What do you think?
Rate this book
Incarnations of Immortality #7
And Eternity
After an overwhelming succession of tragedies, life has finally, mercifully ended for Orlene, once-mortal daughter of Gaea. Joined in Afterlife by Jolie -- her protector and the sometime consort of Satan himself -- together they seek out a Vita, a very contemporary mortal with troubles, attractions, and an unsettling moral code uniquely her own. An extraordinary triumvirate, they embark on a great quest to reawaken the Incarnation of Good in a world where evil reigns -- facing challenges that will test the very fiber of their beings with trials as numerous, as mysterious, and as devastating as the Incarnations themselves.
378 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
36 people are currently reading
3697 people want to read
About the author
Piers Anthony
441 books4,214 followersThough 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.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 234 reviews
December 22, 2007
I used to love reading Piers Anthony. I started in the mid eighties, reading all of the Xanth, Blue Adept and Incarnations of Immortality series. Somewhere around book 14 of Xanth, I got sort of a creepy feeling reading his books. The stories seemed to focus more and more on panties and young teens discovering sex in a very childlike manner. The final Blue adept book made me uncomfortable for the same reasons.
However, this book blew me away. One of the characters in the book was a judge in his mid 50s. He takes a 12 year old prostitute and has her live at his house. He writes several paragraphs about struggling with being sexually attracted to her. Then he writes several more paragraphs justifying his attraction even though it is illegal, he was a judge AND she was put into his home for protective custody so she would not be in sexual situations with adults. It reminded me of some writings I've seen for NAMBLA. And then he decides that they can have a consensual sexual relationship. And they have lots of sex-- and call each other cutsie names.
After reading this book, I felt dirty. I also quit reading Piers Anthony books.
However, this book blew me away. One of the characters in the book was a judge in his mid 50s. He takes a 12 year old prostitute and has her live at his house. He writes several paragraphs about struggling with being sexually attracted to her. Then he writes several more paragraphs justifying his attraction even though it is illegal, he was a judge AND she was put into his home for protective custody so she would not be in sexual situations with adults. It reminded me of some writings I've seen for NAMBLA. And then he decides that they can have a consensual sexual relationship. And they have lots of sex-- and call each other cutsie names.
After reading this book, I felt dirty. I also quit reading Piers Anthony books.
October 16, 2008
There were a few things to love about this book - the concept behind it, its thought-provoking nature at times, and several great scenes. The problem is that there were too many bad things - offensively bad things - to count. I say this as a lifelong Piers Anthony fan - I read with enthusiasm all the biographical Author's Notes from this series, and I remember him fondly as the famous author who responded to a letter from my sister in the mid-80s with a thoughtful critique of the short story she wrote and sent her personal advice on how to make it as a writer. The lost potential made me even angrier at the end of the book than I would have been if it had no redeeming qualities.
This book makes clear Piers Anthony's strange obsession with underage girls. There's something wrong when you write up the character of a middle-aged man who "falls in love" and repeatedly has sex with a 15-year old girl and have every other character try to justify this by saying "age is just a construct," and "they're really in love."
In Lolita, the story was at least presented without glorifying pedophilia - instead, it seemed designed to make you feel uncomfortable by following the point of view of a very flawed villainous figure and showing the damage that resulted from the violation of trust when a grown man pursued a sexual relationship with a young girl. Here, it is clear from the outset that the design is to try and convince you that there is nothing wrong with it.
He doesn't even try a "she may be 15, but she's much older in maturity" angle. The "good" main character says that he fantasizes about young girls, and what he likes about her is her immaturity. Anthony even takes pains to repeatedly highlight just how young the girl is. She starts about half her sentences with "Gee!", including sexual quotes that appear out of nowhere for absolutely no reason, like "Gee, I wish I could be having sex with [my 50-year-old boyfriend] right now!" The older man refers to her with pet names like "my juvenile delight."
Dialogue that was so over the top that it was funny (With lines along the lines of, "I must admit, although this tryst we have just completed has me spent, I will do my utmost to recuperate with haste in order to achieve a reiteration"), an awkward Evolution vs. Creationism debate (in which the 15-year-old runaway drug addict prostitute somehow knows enough about science to be the champion of Evolution), and repeated pointless sex scenes round out why this book could have been very good, but instead was a big disappointment.
This book makes clear Piers Anthony's strange obsession with underage girls. There's something wrong when you write up the character of a middle-aged man who "falls in love" and repeatedly has sex with a 15-year old girl and have every other character try to justify this by saying "age is just a construct," and "they're really in love."
In Lolita, the story was at least presented without glorifying pedophilia - instead, it seemed designed to make you feel uncomfortable by following the point of view of a very flawed villainous figure and showing the damage that resulted from the violation of trust when a grown man pursued a sexual relationship with a young girl. Here, it is clear from the outset that the design is to try and convince you that there is nothing wrong with it.
He doesn't even try a "she may be 15, but she's much older in maturity" angle. The "good" main character says that he fantasizes about young girls, and what he likes about her is her immaturity. Anthony even takes pains to repeatedly highlight just how young the girl is. She starts about half her sentences with "Gee!", including sexual quotes that appear out of nowhere for absolutely no reason, like "Gee, I wish I could be having sex with [my 50-year-old boyfriend] right now!" The older man refers to her with pet names like "my juvenile delight."
Dialogue that was so over the top that it was funny (With lines along the lines of, "I must admit, although this tryst we have just completed has me spent, I will do my utmost to recuperate with haste in order to achieve a reiteration"), an awkward Evolution vs. Creationism debate (in which the 15-year-old runaway drug addict prostitute somehow knows enough about science to be the champion of Evolution), and repeated pointless sex scenes round out why this book could have been very good, but instead was a big disappointment.
