Tempus With his Right-Side Companion Niko

The Sacred Band of Stepsons Expanded "Author's Cut" editions #1

by Janet E. Morris

Tempus: Avatar of the war-god Vashanka, he carves his anti-magical philosophy in the bodies of the detestable mages and demons of a world he never made but is cursed to inhabit.

Niko: No godling he, just a warrior who has found the secret of his soul in the mysterious Western Isles--and so wields a pure and faithful power that makes him all too attractive to the gods and elementals of a world infested mainly with murderers and thieves.

Together: Needing time to recover from the spells of a witch who nearly ate his soul. Niko will recover his self-mastery by reliving in utterly vivid detail all the most violent and transforming moments of his past--and that of his rightside leader, Tempus.

Publisher's note: Parts of this work have been published in substantially similar form in several volumes of the Shared Universe Series, THIEVES' WORLD.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Sword and Sorcery

277 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1987

About the author

Janet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is a United States author. She began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 20 novels, many co-authored with David Drake or her husband Chris Morris. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell. Most of her work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written several works of non-fiction.

Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.

In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.

Reviews

[A.L. Butcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Nikodemos returns to Bandara, trying to regain his balance, he does not expect his ghosts to join him. Such ghosts they are too, as he is forced to remember his darkest hours. This book is a collection of stories, cleverly woven to run as one and reveal what makes the titular character, Tempus and his right-side companion Niko tick. It is not a read for the faint of heart, there is a goodly portion of warring, of violence and of heartbreak, but there is also so much more. These characters are heroes in the truest fantasy sense. Doing what needs to be done, despite the odds, and fighting the monsters within themselves as well as those without. There is love in all its forms – the love between the sexes, love between those as close as brothers, the love between the Stepsons and their Commander and the love of battle. As with Janet Morris’s other works this is a complex fantasy with very real characters in a perfectly crafted world.

[T.W. Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my younger days, I was a huge fan of the fantasy genre. It became so grossly overpopulated that I eventually left it behind. Recently, with the likes of Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, and George R.R. Martin, I have returned. The epic fantasy is alive and well in authors NOT named Tolkien.

The beauty of social media is that almost EVERYBODY uses it. To have encountered the author of some of my favorite stories from my youth is a highlight. That happened when I stumbled across Janet Morris, one of the authors who helped populate Sanctuary, The Vulgar Unicorn, and the Thieves World.

Recently I returned to visit some old friends with the release of Tempus with his right-side companion NIKO. The title is a mouthful, but it seems only fitting, because so is this book. This is a fantastic launchpad for anybody who wishes to step back into fantasy, but demands quality of story as well as such masterfully vivid description that you seem to fall into this world and walk alongside its characters.

This is what fantasy literature has always strived to be...great stories told by exceptional story tellers. Ms. Morris will hook you with this book, and if you have never been to the Thieves World, it is high time that you do so now.

If you have read these tales in the past, I encourage you to pick up this book and return. The stories have been cleaned, polished, and given some extra material to make this a worthy read.

[Larry Atchley Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the original stories written about the Sacred Band of Stepsons, as well as some new sections that expand on their adventures and Niko's quest to regain his spiritual and mystical balance, or Maat.
Relive the moment when Tempus, "The Riddler" takes command of The Sacred Band, from the Slaughter Priest Abarsis, whose war name, Stepson, became the official name for The Sacred Banders. Fight alongside Tempus, Abarsis, Niko, Critias, Straton, Janni, hazard-class mage Randal "Witchy Ears", and others as they do battle with Jubal and his Hawkmasks, and the Nisibisi Witch Bitch Roxane and her death squads. See how the Stepsons make uneasy alliances with Ischade the Necromant, and her cadre of undead servants, and Cime, the wizard slaying Free Agent. Witness the might of the storm god Vashanka and his immortal god-ridden avatar, Tempus as they battle against sorcery, betrayal and corruption, alongside his Sacred Band of Stepsons upon their powerful and deadly war horses. Meet legendary immortals Askelon The Dream Lord of Meridian, and Jihan the Froth Daughter of Lord Storm, as they meddle in the affairs of mortals and the plans of the Stepsons.
These are the vangard tales of The Sacred Band, and the beginning of an ongoing epic saga of action, adventure and everlasting glory!

