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If I Pay Thee Not In Gold
In the age of the Mazonians women rule through magic - and men suffer what they must. Magical creations only last for a single day (magical food is great for dieting), but that is quite long enough for casting a giant wet blanket (if you're feeling kind) over a would-be rampaging male - or a block of granite (if you're not). No uppity males in Mazonia!
But then as now some people rise above what they've been taught. One such is Xylina; somehow she has always understood that being of the wrong gender, or even lacking magical power, is no reason for stripping a human being of dignity. How ironic, then, that the Queen has ordained that in order to avoid execution Xylina must use her magic to publicly conquer the most glorious male Mazonia has ever seen - and how doubly so that together he and Xylina will transform their world.
398 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
25 people are currently reading
2679 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
October 4, 2016
http://bookslifewine.com/r-if-i-pay-t...
This book...is pretty bad. On all accounts. The humor is not really there. The world-building is close to non-existent and the attitudes toward women is...disgusting. Its hard to imagine that two best selling novelists managed to put out this dreck and not have mud all over their faces.
Mazonia is a land ruled by women. Only women have magical powers so only women rule. It seems that - because women have the right to rule - almost all the women have turned into sexist pigs who believe in slavery. Because all men are slaves. WHAT? That's right...all men are slaves to be cast aside - even if they are fathers of their Mistress' children - when no longer useful. I did not try to figure out if there was a hidden social reason the authors decided to go this route. It seemed that it was for plots only.
I would have thought - that with all the women being in control...the book would manage to avoid the misogyny that can be prevalent in a lot of Fantasy. Nope. That was not to be. It turns out that the "good ladies" of Mazonia realize that their slave men have sexual urges. So they allow the import of women from a different land to be used as prostitutes. Yep, you got that right. What makes this extra disgusting is that these imported women have been magically changed so that they have paws or claws like animals. AND they have had their voices removed in favor of animal noises (chirps, meows, barking, etc) to match their paws. Yeah, I was all in the WTF??! area with that.
And somehow...this also manages to have been the very first Fantasy novel that I have read...that has a polyamorous relationship which included a ménage à trois and demon sex. O_O
With all of that aside...the book is about a young Mazonian woman who *thinks* she is cursed with bad luck. The blurb above...talks about the first 3% of the book and is not what the book is about. She is alone (only one slave to her name!) and takes out a loan to help with her finances. The loan comes due...and it turns out she owes the money to a local Demon. She argues with him...and thus the title of the book: If she can't pay him in Gold, she will pay him in silver. I can't really say any more without spoiling the book. Though why anyone else would want to read this is a mystery...
In order to assist with paying back her loan, the girl (Xylina) has to go on a quest. While on her quest she travels the land...so readers can see how poor the world-building is. And it is pretty bad.
I can't really describe how bad this book is. So, I'll let the authors tell you how bad the book is:
One Star
This book...is pretty bad. On all accounts. The humor is not really there. The world-building is close to non-existent and the attitudes toward women is...disgusting. Its hard to imagine that two best selling novelists managed to put out this dreck and not have mud all over their faces.
Mazonia is a land ruled by women. Only women have magical powers so only women rule. It seems that - because women have the right to rule - almost all the women have turned into sexist pigs who believe in slavery. Because all men are slaves. WHAT? That's right...all men are slaves to be cast aside - even if they are fathers of their Mistress' children - when no longer useful. I did not try to figure out if there was a hidden social reason the authors decided to go this route. It seemed that it was for plots only.
I would have thought - that with all the women being in control...the book would manage to avoid the misogyny that can be prevalent in a lot of Fantasy. Nope. That was not to be. It turns out that the "good ladies" of Mazonia realize that their slave men have sexual urges. So they allow the import of women from a different land to be used as prostitutes. Yep, you got that right. What makes this extra disgusting is that these imported women have been magically changed so that they have paws or claws like animals. AND they have had their voices removed in favor of animal noises (chirps, meows, barking, etc) to match their paws. Yeah, I was all in the WTF??! area with that.
And somehow...this also manages to have been the very first Fantasy novel that I have read...that has a polyamorous relationship which included a ménage à trois and demon sex. O_O
With all of that aside...the book is about a young Mazonian woman who *thinks* she is cursed with bad luck. The blurb above...talks about the first 3% of the book and is not what the book is about. She is alone (only one slave to her name!) and takes out a loan to help with her finances. The loan comes due...and it turns out she owes the money to a local Demon. She argues with him...and thus the title of the book: If she can't pay him in Gold, she will pay him in silver. I can't really say any more without spoiling the book. Though why anyone else would want to read this is a mystery...
In order to assist with paying back her loan, the girl (Xylina) has to go on a quest. While on her quest she travels the land...so readers can see how poor the world-building is. And it is pretty bad.
I can't really describe how bad this book is. So, I'll let the authors tell you how bad the book is:
Mercedes Lackey on Piers Anthony:If I Pay Thee Not in Gold is the first and last collaboration between the two authors.