May 26, 2012
So. I read this when I was about fifteen, and I learned that men who don't rape women are automatically noble creatures because it's really hard not to rape. Once I start taking testosterone I'll let you know if I get a sudden urge to go around raping people, but I'm going to go ahead and guess with "no".
April 7, 2013
Each time I read this book I like it less and less. I loved it when I was in high school. Now I despise Piers Anthony's blatant sexism and wonder how much damage he did to my teenage psyche.
March 26, 2017
I'd give it zero stars if I could.
In trying to remember this series, I honestly couldn't remember a whole lot about And Eternity. I remembered the premise, I remembered the three protagonists, I remembered the Creation vs. Evolution "debate," and I remembered the ending. I vaguely remembered enjoying this book overall, I just couldn't remember much of it. So I figured, at worst, it would be another vague disappointment like Being a Green Mother, and it certainly couldn't be any worse than Bearing an Hourglass.
Settle in. Because, ho boy, was I wrong.
So, let's start with the most infuriating things about the book first. At the start of the book, one of the characters, Orlene, gets slowly turned into a man, and is so overcome by the "masculine urges" that she immediately tries to rape her female companion, because apparently men are, at their core, horny animals who would be having sex with anything that stands still long enough if not for the fact that we've spent that last several millennia learning to control those urges. First, this represents a complete misunderstanding of the motivations of rape (i.e., it's not about sex, it's about power.) Second, Anthony has basically said with this scene that the excuse of "I just couldn't control myself" is a perfectly valid justification for rape. Which, based on his other writings including those in this book, I'm sure he didn't mean to say, but say it he did.
Believe it or not, though, that's not the worst aspect of this novel. The worst aspect comes when another protagonist--Vita, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been forced into prostitution--comes under the protection of a judge, described as "middle aged," so no younger than forty, and the two of them start a fully sexual relationship. That's bad enough. But what's worse is that this relationship is treated by pretty much everyone as true love. The rationale here is that they both want the relationship, that age is just an arbitrary number, and that a person's maturity is measured by their experiences not their age, and that Vita has experienced enough to be mature enough to enter into this relationship with an older man . . . which, come to think of it, sounds exactly like the rationale of a fifteen-year-old girl. Age of consent exists for a reason. Yes, it's an arbitrary number, but it HAS to be, because the alternative is judging every person's maturity level subjectively. And Vita's experiences of rape and forced prostitution are all the more reason why a sexual relationship with a forty or fifty year old man--who takes unabashed pleasure in having sex with a teenage girl--is completely and utterly f***ed up. This isn't true love, this is a Jerry Springer segment.
And the really irritating thing about both of these things is that they were COMPLETELY unnecessary. There was no reason for the rape scene, and there was no reason for the relationship to become sexual. And yet they're so firmly integrated into the main part of the story that it's really hard to separate them. Every time I'd start to enjoy some aspect of the story, they'd make some reference to this relationship and it would just piss me off all over again.
So this book was going to have to try really hard to redeem itself. And unfortunately, the vast majority of the book that wasn't about jailbait pretty much just devolved into a video game plot where Orlene had to collect items from each of the Incarnations in order to get her baby back. So we spend a pedantic few chapters revisiting each of the Incarnations in turn and not getting much more of an insight into them than we did in their books. When the plot isn't plodding along in this way, Anthony turns to his characteristic preaching on his own personal definitions of good and evil. Midway through the plot, there's a random "debate" between creationism and evolution which--though, again, unintentionally, I'm sure, based on his other writings--treats evolution not as a scientific fact, but as a belief.
The book only started to redeem itself at the very end when it finally started to dig into what should have been the main premise of the book: the Incarnation of Good has spent the last thousand years contemplating his own greatness, neglecting his duties and the mortal realm, and thus needs to be replaced. So the mortal realm must vote to impeach the officeholder, and the Incarnations must unanimously choose a replacement.
HOW WAS THIS NOT YOUR STORY??? Why did you waste nearly ninety percent of the book and plodding, preachy, and insultingly asinine crap when you could have been writing about this extremely provocative and interesting idea?
The one part of this book I liked was the very end, where they arrive at their decision of who the new God should be. It's the only part of the book where the nonsense makes some kind of sense. However, the ends, in this case, DO NOT justify the means. I shouldn't have had to wade through over two hundred pages of garbage to get to this end, and it would be easy enough to just remember the ending, be glad the book ended on a positive note, and give a better review. But it's just way too little, way too late. I can't say for sure that this is the worst book I've ever read, but believe me. It's up there. Or rather, down there.
Worth Rating: Less Than Worthless
In trying to remember this series, I honestly couldn't remember a whole lot about And Eternity. I remembered the premise, I remembered the three protagonists, I remembered the Creation vs. Evolution "debate," and I remembered the ending. I vaguely remembered enjoying this book overall, I just couldn't remember much of it. So I figured, at worst, it would be another vague disappointment like Being a Green Mother, and it certainly couldn't be any worse than Bearing an Hourglass.
Settle in. Because, ho boy, was I wrong.
So, let's start with the most infuriating things about the book first. At the start of the book, one of the characters, Orlene, gets slowly turned into a man, and is so overcome by the "masculine urges" that she immediately tries to rape her female companion, because apparently men are, at their core, horny animals who would be having sex with anything that stands still long enough if not for the fact that we've spent that last several millennia learning to control those urges. First, this represents a complete misunderstanding of the motivations of rape (i.e., it's not about sex, it's about power.) Second, Anthony has basically said with this scene that the excuse of "I just couldn't control myself" is a perfectly valid justification for rape. Which, based on his other writings including those in this book, I'm sure he didn't mean to say, but say it he did.
