The Mines of Behemoth
core novel 1997 Nifft the Lean
Record
| First published | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.97 (158 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 256 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780671878474 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
In the second Nifft the Lean novel, the wandering thief Nifft and his hulking companion Barnar Hammer-Hand are shipwrecked while journeying toward a strange, half-legendary underground realm. Rather than ruin them, the wreck delivers them into the hands of a recruiter named Bunt, who is seeking mercenaries willing to work a perilous mining operation far below the surface. The pay is generous: the two adventurers are hired to descend into the tunnels and harvest sap from giant insectile creatures that serve a monstrous hive queen, along with rarer ichor that only the queen herself can produce. The task looks almost straightforward at first, a simple matter of skilled labor in a hostile environment, but the underground world of Behemoth proves far stranger and more dangerous than the two companions anticipated once their work actually begins.
Where it sits
- Universe: Nifft the Lean
- Series: Nifft the Lean core; position 2 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 2 of 3: previous Nifft the Lean (1982) · next The A'rak (2000)
Sources
- Nifft the Lean series bibliography (specialised genre-fiction site)
- https://www.blackgate.com/2014/03/14/vintage-treasures-the-mines-of-behemoth-by-michael-shea/
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