Piers Anthony on Mercedes Lackey, If I Pay Thee Not in Gold, and Baen Books:But my main irritation of the moment is the Audit. This is simplified, as all the details would be tedious and confusing. I have done some business with BAEN BOOKS, a publisher which at first seemed quite promising. But over the years there were little signals of mischief, and then larger ones, and finally a giant one that required me to take firm action. When I agreed to do If I Pay Thee Not In Gold there collaboratively, it was to be the first of a series. But when my collaborator dumped an insultingly sloppy manuscript on me-apparently she was angry at my assumption that I know how to write Piers Anthony style better than she know how to write Piers Anthony style-I cleaned it up as well as I could, a real headache, and told the publisher I would not do another. That marked the turning point in our relations. The publisher paid the collaborator more than $55,000, and paid me $400. And subsequently stopped sending me statements at all. The publisher had originally estimated, and stated so in the contract, that it expected to pay me, as the senior writer, on the order of $100,000. Obviously I would not have made the deal if I had known it would be for peanuts; money aside, the experience was already bad enough. Evidently the books started to be cooked the moment the publisher felt it didn't need me any more. Not to put too fine a point on this, but I don't think the collaborator's contribution was worth well over a hundred times what mine was, and the failure even to send statements was an open breach of contract. I am not a good writer to stiff. When my agent's repeated queries got nowhere, I acted directly, with a high powered New York auditor backed by the same lawyer I had used before to make TOR honor its own deal. Well, it has now been over four months, and the BAEN is still stonewalling the audit. Preliminary figures indicate that I am owed from $20,000 to $55,000, but these have to be confirmed, and the publisher is not providing the necessary accounts. I suspect it will take a court order to blast them out, and another to force payment actually to be made, with the threat of punitive damages. So the issue is not yet settled, but I think enough shows here to be a warning to other writers who may consider doing business with this publisher.
One Star
April 2, 2008
The only good thing that came out of my reading of this book was my adolescent realization that mystical sex-change shenanigans are pretty hot. I have forgotten everything else except for the excruciating passage where we find out that Our Heroine keeps her figure trim by eating ephemeral magically generated food.
July 30, 2016
So, I liked this book while I was reading it, I have re-read it a time or two and I remember the story well, so to me that is a four star rating.
However the novel has problems;
1) The writing style is not consistent throughout the book, a couple of times the style jumps, as though the authors had put it aside for a few months or so and really, I do not much care for this jerky reading sensation.
2) The characterisation is . . . odd. It feels as if once the authors had the characters defined to their own satisfaction they abandond any further character development, and just put them through the motions. This means that their behaviour is often inconsistent with the character that the reader thinks they know.
3) Like some other great writers, (notably Heinlein), Piers (or maybe Mercedes?) seem to have fallen into the wet dream trap: All the sex switching and open relationship embracing ect and after a while it feels a bit like perving on someone else's sexual fantasy. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, I like a good bit of literary porn as much as the next person. However in the throes of all the sweaty-writhing-around-gender-bending the writing, characters and plot tend to get left for dead and that happens a fair bit in the last part of the book.
4) Call that a demon? pfft.
5) There are a few assumptions about women, sex and relationships that are more than slightly disturbing in a nebulous sort of way.
However the novel has problems;
1) The writing style is not consistent throughout the book, a couple of times the style jumps, as though the authors had put it aside for a few months or so and really, I do not much care for this jerky reading sensation.
2) The characterisation is . . . odd. It feels as if once the authors had the characters defined to their own satisfaction they abandond any further character development, and just put them through the motions. This means that their behaviour is often inconsistent with the character that the reader thinks they know.
3) Like some other great writers, (notably Heinlein), Piers (or maybe Mercedes?) seem to have fallen into the wet dream trap: All the sex switching and open relationship embracing ect and after a while it feels a bit like perving on someone else's sexual fantasy. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, I like a good bit of literary porn as much as the next person. However in the throes of all the sweaty-writhing-around-gender-bending the writing, characters and plot tend to get left for dead and that happens a fair bit in the last part of the book.
4) Call that a demon? pfft.
5) There are a few assumptions about women, sex and relationships that are more than slightly disturbing in a nebulous sort of way.
February 18, 2009
Alright it's not up there with Lord of the Rings, but I really enjoyed If I Pay Thee Not in Gold. It's an original look on sexism. The society is matriarchal instead of patriarchal. Men are either "husbands" (think a male harem) or servants. The heroine must learn that men can enrich her life as friend, brother, and partner.
January 1, 2022
I can't believe I never added this to my books! I originally read this back in high school, and for some reason decided to pick it up again this year while deciding which of my new books to read next. For anyone looking for a very traditional, early 90s fantasy, this is definitely a good book for you.
Xylina is a member of a society where women dominate society through their magical powers of conjuration, while males are regulated to the status of slave. In order to become a full citizen, every woman must battle a man in the country's central arena, to prove she has the physical and magical power worthy to enjoy the privileges of a full, ruling-class adult. Plagued by misfortune, poverty and the whispers of a family curse, Xylina enters the arena prepared to die. Instead, she suddenly discovers a deep-seeded will to live, and powers of conjuration beyond her wildest dreams. Throughout her struggle to fit into society, Xylina is accompanied by her slave/friend Faro, and a dangerously fascinating demon called Ware. Together, the three of them set out on a dangerous mission beyond their homeland to save Xylina from a fate worse than death.
After almost 20 years, the prose and writing style does show its age, but as a throw-back to what I consider to be a better era of urban fantasy, this book shines. The characters are lovely, the plot - while somewhat stereotypical of the times - is engaging, and the relationship between Xylina and Ware is wonderfully sweet. And honestly, as a collaboration between Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey, you pretty much can't go wrong.
Xylina is a member of a society where women dominate society through their magical powers of conjuration, while males are regulated to the status of slave. In order to become a full citizen, every woman must battle a man in the country's central arena, to prove she has the physical and magical power worthy to enjoy the privileges of a full, ruling-class adult. Plagued by misfortune, poverty and the whispers of a family curse, Xylina enters the arena prepared to die. Instead, she suddenly discovers a deep-seeded will to live, and powers of conjuration beyond her wildest dreams. Throughout her struggle to fit into society, Xylina is accompanied by her slave/friend Faro, and a dangerously fascinating demon called Ware. Together, the three of them set out on a dangerous mission beyond their homeland to save Xylina from a fate worse than death.