Believe it or not, though, that's not the worst aspect of this novel. The worst aspect comes when another protagonist--Vita, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been forced into prostitution--comes under the protection of a judge, described as "middle aged," so no younger than forty, and the two of them start a fully sexual relationship. That's bad enough. But what's worse is that this relationship is treated by pretty much everyone as true love. The rationale here is that they both want the relationship, that age is just an arbitrary number, and that a person's maturity is measured by their experiences not their age, and that Vita has experienced enough to be mature enough to enter into this relationship with an older man . . . which, come to think of it, sounds exactly like the rationale of a fifteen-year-old girl. Age of consent exists for a reason. Yes, it's an arbitrary number, but it HAS to be, because the alternative is judging every person's maturity level subjectively. And Vita's experiences of rape and forced prostitution are all the more reason why a sexual relationship with a forty or fifty year old man--who takes unabashed pleasure in having sex with a teenage girl--is completely and utterly f***ed up. This isn't true love, this is a Jerry Springer segment.
And the really irritating thing about both of these things is that they were COMPLETELY unnecessary. There was no reason for the rape scene, and there was no reason for the relationship to become sexual. And yet they're so firmly integrated into the main part of the story that it's really hard to separate them. Every time I'd start to enjoy some aspect of the story, they'd make some reference to this relationship and it would just piss me off all over again.
So this book was going to have to try really hard to redeem itself. And unfortunately, the vast majority of the book that wasn't about jailbait pretty much just devolved into a video game plot where Orlene had to collect items from each of the Incarnations in order to get her baby back. So we spend a pedantic few chapters revisiting each of the Incarnations in turn and not getting much more of an insight into them than we did in their books. When the plot isn't plodding along in this way, Anthony turns to his characteristic preaching on his own personal definitions of good and evil. Midway through the plot, there's a random "debate" between creationism and evolution which--though, again, unintentionally, I'm sure, based on his other writings--treats evolution not as a scientific fact, but as a belief.
The book only started to redeem itself at the very end when it finally started to dig into what should have been the main premise of the book: the Incarnation of Good has spent the last thousand years contemplating his own greatness, neglecting his duties and the mortal realm, and thus needs to be replaced. So the mortal realm must vote to impeach the officeholder, and the Incarnations must unanimously choose a replacement.
HOW WAS THIS NOT YOUR STORY??? Why did you waste nearly ninety percent of the book and plodding, preachy, and insultingly asinine crap when you could have been writing about this extremely provocative and interesting idea?
The one part of this book I liked was the very end, where they arrive at their decision of who the new God should be. It's the only part of the book where the nonsense makes some kind of sense. However, the ends, in this case, DO NOT justify the means. I shouldn't have had to wade through over two hundred pages of garbage to get to this end, and it would be easy enough to just remember the ending, be glad the book ended on a positive note, and give a better review. But it's just way too little, way too late. I can't say for sure that this is the worst book I've ever read, but believe me. It's up there. Or rather, down there.
Worth Rating: Less Than Worthless
March 22, 2015
A big disappointment, especially coming on the heels of Being a Green Mother and For Love of Evil, either of which would have made fine finishes to the series (the former being the original ending, these last two added later). Anthony really began to add complexity to his depiction of Satan over the course of the series, and he made each of his Incarnations entertaining to meet and follow along. However, throughout, his depiction of God and Heaven was quite unsympathetic. I expected he might do with this book as he did with For Love of Evil, that is, surprise the reader with a sympathetic, nuanced depiction of God. Perhaps he might even have shown God's love and intervention working throughout in ways so subtle the other characters were missing it all along, the way he up-ended readers' expectations with his examination of Satan in the previous work. In fact, the Incarnation of Night ends up as the subtle character, and might have played a great God (except without all the sex). Alas, no, Anthony's atheism wins out and his depiction of God and Heaven is as negative as ever.
This leads to problems, even in terms of the internal logic of Anthony's own series. In this book, he tries to embrace and reconcile Big Bang/Evolution with Creation, yet he shows the Incarnation of God being created quite a long way into the process, leaving open the question of who actually was doing the creating. He also fails to address the problem posed the Big Bang theory by the first two laws of thermodynamics, which is somewhat surprising, as Anthony's grasp of basic science was always better than his understanding of or affinity for religion. Perhaps I am overthinking a bit of light fantasy, though Anthony did choose this topic and these characters, so forgive me for expecting him to have thought this through better. Likewise, he does a lot of moralizing throughout, but can't seem to make up his mind about that either. In short, he shows the fallacies of ends-justifies-the-means (and has Satan use this as a source of temptation in book 6), yet he himself declares that a person's morality ought to be judged by intentions alone, in fact, both War and Nature are shown trying to destroy the world and all humanity with the best of intentions, and Anthony certainly does not hold it against either character on a moral basis. He proposes disposing of man's free will quite casually in his examination of pregnancy and "overpopulation" (the popular global problem when he wrote this, though now the pundits are beginning to howl about declining populations, much like then they were concerned with the coming ice age, while now they howl about global warming--proof positive that the tyranny of any one idea over all of us is probably not a good thing). He defends the right to suicide like a good 19th century rationalist, then goes on to show how suicide is selfish and hurts others. And so on, his insistence on moralizing, but his inability to come up with anything satisfying or consistent, is a detractor throughout the series but perhaps hits home hardest here. In fact, so much of this book is about crime, sex, and every sort of evil, one wonders how this got to be the "God" book, where He only makes a cameo appearance.