[Joe Bonadonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janet Morris has always written some of the best and most literate stories in all heroic fantasy. She writes my kind of tale, too: lean, mean, character-driven, creative, and intelligent. I first encountered Tempus and his Stepsons during the heyday of the Thieves World series, and Morris' tales and characters soon became my favorites. I am happy and pleased that she has continued to write of the further adventures of Tempus and his Sacred band of Stepsons. It was a pleasure to revisit such classics as "And End to Dreaming," "Vashanka's Minion," and "Wizard Weather." Reading these stories brought back such wonderful memories; it was like visiting with old friends. The stories written especially for this volume, "A Better Class of Enemy," "For Love of a Ghost," and "Blood and Honor" are just as good as her earlier tales, and help fill in the blanks, so to speak, adding further info and insight into the series, and helping make this collection more than just another anthology -- they pull everything together and turn the parts into a whole novel. TEMPUS AND NIKO is a reason to celebrate, and Janet Morris gets a big SHOUT OUT from me. I look forward to revisiting more of her work, and catching up on those I have missed. Bravo, Janet! Life and everlasting glory to you!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one, although I had read quite a few of these stories earlier in the Thieves' World series. New stuff about the characters is here too, though, and it's pretty good.

[Janet E.]

I just read the new, revised edition of Tempus, now called "Tempus with his right-side companion Niko" (9780615465548), and I really enjoyed it. The cover is beautifully evocative. Five original Tempus stories are interspersed with eight original stories told from the perspective of Nikodemos, the warrior-monk who eventually becomes Tempus' partner. Niko reflects on his time with the Stepsons while home on the misty isles of Bandara recuperating. For Niko fans, these glimpses into the training of a Bandaran adept of Maat are enthralling. The book also contains "An End to Dreaming," the debut tale of Cime and Askelon before Tempus ever sets foot in Sanctuary. The strength and depth of these characters is evident from their earliest beginnings and Niko's perspective brings another level of insight to the mix. Having all the original Tempus and Niko stories in one volume and set off by commentary and other tales, rather than scattered in various collections, is a great idea. Having just read the new novel, The Sacred Band, I enjoyed this newly revised companion book even more, especially the additional and expanded scenes that weren't in the older edition. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Jean Triceratops · Rating 1 out of 5]

The full name of this novel is Tempus with his Right-Side Companion Niko.

I have a doggo named Niko and was inordinately excited by what was sure to be a mental image of my little fluff-ball rampaging and questing.



This might be one of the very few times where my experience would have been significantly behooved by actually reading the damn back copy.

Tempus opens on Niko—Yay!—returning home—actually, wait, scratch that. Tempus opens on an infodump describing two contradictory kingdoms in this world. This description eventually grows to incorporate Niko, but on the whole it mostly felt like a prologue and I had this overwhelming feeling like I walked into the second or third book in a series.

To make sure I wasn’t being foolish, I pulled Tempus up on Goodreads. It said it was part of a series called Thieves’ World, but it didn’t give a number. Imagining this was like Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance where some books are absolutely standalone, I kept reading.

I mean, Demon Drums was standalone—and not even part of a greater fictional universe—but felt like a sequel.

So Niko returns home and is weary from the world. He stresses, rakes a rock-garden, and thinks. After nine pages a mentor-figure shows up and utters the first dialogue of the book.

At this point it felt like the prologue ends and the book starts—and seriously tries to make up for lost time with intense over-writing absolutely dedicated to giving every thing at least one color.

The golden clouds blew away on a fierce grey wind.

—

White seals came and cavorted in the suddenly glasslike sea. Sworded mentor-fish leaped purple on her left and right. Azure porpoises caressed her in amorous play.

—

The moon shouldered its way before the cinnabar sun. The amber sea darkened; rolled ocher; sienna; vermillion-black.

And then this gem. (Pun slightly intended?)

His brows were drawn over diamond eyes that etched their message on her soul.

I, very obviously, do not like this sort of writing. I kept reading, though, because I sensed a deep world and I figured that books with a good world and a good plot lay off the purple (heh) prose when the stakes are raised.

Then I hit an intellectual stumbling block.

A little bit of backstory: in the not-prologue-prologue, a rival kingdom was described as representing all that was dark and evil and out of control. The story-telling seems to support this. Niko is haunted by Aškelon, the spirit ruler of this kingdom and is terrified of sleep as his dreams have become corrupted.

Okay, so Niko is somehow magically shown events that happen off-screen. The first scene shows the perhaps too-far lengths a woman goes to to kill Aškelon. And as Niko watches Aškelon die in this vision, he realizes that—at least in that moment—Aškelon isn’t a villain. The woman who killed him is the villain.

I had to pause at this. If that woman stepped over the line to learn how to kill a bad guy, then yeah, it’s hard to categorize her as a good guy. But that does nothing to negate the badness of the guy she’s killing. A bad person killing another bad person doesn’t magically render anyone not a bad person.

