Piers Anthony

Jumper Cable (2009)

I've been a fan of the Xanth series for over ten years, and in general the series has had its ups and downs. I've always felt that out of the 30+ books in the series, the best of the best were around books #12-20. Some of those earlier books had epic tales that were truly magnificent. Some of the...

Knot Gneiss (2010)

Dare I say some of the more negative/surprised reviews here seem like they haven't touched the Xanth series in a while.If you have read the last 3 books, you know just what you're in store for, though there are a few less panty-related plot points in this one. (Finally)It's the same formula that ...

Esrever Doom (2013)

Another fantastic adventure in the land of Xanth! Piers Anthony has really outdone himself with this one. Some of the puns are hilarious while others will have you groaning they're so bad. Loved the varied cast of companions this time. Was lovely to see some new creatures never presented before. ...

Climate of Change (2010)

Mixed feelings on this book. Author sets a group of characters in similar situations throughout history from our current thoughts of the beginnings of man to the near future. Not so much a story of the characters but more the repeated history of the human race fighting savagely for land, resourc...

Crewel Lye (1987)

Ah, punny titles. I wonder if he thinks of the titles first and then writes a book to match? Seems like it.This book features Princess Ivy again. I like Princess Ivy. Partly because she's a female character whose talent isn't somehow related to sex or appearance, thanks. (Though that would h...

Stork Naked (2006)

Xanth #30: Stork Naked, by Piers AnthonySurprise Golem gets the shock of her life when her baby is delivered, but the stork flies off with the baby because of a technicality. She immediately decides to see the Good Magician, to find out how to get her baby back. He tries to dissuade her from her ...

Pornucopia (2003)

Well I finished this one this morning. I am hesitant to write any kind of review for fear it would sound like pornography. There is very little I can say about this book without getting into details and that is something that I just can't do. Suffice it to say that it is fantasy, erotica at th...

And Eternity (1991)

Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality was an engaging and fascinating series. From On a Pale Horse to, what I believe is the best, For Love of Evil, I was hooked on the series. And Eternity is the final conclusion of the series, ending with the ultimate Incarnation, the Incarnation of God. ...

Pet Peeve (2006)

What can I say? I will, unto eternity, be a Piers Anthony fan.When I was ten to eleven, I saw the book "Night Mare" at the library. I tried to read it twice but it was too much for me. That third time? I was up until seven in the morning reading it and I was hooked, despite the fact that I read t...

Up in a Heaval (2003)

I don't know whether I used to like Anthony more when I was younger, or if his books have just gotten worse the further into the series he goes. I suspect it's a bit of both. I didn't enjoy this one much at all. When he was writing the actual story (which was only about the last 20 pages of the e...

Roc and a Hard Place (1996)

My wife Barb and I have read a number of books in the author's Xanth series; I've only reviewed a few of them here, but the general observations from those reviews would apply to this installment as well (and probably to all or most of the Xanth novels --it would be fair to say that in many ways,...

Bearing an Hourglass (1984)

Book two in the Incarnations of Immortality series is about the Incarnation of Time. Now, if you know me, you know that I love stories about time and time travel. My favorite book is The Time Traveler’s Wife, my favorite movie is Back to the Future. This storytelling idea holds a great deal of fa...

Night Mare (1997)

Frustrating though imaginative, mean-spirited and misogynistic, an example of how not to portray women in fiction. It saddens me to say that this will be the last Xanth novel I read for the forseeable future. Once I slogged through Night Mare I no longer wanted to spend time with this writer, a...

For Love of Evil (1990)

Originally, the Incarnations of Immortality series was meant to end at Being a Green Mother when Satan is finally defeated by his love for Orb. This was an ending that I found very dramatic, even if in a corny way. After reading that, I thought it was an excellent conclusion. But it wasn’t the en...

Dragon on a Pedestal (1997)

The introductory summary begins:"There is trouble in Xanth again. The Gap Dragon had escaped and was ravaging across the land, the forget-spell was causing mass amnesia, three-year old Ivy was headed right for a hungry dragon. Could things get any worse? Probably...."Yes, the forget-spell has als...

Swell Foop (2002)

by Piers Anthony, published in 2001.Xanth, the one fictitious world in which all else are real . . .. . . Er, or something.This is indeed another (number 26) Xanth novel by Piers Anthony, full of puns, low necklines and magical mayhem. So after twenty six novels in the same magical world, has the...

Being a Green Mother (1988)

This is about Orb, Luna's aunt (raised sister), who falls in love with Mym and has had dreams about the future her father was forewarned about.Orb travels, searching for the Llano. She carries the magic of music, just like her father. Through her journeys, she meets with various Gypsies, teachi...