Anyway, it doesn't ruin the other books to read this one (the way watching Highlander sequels ruined the first), but it doesn't add much either. Probably one would be more satisfied stopping the series on book 6. I understand authors have to make a living too, but didn't Anthony have enough other pokers in the fire already? In fact, if he wasn't so busy with so many other things, maybe he could have devoted more thought and originality to this one, and made it worthwhile.
This leads to problems, even in terms of the internal logic of Anthony's own series. In this book, he tries to embrace and reconcile Big Bang/Evolution with Creation, yet he shows the Incarnation of God being created quite a long way into the process, leaving open the question of who actually was doing the creating. He also fails to address the problem posed the Big Bang theory by the first two laws of thermodynamics, which is somewhat surprising, as Anthony's grasp of basic science was always better than his understanding of or affinity for religion. Perhaps I am overthinking a bit of light fantasy, though Anthony did choose this topic and these characters, so forgive me for expecting him to have thought this through better. Likewise, he does a lot of moralizing throughout, but can't seem to make up his mind about that either. In short, he shows the fallacies of ends-justifies-the-means (and has Satan use this as a source of temptation in book 6), yet he himself declares that a person's morality ought to be judged by intentions alone, in fact, both War and Nature are shown trying to destroy the world and all humanity with the best of intentions, and Anthony certainly does not hold it against either character on a moral basis. He proposes disposing of man's free will quite casually in his examination of pregnancy and "overpopulation" (the popular global problem when he wrote this, though now the pundits are beginning to howl about declining populations, much like then they were concerned with the coming ice age, while now they howl about global warming--proof positive that the tyranny of any one idea over all of us is probably not a good thing). He defends the right to suicide like a good 19th century rationalist, then goes on to show how suicide is selfish and hurts others. And so on, his insistence on moralizing, but his inability to come up with anything satisfying or consistent, is a detractor throughout the series but perhaps hits home hardest here. In fact, so much of this book is about crime, sex, and every sort of evil, one wonders how this got to be the "God" book, where He only makes a cameo appearance.
Anyway, it doesn't ruin the other books to read this one (the way watching Highlander sequels ruined the first), but it doesn't add much either. Probably one would be more satisfied stopping the series on book 6. I understand authors have to make a living too, but didn't Anthony have enough other pokers in the fire already? In fact, if he wasn't so busy with so many other things, maybe he could have devoted more thought and originality to this one, and made it worthwhile.
February 7, 2017
I've read this book a few times over the years, and I'll state the same thing at the beginning of reviewing all the I of I books: this is a re-read, and the first time reviewing the books. I'm reviewing all of the books after I finished re-reading the entire series, which I don't normally do & didn't do deliberately this time, either...
(read in 2016, but I'm counting this as a 2017 book since I'm finally reviewing it now)
This book falls a little flat for me, though it has lots of Satan bits with keeps things interesting. Orlene just isn't a very loveable character for me - but I love Jolie, and you end up really cheering for Vita (though her love affair with the Judge, who's twice her age, throws me for a loop or five). The love affair, for Piers Anthony anyway, is relatively well done, though really, why couldn't Piers have written the man to be ten years younger (so the story line still fits, but the love affair isn't quite so eww?)
The series does really wrap up in this book though, and (mostly) ties up all the loose ends, and definitely brings together all of the other books, but there's just so much more I'd really like to know, that the book doesn't answer. Mainly, what happens next to Orlene and the world at the end of book 7? I'm really always let down at the end of this book, because I want to see how the world changes and evolves. We've just read over 2000 pages talking about good and evil, Heaven and Hell, how the system is corrupt, how we need changes, and then.... nothing.
That being said, my standard comment applies - Piers Anthony is a pig, so much so that sometimes I'm ashamed of reading his books (as a woman) and I will never, ever actually pay money on one of his books because I just can't support an author who devalues women as much as he does. (at least these books aren't quite as bad as the Xanth books are).
(read in 2016, but I'm counting this as a 2017 book since I'm finally reviewing it now)
This book falls a little flat for me, though it has lots of Satan bits with keeps things interesting. Orlene just isn't a very loveable character for me - but I love Jolie, and you end up really cheering for Vita (though her love affair with the Judge, who's twice her age, throws me for a loop or five). The love affair, for Piers Anthony anyway, is relatively well done, though really, why couldn't Piers have written the man to be ten years younger (so the story line still fits, but the love affair isn't quite so eww?)
The series does really wrap up in this book though, and (mostly) ties up all the loose ends, and definitely brings together all of the other books, but there's just so much more I'd really like to know, that the book doesn't answer. Mainly, what happens next to Orlene and the world at the end of book 7? I'm really always let down at the end of this book, because I want to see how the world changes and evolves. We've just read over 2000 pages talking about good and evil, Heaven and Hell, how the system is corrupt, how we need changes, and then.... nothing.
That being said, my standard comment applies - Piers Anthony is a pig, so much so that sometimes I'm ashamed of reading his books (as a woman) and I will never, ever actually pay money on one of his books because I just can't support an author who devalues women as much as he does. (at least these books aren't quite as bad as the Xanth books are).
October 3, 2007
Replace God? Awesome idea. Kudos to you, Piers.
February 4, 2023
Nox, who is the incarnation of Night, plays a part in this title, where she takes Orlene's baby and sends her on a nearly impossible journey to get powerful items from each of the Incarnations. Will Orlene get her baby back or will she find herself in a position she never imagined doing? The final pun in this story is worth the cost of the book right there. However, the story raises many societal issues, as well as some scientific issues, ie evolution, population control, etc. This is one of the best of the series, as well as the end of the series. Addendum 12/2019. This is not the last of the series any more. Under a Velvet Cloak was published 2007. It is not available in my local library systems and prices seem to start about $65 for this title. I assume that is because the publisher has gone under, making the book out of print. After reading the very mixed reviews, I am definitely not spending that kind of money for the final title!