If the point of this exercise it to show the peril of selling your proverbial soul to achieve something you perceive of as ‘good,’ then the focus should be on the woman—not Aškelon.

The, uh, icky-feeling I got from that scene continued. A wise mentor-figure postulates

There are no right or wrong ideologies, only ideologues; no good and evil sides, only good and evil people. Eradication of a race is rightly termed genocide, and bigots in all disguises become worse than what they hate.

Intellectually, I disagree with this on a really strong level, but it’s not an uncommon theme in fantasy: extremism is the only true evil. I can get past that. The line that really gets me, though is bigots in all disguises become worse than what they hate. That combined with the idea that Aškelon wasn’t a villain and the notion that there are no right or wrong ideologies … somehow it just felt like the book was one step away from condemning antifa as being just as bad as fascists. Maybe I’m just touchy, but I got serious vibes that seemed squicky.

I wasn’t enthusiastic about continuing, but I did. When the vision of the woman killing Aškelon ends, a new vision begins: one about Niko’s commander, Tempus. It’s essentially a flashback and I felt wholly lost, like the author expected me to know—or care—more about the world than I could/would given what was written. At this point we’ve also spent way more time in flashbacks than in the present.

Out of sheer bafflement, I turned to Goodreads reviews and learned that yes, Tempus is a part of a the Thieves’ World. More than that, though, it’s a book of, essentially, short stories giving fans of Niko, Tempus, the world at large, etc, a chance to dive deep and nerd out on some previous unexplored facets of the canon. The book will be nothing but flashbacks.

Flipping to the back cover, I realized that the final paragraph explains this, but after so many books being ruined by my expectations of what should happen, I’ve started largely ignoring the back copy.

So there we are. As a person previously uninitiated in Thieves’ World, I am not the intended audience for this book. Good to know. I gotta admit, though, I wasn’t impressed in general. Early in my reading, I jotted down in my notebook:

If you like being told what people are thinking and long stretches of high-level descriptions of things that have happened already, have I got the book for you.

I would be hesitant to say this, for fear that my un-appreciation stems mostly from being out of my element, but a review I stumbled across here while trying to figure out why the fuck I didn’t know anything they were talking about seemed to corroborate my views. Thank you, Angelika Rust, for making me feel better.

Anyway, with all that in mind, I'm going to step away from Tempus.

[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janet Morris and her creations occupy a special and revered niche in the pantheon of Sword & Sorcery. This collection, featuring tales associated with one of her most well-regarded creation, is a living testimony to her stature.
It contains following stories~
1. An End to Dreaming;
2. Vashanka's Minion;
3. A Man and His God;
4. Wizard Weather;
5. High Moon;
6. Hell to Pay.
These disparate stories, giving tantalising glimpses of a world that is distinctly different from ours, and yet strangely similar. They have neen sought to be connected, by using a framing narrative broken into interludes.
Problem is with that framing story. It’s wordy to the point of being soporific.
Also, Tempus, even as an anti-hero, comes across as a rather boring and petty.
More importantly, Tempus's 'supposedly' sister Cime— a free agent and ace killer— got relegated to a minor position.
Lastly, there was practically NO action. Philosophy and lyrical prose dominated the whole book.
I would not be returning to this world. But if there is a stand-alone collection featuring the exploits of Cime, I would stand in a queue for it.
Your call.

[Angelika Rust · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, I thoroughly enjoyed parts of the story, as well as the author's skill at weaving words. Janet Morris really knows how to coin a phrase, and there are loads of memorable, quotable lines in this book.
I read quite a few books from the Thieves' World series around ten years ago, so it was nice to see some of the characters again. But it also made me remember why I abandoned the series. A high percentage of those books consists of world-building and info-dumping, which makes it read like a history lesson. It's understandable - many different writers have contributed to the series over the years, so in order to keep some sort of continuity despite the different styles and approaches, you need to reference past events. Still, the effect is that as soon as the actual story is in full swing and you find yourself being sucked in, on comes the next load of history and politics and hurls you right out again. I never felt truly immersed.
Also, as likable as some of the characters are, they are difficult to relate to. Too much is told instead of being showed. The focus is too much on their abilities, and too little on their personality, their motives, their emotions. A collection of short stories centered around Nikodemus, each story gives a glimpse of some event in his past which burdens his mind, and while we learn part of what happened to various characters in the time between each story, there's little in terms of why.
Conclusion: If you like a high-level epic fantasy tale with a complex political background, this is probably the right book for you. The language is beautiful.

