[Max Cairnduff]

Hope it's not rude to resurrect this, but to me the work was very clearly an homage to Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser, the two central characters are closely based on them.

He also dedicates the book to Moorcock, and of course one of the characters also has Elrician elements.

What I found odd was how few reviewers seemed to pick up it was quite intentionally a work of sword and sorcery, a descendant of other writers in that genre (which is not quite the same as fantasy, indeed it's quite possible to like S&S but not general fantasy at all). I suspect it's because most reviewers came from literary rather than genre backgrounds. Edit: The use of medicine and herbs in the novel fills the place sorcery does in other works in this genre.

I enjoyed it, but then I love Lieber's Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser stories, and Chabon's love of the same shone through this book. Saliotthomas' criticism is however much the same as that of a friend of mine who is an sf critic, that the ideas were there but the execution lacking the panache of the originals. I thought there was some truth in that, but liked it anyway, but I can see why for some it was too literary almost to be good pulp.

I own The Abyssinian, but have never read it. Clearly I shall have to.