I am not going to change my rating of this title (And Eternity) but if I did, it would lose a star. A lot of people got hung up on the underage sex but that doesn’t bother me when it clearly is presented as desired by both parties with no harm being done. There is a hint of homophobia, which does bother me but it is a quick reference, twice. It’s possible I was reading more into the sentences than I should. I do love Anthony’s change from “gypsy” to “Romani”. He discovered that the second term is the group’s preferred term and that gypsy has negative connotations. Good for him! I did enjoy the discussion of evolution vs creationism but am unpersuaded to accept creationism. It is a valid point that if you stretch the biblical “day” into enormous amounts of time (millennia) that the two philosophies could be somewhat reconciled. I’ve enjoyed my rereading of this series! At this time I have no plans to seek out the last book of the series and read it. So for me, this ends the series. It sounds like the last one, being self published, is not readily available and I don’t get the sense that it is very readable.
I am not going to change my rating of this title (And Eternity) but if I did, it would lose a star. A lot of people got hung up on the underage sex but that doesn’t bother me when it clearly is presented as desired by both parties with no harm being done. There is a hint of homophobia, which does bother me but it is a quick reference, twice. It’s possible I was reading more into the sentences than I should. I do love Anthony’s change from “gypsy” to “Romani”. He discovered that the second term is the group’s preferred term and that gypsy has negative connotations. Good for him! I did enjoy the discussion of evolution vs creationism but am unpersuaded to accept creationism. It is a valid point that if you stretch the biblical “day” into enormous amounts of time (millennia) that the two philosophies could be somewhat reconciled. I’ve enjoyed my rereading of this series! At this time I have no plans to seek out the last book of the series and read it. So for me, this ends the series. It sounds like the last one, being self published, is not readily available and I don’t get the sense that it is very readable.
June 22, 2016
Back in high school, this used to be my favorite of the Incarnations series. Re-reading it now, it has lost some of its luster, but it was still a favorite re-read for me.
This book centers around Orlene, who committed suicide after the death of her baby son, Gaw-Two, which we saw in Book 2 of the series. With the help of Jolie, Satan's first wife, and Vita, the singer from book 5, who is apparently now a whore on a drug known as Spelled H and somewhat inappropriately attracted to a much older man who definitely should know better, Orlene defies her assent to heaven to search for her son. Then she finds out that Nox, the Incarnation of Night, has taken him and the only way to get the child from her is to go do as Nox requires and seek out each Incarnation, and ask for their favor. Though she is related or connected to each Incarnation, this is not going to be as easy as it seems.
The book takes a somewhat different route than the first five. Rather than Orlene taking up the Office of Good and battling it out with Satan, it instead focuses on her trying to save her baby and the state of the world and the seeming absence of that office. The book culminates with the Incarnations we became familiar with in the first 6 novels agreeing to a replacement in the office.
Some of the trials were disturbing to me, but on the whole the quest was a noble but futile one. It was more about the journey though, and revisiting familiar characters for me. While I found some of it disturbing, it still was a good read for me, and good preparation for the final book of the series.
This book centers around Orlene, who committed suicide after the death of her baby son, Gaw-Two, which we saw in Book 2 of the series. With the help of Jolie, Satan's first wife, and Vita, the singer from book 5, who is apparently now a whore on a drug known as Spelled H and somewhat inappropriately attracted to a much older man who definitely should know better, Orlene defies her assent to heaven to search for her son. Then she finds out that Nox, the Incarnation of Night, has taken him and the only way to get the child from her is to go do as Nox requires and seek out each Incarnation, and ask for their favor. Though she is related or connected to each Incarnation, this is not going to be as easy as it seems.
The book takes a somewhat different route than the first five. Rather than Orlene taking up the Office of Good and battling it out with Satan, it instead focuses on her trying to save her baby and the state of the world and the seeming absence of that office. The book culminates with the Incarnations we became familiar with in the first 6 novels agreeing to a replacement in the office.
Some of the trials were disturbing to me, but on the whole the quest was a noble but futile one. It was more about the journey though, and revisiting familiar characters for me. While I found some of it disturbing, it still was a good read for me, and good preparation for the final book of the series.
November 10, 2010
Let me start with this. I had already resolved to give this novel no more than 2.5 stars. The fact that I have bestowed an additional half a star has to do with how well the book redeemed itself once reaching Chapter 12. Mind you, there are only 14 chapters. The first 11 chapters really feel more like an exploration of Mr. Anthony's views on sexuality and morality rather than a story of entertainment for its readers. It just did not mesh. There were certain points interspersed throughout the first 11 chapters that were worthwhile, but they were truly rare. Chapter 12 brings Evil into the fold and that is where the story becomes truly structured and enjoyable. It's like reading something from a legitimate author. Who wouldn't love that?! So, I'd recommend this book for the simple fact that it contains three great chapters at the end. There is one book left in the series focusing on the Incarnation of Night, Nox. I will read it since I have read the series through to its end twice (once when it was destined to be concluded in 5 novels, and again when it was to be concluded in 7 novels). I don't think Mr. Anthony will live long enough to end it again. 8 novels should be it! However, I dread reading about his sexual desires as Nox has a tendency to be 'lust uninhibited'.
