Nifft The Lean

Author: Michael Shea

Nifft was a thief and a rogue. Nifft is dead. This is kind of an epitaph in four short tales. You decide whether you'd ever let Nifft get close to you without sequestering everything valuable in a safe place first. Why it's at this place on the list: Because it kind-of Vance but just not quite. This novel won 'Year's Best' at the World Fantasy Awards, but never made it into the wide public arena. Shea's style has been compared to Fritz Leiber's, but it's much closer to Jack Vance's, as the stories in this collection clearly show. Not wanting to take away from Shea's accomplishment, but you can see Vance in there, as big as a priapic stallion in a spinster's bedroom. The stories amble along and sometimes you wonder where the action is, but then BANG! It happens, and then we amble along again. A bit like a Tarantino flick. And just when you wonder where this is all going, you're probably left to wonder just a bit longer. Read if you like: Cugel the Clever in particular and Jack Vance in general; but when you've also read all of Jack's books so often that you really feel like you should read something else. As long as it's Vance-ish.