With a Tangled Skein (1986)

Reading Piers Anthony can be a bit of a bumpy ride. His books usually feature some minor detours into ploddyville and at least one horrible sightseeing escapade through skeevytown that leaves you feeling soiled and very uncomfortable. So I grant you that there is definitely potential for some b...

Politician (1985)

Calligula of the stars?3 May 2012tFirst thing I have to mention is the idea that Hope Hubris is the Calligula of the Stars. Personally I am actually beginning to wonder what Anthony actually knows about Ancient History and the early Roman Emperors. Calligua was little more than an insane monster ...

Yon Ill Wind (1997)

At the tender age of ten or eleven, the one thing I wanted most was to be able to hire a book from the adult fiction section of my library. The rules were that no one under thirteen could hire any novel outside of the teen section, but I was terribly bored with the books there, and had read all o...

A Spell for Chameleon (1977)

I saw A Spell for Chameleon on a shelving cart the other day and realized two things. First, that I'd read it before and enjoyed it, but had forgotten it completely. Second, that the author was Piers Anthony, who's been described as an outrageous sexist even among sci-fi/fantasy writers. So I pic...

The Source of Magic (1997)

Hmmm... it's a strange thing to read your childhood favourites as an adult - except with Harry Potter, which for me is timeless. I will never stop enjoying them. I quite enjoyed 'The Source of Magic', though reading it now, a few things strike me. Firstly an obvious one - the prose are not nearly...

On a Pale Horse (1986)

I’ve long been a fan of anthropomorphized versions of Death. This is probably not surprising, since we have been doing this for thousands of years to varying degrees of sophistication. And some do it better than others. I’m a big fan of Julian Richings’ portrayal of Death on Supernatural. He capt...

Vale of the Vole (2000)

This is the 10th Xanth novel, and the beginning of what I have always considered the second trilogy. At this point, Piers had moved from the TOR publisher to Avon. Since Avon doesn't ever list TOR novels and TOR doesn't ever list Avon ones, many readers may have long been confused on what was in ...

Golem in the Gears (1997)

Golem in the Gears is the first book I've read by popular fantasy author, Piers Anthony. While this is not what I'd consider "my cup of tea", a lady from work brought it in for me to read and I do enjoy delving into books that are outside of my usual scope. Plus, I love to read books that are f...

The Iron Maiden (2002)

Demons Don't Dream (2015)

I remember liking this one okay when I read it in high school, primarily because it involved kids from the "real world" (well, Mundania, as Xanth calls it), and involved a computer game. Overall I kinda hate the trope of "kids play a game and OOPS IT'S REAL," but since everything about Xanth is ...

Refugee (2000)

Not only is this an offensive novel, but the writing, the dialogue, the language is stupid and unbelievable. I had read plenty of criticisms of this novel for its rape scenes and the murders and the like, and I thought I could deal with that -- if it were still a good story. But in the first chap...

Robot Adept (1989)

tThis looks like it is the fifth book in the series, so I guess I am looking at it before the forth book, which isn't a bad thing because as soon as the reviews are done and posted it will not really look all that out of place (with the exception of this little introduction). I did enjoy the firs...

Serpent's Silver (1992)

Chimaera's Copper (1991)

This one might deserve 1.5 stars, but barely.Piers Anthony's novels tend to be fun even if they are very often simplistic. But this book is the same damn story again. Dragon's Gold captivated me as a child. I loved it. By the time I got to this, the 3rd novel in the series, I was incredibly b...

Blue Adept (1987)

I’m sure everyone has their favourite tropes that will almost guarantee them enjoying a book. One of mine is musician main characters, or magic systems that are based in music. I’m also pretty fond of tournaments and competitions like the Proton Game. That means this novel would have had to go ve...

The Color of Her Panties (1992)

This is one of the Xanth books which i look back on most fondly. It doesn't hurt that it is targeted to exactly the audience which was me (13 year old boy at the time). I read it all in one day when I happened to be sick and had stayed home from school.One aspect of this book that I really loved ...

Split Infinity (1987)

I was thinking about this book the other day and wondering, "Is this the most sexist thing I've ever read?" The answer: quite probably. When was in my early teens I discovered Piers Anthony, because, let's face it: he WAS the fantasy section at Waldenbooks for the entire 1980's. I really loved th...

Faun & Games (1997)

c1997A Tor BookPublished by Tom Doherty Associates,Inc I bought this book on vacation. It is like new with a perfect dust jacket. I plan to gift it to the library.IMHO this is wonderfull satire about sexual and courtship behavior, and about attitudes about proper sexual beliefs.p109"We'll just ha...

Wielding a Red Sword (1987)

Ever since I started to reread this series for about the bazillionth time, I've been trying to remember the first time I ever read them. I want to say it was some time in high school, but I was really never into scifi that much, and whatever else he may be, Piers Anthony falls into that category...