April 21, 2012
The ghost of Jolie, the ghost of Orlene, and a 14 year old drug addicted prostitute named Vita try to save Orlene's child, Gawain II. Nox the incarnation of night promises to help but needs some items of great power from all the other incarnations. In their journey they find that definitions of good and evil which are used to judge souls for heaven or hell are flawed, and the incarnation of good(God) has become obsessed with his own greatness and completely unresponsive to the outside world. Given this information the other Incarnations decide that God has been derelict in his duty and must be replaced so that evil may not overcome good.
an interesting read but still my favorite was For Love of Evil
an interesting read but still my favorite was For Love of Evil
May 29, 2022
p*do bullsh*t. Piers Anthony's books have always come across to me as creepy and perverted, but this one is by far the worse. In the book a judge adopts a black child prostitute addicted to magic heroine and it quickly devolved into a sordid relationship with the other cast making excuses that its ok because the child prostitute wasn't a virgin and the judge is a 'good guy', they then elect said judge as the new God of the universe to correct the old fashioned morals put in place by the predecessor.
April 19, 2011
Ugh! What a terrible ending to such a good series. I would probably rate it two stars but the whole concept of an elderly man having a sexual relationship with a fourteen girl was inappropriate for the context of the novel. The way time passed also changed from previous books. Time spent in purgatory was much slower than time on earth. This didn't correspond with the passage of time from Wielding A Red Sword. Over all, it was just a lame book and really had no purpose.
February 2, 2012
Was awful. The trashy cover is actually an accurate depiction of the storyline. I still cant believe this awesome series ended so badly, I still have trouble believing Piers actually even wrote this! I think he has issue with believable female characters
June 11, 2024
For various reasons I considered not doing a review of this one. There's not much left to say that I haven't said about the others, but I've started (and finished) so I'll do a last review too.
I also considered just leaving the word 'ew' as a review. There's a lot of morality stuff going on in here, some of which is actually concerning (pretty much the entire storyline with the 15 year old sex worker) and then the other stuff seems well meaning but with no subtlety at all. There are points when the characters sit and debate moral issues and it's neither a philosophical dialogue nor entertaining storytelling.
But somehow I didn't quite hate this one as much as the previous two, and it at least wrapped up the story in a way that made sense. There is another book in the series (written over a decade later) but I'm going to choose to ignore that.
I also considered just leaving the word 'ew' as a review. There's a lot of morality stuff going on in here, some of which is actually concerning (pretty much the entire storyline with the 15 year old sex worker) and then the other stuff seems well meaning but with no subtlety at all. There are points when the characters sit and debate moral issues and it's neither a philosophical dialogue nor entertaining storytelling.
But somehow I didn't quite hate this one as much as the previous two, and it at least wrapped up the story in a way that made sense. There is another book in the series (written over a decade later) but I'm going to choose to ignore that.
September 10, 2022
IT IS FINISHED.
So glad to be done. These books are super gross.
It's OK to have sex with an underaged girl as long as she's a prostitute with experience (oh, and being black probably doesn't hurt either). Creepy judge masquerading as a good guy. Vomit. Also: this book does not show a good understanding of how the justice system works, with judges singlehandedly deciding people's fates based on whims (or on the "aura reading" done by a ghost). Stupid.
And all that "male rapist" energy and how hard it is for men to control themselves. Man, there's just not much to like here. Gah! And the threesomes in absentia. Eyeroll.
At least I know how it ends, and you can feel Piers Anthony pulling his own shoulder out of socket to pat himself on the back for how progressive he is in his choice for the new God. (And what happens to the old God?)
When all is said and done, there's something so mundane about this bureaucratic world of office holders. Is that maybe the point? The world, our gods, are made in our own image?
So glad to be done. These books are super gross.
It's OK to have sex with an underaged girl as long as she's a prostitute with experience (oh, and being black probably doesn't hurt either). Creepy judge masquerading as a good guy. Vomit. Also: this book does not show a good understanding of how the justice system works, with judges singlehandedly deciding people's fates based on whims (or on the "aura reading" done by a ghost). Stupid.
And all that "male rapist" energy and how hard it is for men to control themselves. Man, there's just not much to like here. Gah! And the threesomes in absentia. Eyeroll.
At least I know how it ends, and you can feel Piers Anthony pulling his own shoulder out of socket to pat himself on the back for how progressive he is in his choice for the new God. (And what happens to the old God?)
When all is said and done, there's something so mundane about this bureaucratic world of office holders. Is that maybe the point? The world, our gods, are made in our own image?
August 12, 2025
In this book, even more than the previous ones in the series, it was difficult for me to overlook all the sexism: both the chauvinism and toxic masculinity. I also cannot agree with excusing rape and sexual relationships with a fifteen-year-old. I did not see how being underage added to the story or the character.
After thoroughly enjoying the first book in the series, I was trying to attribute the rampant sexism to it just being the cultural norms of the times when these books were written, not unlike Heinlein. But, I'm realizing that Piers Anthony, also like Heinlein, has put a lot of his own personal beliefs in these books. And I just don't agree with a lot of them.
Lastly, while it was enjoyable to see the familiar characters appear in the second and even third book, having all of them become the incarnations now feels like one big mafia family.
After thoroughly enjoying the first book in the series, I was trying to attribute the rampant sexism to it just being the cultural norms of the times when these books were written, not unlike Heinlein. But, I'm realizing that Piers Anthony, also like Heinlein, has put a lot of his own personal beliefs in these books. And I just don't agree with a lot of them.
Lastly, while it was enjoyable to see the familiar characters appear in the second and even third book, having all of them become the incarnations now feels like one big mafia family.
January 5, 2024
Gross…..
