OX

Of Man and Manta #3

by Piers Anthony

Cal, Veg, and Aquilon try to escape from a dangerous world ruled by murderous robots and return to their own dimension

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

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1976

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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

OX is the final book of Anthony's trilogy about Man and Manta, which all have titles that start with the letter O and that get shorter as they go along. (The first was Omnivore and the second was Orn.) I don't think this one can be read (or understood, rather) without reading at least one of the others first. In OX, the three socially inept and sexually fixated people who were introduced in the first and second books, having recently left the planets of fungus and dinosaurs (and bringing their Manta friends along), cruise the multiverse and alight on a planet of robots. The setting is once again very well drawn, and the moral and ethical implications of human interference are thoughtfully explored. There's plenty of action and adventure as well, and lots of mathematical pondering which will either be a plus or minus depending on how you regard such puzzles and games. Anthony was a fine writer of serious science fiction who later chose to write lots and lots of humorous fantasy instead. OX was first published by the SF book club and then appeared as a mass market paperback from Avon with the same cover, a Richard Corben painting that looks like an advertisement for a toy robot. It's a pretty good finale to the trilogy, though my least favorite of the three.

[Leanna Aker · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning, I didn't like Ox as much as the first 2 books in the trilogy, but by the middle of the book, I realized the plot was much tighter and many questions were being answered. I actually think this is the best of the three, though it's focus is a bit different than the rest. This one includes ethics, like the others, but includes machines in that mix. A good read.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I read when I was in my early twenties (about 1976). I book I thought fondly of. When I re-read this book, it was completely different from what I remembered. So, if I had picked this book out, where I had no history, I would still indicate my enjoyment. There was a lot of math based plots, something I may have skipped through the first time I read it. As it stands, I enjoy stuff written by Piers Anthony and this did not disappoint. Science fiction with multi-dimensional travel. Enjoy.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild conclusion to the Orn/Omnivore/Manta trilogy. The worlds tie together as alternity is explored and we learn how the Manta sees us in stunning detail. Impressive writing and a well though out conclusion make this trilogy a fun read.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever you may think of his other books this trilogy is well worth reading.

How I use stars.

5 means I have re-read the book, which is the best recommendation for me.
4 means I enjoyed this book and might re-read it at some future date, but I haven't so far. Life is short and there are many books to read.
3 means I enjoyed the book but I don't feel the need to re-read it.
2 means not for me, but you may like it.
1 means I couldn't get into it, or finish it and didn't enjoy the read, which sometimes is a sad thing, other times not so much.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book at a library book sale for 25 cents. What I noticed is the amazing Richard Corben 70's cover art. I haven't read Piers Anthony since I was in my early teens and I remember his other books seeming like they were about sex and written for the YA market. This one is a bit more mature, but unfortunately is kind of inaccessible if you haven't read the first two books in the series.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The three humans and their pet mushrooms are sent to another random world where they are immediately attacked by a bulldozer. They get separated and then everyone is kidnapped by Zefram Cochrane's sparkly friend. A couple of them go off on their own and start world hopping. They go to blizzard world and fog world and forest world and sousaphone-playing plant world and man-eating plant world and jungle gym world. Then Zefam's sparkly friend levels up and declares world peace.

Piers Anthony has discovered the multiverse and wants to show everyone so he has his characters jump around from planet to planet. He also wants to remind everyone that the human race sucks and they can't be trusted to rule themselves. And he wants to show off some new games he's learned. He spends an inordinate amount of time attempting to explain a couple of complex logic games, and even more time demonstrating the problems of learning an alien language from the point of view of an alien that has no physical form. There's time travel and telepathy and AI. Two thirds of the group disappear for two thirds of the book.

This seems to be something of an experimental book by Anthony, much like the first two in the trilogy. I would not declare the overall experiment particularly successful.

[Sir Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

We find aquilion. Cal . And veg on the new world of ox. The orn egg is broken.
This giant mechanical machine roams ox.
Agents are after them.
Aquilion becomes pregnant by cal.
Even thow she had relations with veg.
She uses a time traveling Dimension projector. To save the eggs and the others lives.
The manti. And agents. and cal and veg. And the orn bird.
Piers anthony master of sci fi and fantasy.
Writes I totally out of this world trilogy.
Using drugs like LSD in the 60s.
Unlocking his mind revealing characters.
That transverse time and places never before explored.
From author of tangled skien.
British sci fi authority.
Next to heinlein who's more german.
👽🇺🇸🎎

[Ethan Nahté · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ox is not a book one can skim through, as the logistics and frame travel can be complex, but definitely science fiction and worth the read.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange but worthwhile finale to a very interesting series.

