Xanth

Hi everyone, I'm new here to the forum as you can see. Nice to come across the forum. To answer a question a few of you might be wondering, no I am not Piers Anthony. But, I thought I'd see if the name was being used here. It was this or Captain Henrys from Triple Detente. I am currently setting out to acquire everything in print by Piers. Not for collecting, but reading. I only want every book he has ever authored or coauthored because I find his stuff mesmerizing.

Most people probably think of Xanth when they think of Piers, and I can understand that. It's a great series and certainly his most memorable. Who can resist titles like, "The Color of Her Panties?" That one was a surprising one for Piers to some. Maybe he isn't TOO sexist, after all. It is all about Gwenny the Goblinette who has to see the Good Magician so that she can rule the Goblins. The first of her kind, she would come to be the sole matriarch in goblin history. In it Piers assimiliates the male goblins w/ brutes, but Gwennys rise to power would mean goblins would become civilized.

Ah, Xanth the world of Magic. Turns me on. But Xanth isn't the best of Piers Anthony! Anyone who has read his Bio of a Space Tyrant series already knows this. Mercenary was epic. Or the Cluster series! Piers has written so many great books, and I thought I'd make my first post on him! Other Piers fans, give me a shout!

Take care,

Adam

Welcome to the forum

I'm not a Piers fan, but I'll give you a shout...Welcome! Enjoy yourself.

Howdy and Welcome! I've only read a few of Piers books, my husband has read more and notes that some of them are better than others. He definitely has a style all his own.

I want to buy the novel he co-wrote with Mercedes Lackey, If I Pay Thee Not in Gold

Have you tried his electronic books? One is called Pornucopia. I can't remember the others. Check them out at Mundania Press. I think they are also available in trade paperback.

Piers_Anthony said:

Ah, Xanth the world of Magic. Turns me on. But Xanth isn't the best of Piers Anthony! Anyone who has read his Bio of a Space Tyrant series already knows this. Mercenary was epic. Or the Cluster series! Piers has written so many great books, and I thought I'd make my first post on him! Other Piers fans, give me a shout!

Take care,

Adam

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Triggered my interests. Would find it out.
and YES! WELCOME AND ENJOY!
---Oh, almost forgot. Give a shout! YYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!

Piers Anthony made some pretty good books in the Xanth, but i guess all the amazing authors like terry goodkind, and david eddings blow him away! sry, and welcome, though im new here as well- just my first day!

i've always felt that the Battle Circle series was Anthony's best work.

The Xanth series were some of my favourite. However, he has a lot of good stuff out in the market. My number one fav. series by him is a in a set of seven called the Incarnations of Immortality. I can't remember the order but here are the titles.

On A Pale Horse
With a Tangled Skien
Bearing of an Hourglass
Wielding a Red Sword
Being a Green Mother (my fav of this set)
For Love of Evil
And Ethernity


It's about the five lesser beings of immortality: nature, war, time, fate, and death. They aren't actually gods but they are offices...like political offices. They are held by mortals...to tell you more would give away more of the plot..they are really good tho...esp. if you like Piers.

Another series that you may wish to check is the Adept series..I believe there are seven in all...it combines Fantasy w/Sci Fi

Aside from his fantasy...he wrote a stand alone called Firefly...really strange, but actually good.

welcome

i'm pretty new to this forum as well... so far i think the people on it are great... it's a great place to post...

anyway... Piers Anthony... i've been a fan for a very long time... Spell for Chameleon was actaully the first book of his I read...

here are some Piers Anthony books (other than his major series') that i think are good:

1. Through the Ice (written with Robert Kornwise... Robert Kornwise was actually a very young writer who started on this book... he died and his parents asked piers anthony to finish it... piers anthony agreed)

2. Letters to Jenny (non-fiction... collected letters Piers Anthony wrote to a girl in a coma... the book was published in 1993 and as far as i know the girl is still in a coma... and Piers Anthony still writes to her)

3. Race Against Time (sci-fi and a very quick but good read)

Three of Piers' very early books are Steppe, Ghost, and Rings of Ice.

I suggest any and all of these books to anyone who enjoys Piers Anthony's writing... I own all of these (as well as almost all of Piers Anthony's books) he's not one of my favorite authors but his books are good to read when i'm in the mood for a story that won't make my head ache

I started out on Xanth books, so I read quite a bit of Piers.
Probably the first 10 or so. The first few Xanth books are still OK(but my tolerance for them drops past the one about the barbarian guy and the yin/yang wizards. I think #5/6-ish.

Personally when it comes to Piers, I like the Incarnations of Immortality (esp. the one about the guy that ends up the incarnation of evil).

Also a fan of the Adept books (at least the first trilogy. Second trilogy OK but not as good as the first).

Other good books were Steppe, Ghost, and the first couple books about alternate dimension hopping (the name eludes me at this time).

I am a newbie at this forum myself. Robin Hobb fan at this point. Peace.

All I've read of Piers is his Xanth series, I'm in the middle of one but I can't remember the name, it's about Esk and Chex and they're trying to find Magician Humphrey. Oh well, it's not that important. I was just wondering, are all his books filled with horrible puns or is it just Xanth, because I'm not sure I can take another series with bad puns

Welcome to the forum

I've tried reading this series, but couldnt link to the characters

Caline said:

All I've read of Piers is his Xanth series, I'm in the middle of one but I can't remember the name, it's about Esk and Chex and they're trying to find Magician Humphrey. Oh well, it's not that important. I was just wondering, are all his books filled with horrible puns or is it just Xanth, because I'm not sure I can take another series with bad puns

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Checked with the Piers Anthony expert that lives in my house, he says that the other novels do not have the bad puns as much, but they all have lots of sex.

I read Xanth up to Golem in the Gears and totally lost interest. They're cute, they're funny, but they're books not puppies and after awhile I just got tired of them. They read like they were knocked out to make the mortgage payment that month. I can't consider them serious fantasy works.

I also read On A Pale Horse it appeared to be well written, but again I lost interest and never finished the series.

That said, he's published a lot of books and some folks consider him the standard. *shrug*

Ashlea said:

Checked with the Piers Anthony expert that lives in my house, he says that the other novels do not have the bad puns as much, but they all have lots of sex.

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The novels also seem to be a bit sexist. Ok, a lot sexist. Does that improve? Because I liked the stories, but the sexism got really old really fast.

Ashlea said "lots of sex" Chewy said "sexist". Do you mean the story was sexist? Or you didn't enjoy the way the writer treated women in it? Or there was a lot of sexual situations? Or what?

Prolixic said:

Ashlea said "lots of sex" Chewy said "sexist". Do you mean the story was sexist? Or you didn't enjoy the way the writer treated women in it? Or there was a lot of sexual situations? Or what?

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I said they were also sexist, which meant in addition to containing lots of sex. And I meant the way women are treated, which I found to detract from the story in a major way.

Its typical that and I like to think its because most male writers can't write female characters very well. I hope thats why anyhow. I thought there was probably an average amount of sex in the Xanth novels I read (only the first 13 or so, which barely scratches the surface I know) compared to others in the same genre. To me he didn't overuse it and no one got raped--another typical facet of fantasy books.

The reason I asked about the sex vs. sexist thing is just to see if there was something specific that ticked you off about Anthony and the way he treated his female characters thats all.

True about the lack of rape, which I did appreciate. It wasn't really one particular book, just in general. I'm not sure if he doesn't know how to write women or what, but it definitely managed to put me off his books.