Like 75% of this book was perverted and unnecessarily disgusting. 20% was borderline offensive (or like actually offensive). 5% was actual plot.
I don’t even know why I forced myself to finish this series but I’m so glad I’m finally done.
How did this even get published??? Oh and did anyone realize that Orlene (the blonde white chick) is half Indian?????? What??????
Like 75% of this book was perverted and unnecessarily disgusting. 20% was borderline offensive (or like actually offensive). 5% was actual plot.
I don’t even know why I forced myself to finish this series but I’m so glad I’m finally done.
How did this even get published??? Oh and did anyone realize that Orlene (the blonde white chick) is half Indian?????? What??????
December 26, 2011
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. (Note: I’m not counting Under a Velvet Cloak here.) While the first five books were solid on their own right, For Love of Evil really gave an entirely new perspective on the whole series and worked nicely as a sequel to a series meant to be finished. However, And Eternity was a rather disappointing follow-up to a wonderful book and a less than exhilarating conclusion to an otherwise excellent series.
The book takes a somewhat different route than the first five. Rather than Orlene taking up the Office of Good and battling it out with Satan, it instead focuses on her trying to save her baby. For this, Nox requires some sort of item from each Incarnation, which leads to many trials for Orlene. In doing so, she teams up with Jolie, Parry/Satan’s old wife and Vita, the singer from book 5, Being a Green Mother, who is apparently now a whore on a drug known as Spelled H.
I know Piers Anthony is notorious for being somewhat immature, but he really takes it to a whole new level this time. Vita, being a whore, often shows her naughtier side, particularly with a much older judge. Like any Incarnations book, there are a lot of sex scenes, but none so uncomfortable or out of place than here including Nox changing Orlene into a man who attempts rape Jolie or the subtler moment where Jolie forgets to where clothing because she’s used to being a ghost. There are further scenes where Vita almost gets raped and/or threatened to get raped. While some may try to argue that since sex is just a natural part of life, it should be put into a novel without any reluctance, to me, Piers Anthony still has those strange fetishes he has yet to don.
While there are some interesting things that happen, the novel tends to stray quite a bit from actually talking about the Incarnation of Good. The book seems to go off in no real direction and lacks the emotional tension or epic scope of the last novels. There are some interesting parts, such as the debate between creationism and evolution. Like the last book, there is some definition about what defines good and evil. However, the book just seems to meander on in no precise direction and is too littered with sexual scenes that are seemingly intended for nothing more than fan service.
Incarnations of Immortality has quickly become one of my favorite series, but sadly, And Eternity is an extremely disappointing conclusion to what was an otherwise great series. I’d say read this one if you have to but otherwise, just stick to the first six. It works as an attempt to wrap everything up, but For Love of Evil does the same thing much better.
The book takes a somewhat different route than the first five. Rather than Orlene taking up the Office of Good and battling it out with Satan, it instead focuses on her trying to save her baby. For this, Nox requires some sort of item from each Incarnation, which leads to many trials for Orlene. In doing so, she teams up with Jolie, Parry/Satan’s old wife and Vita, the singer from book 5, Being a Green Mother, who is apparently now a whore on a drug known as Spelled H.
I know Piers Anthony is notorious for being somewhat immature, but he really takes it to a whole new level this time. Vita, being a whore, often shows her naughtier side, particularly with a much older judge. Like any Incarnations book, there are a lot of sex scenes, but none so uncomfortable or out of place than here including Nox changing Orlene into a man who attempts rape Jolie or the subtler moment where Jolie forgets to where clothing because she’s used to being a ghost. There are further scenes where Vita almost gets raped and/or threatened to get raped. While some may try to argue that since sex is just a natural part of life, it should be put into a novel without any reluctance, to me, Piers Anthony still has those strange fetishes he has yet to don.
While there are some interesting things that happen, the novel tends to stray quite a bit from actually talking about the Incarnation of Good. The book seems to go off in no real direction and lacks the emotional tension or epic scope of the last novels. There are some interesting parts, such as the debate between creationism and evolution. Like the last book, there is some definition about what defines good and evil. However, the book just seems to meander on in no precise direction and is too littered with sexual scenes that are seemingly intended for nothing more than fan service.
Incarnations of Immortality has quickly become one of my favorite series, but sadly, And Eternity is an extremely disappointing conclusion to what was an otherwise great series. I’d say read this one if you have to but otherwise, just stick to the first six. It works as an attempt to wrap everything up, but For Love of Evil does the same thing much better.
September 19, 2024
People like to talk about what a misogynist old Piers is, and while I'm not saying this is untrue, I feel they don't talk enough about how much he loves to write about sex with minors. In this book he combats the misogyny claims by constantly writing about what violent rapists men are, but that one character who fights against his violent, rapist urges better than any other man alive--who is also a candidate for being the new incarnation of God Almighty--has a secret fantasy about banging underage girls in a wild orgy, and does have an affair with the underage main character. Later in the book he proposes marriage to her and its okay because she's chronologically 19 years old, despite physically and mentally still being 15. Just glad this series is over--yes I know there's a book after this and yes I read the reviews and its about more underage sex--I said this series is over!
On that note, about the same time he was writing Firefly which is about a 5 year old having sex with hobos, so don't go check out that novel. Or you can read the Apprentice Adept Series which is about people who have sex with animals (they change shape to humans so its okay), robots, and the underaged....and threatened rape of each of those mentioned. Or then there's the Xanth novels also about underage relations with all sorts of magical creatures and humans.
Lots of concern about misogyny but all his writing involving relations with minors and WAY too much exposition explaining why its justified bothers me more.
