Nifft the Lean
core collection 1982 Nifft the Lean
Record
| First published | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | collection |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.00 (817 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 304 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780879977832 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Nifft the Lean, published in 1982, collects four linked stories following the title character, a cunning master thief, and his frequent companions as they take on perilous jobs across a grim fantasy world. In "Come Then, Mortal — We Will Seek Her Soul," Nifft and his companion Haldar undertake a mission of vengeance for the dead, earning a magical reward for their trouble. In "The Pearls of the Vampire Queen," Nifft teams with Barnar to steal valuable swamp pearls while disrupting the dark rituals of a vampire queen. "The Fishing of the Demon-Sea" sends the pair into a literal demonic underworld to rescue a merchant prince's son trapped there by a summoned sea-demon. Finally, "The Goddess in Glass" takes them to the mining city of Anvil's Pasture, where Nifft helps defend the settlement from a collapsing mountain and a cult devoted to a long-dead alien goddess.
Where it sits
- Universe: Nifft the Lean
- Series: Nifft the Lean core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Michael Shea
Notes
- From the series record (Nifft the Lean): Picaresque sword-and-sorcery adventures of the thief Nifft; the World Fantasy Award-winning first volume is a linked story collection, the two later volumes are novels continuing the same character.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Nifft the Lean: position 1 of 3: next The Mines of Behemoth (1997)
Sources
- Nifft the Lean series bibliography (specialised genre-fiction site)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nifft_the_Lean
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Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.