Review: Lovely, lively, subtely humourous
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
This is a lovely collection of 3 stories dealing with the same 2 characters. Sir Hereward is a handsome young man in his 20s and Mister Fitz is the sorcerous puppet that first raised him when he was a child, and now travels about with him. Sir Hereward is educated and a skilled swordsman and artillerist, but otherwise a red-blooded young man who likes his food, rest and a good-looking woman. Sir Fitz is a very special sort of puppet, not only conscious and capable, but with special magical skills. It is hard to say too much about these stories without giving away their core, which I don't want to do. Part of the pleasure of these stories is finding out exactly why the two roam from place to place, why they seem to draw the ire of many people in the places they go to, and why Sir Hereward might feel often like he'd like to spend a little while in a quiet place where nothing happens, but rarely gets the chance to. The other pleasures are in the sly wit and gentle interplay between the 2 main characters, and in the language, where Nix plays with a medieval sort of speech and does it pretty well, in my opinion. Highly recommended, if you like good fantasy.