Pornucopia

Pornucopia #1

by Piers Anthony

Pornucopia is a picaresque black comedy that transgresses all bounds of everyday good taste. It begins in a near-future world where sex-vending machines and genital transplants are taken for granted. Prior Gross, the hero and sex object of this wild adventure, thinks his fantasies have all come true when a beautiful young woman seduces him on a public beach. She turns out to be a succubus, beginning his initiation into a realm populated by demons that are not merely horned, but horny. He encounters a perverse cast of characters that includes a satyr, a vampire, and a pair of luscious sisters, one of whom tricks him out of his manhood. So Prior Gross sets out on a perverse odyssey, taking him to a distant planet where he discovers the key to the return of his property and, ultimately, the origin of the universe itself.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Erotica, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Humor, Adult

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Though he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.

Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 the highest level and definately NOT for everyone. It gets quite weird in most of the book. Things happen quickly and there is a tendency to almost lose track of what you are reading. The basic premise (although toned down drastically by me) is that a man meets a succubus/Incubus on a beach. He is constantly thinking about his private area and how small it is. The succubus brings him to a kind of Dr. who performs surgery on him while he is drugged. It all spirals from there. We have people laying a type of demon egg and we have a Mountain of Ice cream. I am sorry but this book was just too weird and out there for words. The writing style was good, it fit the book, it is just the story was well . . . WAY out there with a huge amount of sex not normal sex - WEIRD sex. The author explains at the end of the book the many trials he went through to get this published. Most publishing houses wouldn't touch it. I understand why.

[Alex Denson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piers Anthony + erotica = Pornucopia

Honestly, that's all that need be said, if you really understand the statement. This book is completely ridiculous, and the premise is completely ludicrous, and that is all part of the Piers Anthony charm. It's exactly what he does.

You know when you go see an action movie for the explosions? Or a horror movie to see how many people die? You don't go expecting Oscar-worthy acting. This is sort of the same thing. Refined sensibilities need not apply.

I found this book a 'breath of fresh air' (as overused as that is) in the Piers Anthony collection. Don't get me wrong. I love his writing and have read more than just his Xanth stuff. But all of it gets a bit... much after awhile. Pornucopia was classic PA humor in a much more ribald, adults-only premise.

It is VERY graphic and over-the-top and most definitely not for children. And given that mind set, I really enjoyed this book immensely. It was funny, engaging, weird and sexy. I gave it only 4 stars simply because it was short and almost had TOO much packed into that short novel. Really, it was more of 4.5 stars.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!
Pornucopia is not your average Piers Anthony novel!

Piers Anthony must be a time traveler: he traveled ten to fifteen years into the future, surfed German Fetish Websites, interviewed the rock group Tenacious D, then went back to 1988 to write this book.

Chapter 1: Smegma, opens with Prior Gross trying to hide his 3.97 inch erection while at the beach. (Yes, the size is important to this novel.)The shadow of a succubus falls over him as she tells him to pretend to be asleep. Succubi can only copulate with sleeping humans, and her supervisor is watching from a distance. If Prior just pretends to be asleep, the supervisor will be fooled, and the Succubus will achieve her quota. It only goes further into the taboos and nonsensical from there.

Detachable penises, racist black men, Greek gods, bestiality and an alien mountain made of ice cream with strawberry syrup rivers. This book has it all!

[Brent · Rating 1 out of 5]

The dumbest, most infantile, disgusting, idiotic, and un-erotic book I've ever read. I had been hearing of this book for years and so looked forward to reading it. Having read several of Piers Anthony books in the past I figured this would be something special. OMG. What crap.

This is the third sex oriented book I've read in the past year (or two) after "The Drowning Pool" and "House of Holes." All three were awful. What is it about sex that makes authors write like giggling horny twelve year olds? The dialogue here makes "House of Holes" look like great literature. I'd copy some of here but it's too stupid to repeat. Just imagine porn written by giggling horny twelve year olds.

"Surely you don't intend to practice anal intercourse?" she asked, shocked.
"This isn't practice, innocent baby. . ."
Like I said, childish, moronic, and un-erotic. At least I won't have to read the follow-up, "The Magic Fart." Oh, brother!

If you want porn, go read some classic Victorian porn. "A Romance of Lust" is one of the best. Thoroughly unrealistic (the protagonist Charlie can do it dozens of times a day!), but comparatively well written with interesting situations.

[Vvvvv · Rating 1 out of 5]

wtf is this, an attempt to get us grossed out by sex/erotica? I don't know how jaded you have to be to get through this without getting grossed out. It'll be a while before I can get some of the scenes out of my head. Will not attemp sex in the meantime!

[Skye Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m impressed at the creativity of Pornuccopia. The author finds numerous weird and wonderful ways to make the reader feel grossed out. This is entertaining for a while but not sustainable. Whilst the events of the story are disgustingly enthralling, it didn’t quite have the character or compelling narrative to kee me reading past the middle.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys having their tolerance for grossness pushed.