After almost 20 years, the prose and writing style does show its age, but as a throw-back to what I consider to be a better era of urban fantasy, this book shines. The characters are lovely, the plot - while somewhat stereotypical of the times - is engaging, and the relationship between Xylina and Ware is wonderfully sweet. And honestly, as a collaboration between Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey, you pretty much can't go wrong.
December 15, 2013
The back of Anthony and Lackey's 1993 book promises that it is "a marvellous fantasy quest that examines the war between the sexes and the ethics of desire", but the only truth to that statement is that there is indeed a fantasy quest.
I first borrowed this book from my local public library when I was twelve or thirteen. This was a time when I was methodically devouring the building's small fantasy collection, borrowing a small pile of books each weekend and re-reading them when I exhausted the list. A few months ago, I tracked down a used copy of the book intending to re-read it based on the positive memories I had of reading it in my youth. So the review I am about to write is a bit surprising.
The setting is fairly simple, with a story firmly rooted in fantasy tropes with some unique window dressing. Women are the dominant figures of Mazonia -- yes, as in (A)mazonia -- who, by virtue of their gender's ability to use conjuration magic, rule over an enslaved male population. Xylina is a young, beautiful orphaned girl who believes she is subject to a terrible family curse that brings misfortune to her and those she loves. As she enters into Mazonite society, it becomes clearer that the forces aligned against her are not supernatural, but quite human.
"If I Pay Thee Not In Gold" is, for all intents and purposes, a romance novel without the sex. It is all cotton candy, little more than fluff without real substance. The characters are flat, with little growth and are of types so over-the-top and familiar to be almost eye-rolling. For example, there is the beautiful, slender, well-endowed (it is an Anthony joint, you know) young woman in danger and also the tall, muscular man bound to protect the lead woman and who just happens to be a skilled warrior that is as equally well-educated. These are not, in themselves, high crimes for fantasy novels. In fact, they are so common as to be misdemeanors. With strong writing and an interesting story, it would not have mattered all that much. Unfortunately, the prose and the dialogue are mediocre at best and lean heavily towards the stilted and melodramatic on more than one occasion. The characters, especially the lead, spend a little too much time thinking about and describing their own physical features in their internal monologues (and guess which part of Xylina's appearance gets the most description?).
The plot can be broken into two separate sections. The first is in Mazonia and is about the trials and tribulations of Xylina as she struggles to survive against the constant stream of "bad luck" that comes her way. The second is a quest story through magical lands, with its arrival almost without any foreshadowing and connected by only the thinnest of threads. The first section had the most potential and does end up being the stronger of the two, but it appears to also be the section that interested the authors the least. The quest story, following the protagonists and a collection of disposable non-entities, is about filling time with a series of monstrous and magical challenges that pad out the book. The monsters are unique and intriguing, but the tension is largely false and blatantly so.
The novel is co-authored by two prolific fantasy authors: Piers Anthony (famous for his pun-filled Xanth novels) and Mercedes Lackey. The story, outline, and editing are those of Anthony, while Lackey can likely be deemed to be the hired gun. The collaboration certainly seems artificial (and my understanding is that it was not a positive experience). Parts of the book feel as though they are merely touching certain points out of obligation, not always successfully linking them together. Months pass over the course of the book, sometimes a year with the turn of a page, and yet the whole thing feels static. Xylina at sixteen is Xylina approaching twenty. Though why should she change? Nothing else will. The city doesn't change, for instance, as the people in the background are merely bit players designed to deliver a line, advance us to the next bullet point, and then quietly exit off stage.
In the end, this excessively juvenile book can easily be (and should be) avoided.
I first borrowed this book from my local public library when I was twelve or thirteen. This was a time when I was methodically devouring the building's small fantasy collection, borrowing a small pile of books each weekend and re-reading them when I exhausted the list. A few months ago, I tracked down a used copy of the book intending to re-read it based on the positive memories I had of reading it in my youth. So the review I am about to write is a bit surprising.
The setting is fairly simple, with a story firmly rooted in fantasy tropes with some unique window dressing. Women are the dominant figures of Mazonia -- yes, as in (A)mazonia -- who, by virtue of their gender's ability to use conjuration magic, rule over an enslaved male population. Xylina is a young, beautiful orphaned girl who believes she is subject to a terrible family curse that brings misfortune to her and those she loves. As she enters into Mazonite society, it becomes clearer that the forces aligned against her are not supernatural, but quite human.
"If I Pay Thee Not In Gold" is, for all intents and purposes, a romance novel without the sex. It is all cotton candy, little more than fluff without real substance. The characters are flat, with little growth and are of types so over-the-top and familiar to be almost eye-rolling. For example, there is the beautiful, slender, well-endowed (it is an Anthony joint, you know) young woman in danger and also the tall, muscular man bound to protect the lead woman and who just happens to be a skilled warrior that is as equally well-educated. These are not, in themselves, high crimes for fantasy novels. In fact, they are so common as to be misdemeanors. With strong writing and an interesting story, it would not have mattered all that much. Unfortunately, the prose and the dialogue are mediocre at best and lean heavily towards the stilted and melodramatic on more than one occasion. The characters, especially the lead, spend a little too much time thinking about and describing their own physical features in their internal monologues (and guess which part of Xylina's appearance gets the most description?).
