I was already a fan of Nix, and had read three of the included stories in their original compilations, so this was not a hard sell. I very much enjoyed every story in this collection and round thoroughly recommend it to any fans or general fantasy/sword & sorcery readers. It’s a fun world with sone good development. But all these stories are not a novel. They’re pretty clearly taken from other collections because there’s a LOT of repetition. If a story needs to stand alone, we need to know that Hereward is into ladies with scars. But unfortunately, putting them all together like this means we learn it 7 times. I loved the book, but it’s definitely a ‘read one at a time over awhile’ versus a ‘sit down and binge it’. I did binge it, because each story was so good that I wanted to keep going, but if you can resist, I would.

I've been a fan of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz for several years now, so it is delightful to have so many of their adventures collected in one place (and to have the chance to see a couple of new ones)!

The tales follow Sir Hereward, a swordsman of the Three Musketeers sort, and Mister Fitz, a sorcerous puppet of considerable power. While Hereward is the sort of fighter who it is always fun to follow along and see what trouble he gets into, Fitz is the character who truly makes these pieces work for me. He is just unearthly enough in his characterization to always be surprising—in many ways he reminds me of the sort of work many of the most enjoyable fantasy writers are doing with the fey. He is unfalteringly honest and devoted to his assigned purpose of destroying magical incursions deemed dangerous by the Council. I greatly appreciated the creativity of his magical talents and his enchanted needles capable of unpicking reality remain some of my favorite magical items I've yet come across in fiction.

I liked the lightness with which these stories tackled their dark. Many of these tales are rather grim, with side characters dying off and the violence one would expect from a magical knight and his inhuman associate. The thrust of these adventures is the fact that our heroes are assigned the duty of killing off magical creatures declared dangerous, even when these creatures have been adopted as the gods of peoples and cities. However, the stories are brief enough that these moral issues are mostly brushed against and hinted at rather than readers finding themselves drug though extended sorrow and philosophical debates. There is plenty here to reflect on if you wish, but the stories also work as clever magical battles if that is how you decide to engage with them.

Most of these stories were originally collected in other anthologies and so they work very well as stand-alone pieces. I really enjoy being able to skip around in the collection and read them in any order.

Many thanks to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've determined that Nix's writing style is not for me. But ignoring that, the stories are good. It's quick and easy and I always appreciate short stories.

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz:
Stories of the Witch and the Puppet Sorcerer
by Garth Nix
Fantasy Short Stories
NetGalley ARC (Re-Publication)
16+

Sir Hereward, the only male child born to a society of witches, and Mister Fitz, a puppet, sorcerer, and practitioner of arcane arts, are Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with locating and the removal of extra-dimensional entities, or gods, with the use of magic, gunpowder, and a little swordplay.

Sounds great, right? Yeah, didn't live up to it. Nine short stories originally written for either magazines or a blog, were brought together to make up a 304-page book.

The stories are fine for their original magazine audience/format, but not so much as a book. I know I'm a hard one to please, I'm spoiled by authors who add layers of details to their characters, worlds, plots, and settings, so these stories were more like summaries, or tales one would tell over a campfire; quick and without a lot of detail that would really pull you down into the story, because the fire is burning out and the tents are calling. But with that said, if a minimum of five hundred words of details and character quirks were added to each of these stories, Bam! Wonderful tales could be exposed.

The stories were each cute enough that if lifted out of the short story dungeon, and brought to life as novellas, I could devour them, but as is, they're forgetful; tales to be read (skimmed) one time with the wish there had been more to them, and then mostly forgotten.

2 Stars

I keep trying to read Garth Nix, because I absolutely love his concepts. He has a fabulous imagination and covers such a wide variety of topics and character types , from the Sinister Booksellers to "live" puppets. I am always drawn to the blurbs and the cover art . Unfortunately, I do not connect at all to his writing style.. so while I am intrigued each time I read a description of one of his books, equally unfortunately each time I pick it up I am reminded of this sad fact.

I am not normally a fan of short stories as a format to begin with, so should have probably known better than to request this one - but I was so intrigued by the concept and fabulous reviews that I wanted to give it a try anyway. Unfortunately, it was not for me. Nix and I are simply not a good fit as writer and reader...

This delightful book collects the complete body of Sir Hereward and Master Fitz stories, including two new stories. I have enjoyed Garth Nix’s stories of the young knight and his sorceries puppet companion for years and was very happy to have all the stories plus new material in a single volume.
Hereward and Fitz are capable agents of a society of witches tasked with removing malevolent gods and godlets from a vaguely renaissance themed fantasy world. Their byplay is entertaining and their adventures equally so. Most of the tales are slight but pleasantly so. Nix is a very smooth and readable author. Well worth the time to read. I hope there can be a second volume one day.

I enjoyed this, It was a fun set of fantasy short stories, The two main characters had a good friendship and the stories kept my interest. I will say the writing style was not my cup of tea. At times it was almost a chore to read due to the old fashioned way the characters spoke. I completely understand why they spoke the way they did because of the setting they were in, but it's just not something I enjoy. I still recommend these stories though and I think others will have a lot of fun reading them!

