Puppetmaster
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer by Garth Nix (2024): 9 out of 10: is a collection of delightful short stories featuring, unsurprisingly, Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz. This compilation assembles eight previously published tales alongside a slight new adventure, chronicling the exploits of Sir Hereward, a dashing knight and artillerist, and his enigmatic companion, Mister Fitz, a centuries-old, sorcerous puppet. Together, they serve the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, tasked with eliminating malevolent Godlets that threaten the fabric of their reality.
The dynamic between Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz is the heart of these narratives. Sir Hereward, the rare male offspring of a witch lineage, is portrayed as both a formidable swordsman and a man yearning for fleeting comforts amidst his perilous duties. (Mostly drink and comely lasses). Think Geralt of Rivia and you are ninety percent of the way there. Mister Fitz is a wooden puppet animated by ancient sorcery, wielding esoteric needles and possessing a dry wit that belies his inanimate form.
Nix’s storytelling shines as he crafts each tale with meticulous detail, immersing readers in diverse settings from pirates caves off the coast of a fictional China to old towns on the side of a cliff hiding a dragon in human form. The narrative style playfully nods to traditional high fantasy tropes, delivering a series of adventures that are both familiar and refreshingly original.
Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz offers a delightful escape into a world brimming with magic, danger, and deadpan humor. Nix’s ability to balance the fantastical with the comedic ensures a good read is a page away.
The Good
The Good: Garth Nix does a masterful job setting up background and letting us know more and more about the characters, eventually letting us know they hunt gods for a long dead council. Even though he had to reintroduce these facts in every story since they were standalone stories printed years apart, it is never repetitive, which honestly is a bit of a miracle.
I love the way the Garth Nix adds so much detail and color and information without it feeling like an exposition dump. Every word and character is finally crafted. A genuine artist at work here.
Garth Nix also does some experimenting along the way. One story on a train is almost epistolary, while another introduces a comic third character who becomes the protagonist to the horror of Hereward.
I don’t particularly like puppets in my fiction. “Lies of P” for example, has no genuine appeal to me as a video game and outside of a couple of horror films I avoid them in that medium as well. It is a compliment to Garth Nix’s craftmanship that I find his puppet neither grating nor ridiculousness.
The Bad
The Bad: There are some serious home runs in Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer. Alas, not every story is a banger. The bonus story added for the collection seems relative weak compared to some others.
Sometimes I have a hard time picturing exactly what Garth Nix is talking about. He has creatures called Murlocks which are what I gather are a sort of elephant. It takes a while and honestly two separate stories to get a grasp on what he is talking about. He has dragons and basilisks in the book. Why not just call them elephants?
I confess while reading I got “stuck” occasionally on slower stories that failed to engage me. As always, this very well could be a reader problem.
The Ugly
The Ugly: Poor Hereford is no Captain Kirk. He has the worst luck with woman. They all turn out to be assassins, priestesses of the Godlet he is trying to kill, or monsters. To make matters worse, when he finally has a decent prospect, his puppet runs interference whining about the mission or the end of the world or some such nonsense.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: This is a fantastic book. The stories are finely crafted with excellent writing. In most stories, the plot kept me propelled along to see what would happen next and the characters are a delight.
Plus, any book that has a Godzilla sized killer starfish, and a cannibal tattooed pirate were-cat in the same scene is going to have to work hard not to get a recommendation from me.
Random Notes from reading
Introduction was very pleasant. This seems to be a collection of short stories and maybe a novella or two. Garth Nix seems that kind of author one likes for light whimsical fantasy. Looking forward to reading the stories.
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Well, the first story could be a bit. There are no page numbers since this is an arc, so I am unsure how long the first story is. And I was dozing off a touch while reading, but that is a result of my long day and not the narrative.
What a delightful narrative and such great world building in such a small amount of pages. We have a flamboyant knight who may be more than he seems and a magic alived marionette who is definitively more than he seems.
It is so refreshing that the author lets us know all this without using some sort of Clineian shorthand like the puppet was like Pinocchio and the knight was like Don Quixote in his fantasy attire.
We are clearly in solid hands here and I am very much looking forward to reading more.
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Well, I reread and finished the first story and wow I really enjoyed it. The author lists a lot of antecedents for his characters, but he does not mention Conan. While the characters and even location could not be more different than our Cimmerian barbarian, the feeling is the same. Strangers going into a city on the precipice of war looking for coin for their services and getting the lay of the land and finding out all is not as it seems.
Garth Nix does a masterful job setting up background and letting us know more and more about the characters eventually letting us know they hunt gods for a long dead council and this beautiful town whom they had hoped to defend is in reality an illusion caused by a destructive entity.
Sir Hereward’s dismay in having to strike down a woman whom he found attractive almost costs him his life and the Mr. Fitz magic often offscreen and never really explained is deadly told subtly.