I was given a free copy for an honest review.

[Janet E.]

I just read the new, revised edition of Tempus, now called "Tempus with his right-side companion Niko" (9780615465548), and I really enjoyed it. The cover is beautifully evocative. Five original Tempus stories are interspersed with eight original stories told from the perspective of Nikodemos, the warrior-monk who eventually becomes Tempus' partner. Niko reflects on his time with the Stepsons while home on the misty isles of Bandara recuperating. For Niko fans, these glimpses into the training of a Bandaran adept of Maat are enthralling. The book also contains "An End to Dreaming," the debut tale of Cime and Askelon before Tempus ever sets foot in Sanctuary. The strength and depth of these characters is evident from their earliest beginnings and Niko's perspective brings another level of insight to the mix. Having all the original Tempus and Niko stories in one volume and set off by commentary and other tales, rather than scattered in various collections, is a great idea. Having just read the new novel, The Sacred Band, I enjoyed this newly revised companion book even more, especially the additional and expanded scenes that weren't in the older edition. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Zoe Saadia]

Even though reading these series in a reverse order, I had enjoyed each book enormously as stand-alone volumes, as much as the entire series.
The Sacred Band of Stepsons is the most thrilling adventure, the most fascinating journey the reader would wish to undertake. We follow Tempus and,Niko, along with Critias, Abarsis, Straton and others in their struggle against evil forces, Hawkmasks, Roxan and her cronies, and more. Along with them we experience first hand sorcery and betrayal, triumphs and more struggle.
This is wonderful series, the best its genre.

[Stuart Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 and 1/2 stars for this one, keeping in mind that while these are short stories, they are unified in this book through Niko’s trial/instruction. The stories are very well done and fill up large gaps in the history of the stepsons, as well as clarifying a number of questions I always had concerning just about everything in the Sanctuary world. I cannot give it the full 5 star rating because of the format, but this comes as close as possible for a non-novel (I could treat it as such, but that would not be fully truthful here and I try to be as impartial as I can when writing these).

[William O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that can only be classed as epic.

The historical detail of this book is of true quality and mixed with mythical power. Tempus journeys through an exciting and dynamic world and these adventures need to be read and enjoyed by all. After reading other works in the series, I have found only to be in awe of such a prolific writer. The tales are powerful, spectacular and incredibly well-written.

Powerful and dynamic adventures.

[Sean Poage · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite character from my favorite author from the Thieves' World series. This book compiles several of the stories from the series into a story building towards the other stories.

[Paul Genesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book! I loved it. Tempus and Niko are awesome characters.

[Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of connected short stories, the five longest of which had been published in Thieves World "shared universe" anthologies in the early 1980's, set in Sanctuary (a seedier companion to Lankhmar or Ankh-Morpork).
To give its full title "Tempus and his right-side companion Niko" is more about Niko and his impressions than about Tempus. The stories generally alternate between those set in Sanctuary and Niko reflecting on those stories and what "lessons" they might have for him whilst he has exiled himself to Bandara (a mystical place, a nexus of dimensional flux), on the edge of the world and peopled by monks. These Bandaran connecting stories work well in framing the original stories and providing an over-arching narrative to the stories.
"Hell to pay", which is the last substantive story from the original anthologies is set after the three "Beyond ..." novels (originally published 1985-86) and the final story feels as if it is leading into the next story - which may be The Sacred Band?

Vashanka's Minion originally published in Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn
A Man and His God originally published in Shadows of Sanctuary
Wizard Weather originally published in Storm Season
High Moon originally published in The Face of Chaos
Hell to Pay originally published in The Dead of Winter
Please note that two substantial stories "Wizard Weather" and "High Moon" are also the first two chapters (about 40% of the book) in "Beyond Sanctuary", Morris' 1985 novel (first of a trilogy) taking Tempus and Niko, as might be expected from the title, out of Sanctuary, although these stories are set in Sanctuary. I therefore have copies of these stories in three books!

[William O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tempus (Sacred Band of Stepsons) ...
Janet Morris

A book that can only be classed as epic.

The historical detail of this book is of true quality and mixed with mythical power. Tempus journeys through an exciting and dynamic world and these adventures need to be read and enjoyed by all. After reading other works in the series, I have found only to be in awe of such a prolific writer. The tales are powerful, spectacular and incredibly well-written.

Powerful and dynamic adventures.

[Rob Mensch · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good revisit of the stories from the main Thieves' World series, strung together as teaching moments for Niko.