The plot can be broken into two separate sections. The first is in Mazonia and is about the trials and tribulations of Xylina as she struggles to survive against the constant stream of "bad luck" that comes her way. The second is a quest story through magical lands, with its arrival almost without any foreshadowing and connected by only the thinnest of threads. The first section had the most potential and does end up being the stronger of the two, but it appears to also be the section that interested the authors the least. The quest story, following the protagonists and a collection of disposable non-entities, is about filling time with a series of monstrous and magical challenges that pad out the book. The monsters are unique and intriguing, but the tension is largely false and blatantly so.
The novel is co-authored by two prolific fantasy authors: Piers Anthony (famous for his pun-filled Xanth novels) and Mercedes Lackey. The story, outline, and editing are those of Anthony, while Lackey can likely be deemed to be the hired gun. The collaboration certainly seems artificial (and my understanding is that it was not a positive experience). Parts of the book feel as though they are merely touching certain points out of obligation, not always successfully linking them together. Months pass over the course of the book, sometimes a year with the turn of a page, and yet the whole thing feels static. Xylina at sixteen is Xylina approaching twenty. Though why should she change? Nothing else will. The city doesn't change, for instance, as the people in the background are merely bit players designed to deliver a line, advance us to the next bullet point, and then quietly exit off stage.
In the end, this excessively juvenile book can easily be (and should be) avoided.
May 13, 2008
I got about 150 pages into this humungous waste of time. I really don't give up on a lot of books, but this one was just so poorly written, so maddingly slowly plotted, so carelessly coordinated, as to be a colossal waste of time. I wanted to care about the heroine, but could not. The evil queen idea was beginning to perk up and might eventually have brought some interest to the book-- but her only motivation was that the heroine was supposedly stronger than she in the magic arts.
The motivation of the slave to help his mistress was so absurd as to test the patience of Job himself. If he was so clever at plotting, etc. why couldn't he find a way to manipulate her into granting him his freedom instead of assisting her.
The name of the people, the Mazonians, (a rip of off Amazons if ever I see one) I should have known that this was going to be poorly written pulp of the sort that was churned out in the 30's by hacks who reworked every idea for the pulp magazines.
I wouldn't recommend this one to someone who was stuck on a desert island with nothing to read. Their time would be better spent fishing, looking for fresh water, or simply baking in the sun while they die of thirst. Yes, this one was that bad!
The motivation of the slave to help his mistress was so absurd as to test the patience of Job himself. If he was so clever at plotting, etc. why couldn't he find a way to manipulate her into granting him his freedom instead of assisting her.
The name of the people, the Mazonians, (a rip of off Amazons if ever I see one) I should have known that this was going to be poorly written pulp of the sort that was churned out in the 30's by hacks who reworked every idea for the pulp magazines.
I wouldn't recommend this one to someone who was stuck on a desert island with nothing to read. Their time would be better spent fishing, looking for fresh water, or simply baking in the sun while they die of thirst. Yes, this one was that bad!
November 21, 2019
I enjoyed this book most for its quirky plot and bisexual undertones. Although the blurb on the back cover leads you to believe that one thing will happen, in reality something else altogether really happens. I suppose you could say that this is an examination of the social constructions of class and hierarchy, but that might give you the idea that this is a serious and weighty book, which is totally not the case. You could also say that this book explores the artificial construction of gender and gender-roles in society, but, once again, you might be reading a bit too much into it. In the end, I found this to be an amusing and lighthearted read with interesting supporting characters and some intriguing and rather straight-forward examples of world-building. Not an 'instant classic' by any means, but still worth reading if you enjoy fantasy and want something light and quick.
October 5, 2020
The best part about this book was getting to year it apart week by week with my book club.
This is, by far, the worst book I have read in a very long time. Definitely the worst book I've read this year, which is saying something since I've read 91 books this year so far. Every aspect of the book is terrible. This review will contain spoilers, but I don't feel like cutting them because everyone should know.
First: The Squick. The stuff that might put people off reading this book. Like the fact that the main character in the book is a slave owner, that slaves say shit like "I would much rather be your slave, little mistress, because you're sooooo nice instead of being set free." The fact that sex trafficking women from foreign lands for the slave's use is a thing - except the women are magically transformed to have animal parts and can only communicate by making animal noises (except the one time Anthony wanted his pawed sex "servant" to have one single line), and if they're not trafficked from foreign lands that magically turn the people into animals, than the sex servants are actually animals, like mice and things turned into women by demons. That "husbands" are really just head slaves that the women have sex with (though they can also have sex with slaves that aren't their husbands). That women just... I mean, I'd say they sell their sons into slavery, but that's not accurate, since they don't actually save them. If they give birth to a boy, they just give birth to a slave. If a woman, who are the dominant sex in this society, is raped by a man, its her own fault for being to shapely/weak and because men just can't help themselves from their sexual urges.
That's the truly gross stuff. Now let's move on.
The Who: there isn't a single character in this book that has consitant characterization. Xylina varies between a slave owner who regrets owning her slaves and sees men as actual humans, to someone who throws a fit when a man dares so much look at her like an equal. Faro varies between being some poor refined scribe boy to a man who wants to rape all women and gouge out their eyeballs (or vice versa), and apparently never gets over his hatred of women but we only know that because the authors tell us. Ware goes between some suave badass demon to a simpering, blushing bride.
At one point, Xylina talks about how the slave's they've been travelling with are her friends and dear companions, they're practically family now, except then the slaves are captured by other slavers and she just shrugs and goes "oh well, they're no worse off now, let's just leave them."
Faro seems like he should be important, but fades into the background for the entire last three quarters of the book and becomes completely non-consequential.