I don’t particularly like puppets in my fiction. “The Life of P” for example, has no genuine appeal to me as a video game and outside of a couple of horror films I avoid them in that medium as well. It is a compliment to Garth Nix’s craftmanship that I find his puppet neither grating nor ridiculousness.
The magic and fantastical are there just a touch offscreen like the three withes in the Witcher 3. It is much more scary as it is mostly unexplained and unexamined. An excellent lesson for many an author. Honestly reading this after TekWar I feel like it is a distinct language and medium the artistry is so different.
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So our suave world worn hero and his deadly puppet are on a new adventure. This time they have been assigned to kill a Godlet hiding behind an ancient wall in a well know pirate cove.
So their plan is to dress like pirates and hook up with a pirate crew so they can get in place to (As Reagan would say) tear down that wall. The pirate captain is a she. Sexy but a heavily tattooed cannibal. Meat is back on the menu, boys and a lot of her crew are missing limbs.
Does our hero sleep with her? Of course he does, but honestly, he is creeped out by the whole affair. There are no details because this is not that kind of book and for that, I am okay. The discomfort he feels does make its way off the page. I did not finish this adventure last night. We are just shooting at the wall in this moment.
I love the way the author adds so much detail and color and information without it feeling like an exposition dump. Every word and character is finally crafted. A genuine artist at work here.
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Again, not all that much progress. Not because of the quality of the prose or story I can tell you. We have Hereworth going into a cave/tunnel in a skiff with a bunch of pirates, trying to hide his true intentions with the pirate ship following. Something big and mysterious is in there. In the meantime, a bunch of giant eight foot yellow starfish are attacking him and the crew.
Excellently written action scene and a great way of creating a time and place without too much exposition or over description. This really is a masterclass in writing and an interesting, fun story to boot.
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We finished the pirate story. And hey, we had a Godzilla sized killer starfish, greedy Pirates falling to their doom, and a were-cat. I hope you do not grow too attached to the pirate captain or her ship or crew cause Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz are leaving the cave on a raft through a body strewn cove.
Good action sequences and, again, well written and imagined prose. It is a true fable and the blurb on the back says this is Garth Nix’s first adult novel. Well, I would not yet classify it as adult. The prose is certainly adult acceptable, but the plot and characters are more than comfortable in an YA space.
I mean, it stars a magic puppet.
Still, I was disappointed to hear his other output was for the small fry as I would love to read another “adult” novel from him. Well, we still have a few short stories to go. Onto our next adventure.
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Our next adventure is a short one. An apéritif for the rest of the book. Hereward is healing up from an undescribed adventure in a monastery whose healing powers fueled by a benevolent Godlet. Our puppet friend, meanwhile, is investigating some caves nearby.
The monastery is fairly empty having fallen on hard times and the only book available to read is a thousand year old tome written about a long gone city state who was so bad at finances it had to sell all its citizens off to slavery to pay its debts.
Within this ancient tome, Hereward comes across the factoid that all puppets share the same birthday and with some quick calculation he realises said birthday is coming up. He wants to get Mister Fitz a birthday present.
From here our adventure spirals to a battle with a weak and inconsequential Godlet (He is on the list points out Fitz), a lot of blushing with an accidentally naked, sexy novice in said monastery and a great deal of relationship building and character development between the two leads. I particularly like Mr. Fitz’s claim that he could not possibly share a birthday with a common entertainment puppet.
Fun, breezy, delightful and in just the right place in the book to carry us to our next adventure. A fun read.
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So this story is told by a verbose narrator who is in love with his own words and loves to go on tangents. He is clearly telling this tale to Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz with pointing ends sticking into him.
He first describes how he meets, what is later to be revealed, a runway goddess on a train. He becomes her lover once he donates blood to help her achieve temporary corporal form. She is escaping with her twin sister from captivity in a city many thousands of miles away with their priests on their heels.
Her sister has found a way to become permanently mortal. She claims so they can enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. It turns out to be a Maguffin of some sort that turns gods mortal (and vice versa). To give a way more would be a shame.
This is a tale in a very distinct outside voice, very well told. Garth Nix does not stop to explain much, so some things have to be conjectured from the context and sometimes I struggled with that (Are Murlocks the beasts of burden or the drivers of the train, for example.)
The story is exciting and fun and a true fable. Nothing earth shattering by any means but with a satisfactory and logical conclusion. A very pleasant read.
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I am having trouble getting through this story/chapter. I think the issue is a lack of other characters for Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz to interact with. Even in the last story told completely from a third person’s point of view in a monologue had subtle interactions.
Anyway, Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz and breaking into a house to steal/destroy some statues that contain actual gods. That is it so far. They have overcome a trapped chimney (Trapped with runes that cause death that Mister Fitz counteracted enough so they only cause discomfort). And they are in an apparently empty house. I will plow through tonight as the stories have not disappointed so far; but a very slow start on this one.
