Robert Lynn Asprin

Robert Asprin was a best-selling novelist and an award-winning pioneer of humorous fantasy literature.

Mr. Asprin, born in St. John's, Mich., apparently was napping when he died. Fittingly, clasped in one hand was a comedic fantasy novel, a genre he helped establish, said Bill Fawcett, his agent. "He effectively invented the fantasy humor genre back in the 1970s," said Fawcett, who had known Mr. Asprin for 30 years. No one had injected bad puns and situation comedy into the world of elves and dragons to the extent that he did, Fawcett said.

Mr. Asprin published his first novel, "The Cold Cash War," in 1977, and followed it up with the first installment of his enduring "MythAdventures" series two years later. Mr. Asprin, who attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, drew readers from around the world, author Jodi Lynn Nye said. In 1986, he stood in Fawcett's wedding to Nye, a prolific humor fantasy novelist with whom Mr. Asprin wrote a 2001 novel set in the Crescent City. Nye and Asprin co-wrote "License Invoked," featuring a local FBI agent named Beauray Boudreaux and a British special agent with magic powers named Liz Mayfield teaming up to foil an enemy's plot to take over the world using mass communication outlets and magic. The novel climaxes during a battle that unfolds in the middle of a rock concert at the Superdome. "It was nice that our ideas clicked so well," Nye said. "We respected each other's talents, and that's the basic thing you need for collaboration.

"Mr. Asprin, who edited and wrote immensely popular anthologies set in his "Thieves World" universe, released a novel in April, "Dragons Wild," also set in New Orleans. It stars Griffen McCandles, who learns he is part dragon before being chased by assassins and dragon slayers to the French Quarter, where colorful Quarterites help save him. A sequel, "Dragons Luck" is to be released in April 2009. Mr. Asprin made the New York Times best-seller list twice -- for his 1990 novel, "Phule's Company," and 1992's "Phule's Paradise." His works won him regional and local writing awards, most notably the Balrog award, a prestigious fantasy writing award named after a J.R.R. Tolkien character. Mr. Asprin was also a self-fashioned French Quarter pool-hall hustler. He would break down opponents psychologically before coolly pocketing each ball. "It was fitting for a best-selling novelist," Fawcett said. "He was as much fun to be around as he was to read."

Published in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday, 26 May 2008 Written by Ramon Antonio Vargas