The What/The Plot: The plot is weak. It starts off with Xylina, the poor slave girl who is just hideous by her societies standards. See also: she has long, golden hair that cascades down her back, and nice plump beasts, and shapely hips, and curves in all the right places. She is so poor she can't even afford a slave - all her old ones died or were sold off because of her family curse. She finally gets a slave but terrible things keep happening to her, and eventually she's sent off on a quest by her queen, falls in love with a demon whose entire goal was to make her fall in love with her, but once she does he's chagrined by it - he hadn't meant for it to happen so soon. Stuff happens, but nothing actually happens because of things that happened previous to the events. It's just one unconnected thing after another. In fact, there's a "love triangle" in the book which they pull off by pulling in a hitherto unmentioned character from LITERALLY NOWHERE, when there had been a perfectly usable character throughout the entire book.
The Where: the worldbuilding in this story is weak at best. The magic doesn't seem to have rules, except when it does for plot reasons. The society has holes you could drive a dump truck through which are never fully explored - or even have an attempt at exploration made. None of the lands outside of Mazonia make any sense and the world has no kind of internal logic at all.
There is a society called the Sylvans, and the entire premise of their society is "equality is bad," and, in fact, the chapter on the Sylvans ends with Ware giving some moralizing speech about how equality is good in theory, but just look at what happens when it's applied. I'm genuinely surprised that the chapter didn't end with Alex Jones jumping out screaming "THIS IS THE FUTURE LIBERALS WANT."
Looking at the book through that lense, suddenly the way the Mazonian culture makes sense. Mazonia happens when women get control - they will enslave all men, including their own sons. Definitely don't have women in control. But also don't have equality because look at what happens then. The best society they find is the Pachas, which seem to have a mostly patriartical society where the women stay home and raise the children, as they should. I should also add that at one point, after they've befriended the Pachas, one of the characters remarks that they're "red savages."
Eventually the book ends with some of the most rushed, anti-climactic shit, and all is well (because I no longer had to read this garbage).
And finally, The Romance: This contains big spoilers.
So, the romance starts off with Ware, the demon, lending out some money that he knows Xylina will never be able to pay back no matter what. Instead of money, he tells her he'll take his payment in sex. Except it turns out he doesn't just want sex. He also wants her to fall in love with her.
Shit happens,the romance develops terribly, but Xylina finally relents and says she loves him. Ware then tells her oh no,this is terrible. You see, when he falls in love with a woman and has sex with her, he will also turn into a woman. The only way to turn back is to fall in love with a man and have sex with him. He must have two loves. If Xylina or his boyfriend ever has sex with anyone else (including each other), Ware will die.
When they get back to Mazonia, they'll go to the slave markets and pick out a nice man for Ware to fall in love with, because that's how love works. But oh, nevermind, Ware's old friend lives in the country they're in, so Ware goes off and gets him. In the last two chapters of the book. We have never heard of this man before, or had hints of his existence, but sure,let's introduce a major love interest character now.
Keep in mind Faro has been around THIS ENTIRE TIME, and was not utilized at all, and really seemed like he had been built up to be the third in this threesome.
Oh, also, homosexuality/bisexuality doesn't exist in this world - sex changing, polyamorous demons do, but oh god, we definitely can't have anything remotely gay.
I can guarentee this book made it to my list because at some point I must have asked for a recommendation about a love-triangle that is resolved by a threesome. This is a concept that is,to me, extremely difficult to fuck up. I would have been happy with even the laziest iteration of this concept. I would have thought there was no possible way that anyone could ever take this concept and do it in such a way that I would hate it. Hate it with every fiber of my being.
But congratulations, Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. You somehow managed to pull that off.
This is, by far, the worst book I have read in a very long time. Definitely the worst book I've read this year, which is saying something since I've read 91 books this year so far. Every aspect of the book is terrible. This review will contain spoilers, but I don't feel like cutting them because everyone should know.
First: The Squick. The stuff that might put people off reading this book. Like the fact that the main character in the book is a slave owner, that slaves say shit like "I would much rather be your slave, little mistress, because you're sooooo nice instead of being set free." The fact that sex trafficking women from foreign lands for the slave's use is a thing - except the women are magically transformed to have animal parts and can only communicate by making animal noises (except the one time Anthony wanted his pawed sex "servant" to have one single line), and if they're not trafficked from foreign lands that magically turn the people into animals, than the sex servants are actually animals, like mice and things turned into women by demons. That "husbands" are really just head slaves that the women have sex with (though they can also have sex with slaves that aren't their husbands). That women just... I mean, I'd say they sell their sons into slavery, but that's not accurate, since they don't actually save them. If they give birth to a boy, they just give birth to a slave. If a woman, who are the dominant sex in this society, is raped by a man, its her own fault for being to shapely/weak and because men just can't help themselves from their sexual urges.
That's the truly gross stuff. Now let's move on.
The Who: there isn't a single character in this book that has consitant characterization. Xylina varies between a slave owner who regrets owning her slaves and sees men as actual humans, to someone who throws a fit when a man dares so much look at her like an equal. Faro varies between being some poor refined scribe boy to a man who wants to rape all women and gouge out their eyeballs (or vice versa), and apparently never gets over his hatred of women but we only know that because the authors tell us. Ware goes between some suave badass demon to a simpering, blushing bride.
At one point, Xylina talks about how the slave's they've been travelling with are her friends and dear companions, they're practically family now, except then the slaves are captured by other slavers and she just shrugs and goes "oh well, they're no worse off now, let's just leave them."