On that note, about the same time he was writing Firefly which is about a 5 year old having sex with hobos, so don't go check out that novel. Or you can read the Apprentice Adept Series which is about people who have sex with animals (they change shape to humans so its okay), robots, and the underaged....and threatened rape of each of those mentioned. Or then there's the Xanth novels also about underage relations with all sorts of magical creatures and humans.
Lots of concern about misogyny but all his writing involving relations with minors and WAY too much exposition explaining why its justified bothers me more.
March 13, 2024
Insane that this book would have been legitimately GOOD and an excellent end (ignoring the existence of under a velvet cloak which i probably wont even be able to find a copy of) if it wasn't for the fucking pedophilia????????? You cannot call a relationship between a middle-aged man and a 14 year old girl "naturally consenting love" because she's "mature" and has "sexual experience" (was raped by her father and coerced into sex work) like im literally so disgusted the book ranted so much about how it's okay for a full grown adult to fuck a 14 year old girl if she Wants It and how the status quo needed to be changed so that it wasn't evil ??????????
Like the book does fun things with heaven and hell and god and the way it all comes together. But it's hard to just ignore that ummmm a 14 year old and a middle aged man are having sex and EVERYONE IS OK WITH IT?????????? SHE HAS TRAUMA OF COURSE SHE HAS A CRUSH ON THE ONLY MAN WHO'S BEEN NICE TO HER that doesn't make it ok for them to fuck!!! Shes fourteen!!!god im so pissed off. Good riddance
Like the book does fun things with heaven and hell and god and the way it all comes together. But it's hard to just ignore that ummmm a 14 year old and a middle aged man are having sex and EVERYONE IS OK WITH IT?????????? SHE HAS TRAUMA OF COURSE SHE HAS A CRUSH ON THE ONLY MAN WHO'S BEEN NICE TO HER that doesn't make it ok for them to fuck!!! Shes fourteen!!!god im so pissed off. Good riddance
June 22, 2016
After rereading this recently, I am kind of appalled at some of the subject matter that totally slipped by me the first time. The concept that men are pretty much just animals who just barely learn how to control themselves (dancing a very fine line, apparently) from constantly attacking and assaulting women is pretty gross. This is especially true when one of the main female characters gets turned into a man and has to deal with all the ~unchecked passions~.
There is the matter of a "very good man" who has an interest in young girls. I don't believe the character he gets involved with has a stated age, but she is constantly referred to as "young flesh" (which, also gross). And this girl's ghostly "guardians" just encourage the relationship with barely a quibble.
The more I reread this series, the more problems I find. I love the concept, but the execution is leaving me very cold this time around.
There is the matter of a "very good man" who has an interest in young girls. I don't believe the character he gets involved with has a stated age, but she is constantly referred to as "young flesh" (which, also gross). And this girl's ghostly "guardians" just encourage the relationship with barely a quibble.
The more I reread this series, the more problems I find. I love the concept, but the execution is leaving me very cold this time around.
May 19, 2013
This was the second time that Piers Anthony was going to end the Incarnations of Immortality series. The first ending was book 5, then he added two more books: the quite good For Love of Evil about Satan, and this one, about God.
The book follows the ghost Orlene as she goes on a quest to revive her dead ghost baby who had been kidnapped by Nox. Sound silly? Well, that’s because it is. In the process, there is some Incarnation politicking and a weird Lolita-like romance that seems creepily rationalized by Piers Anthony.
Things wrap up in a satisfactory matter, but it kind of feels like Anthony is phoning this one in. I’m sure it’s difficult to keep a series fresh after 6 books and, despite my nostalgic love of the series as a whole, it probably reached its expiration date with For Love of Evil.
The book follows the ghost Orlene as she goes on a quest to revive her dead ghost baby who had been kidnapped by Nox. Sound silly? Well, that’s because it is. In the process, there is some Incarnation politicking and a weird Lolita-like romance that seems creepily rationalized by Piers Anthony.
Things wrap up in a satisfactory matter, but it kind of feels like Anthony is phoning this one in. I’m sure it’s difficult to keep a series fresh after 6 books and, despite my nostalgic love of the series as a whole, it probably reached its expiration date with For Love of Evil.
October 27, 2013
The final story in the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, I have to say this was my favorite of the seven. Each story was a bit quirky at times--for this story, it was the entire disk 7. Other than that, I loved this story!! The author did a great job of finishing the series and the story had a great flow. I was planning to give this story an 8 out of 10, but the ending was totally amazing, so my final rating is 9 out of 10!! I loved the way the story / series ended--it was so unexpected but the perfect ending to this whimsical series.
October 4, 2007
This book is the final installment of a seven book series. I however, did not know it when I read it. Once I finished this amazing book, I was demanding more and that is when I realized it was part of a series. I enjoyed it so much that I went back and read all of the other six books and reread this one. It is truly an amazing series, just for the simple fact that it showed me that I wasn't alone on beliefs or ideas that I have.
October 26, 2016
ugh! This one is the worst! From the portrayal of men who are barely held together rape machines to elderly judges who hook up with teenage girls in their care this book takes Piers Anthony's sexism to new levels. I am so pissed at my need to finish this series and subject myself to this terrible book. I love the concept of the series, but I wish someone less creepy sexist had written it.
October 19, 2007
An incredibly atrocious end of a series that started so well. The series should have stopped at the delightful sixth book. I have never been so disappointed in reading a book.
January 26, 2021
I loved this series when I was a teen, but even then I realized it wasn't that well written. And this one I didn't even like back then. Awful perverted pornographic juvenile theology-fantasy.
July 28, 2015
A creepy, misogynistic, and disappointing end to an otherwise good series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 234 reviews