Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz

Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer

De: Garth Nix

Narrado por: David Linski

"I loved making the acquaintance of SirHereward and Mister Fitz. If you haven't met them yet, you are in for a treat. They are the best partnership in the world of fantasy since Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.” — George R.R. Martin, co-editor “A Cargo of Ivories”

New York Times bestselling author Garth Nix’s exciting adult debut: a new collection including all eight stories—plus a never-before-published story—featuring Sir Hereward and his sorcerous puppet companion Mister Fitz, gathered in one magical volume for the first time ever!

Sir Hereward: the only male child of an ancient society of witches. Knight, artillerist, swordsman. Mercenary for hire. Ill-starred lover.

Mister Fitz: puppet, sorcerer, loremaster. Practitioner of arcane arts and wielder of sorcerous needles.

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: godslayers. Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with the location and removal of listed extra-dimensional entities, more commonly known as gods.

Together, they are relentless travelers in a treacherous world of magic, gunpowder, and adventure.

Compiled for the first time ever, these eight magical stories—plus an all-new tale, “The Field of Fallen Foe”—featuring fabulous, quintessential Garth Nix protagonists Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz comprise a must-have adult fantasy collection for fans and those about to discover the witch knight and his puppet sorcerer for the first time.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Garth Nix (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Fantastic in every way

This is a much grittier collection from Nix, and it’s amazingly well done. It feels a bit too much like an episodic series of Saturday morning cartoons where the characters will always save the day, but watching the chaos and destruction that falls around them never gets old.

This narrator has an absolutely stunning vocal range. His Sir H and Mr F come to life perfectly in every line.

the story is amazing

I would like more. the stories feel to short and I feel that the author should write more of these amazing characters.

Great story telling

Another wonderful trist into the imagination of Garth Nix. worth the listen! New and wonderful places, characters, magic and adventures!

Lovely

This series of short stories leaves me wanting more and paints vivid scenes of adventure of the mail characters. I do hope there will be more and some more lore .

Enjoyed my time with this fascinating duo

I never read any of Garth Nix’s YA novels. I pre-ordered this based on the high quality of a few adult stories in recent horror and fantasy anthologies. One of those was a Hereward/Fitz tale: “A Long, Cold Trail”, included in “The Book of Swords”, edited by Gardner Dozois. That story made me hunger for more of the same, and it took a few years for the craving to be satisfied.

This collection will inevitably lead to demands for a novel featuring the knight and his sorcerous puppet. The world they inhabit is a fascinating one; their mission–doing battle with proscribed entities/godlets–seems tailor-made for a series of novels.

I would happily read novel length stories set in this world, featuring these charming characters. But that may not be the author’s intention. The golden age S&S authors he states as influences tended to do their best work in the short form–REH and Fritz Leiber’s famed heroes never appeared in anything but short stories and/or novellas.

So my advice would be to enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Lovecraft Meets Leiber

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer (2023) by Garth Nix collects nine mostly entertaining and partly unpredictable fantasy sword and sorcery and gunpowder adventure stories starring an entertaining odd couple.

Sir Hereward is “a mistake,” the only male child in the three thousand year history of a society of witches. His surface job is knight-artillerist-swordsman for hire. He carries pistols, swords, and daggers. The twenty-five year-old is ever an ill-starred lover. Mister Fitz is also an anomaly, being a puppet sorcerer-loremaster instead of a puppet entertainer (most self-willed puppets are entertainers). Mister Fitz began his time with Sir Herward as his female nanny, though he’s currently his didactic male mentor. He looks at a glance like a small child, but he’s perhaps thousands of years old, his papier-mâché head rotates 360 degrees like a globe, he wears a silver stud in his blue tongue, and he wields esoteric (sorcerous) needles that stitch between worlds.

The duo are, in fact, godslayers, dedicated secret Agents of the [ancient] Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with finding and removing any of the myriad extra-dimensional entities, AKA gods, who appear on the proscribed list. When they succeed in tracking down one of the renegade gods, before they may dispatch or banish it the pair has to (quickly) don their silk Council brassards and recite their Council oath.

In the first story, “Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again.” Knight and puppet ride their battle mounts to fight for the city-state Shume, wherein Hereward rubs a beautiful, scar-faced officer the wrong way and has to fight a duel with her (he finds facial scars attractive because the witches he grew up with bear ritual scars). They discover that one of the prescribed gods is fattening Shume at the expense of the surrounding cities. Hereward learns the advantage of having a male puppet who once was (and may still be) female. This is the dourest story of the lot.