Faro seems like he should be important, but fades into the background for the entire last three quarters of the book and becomes completely non-consequential.
The What/The Plot: The plot is weak. It starts off with Xylina, the poor slave girl who is just hideous by her societies standards. See also: she has long, golden hair that cascades down her back, and nice plump beasts, and shapely hips, and curves in all the right places. She is so poor she can't even afford a slave - all her old ones died or were sold off because of her family curse. She finally gets a slave but terrible things keep happening to her, and eventually she's sent off on a quest by her queen, falls in love with a demon whose entire goal was to make her fall in love with her, but once she does he's chagrined by it - he hadn't meant for it to happen so soon. Stuff happens, but nothing actually happens because of things that happened previous to the events. It's just one unconnected thing after another. In fact, there's a "love triangle" in the book which they pull off by pulling in a hitherto unmentioned character from LITERALLY NOWHERE, when there had been a perfectly usable character throughout the entire book.
The Where: the worldbuilding in this story is weak at best. The magic doesn't seem to have rules, except when it does for plot reasons. The society has holes you could drive a dump truck through which are never fully explored - or even have an attempt at exploration made. None of the lands outside of Mazonia make any sense and the world has no kind of internal logic at all.
There is a society called the Sylvans, and the entire premise of their society is "equality is bad," and, in fact, the chapter on the Sylvans ends with Ware giving some moralizing speech about how equality is good in theory, but just look at what happens when it's applied. I'm genuinely surprised that the chapter didn't end with Alex Jones jumping out screaming "THIS IS THE FUTURE LIBERALS WANT."
Looking at the book through that lense, suddenly the way the Mazonian culture makes sense. Mazonia happens when women get control - they will enslave all men, including their own sons. Definitely don't have women in control. But also don't have equality because look at what happens then. The best society they find is the Pachas, which seem to have a mostly patriartical society where the women stay home and raise the children, as they should. I should also add that at one point, after they've befriended the Pachas, one of the characters remarks that they're "red savages."
Eventually the book ends with some of the most rushed, anti-climactic shit, and all is well (because I no longer had to read this garbage).
And finally, The Romance: This contains big spoilers.
So, the romance starts off with Ware, the demon, lending out some money that he knows Xylina will never be able to pay back no matter what. Instead of money, he tells her he'll take his payment in sex. Except it turns out he doesn't just want sex. He also wants her to fall in love with her.
Shit happens,the romance develops terribly, but Xylina finally relents and says she loves him. Ware then tells her oh no,this is terrible. You see, when he falls in love with a woman and has sex with her, he will also turn into a woman. The only way to turn back is to fall in love with a man and have sex with him. He must have two loves. If Xylina or his boyfriend ever has sex with anyone else (including each other), Ware will die.
When they get back to Mazonia, they'll go to the slave markets and pick out a nice man for Ware to fall in love with, because that's how love works. But oh, nevermind, Ware's old friend lives in the country they're in, so Ware goes off and gets him. In the last two chapters of the book. We have never heard of this man before, or had hints of his existence, but sure,let's introduce a major love interest character now.
Keep in mind Faro has been around THIS ENTIRE TIME, and was not utilized at all, and really seemed like he had been built up to be the third in this threesome.
Oh, also, homosexuality/bisexuality doesn't exist in this world - sex changing, polyamorous demons do, but oh god, we definitely can't have anything remotely gay.
I can guarentee this book made it to my list because at some point I must have asked for a recommendation about a love-triangle that is resolved by a threesome. This is a concept that is,to me, extremely difficult to fuck up. I would have been happy with even the laziest iteration of this concept. I would have thought there was no possible way that anyone could ever take this concept and do it in such a way that I would hate it. Hate it with every fiber of my being.
But congratulations, Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. You somehow managed to pull that off.
October 5, 2020
This book was AWFUL!! Read this with my book club and if it hadn't been for the fun we had ripping it apart every week, I never would have finished it. There's so many things wrong with this one, it's hard to know where to start. The plot was very one dimensional, and disjointed. There was no flow from one point to another, it was almost more like when a little kid tells you about their day.... this happened, and then this happened, and then this, and then this.....etc. The plot wasn't even the worst part, that definitely came with the thinly veiled allusion to paedophilia, human trafficking, and slavery.
I was very excited to read this book in the beginning as the idea of a matriarchal society where men are seen as lesser citizens was an interesting twist and had the potential to really explore gender inequality from a different perspective.... but this book could have easily been written with men as the dominant gender and the authors wouldn't have had to change a thing because the women were basically written as stereotypical alpha males, but with breasts and vaginas. The only exception to this was the main character of Xylina, who almost..... ALMOST grows as a person and ALMOST gets that owning human beings as chattel is wrong, but still baulks at the idea that there could be a man out there that was her equal (and is horrified when she meets a non-slave male who DARES talk to her like an equal)
I don't even want to get into the almost polygamous relationship, or the allusion to bestiality, or the suggestion of 'good slavers', or the convenient changes to how the world and magic works in order to force the plot forward. There is just so much to unpack in this book, and all of it is bad.