Harpy Thyme (1995)

The 17th tale in the Xanth series, Harpy Thyme involves the very lonely Gloha, the only female harpy-goblin in Xanth who is desperately in want of her very own male harpy-goblin. Naturally, since this is the pattern for all Xanth tales, Gloha undergoes the ritual set of riddles so she can finally...

Geis of the Gargoyle (1995)

If it was possible, I would have rated this book 3 1/2 stars. However, since it is part of the a series that I love, I am somewhat biased and rated it 4 stars.Book 18 is about Gary Gar, a gargoyle who is filtering the water that comes into Xanth from Mundania. He is finding that it is becoming mo...

Cluster (1977)

I've read this book before, but I didn't remember that until I started reading it again. I don't think I've read the whole series though. As I plan on continuing I guess I'll find out. This is a story about Flint of outworld. He Is a caveman of high intelligence, with an eidetic memory, and most ...

God of Tarot (1987)

When I was young, I devoured Anthony's fantasy fiction voraciously, and as I got a bit older, I started exploring his forays into "hard" sf, occasionally being surprised at the depth he was capable of. This book stands sort of at the precipice between those two extremes. It posits a world called ...

Centaur Aisle (1997)

What makes this book great is the Xanth formula, as mentioned in my review of A Spell for Chamelon:"As a general rule, Xanth novels are about a protagonist who doesn't really fit in and has no idea what their purpose in life is or what group they would fit in with. That is, they are a normal youn...

Mute (2001)

reviews.metaphorosis.com3.5 starsKnot is the (psychically) forgettable placement officer for a minimal-mutant enclave. Despite reservations, he's enlisted as an agent of the Central Coordination Computer to fight an unknown agent. With the help of other talented CCC agents - Finesse (human), Herm...

Shame of Man (1995)

This was a rather good book and a decent follow-up to Isle of Woman. I actually enjoyed the more primitive parts of this book (the ones that happened more than 10,000 years ago), because after that, the stories have a lot of smut in them. Not that adult stuff is bad, since most of us are adults, ...

Unicorn Point (1990)

Why did I read so many Piers Anthony books14 September 2013tIt is really annoying that when I write some things it tends to just come flowing out of my head, while at other times my brain freezes up and I simply do not know what to write (I think they call it writer's block). This is not so much ...

Var the Stick (1975)

Chthon (2000)

Chthon is Piers Anthony's first novel, published in 1967. It is a wide-ranging science fiction novel with a plot that takes place on an galactic scale. It is set in the far future, and it features such advanced technologies as faster-than-light space travel and human genetic modification. Chthon ...

Race Against Time (1986)

For years I have meant to read novels by Piers Anthony. I just did and I'm wondering why I waited so long. While Race is written for youth it has messages for adults as well.The story is told by young John Smith, a white American boy becoming a man who is living in a small town supposedly locat...

Thousandstar (1980)

Castle Roogna (1997)

One of the few things I really liked about Xanth was that time moved forward. There are lots of fantasy series in which time goes so slowly that it seems like no one ever gets older. But in this book, the protagonist is Dor--the son of the protagonist from the previous two books in the series. ...

Phthor (2000)

I read in the Author's Note that Piers Anthony wrote Phthor because he wanted to get Chthon back into print. As such there was a seven year gap between the writing of the two novels. Perhaps this explains why much of the first half of Phthor has so many explanations and elaborations of the previo...

The Magic Fart (2004)

Out of Phaze (1988)

Piers Anthony is the man who just can't let a good finished series lie. Initially a trilogy, the Apprentice Adept series ends with Phaze and Proton separated forever, with no possibility of renewed contact. Five years after finishing the first three books, Anthony returns to the series with anoth...

Chaining the Lady (1978)

Kirlian Quest (1978)

Really like tarot or skip a lot ..Political Geography appendix of clarifies puzzling symbols, enclosing alien conversations - would've helped to know for previous two. Herald the Healer, high aura Outworlder Flint descendant from infamous planet Andromeda Slash /my next client .. needs me to exer...

The Secret of Spring (2001)

I haven't read Pier's Anthony before; always wanted to try Xanth, but just never got around to it. So when I came across this at a book sale I snatched it up. There's a lot of puns - and from what I understand of Anthony's writing, that was expected. And fun, even if groan-worthy at times. Th...

Question Quest (1991)

Xanth #14: Question Quest, by Piers AnthonyThe Good Magician makes an appearance in every Xanth book. That's how most books start - a character has a problem in their lives that they need to see him about. So they make a journey to his castle, battle through the three Challenges, get their Answer...

