The One About the Vampires

Of all the Myth Adventures books I remember, Myth-ing Persons was the biggie. Not only did it feature Aahz and Skeeve and the rest of the crew, but it featured vampires! The horror nut that I was, I was all over this one.

I remember more details about this book than I do the others, save for Another Fine Myth. I remember how the bazaar used other dimensions to save space in Deva; I remember how the I remember how Skeeve rescued Aahz from the living stone cell; I remember how the vampires first reacted to Skeeve and the rest of the gang. There were some other fun things I either didn't remember or didn't realize when I was reading (Drahcir and Idnew, for example), but for the most part this was a re-read to remember all the great stuff from the story.

One thing that's stuck with me as I've been reading these books is how Asprin portrays Massha. She's strong, independent, and her own person, but how he portrays her as a fat woman in the story concerns me. She's aware of it, but the way Asprin has Skeeve think about her doesn't sit well with me. Clearly there's judgment going on as he evaluates her as an apprentice and a person, due to her weight, and he mostly overlooks her as a woman entirely because of it. The person she is aside from her weight shines through, enough that Asprin avoids stereotypes, and she doesn't come across as simply the token fat woman. It's troubling, but not enough to dismiss the entire series out of hand because of it.

Regardless, the story is entertaining, and brings back a lot of fond memories. I understand that these books may not hold up as well as I progress further into the series, but then again, that's true of most series that don't run as long as this one does. It's impossible for me to separate the story from my nostalgia, but I'm still having a lot of fun with these books.