[Allan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given the slightly comedic cover I thought this might be an amusing read with a bit of titilation thrown in but it's so ridiculously over-the-top, fantastical and gross that there's nothing erotic about it. Basically:

Man with small penis loses penis after adventure with succubus.
Man gets replacement penis with loads of attachments.
Man has ridiculous amount of sex.
Man wants old (and small) penis back.
Man goes on quest (involves lots of sex) to get penis back.

With the above involving succubi, demons, a racist black man, a satyr, sex with statues, almost every perversion you can think of, other planets and an ice-cream mountain, then I'm thinking that there was more than a little recreational drug use involved in the mix.

I almost gave up and put it down but persevered in case there ws some light at the end of the tunnel but sadly there wasn't.

[Kallierose · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book from Piers Anthony with the word Porn in the title? How could I go wrong?

::sigh::

Don't think I'm some prude--I like reading porn as much as the next person (especially if the next person is a fifteen-year-old boy, LOL) but this was just...overkill. Constant mentions of his small penis or how his "cheese" had magical healing powers had me rolling my eyes. After a while I decided it just wasn't worth finishing - there are plenty of other books out there that I haven't read yet. Time is too short to waste on this.

[Cristal Hougham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite your typical Piers Anthony book. Yes he has always had some sexual innuendos in his other works but this takes the cake. It's not your typical erotica novel. This is going to push boundaries and is really more sexually disturbing than it is sensual and sexy. But it did grab my attention and held it. I would be appalled at certain scenes in the book yet I couldn't stop turning the pages. I would only recommend this for those that can handle some f***** up stuff.

[Shuran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic shonen manga style adventure story. A featureless good-for-nothing protagonist one day realized he had a most valuable ability, only to get betrayed and lost his most precious possession.
Set on a journey to recover what he's lost, our protagonist must face all sorts of danger along the way, and unravel the truth of the universe in the process.

[Henrik Rostoft · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Piers Anthony, but not enough to read through this.

[Wendy 'windmill' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Outrageously funny, erotic, painful, & out of this world! This book has it all! Wow! I'm glad I had it on kindle & was able to read it with one hand!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG I laughed all the way through this one! Definitely not a book to be taken seriously at all, but weirdly entertaining non the less.

[S.B. (Beauty in Ruins) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if Pornucopia weren’t already legendary as one of the best/worst examples of Piers Anthony’s more eccentric tales, that “picaresque black comedy that transgresses all bounds of everyday good taste” tagline would be enough to guarantee me a read.

You know what? It’s actually a pretty good read. Off-the-wall, incredibly fucked-up bizarre, and ridiculously pornographic, it initially seems rather dated, but it’s actually quite progressive (and weirdly prescient of contemporary fetish erotica) for a book that’s now 30 years old.

I won’t even try to recap the plot, because to do so would be more than futile. This is one of those books where the story is in the telling, and the details are everything. Suffice to say, it opens with a gender-changing succubus/incubus assuming ownership of Prior Gross on the beach, which leads to forced impregnation and STD experimentation. And then it gets really fucking weird. There’s the recycling of sexual fluids between a satyr and a succubus/incubus (building to a messy finale), the series of increasingly larger and more bizarre detachable erections (including a three-pronged prehensile beast), the anal smuggling of demon eggs across dimensions (which is a fetish all its own), a garden of erotic statues (with a decidedly hardcore bestiality theme), and . . . well, that’s about the halfway mark, so you can probably it gets even weirder when the aliens get involved.

Pornucopia is hardly high literature. It’s juvenile in its humor, pubescent in its pornography, and far too self-indulgent for most reader’s tastes. In fact, it’s in poor taste more often than not, and there are no lines that Piers Anthony is afraid to cross. And you know what? I fucking love it. This is an author allowing himself to run wild, to indulge the creepiest, kinkiest, wildest corners of his imagination, without a care for what critics or editors might think. As a contemporary piece of self-published erotic fiction, it would be pretty damned entertaining, but as a work that predates the World Wide Web, it’s pretty fucking amazing.

These are words I never thought I’d say, but bring on The Magic Fart!


https://femledfantasy.home.blog/2019/...

[Sorrythatusernameistaken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned about this book years ago, when I used to write letters to Piers Anthony. He told me about it and it stuck in the back of my head for years before I finally looked it up out of curiosity. Let me tell you, It was something to read out of curiosity, but as much as I always enjoyed Piers Anthony, this is honestly, just bad. It's a guys idea of what a gal might possibly fantasize about, and it's what guys might fantasize about? I don't know. It's problematic by todays standards, so much misogyny. just not a great read. But hey, someone out there would probably love it.

[Ron Diel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a book I was expecting. I have been sitting with my thoughts for a few days as I finished it up, and I have come to two conclusions:

1. As the author says in his notes, this is not a book for everyone.

2. I'm still not sure how to think about his book.

If you have any appreciation for erotic fiction and if you enjoy Anthony's style of writing, you are in for an experience.

But, read at your own risk!

[Wesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a pretty shit novel way back whenever I read it, somehow I stuck through it?
Not recommended.