Macroscope (2003)

In case my 5 star rating is insufficient to persuade you to try this book, I prepared the following comparison scale to chart the exact amount of awesomeness contained in the story. 5.0 Stars. I think we all have those books that we absolutely love that just never seem to get the attention tha...

Hope of Earth (1998)

I grew up a huge Piers Anthony fan, and I keep trying to remain one as an adult. I still do consider myself a fan, even though I'm always vastly disappointed when I read one of his books.This is the 3rd book in the geodyssey saga. I've read all of them before, and this one is a reread. You can re...

Juxtaposition (1987)

The red and blue adept continue their spat2 March 2012tThis is the final book in the first trilogy of the Apprentice Adept series and is where the battle between the Blue Adept (Style) and the Red Adept comes to a conclusion. The final parts of the book are very action orientated as the battle ra...

The Gutbucket Quest (2001)

Through the Ice (1992)

Seth Warner is on his way home from a party when he is set upon by a group of teenage ruffians. He runs from them and ends up falling through the ice into a lake. Just as he is about to drown, he is wrenched from this world and into another plane where he finds he is a "Chosen" and, along with th...

Spider Legs (1999)

The Caterpillar's Question (1995)

Executive (1985)

Hope Hubris becomes El Presidentae5 May 2012tOne of the reviews of this book suggested that Hope Hubris is like a Bill Clinton with a cabinet full of Monica Lewinsky's, however while when I read this book it wouldn't have occurred to me (and the Bill Clinton reference wouldn't have either) and wh...

The Dastard (2001)

Heaven Cent (2000)

An the Xanth series continues30 December 2011tIt is fascinating read what other people's opinions on the various books on Goodreads, particularly those that I myself have read. A lot of the reviews suggest that these later Xanth books where the first that they read, and there is obviously the ext...

Ogre, Ogre (1997)

This is the fifth book in Piers Anthony's Xanth series and the best of those first five by a wide margin. Piers Anthony has a quirky, almost clunky way of unfolding a story, but the deeper structure--the skeleton of his tales--is always sound and well imagined. Some story ideas just naturally s...

Mercenary (2000)

I would give this book -5 out of 5 stars if I could. Instead it gets 1 star rating as that is the lowest I can give it.The novel takes place right after Refugee. Hope has his ID stolen so the only work he can find is as a plant harvester. He gets introduced into a friendly, family-oriented friend...

Cube Route (2004)

Cube Route by Piers Anthony was my first foray into the land of Xanth, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I have seen his books on my local library's shelves for a long time, but never really felt the need or desire to give them a try. However, a couple of months ago I listened to a podcast where s...

Prostho Plus (1986)

I first heard of Prostho Plus when a friend, Michael A. Burstein, mentioned it to me, and it was something of an endeavor looking for it in used bookstores and online, but it was eminently worth it. Prostho Plus, a stand-alone work by longtime SF/F author Piers Anthony, has to be one of the most...

Isle of View (1990)

Obviously the title is yet another pun. Prince Dolph is dealing with figuring out which of two girls betrothed to him is going to actually be his wife. (Guess polygamy isn't allowed in Xanth. A pity.)I think this book was where I started to lose interest in this series. I wasn't a huge fan in...

Air Apparent (2007)

Isle of Woman (1994)

Statesman (1986)

I do so love Piers Anthony in general and this series in particular. It is a fun blend of sci fi, politics, and romance. Hope Hubris is at the end of his life, and trying to help enact "The Dream" which is galactic plan to enable space travel to nearby stars so that factions have no shortage of...

Currant Events (2005)

This is the third novel in a row to use the formula of following a character's travels through Xanth and meeting a host of familiar and new people. The meandering nature of Clio's quest can get tedious if this isn't your favorite motif--that was my case. Other readers may enjoy it just fine. Metr...

Man from Mundania (2000)

Princess Ivy's princessly duties apparently include absolutely nothing, so she's bored. She wants a quest. Good thing she's in a fantasy novel that hands out quests readily, though it seems the quest she's chosen is the same one they've been trying to solve for three books now. Ho-hum.Ivy ends...

Xone of Contention (2000)

I seem to need a fix of pun-ishment every once in a while, and for that I need look no further than an Xanth novel by Piers Anthony.Can you believe this is number 23 in his long running series? And yes, I am a sucker for puns and light stories housing heavy themes.This particular Xanth outing dea...

Zombie Lover (1999)

I was given this book as part of a "Blind Date with a Book" promotion at the library at the college where I work.If this book had been a real blind date, I’m ashamed to say that in the middle of dinner I excused myself to the restroom then promptly climbed out the window and ran far, far away. I ...

Dream A Little Dream: A Tale of Myth And Moonshine (1999)

Sos the Rope (1968)