In “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe,” Hereward and Fitz tag along with Romola Fury, captain of the Sea Cat, to raid a legendary pirate community, and find themselves facing monstrous starfishes. It’s as silly as it sounds and unpleasant, as Hereward’s potential romantic partners continue to have a high mortality rate.

In “A Present for a Sorcerous Puppet,” Sir Hereward is reading a Compendium of Commonplaces (for a country that vanished a thousand years ago) while convalescing from broken toes, when he discovers 1) that all sorcerous puppets were born on the same birthday (which happens to be tomorrow), 2) that Mister Fitz’ present will be a big lute (with a magic parchment inside), and 3) that Sisterling Leleet may not be all that she seems.

“Losing her Divinity” is narrated by a pedantic, digressive, verbose writer as he’s being interviewed by Hereward and Fitz, his story concerning blood, sex, twin goddesses, and a crown that confers mortality on divinities and divinity on mortals. The narrator’s tale is cut off in mid-sentence—

Great opening to “A Cargo of Ivories”: “‘We should have purchased a monkey,’ whispered Sir Hereward, as he balanced precariously on the ridge of the tiled roof.” Disguised as chimney sweeps, Hereward and Fitz are hunting for ivory figurines that can summon prescribed extra-dimensional entities, when they’re attacked by a warrior nun wearing spider slippers. It’s silly and cool.

In “Home Is the Haunter,” we learn that battle mounts are ridden with chains instead of reins because they eat horses! Hereward and Fitz are transporting a giant canon and a tiny dagger over a landscape of yellow grass, when they come to an unexpected fortified manor house that wasn't there when Fitz was there centuries before and that turns out to be a convent run by the Sisters of Mercantile Fairness, and, needless to say, things are not what they seem.

In “A Long, Cold Trail,” the godhunting duo are on the trail of Hereward’s aunt, who’s being ridden by a powerful godlet, which consumes living things and leaves no more than husks behind (animated by the godlet’s will to attack Fitz and Hereward). Luckily (?), they are joined by the charlatan hero Filtak the God Taker, who thinks Fitz is an entertainment puppet and Hereward a poser and wields a magic sword that requires him to hold his breath for several minutes. Excellent story!

“Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz,” has the pair looking for a dragon, which, it develops, spends most of its time occupying human shapes and passing for human, so Hereward and Fitz have to search the city records for any citizens with more than 10,000 gold and something suspicious about them.

The last story, “The Field of Fallen Foe,” takes place in a miasmal place made poisonous by rotting beasts. Hereward and Fitz have been sent there by the knight’s vengeful aunt Repel to banish/kill a god that turns out NOT to be on the prescribed list. What will our godhunting duo do to the entity? This is—surprise—a poignant story, as we learn that Hereward’s mother and aunts dislike him and witness Fitz communing with an insect.

Nix writes spicy lines a plenty, like “I do not commonly drink coffee among corpses,” “She was as fair as she could look without facial scars,” and "How can a puppet fall on hard times?" But he’s also capable of clunky lines like, "I like not this talk."

Too often, Nix plays his authorial plot contrivance card to unconvincingly leave Fitz with but one last sorcerous needle. Too often, he verges on misogyny with his treatment of female characters.

For me, the stories are not as compelling as Nix’ Abhorsen books, but they are diverting, and people who like odd couple fantasy adventures that read a bit like Lovecraft crossed with Leiber would probably like them.

David Linski is an apt reader for the stories, capturing and enhancing their combination of humor, suspense, outrage, and horror.

I would have liked this more if I had read prior books with these characters.

The narrator did a good job of using his voice to distinguish the characters. However by the end I noticed that most of the women sounded very alike.

Man and puppet save the world

Ever since I first heard the stories of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz on podcastle. I have been looking for more stories. Thanks for putting them all in one place.

Great Premise, Story and Characters

Refreshing take on a knight errant tale. Sir Hereward is a very human hero, frequently attempting and mostly succeeding at feats of superhuman prowess, bravery and daring that push his body and skills to the limit. Mr. Fitz defies conventional fantasy tropes and and has become one of my all-time favorites mages. The stories contain just the right tone to edge up to the border of parody, but not cross over, (although Rosie made me laugh when she was discovered, and the knife that comes back to...--don't want to spoil) All in service to the safety of the world, no less.

Not my favorite from Nix

I didn’t realize it was going to be a series of short stories. I can’t say I’m crazy about that format. I miss the world building and character building that happens in a traditional novel. I had a hard time picturing characters and what was happening in the story.