Summary
Sir Hereward, born to an insular community of witches, and Mister Fitz, a sorcerous wooden puppet, are sworn to eradicate malevolent godlets. A collection of stories of their adventures.
Review

I’ve had mixed success with Garth Nix. I loved what I read of his Old Kingdom series and one or two other books borrowed from friends. I was less taken with his Left Handed Booksellers of London novel. And I’ve read three Hereward and Fitz stories before in an earlier collection and .. shrugged. I found them to be well written but very reminiscent of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. In his introduction to this collection, Nix acknowledges that inspiration, along with others.

Those three earlier stories form the first three in this collection as well, along with half a dozen more. The tripling of content hasn’t really changed my mind – these stories are all of a piece, and probably best read separately, with some separation.

They’re all well written, fun, and interesting. Nix does a good job of presenting all the context needed to read them as standalone pieces, without making it boring for those reading the collection all at once, and that’s a harder job than it sounds. As I noted previously, Nix is also probably a better writer than Leiber, and it’s nice to see a writer use the occasional odd word correctly (and with the feeling that he actually knows it rather than resorting to a thesaurus), though his usage stumbles a bit in one of the later stories. The stories are well put together for what they are. However, they simply aren’t much – they’re light, pleasant fantasy fare, but not that memorable. That was a problem for some of Leiber’s stories as well, but he often managed to work in a little pathos to give the thing a little more body. I’d have liked to see some of that here.

If you’re a fan of Nix, or haven’t read Leiber, or just want some easy reading, I recommend this. If you know Leiber well, you could see these as an homage and continuation, but you may also feel it’s very familiar ground.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

An amalgamation of short adventure stories designed to capture the imagination. I prefer the one-story line with multiple quests interleaved. I get that when you’re after various godlets, each has its own story to tell but it tends to run short in presentation. Way too short.
The characters are wonderfully staged and the world building, although limited, was good. Count me as a fan of this duo.

I have always loved Nix's takes of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, the knight and ensorceled puppet who go around a wide and wonderful--and horrifying--world, killing off godlets that might end the world, or kill all the people, or other terrible things. These godlets, the places and objects they inhabit, and their allies and enemies all drawn exceptionally well, as are Hereward adn Fitz. Some of these stories were ones I've read before, but others were new, and they are all treats. Anyone who likes fantasy will want to give these a try, and readers who are already fans of Nix's other work but haven't encountered these yet will love them.

Really charming story about the intensely powerful puppet and the battle hardened Sir Hereward finding a godlet in a scary graveyard full of gas. I received a review copy from NetGalley and have left my opinion.

Do you ever finish a book and think immediately: this should be TV? Garth Nix's latest treasure trove of short stories is absolutely begging for a cinematic adaption, bringing all the swashbuckling glory and daring of The Three Musketeers and The Princess Bride in the form of a knighted witch's son and his former puppet nanny, now formidable sorcerer. Each of the stories serves as a vignette into their adventures, as they seek to protect the world from evil extradimensional entities known as "godlets". Each story posses Nix signature stamp of horror, humor, and creative brilliance. Some will make you laugh, and others will bring tears to your eyes. I found Hereward and Fitz to be wonderful characters, with Hereward's swaggering bravado and frequent womanizing offset by Fitz's calm rationality. My one (minor) note is that Nix missed a golden opportunity for Hereward to be trans - the only boy a society of all-women witches? Tragically missed chance for a great transmasc character.

These tales of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz are interesting and showed a wide array of situations that a knight and a sorcerer puppet can get into. I really like the ideas here and most of the stories are pretty good. The problem for me is that I did not really enjoy Garth Nix’s writing style (this is the first time I have read anything from him), so while there were interesting characters and ideas here everything ended up feeling just a little flat for me. I know plenty others would probably love this more than I did.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

A mixed bag of short stories featuring a roving knight and his sorcerous puppet companion on various missions to uncover and dispatch wayward gods. Some were more interesting than others but overall did not hold my interest.

Thanks so much to Netgalley & Garth Nix, just for the opportunity to read Sir Hereward & Mister Fitz stories - for my opionion( seems like one hell of a bargain)

Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of Garth Nix, and even though he is most well known the Old Kingdom Series, and Sabriel, Book dealers and more, I have been known to be attracted to the more obscure of his work. What can be more interesting and more odd than a knight born of a 1st witch, and a paper mache' puppet that was made with Arcane abilities?! No less living in a world where multiple deities reside wether parasitic or not, and imbue those who pray to it with actual benefits.

I jumped at the chance to read a previously unreleased story from this unique duo. The stories are all short but poetically written, big on action, provide small twists, and are always a joy! I truly wish there was a full novel of these two alone!

If you enjoy Nix like I do, you won't have a problem re-reading the stories, with the addition a whole new story!