After reading a bit more information about the way this book was written as well as the author statements about it, it becomes clear that the blame for how awful this book is lays solely at the feet of Piers Anthony (who apparently has used paedophilia as a plot device more than once). When talking about this book, he comes off as a narcissistic douche who refuses to accept that Lackey could even possibly be the better author (I'm of the impression that she is). I will definitely never read anything by Anthony ever again, Lackey will likely get another read somewhere down the line... once I've put some distance between myself and this travesty of a collaboration
I was very excited to read this book in the beginning as the idea of a matriarchal society where men are seen as lesser citizens was an interesting twist and had the potential to really explore gender inequality from a different perspective.... but this book could have easily been written with men as the dominant gender and the authors wouldn't have had to change a thing because the women were basically written as stereotypical alpha males, but with breasts and vaginas. The only exception to this was the main character of Xylina, who almost..... ALMOST grows as a person and ALMOST gets that owning human beings as chattel is wrong, but still baulks at the idea that there could be a man out there that was her equal (and is horrified when she meets a non-slave male who DARES talk to her like an equal)
I don't even want to get into the almost polygamous relationship, or the allusion to bestiality, or the suggestion of 'good slavers', or the convenient changes to how the world and magic works in order to force the plot forward. There is just so much to unpack in this book, and all of it is bad.
After reading a bit more information about the way this book was written as well as the author statements about it, it becomes clear that the blame for how awful this book is lays solely at the feet of Piers Anthony (who apparently has used paedophilia as a plot device more than once). When talking about this book, he comes off as a narcissistic douche who refuses to accept that Lackey could even possibly be the better author (I'm of the impression that she is). I will definitely never read anything by Anthony ever again, Lackey will likely get another read somewhere down the line... once I've put some distance between myself and this travesty of a collaboration
April 29, 2020
This is sloppy and poorly written, the novel takes an interesting premise and drags it through the dirt on the back of trope after trope, and that criticism is given without ever getting to the later allegations of pay and credit to the writers involved.
My criticisms of this are many; I will not bother to list them all.
- the female character, Xylina, is insipid and spineless, a Mary Sue, a trope built on a trope and packaged as yet another trope, a disgrace to the premise of this novel. Her anaemic personality is at odds with the strong choices and skills she’s presented as having. She succeeds by luck alone, whether of birth, of friends, or of chance. She is useless and the story would have been better without her. She is a woman raised in modern society dropped into one with different cultures and plots. She’s somehow intensely ashamed of sex and desire and yet these things are openly discussed as normal in her society.
- Faro is a trope. He is also boring and useless and largely forgotten except when the plot calls for him. Forget him.
- Ware is more interesting. In some instances he’s the trope. In others he’s creative. Sometimes the language used to describe him is heavily feminine. “Lithe”, “hooded eyes”, “languid”, “lavish” and typically only used negatively for males in normal settings.
- The male characters are largely tropes but they are (again) forgotten except for where the plot calls for it.
– The scenario, background, and settings are all largely incidental and set up one after another first in Lackey-esque fiction and then in decidedly Anthony-like style. There's nothing cohesive about this, although, to an extent, that was the intent.
– the latter half of this novel is about Ware (an ancient demon who is depicted as being at least a few hundred years old) pursuing and eventually winning the romantic and sexual affections of Xylena (a 17 year old girl???) *gross * Also she is perfect and special and different from every other woman ever and only she could win his affections and *rolls eyes * not like the other girls is such a sick trope. Just stop.
So, why have I bothered to put time and attention into this book.
It's a fairly interesting exploration of gender and power. In so doing, it affords a lot more credit than it might otherwise get, simply because it manages a few things that a lot of writers might have been heavily tempted to avoid:
– The fact that women are in power does not suddenly result in a magically nicer or better world. No. With the dynamics of power shifted, women have completely seized the reigns of power and men are billed as "Slaves". The term "Male slave" seems to be something of a tautology throughout the book considering there's no such thing as a female slave and even female prostitutes are billed as "servants", but the bad writing isn't the point, the creation of an imperfect and deeply flawed society is. So many fiction writers are tempted to bill the female world as paradise and yet, human nature remains flawed. It is good to see authors who are willing to paint women as morally bankrupt, loving of power, and willing to seize it when given the opportunity. These women are self-serving, violent, and just as capable of viewing another gender as a subspecies of the human race, in much the same way that women have been viewed at times throughout history, although satirized to a critical point by the inclusion of the word "Slave" every other sentence.
Of course, the main character is never allowed to embrace those ideals. She's the opposite of her society in every way and it's insipid and sickening.
– Women are presented as having agency in sexual desire and wantonness, it is their right and the "appetites of a younger woman" are both respected and openly talked about.
*again, cue annoyance at Xylenas blistering shyness, giggles, and avoidance. Her culture openly purchases "servants" from other cultures to serve as sex toys for "the men" but she is unwilling to acknowledge it, avoids them, and does not speak to them. This could be attributed to the fact that she is young, but it seems desperately at odds with her culture and her character. It mostly feels like a heavy-handed attempt to insinuate her "purity" and "desirability" according to the standards of a white male boomer in modern society *[runs to store, purchases glasses, peers over them scornfully at Piers Anthony]*
– Jealousy is handled in a mature and respectful way. It is not treated as being wrong. It is not given precedence over anyone else's emotions. It is acknowledged, discussed, dealt with, and moved on from. Although the magical speed at which this happens is dubious, *wow*, I'd like to see more of that.
– Polyamory is dealt with in a healthy and interesting way. Jealousy is portrayed, sharing is discussed, and caring mutual relationships are formed between non-sexual partners.
– Other cultures are depicted as having equal and healthy relationships between men and women, with allowances made for childbirth and child rearing.
– The concept of gender neuters is also tackled, leaving me to believe that questions of gender and what it means for society were very much at the forefront of the author's minds, despite the fact that it's fairly sloppily done.
– Ware's morphing between genders is interesting, but handled incredibly poorly. He's somehow a different person, with a different personality, and not just another aspect of himself. I was disappointed by this, especially in light of how others, e.g., The Left Hand of Darkness handle similar concepts.
