The Asprin Wars

by Robert Lynn Asprin

The Cold Cash War tells of a very different kind of corporate war - one fought with trained mercenary armies!

The Bug Wars is a novel of alien warfare waged between the Tzen - fierce warriors and master strategists (and reptiles) and their Enemy-savage conquerors and brilliant technicians (and insects). Can the Tzen defend themselves and their world from a swarm of winged invaders?

In Tambu, we meet the mysterious figure who has long held the settled planets in his reign of terror through the fleet of pirates under his command. Now, for the first time, the legendary warlord has granted a reporter an interview. The truth will finally be known about Tambu's origin and power... that is, as long as the reporter is allowed to leave alive with his story!

Genres: Ebooks

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.

Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.

Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to read this one as it is actually three books in one. As a fan of Asprin's Myth series, and also of his editing work in the Thieves' World saga, I always wanted to read his other works. When I saw this trilogy of sorts on an used book shelf one day, I figured what the heck.

The Cold Cash War - 2 Stars
Unfortunately the trilogy starts off rather coldly. Cold Cash War involves a lot of shady characters and a lot of shades of grey. It involves the selling of information, military governments, corporate greed, and any other ugliness you can think of at the highest level. Problem is (at least for me) when I can't find a character that I have an interest in (and there are plenty of characters here to choose from), then the book just becomes a bunch of words from page to page with no meaning. Complete slog to get through.

The Bug Wars - 2 1/2 Stars
Reptilian Tzen have been left on a planet after a mission to live among the many hostile bugs that they were originally set out to kill. The book reads like something out of Warhammer. The beings have "no feelings", only care about their job and realize that death is inevitable. Lots of fighting with bugs and with themselves. It reads about as coldly as Cold Cash War except it has a different spin. It reads a little better but only probably because I have read some books just like it.

Tambu - 4 Stars
Now this is more like it. Tambu is in charge of a fleet of peace keeping space-ships and is considered the modern day hero/villain depending on your interpretation. He has granted an interview to a young reporter and thus starts telling his story of how Tambu came to be. The book comes in two parts, the present day interviews and then a flashback to the various events as they occurred. It reads well and while many might view the ending as pretty tragic, it makes sense in the grand scheme of things. It reads with hardly any humor as well, but at least these shades of grey make some sense as we rock towards the end of the book.

All in all, I probably will trade this copy in and search for a solo copy of Tambu. I certainly recommend that story, but the others are a hard cold pass from me.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was idly wandering through the library, looking at the science fiction shelves, and for whatever reason, "Three Faces of Asprin" caught my eye. Though, after a little Wikipedia research, I realized I had a sense of who he was, I'd never read anything by him or even knew what he wrote.

So these three short novels -- "The Cold Cash Wars," "The Bug Wars" and "Tambu" -- were completely new to me, even though they were written in the late '70s. All were interesting, but Asprin's unusual issue in the first two was that the books really didn't end. They just. stopped.

"The Cold Cash Wars" imagined a near future where corporations became more and more militaristic (the Wagner Group is making that come true in the Ukraine), which was interesting but in the end unfulfilling because of the lack of a conclusion. "The Bug Wars" was Asprin's attempt to imagine a completely different species (humans never appear) and how that species might think. Again, interesting, but no real ending.

"Tambu" took on a more philosophical bent, considering both what makes a hero (or villain) and also how roles we play, and masks we wear, become more and more central to our "real" identity, whatever that may be. The book chronicles the career of a kind of interstellar protection racketeer, and both his transformation into his role and his casting as a villain.

All in all, though, these three books probably deserve a 3.5, but old-school readers like me will have a good time reading them.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three of asprin's best books

I once based a d+d campaign world around the events in tzen. All of these novels deal with unusual individuals who transform their society while being isolated from it. High quality writing throughout. Well defined worlds. A real bargain as a three pack.