[Tell Tale Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

-Gregory Kerkman

[Thermalsatsuma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the final book in Piers Anthony's 'Of Man and Manta' trilogy and is the main reason that I wanted to revisit the series after first reading it some thirty years or so ago when it was first published in the mid 70s. After dealing with the strange fungoid ecology of 'Omnivore' and the paleocene creatures of 'Orn', '0X' adds two more elements to the mix, namely intelligent machines and strangest of all pattern entities that cross the frame boundaries of different alternate universes, perceiving life as we would understand it only as disturbances in the fabric of their world.

This book is really an extended mathematical puzzle, with a jaunt through numerous interlinked alternate universes, and about the inter relations of the different entities - man, manta, orn, machine and pattern - and whether they can learn to communicate and find a common understanding. It is hugely ambitious, and somewhat strange, and it suffers from some rather jarringly sexist characterisation of the female protagonists and an ending that seems rather too neatly contrived. I am prepared to cut it a little slack for being my introduction to the mathematical game 'Life' invented by John Conway which demonstrates that simple patterns governed by a few rules can behave in surprising and unpredictable ways, which certainly sparked my imagination all of those years ago.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the final volume of the trilogy, and really shouldn’t be read as a standalone novel.

It has a more complicated and exciting plot than the previous volumes, and it introduces yet more alternative worlds and fundamentally different alien species. Be prepared for confusion. If you haven’t read the preceding volumes, I don’t know how you’ll get through it.

I remain vaguely uncomfortable with the human characters, and the relationships between all characters are unconvincing. Why do the mantas behave as loyal servants to the humans? This is convenient but not plausible. What do they get out of it? Nor do I understand exactly why 0X the pattern-entity feels bound to ally with the humans and other more physical beings. Yes, it feels that they contribute to its survival; but we’re not shown them doing so.

It seems to me that Piers Anthony is competent with plot, he’s quite intelligent and has a good imagination. He knows a fair amount about the world. But I’d guess he’s a bit of a loner by nature, because he doesn’t dramatize interpersonal relationships well. Probably neither would I, if I tried to write a novel; but at least I can recognize the problem.

If you’ve read the preceding volumes, I think this is worth reading to finish off the series; it’s quite a trip, even though it may not be 100% satisfactory.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is...trippy. Certainly the cover for my edition wins the title for "trippiest book cover of any book I've read in the past decade". It's the last of a trilogy and unfortunately a disappointment. I think Anthony got too caught up in his clever mathematical plot devices. It felt like he was trying to expand a clever idea from a Scientific American article into a full story but it just didn't work. The mathematical games just distracted from the story--and maybe covered up a lack of plot? The story and the characters both ran around in convoluted circles and then just stopped.

All the running around in circles gave me time to really notice aspects of the writing (such as the bad handling of female characters) that I had been willing to give a pass in earlier parts of the trilogy. Yes, I realize that the books were written in the late 60's - early 70's. But the other two parts of the story were a lot more fun, so I was willing to be a little more forgiving.

Only read this because you've read the first two parts and want to be a completist.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this, along with other novels of the genre, during the Winter Intercession from seminary, when there was time for such frivolity. At the time I was a member of The Science Fiction Book Club and would order cheap book club editions during the course of the year for reading during breaks from school. This was not one of my better choices, it being a rather silly adventure.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just plain boring. Omnivore was better than I thought it would be. Orn was interesting despite being bogged down in paleontology. I "needed" to finish the series, but would have been better off not.

He hung himself with too many tangents into hard science; not enough story to go along with it.

[Cristy Weldon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much over-your-head mathematics to enjoy the multidimensional chase across 'alternity'. Tons of wasted text on the game hexaflexagon when a more simplified approach would have been as entertaining and less detracting to the storyline.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For now this is only getting three stars as it confused me. I read this for a book group challenge as I needed a book with ox in the title and so read this before reading the books one and two, once I've read those books I will reread this one and hopefully it will make more sense.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book with a few interesting ideas, parts of which are based on the Game of Life. Not exceptionally engaging, but neither do I regret reading it.

[Rbandong · Rating 4 out of 5]

part of a trilogy (Ox, Omnivore, and Orn)

[Jeremiah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main characters adventures were interesting, but the science theory dealing 0X and the time traveling really annoyed me and took away from any enjoyment of the book.

[Mars · Rating 2 out of 5]

if this was edited down to about 1/4 of its current size, with all the fluff and filler taken out, would have been a pretty awesome book.

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade C+. Book O3.

[David Cozens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Projected into alternate worlds, apart in time.