Many / most old school sci-fi authors couldn't write good or even decent sexual stories.
Books with a "proper" (without obsessive fetishism...) story, or creative scenarios, imagery, characters, or self delusional / fantasy fulfilling plot line.

Find something else if you're looking here.

[Tristan Robertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve read quite a few of Piers Anthony’s books and I must say this is the worst of the bunch. I purchased it out of curiosity bc I have enjoyed some of his other writing and enjoy erotic fiction. It started off alright but went downhill quickly and was sad to find that this book was full of rape, misogyny, and racism. Don’t waste your time or money on this book

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title says it all.

A somewhat exhausting and very explicit romp through an alternative world. I was finding it amusing initially (albeit a bit misogynistic) but once they started climbing Mount Icecream the plot rapidly devolved.

[Bryan Jenks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is by far one of the worst things I’ve ever read. Had a vague memory of the scene with the statues from being handed this book nearly a decade ago and I had to read it to reconcile the memory but holy shit this was horrible 🤣

[Matthew Callis · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you’re here looking at reviews because your friend recommended this book to you as a joke, and you want to know if you should give it a shot, don’t.

Two stars for being mercifully short.

What a horrible day to have eyes.

[Złota Pochodnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piers Anthony goes ultra-raunchy. This was a decently enjoyable book, and it was funny to see him say all the stuff he mostly only hints at in all his other works. Definitely some bizarre and disgusting parts in it, but overall entertaining enough. Glad to scratch it off my list.

[Courtney Bagby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a weird, gross, silly read. Approach with caution.

[jeff krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!

[Eric Hawke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read as a freshman in highschool. It is one of the most absurd stories I have come across. I don't regret reading it, but most people are better off not picking this one up.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 2 out of 5]

If it's self-published, beware.

The ember of Anthony's talent still warms this book, but it is ultimately half-baked and, as many have already complained, consummately juvenile in its approach to sex and eroticism.

It is indeed funny at parts, but it reads like a poorly written comedy routine for a late-night TV show. Low-brow slapstick and copious references to and vivid descriptions of "dick cheese"/smegma rob the novel of any hope of being remotely arousing, despite its subject-matter.

Finally, the cover of the book is atrocious. While Deviantart is crawling with talented artists available for commission for a pittance, somehow Anthony managed to locate somebody with less artistic ability than most middle-school art-class hacks. The fact that he selected and PRINTED such a horrifyingly ugly, disfigured, malproportioned scribble for his book cover should be your first warning sign that Anthony's self-published works lack rudimentary editing and Quality-Control.

Think of what happened when George Lucas got so 'big' he didn't have people telling him 'no' anymore or contributing to his work. You end up with the star wars prequels and jar jar binks. Anthony follows suite.

[Lisa Linderman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I pretty much wanted to gouge my eyes out after reading this book. I was a fan of Anthony at the time (not so much any more, now that I'm not 12), and I thought heck yeah, sounds like a good time. No. It really isn't. It's puerile, childish, poorly written, inane, kind of (okay, really really) gross, and about the furthest thing from pornographic you could get. It wasn't even funny gross, it was stupid gross. It was only barely edged out of "worst book I've ever read" in the last few years, and that was another self-published, self-edited monstrosity by someone not nearly as famous. If I could give it no stars, I would. I suppose someone must be turned on or even just plain amused by this kind of thing...seriously, 25ish years after reading it, I still remember Mt. Smegma...but I can't imagine what the inside of that person's head must be like. I've rarely wanted to fling a book into a raging fire, but this would be one.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should be called Ode to a Tiny, Stinky, Uncircumcised Penis. It's absolutely ridiculous, but that's part of it's charm, I guess... if you like that kind of sophomoric humor. I enjoyed the first half of the book, where the owner of the 3.97 incher (when fully erect) finds out his head cheese kills venereal disease. Then he's tricked into donating his penis for medical research, and provided with various attachments to try out instead. Suddenly he's climbing a mountain made out of ice cream, and dueling with demons who keep trying to sodomize him, but whoever comes first wins, and he always wins. This was a very bizarre book.

[Tom Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

NO KIDS ALLOWED. Yeah, it’s that bad. Despite the over-the top graphic sex, bestiality, demonality, and everything in between, I was surprisingly engaged through the entire book. I’m not sure if it was for the shock value of the probably 40+ sexual encounters in the book, or maybe it was the story behind it about a man on a mission that ends up doing something amazing for the world. Piers, you are a sick sick man for writing this book. I salute you for that. Now I will go wash out my eyes and brain for having such dirty things in there.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite being of fan of his Xanth, Space Tyrant, and Mode series, I only got a third of the way through this before just having to give up. Although he put eroticism and kinkiness in a number of his other works, I suspect this was Anthony's attempt at exploring erotic taboos without restraint.

Aside from the core premise seeming to be the save-the-world properties of the protagonist's smegma, the fourth wall-busting part for me was the satyr and succubus/incubus sex scene in the middle of a supernatural nightclub. Any more would be a spoiler, trust me.