book, but Subterranean Press has recently released it in hardback and paperback formats. As the publisher warns, this is a book for adults, not children. Giant yellow starfish may sound cheery, but believe me, they???re not. These stories are quite dark and often gruesome and Hereward and Fitz leave a lot of dead bodies in their wake.

reviews.metaphorosis.com

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures
Garth Nix

3.5 stars

I first ran across Garth Nix in a public library, in the shape of his Abhorsen series. I thought it was great, and was surprised to find that other people already knew about it. In any case, when I bought a new Nook, I ended up with a ‘free' credit to spend, and I looked around for some cheap reads. This book was one of them.

I liked the stories. The characters are engaging, the setup is straightforward, and the storytelling is smooth. Still, I didn't give the book a really high rating. Why? Largely, it's because all this seems so familiar. It's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser with a slight change of costume. Even Hereward and Fitz' task is given to them by mysterious body eerily similar to Fafhrd and the Mouser's sorcerous mentors.

It's very possible that Nix is a better writer than Leiber was. His stories are certainly warmer and more personal, if less given to wry humor. But these stories feel very much like an emulation - for all I know, a deliberate one. If so, well done. But there's no acknowledgment in the book, and the stories simply don't have the originality that would induce me to score the book higher.

Overall, harmless fun, and a nice memorial to Leiber's characters, whether intentional or not.