Faith of Tarot

Tarot #3

by Piers Anthony

On far Tarot dreams come true—and fanged nightmares stalk the land. Sent to pierce the dread curtain of the Animation that turns fantasy into hideous reality, the wanderer-monk Paul finds himself on a trip to the ultimate and most terrifying fantasy of them all. Hell.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Tarot, Speculative Fiction

289 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

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

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread

[David Leemon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it through the Tarot series. In the third book, Paul goes to Hell, and I feel like I went there right with him.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a darker series for Anthony, and challenges religious beliefs and faiths. I would not recommend this for younger readers, who aren't yet grounded in their own religious beliefs. It contains deep thoughts, and I believe some pretty hard core sex scenes if I recall correctly, though it's been a lot of years. That said, if you're older and want a good read that explores complex notions of religion and philosophy, then this one was pretty good. Make sure you're well grounded before diving in.

[Kirk Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a darker series for Anthony, and challenges religious beliefs and faiths. I would not recommend this for younger readers, who aren't yet grounded in their own religious beliefs. It contains deep thoughts, and I believe some pretty hard core sex scenes if I recall correctly, though it's been a lot of years. That said, if you're older and want a good read that explores complex notions of religion and philosophy, then this one was pretty good. Make sure you're well grounded before diving in.

[Laura Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

These books sucked. Half of it is an old man rambling about the ways of the modern world and the other half is an old man rambling about women. The book literally ends with a child bride. Awful lol

[Corvid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Piers Anthony makes me more angry than any other author possibly could. Decent writing, he obviously had fun with the worldbuilding, but I want to strangle him.

"If you marry a lesbian and she cheats on you, you can become gay out of spite--" no! "The swastika is a perversion of the crucifix--" no!! "Souls can be vored and digested or ejaculated by Satan--" okay, fine, you can keep talking about that but I'm kinkshaming.

Not really a fan of the first ten pages of this book being a human sacrifice/rape thing either, but I can give that the benefit of the doubt due to this being the third book in a trilogy. The worldbuilding doesn't quite do enough heavy lifting to pull this book up any higher than two stars.

Once again, the baffling racemixing fixation is extremely apparent. Piers, you're white. Stop that.

[Tina Bounds · Rating 3 out of 5]

satisfying conclusion but offensive

[Michael Pilgaard · Rating 1 out of 5]

More talk with the Tarot animations. Boring! And the great revelation: Boring!

[Paul DeStefano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous trip through hell and a greatly twisted end to the series.

This was an awesome climax to a weird vision.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final book of the Tarot trilogy, and is no standalone. Like say, Lord of the Rings, the three books are really one novel, not three novels with the same world and characters, so you should really read God of Tarot and Vision of Tarot first. Brother Paul of the Holy Order of Vision is a monk on a future Earth that has expanded to the stars. He's sent by the head of his order to investigate reports that God has appeared on the planet Tarot. The first book was framed by the 9 trump cards of the Tarot, this novel is framed by the 11 more trump cards, and this book takes us to 28. Tarot packs ordinarily have 21 trumps, Anthony has interpolations of his own. I discovered this trilogy in my teens right around the time I became fascinated with the Tarot. I'm really the opposite of a New Ager, and don't believe any deck of cards have powers or that the tarot cards have a mystical past going back to Egypt, but I loved the art and symbols of it all, so I adored how Anthony played with it and religious and spiritual themes.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the concluding part Paul, having failed to find the god of Tarot through religion, now decides to look for him in Hell. He's sent to visit the past and finds out what he wanted to know about the origin of the Tarot cards. After plenty more visions he returns to the colonists with an answer, but they won't like it. Meanwhile he stitches the book nicely into his Cluster series.

Again a pleasant read, but nothing really exciting.

[Leanna Aker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love the 3rd in this trilogy! Paul journeys to hell to discover God, and the true nature of the Tarot. I love the self-reflective nature of this whole book, and the twists (multiple) at the end.

[D Calco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith of Tarot by Piers Anthony (1980)

[SciFiOne]

Book Ct3

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young adult 10-15

[Nancy Raines]

Tarot #3

[Little Timmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of this series. Piers Anthony like Stephen King seems to go hot or cold with me and this was definitely a cold one. Not recommended

[Michael Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finishes up nicely

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There are many fools in this world."

Xanth + tarot cards + Dante's Inferno = this

[Asa · Rating 1 out of 5]

In which destiny is shuffled, dealt, and promptly overwritten by Piers Anthony’s unstoppable urge to pun the cosmos into submission.