Leiber hearkening

Michael Fay at Tangent Online has reviewed my story, Jack Nimble & The Platypus: The Dead God's Puppet-Show:

“The Dead God’s Puppet Show” by Robert Burke Richardson is the second installment in a series of stories about Jack Nimble and his assassin partner, Phillipe. Phillipe bumbled his way through an assassination and is thinking about retiring, but Jack talks him into another job, in his charismatic and sly way. The job, it turns out, is to steal a holy artifact from a vicious, bizarre little cult. Jack smiles his way through the job, until Phillipe takes the time to rescue the apes being tortured in the cult’s religious practices.

“The Dead God’s Puppet Show” hearkens back to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. Richardson mirrors Leiber in his subtle use of dry humor and philosophical meditation, and writes a highly entertaining and occasionally thought-provoking story. One of the best in this issue.

I talked a bit last time about how I have two different personalities as a writer, one where I try my best to entertain, and one where I try to just explore ideas in the most truthful fashion possible. The Jack Nimble stories are meant to entertain, and I'm glad they seem to be succeeding in their aims, at least for a few readers.

Related links: "Jack Nimble & The Platypus: The Dead God's Destiny" (prologue) (story), "Garluss" (flash fiction) 24