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Okay, so we are making some good progress on the story and should finish it up tonight. It has gotten better. We have a skinny female thief from a thief’s guild right out of Skyrim. We have what I believe is an albino pygmy elephant type creature with jeweled tusks and now we have a race on the high seas against an escaped god with everyone on the same stolen ship.
So much better stuff. Still not as fun as some of the others. (That pirate lady cannibal were cat is going to be hard to top) but overall excellent progress still enjoying my reads.
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Okay, so we finished the story and even though there were only a few pages left, still time for a decent twist or two and some action. I liked the interaction between our heroes and I enjoyed the two other characters (The thief girl and the pygmy albino elephant.)
Couple of bones to pick. The Godlet was a non event with no personality or even actual description given. Which leads me right into the other issue at hand. While reading the story, I kept getting lost in the action scenes. They are not awful by any means, but they are muddled, with no clear view of the antagonist.
Descriptions are a bit of a problem in the story overall. Our albino Pygmy bejeweled elephant does not come into clear view until well after he joins the team. A basilisk from earlier is barely described and I know what a basilisk is supposed to look like. The boat’s action is decent but the Godlet that they are fighting is basically awol outside of some projected tentacles rowing.
I am enjoying the stories very much, but alas, this was the weakest of the group so far. Well, onto a new tale.
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Our Elephant friends make an appearance in the next story as beast of burden dragging an impossibly gigantic cannon across the Steppes. It is not going well for Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz. There is little water. The horses are long dead and the only food left is the long dead horses.
They come across a fortress bordering an impossible lake. It turns out to be a convent, but it has a secret and a particularly nasty god takes the form of an old hag this very night to eat a human male. And guess who just came for dinner?
I loved this story. Two things that immediately sprung to mind: The old god man eating hag is right out of Witcher 3 and the convent is right out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Crises of “You must spank her well, and after you are done with her, you may deal with her as you like… and then… spank me. And me. And me too. And me. Yes. Yes, you must give us all a good spanking.” filled my head while the hag was a proper antagonist.
I like the way the story makes Mr Fitz all knowing while Sir Hereward seems the less sure but acquiescing to his friend’s wisdom and knowledge of the arcane and then humorously has Mr Firtz point out well past the point of no return he may have gotten it all wrong and they were now in immediate mortal danger. Oh, and Sir Hereward may have been right all along.
For short stories written years apart about the same characters, I keep expecting a repeat of information about these two and, to my surprise, it simply is not there. Either the stories were lightly edited for the compilation to avoid this issue or the author just assumes you know who these guys are after the first story was published.
Still excellent action scenes, beautiful woman and a brilliant use of Chekhov’s cannon. Possibly the best story I have read so far. A delight.
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Okay, I have a question? Why do they not carry enough needles? I am not sure what exactly needles are in these stories. I am assuming god killing sewing needles until told otherwise. They do not seem that large and are carried and wielded exclusively by the puppet.
Here is a story where once again they only have the one. The story ends with a foreshadowed Deus ex machina that, to the author’s credit, I missed and was honestly surprised.
This story where Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz are currently following a particularly nasty and powerful God has some delights. Mostly that Sir Hereward is a bit of the butt of the story. He hates this one pretender guy who shoes up out of nowhere, but the pretender turns out to be brave and well equipped, unlike our heroes. To make matters worse, as bad as the God is the witch that the god possessed hates Sir Hereward so much she is almost more dangerous.
Fun episode and a nice reminder that the author does a good job with scale. This was an apocalyptic world ending style threat. But a lot of the stories upon reflection were not, and that is a nice change of pace. One of the most boring things in fiction is where the stakes are always too high and trying to one up each other.
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Well, we have a new story, and Garth Nix is taking a different tack. There is more repeated background of our Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz since they are pretending to not be what they are in order to find a dragon hiding in a far-flung city with the promise they will get to keep a quarter of the Dragon’s gold.
The exercise is awkward so far and honestly, had I now read all the stories up until this one, I would have been properly lost. Still earlyish going and I like Hereward in this one whether his frustrations are an act is not yet clear, however.
Still, Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz doing accounting is not the worst thing in the world. Especially when Sir Hereward gets frustrated at his pace and takes his comely female guard out for a beer. I don’t expect this to go smoothly, however; she is probably a secret assassin and Hereward has poor luck with the lasses.
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Well, we finished up the book… Yay. The accounting story ended well enough if a touch anticlimactic. Smart idea though where they were spreading the rumor of another Dragon’s treasure they never found to lure out this dragon.
The last story is forgettable. As I just read it a few nights ago and I have forgotten it. Be back in a jiff, let me scan it over again… Okay, it takes place in an elephant’s graveyard with an poisonous and explosive miasma. Hereward’s aunt wants Hereward to kill the nearby Godlet, but it is not listed and is known to benign, so Hereward is reluctant to kill an innocent.
Nice story, but short and slight in the end