Overall, I really like a lot of themes of this book. Creating a female society which is not somehow suddenly a perfect, magical utopia of socialism and anarchy is incredibly rare. Creating a society in which the roles of the male and female are reversed, especially to this extent, is equally rare. Star Trek attempted something similar in Next Generation, but most "amazonite" societies conveniently leave out the men and give them no place. The explorations of gender, social structures, ageism, and relationships are really quite lovely.
Quite unfortunately, most of this book is not about the themes but rather about an insipid, tropey storyline following a character cut and paste from a 1970s porno fantasy flick.
My criticisms of this are many; I will not bother to list them all.
- the female character, Xylina, is insipid and spineless, a Mary Sue, a trope built on a trope and packaged as yet another trope, a disgrace to the premise of this novel. Her anaemic personality is at odds with the strong choices and skills she’s presented as having. She succeeds by luck alone, whether of birth, of friends, or of chance. She is useless and the story would have been better without her. She is a woman raised in modern society dropped into one with different cultures and plots. She’s somehow intensely ashamed of sex and desire and yet these things are openly discussed as normal in her society.
- Faro is a trope. He is also boring and useless and largely forgotten except when the plot calls for him. Forget him.
- Ware is more interesting. In some instances he’s the trope. In others he’s creative. Sometimes the language used to describe him is heavily feminine. “Lithe”, “hooded eyes”, “languid”, “lavish” and typically only used negatively for males in normal settings.
- The male characters are largely tropes but they are (again) forgotten except for where the plot calls for it.
– The scenario, background, and settings are all largely incidental and set up one after another first in Lackey-esque fiction and then in decidedly Anthony-like style. There's nothing cohesive about this, although, to an extent, that was the intent.
– the latter half of this novel is about Ware (an ancient demon who is depicted as being at least a few hundred years old) pursuing and eventually winning the romantic and sexual affections of Xylena (a 17 year old girl???) *gross * Also she is perfect and special and different from every other woman ever and only she could win his affections and *rolls eyes * not like the other girls is such a sick trope. Just stop.
So, why have I bothered to put time and attention into this book.
It's a fairly interesting exploration of gender and power. In so doing, it affords a lot more credit than it might otherwise get, simply because it manages a few things that a lot of writers might have been heavily tempted to avoid:
– The fact that women are in power does not suddenly result in a magically nicer or better world. No. With the dynamics of power shifted, women have completely seized the reigns of power and men are billed as "Slaves". The term "Male slave" seems to be something of a tautology throughout the book considering there's no such thing as a female slave and even female prostitutes are billed as "servants", but the bad writing isn't the point, the creation of an imperfect and deeply flawed society is. So many fiction writers are tempted to bill the female world as paradise and yet, human nature remains flawed. It is good to see authors who are willing to paint women as morally bankrupt, loving of power, and willing to seize it when given the opportunity. These women are self-serving, violent, and just as capable of viewing another gender as a subspecies of the human race, in much the same way that women have been viewed at times throughout history, although satirized to a critical point by the inclusion of the word "Slave" every other sentence.
Of course, the main character is never allowed to embrace those ideals. She's the opposite of her society in every way and it's insipid and sickening.
– Women are presented as having agency in sexual desire and wantonness, it is their right and the "appetites of a younger woman" are both respected and openly talked about.
*again, cue annoyance at Xylenas blistering shyness, giggles, and avoidance. Her culture openly purchases "servants" from other cultures to serve as sex toys for "the men" but she is unwilling to acknowledge it, avoids them, and does not speak to them. This could be attributed to the fact that she is young, but it seems desperately at odds with her culture and her character. It mostly feels like a heavy-handed attempt to insinuate her "purity" and "desirability" according to the standards of a white male boomer in modern society *[runs to store, purchases glasses, peers over them scornfully at Piers Anthony]*
– Jealousy is handled in a mature and respectful way. It is not treated as being wrong. It is not given precedence over anyone else's emotions. It is acknowledged, discussed, dealt with, and moved on from. Although the magical speed at which this happens is dubious, *wow*, I'd like to see more of that.
– Polyamory is dealt with in a healthy and interesting way. Jealousy is portrayed, sharing is discussed, and caring mutual relationships are formed between non-sexual partners.
– Other cultures are depicted as having equal and healthy relationships between men and women, with allowances made for childbirth and child rearing.
– The concept of gender neuters is also tackled, leaving me to believe that questions of gender and what it means for society were very much at the forefront of the author's minds, despite the fact that it's fairly sloppily done.
– Ware's morphing between genders is interesting, but handled incredibly poorly. He's somehow a different person, with a different personality, and not just another aspect of himself. I was disappointed by this, especially in light of how others, e.g., The Left Hand of Darkness handle similar concepts.
Overall, I really like a lot of themes of this book. Creating a female society which is not somehow suddenly a perfect, magical utopia of socialism and anarchy is incredibly rare. Creating a society in which the roles of the male and female are reversed, especially to this extent, is equally rare. Star Trek attempted something similar in Next Generation, but most "amazonite" societies conveniently leave out the men and give them no place. The explorations of gender, social structures, ageism, and relationships are really quite lovely.
Quite unfortunately, most of this book is not about the themes but rather about an insipid, tropey storyline following a character cut and paste from a 1970s porno fantasy flick.
August 11, 2008
This is one of my all time favorite books. I have read it too many times to count. Piers Anthony / Mercedes Lackey - Good strong female main character, demons, magic, crystals, queens, battles. Good stuff.
June 28, 2007
The Piers Anthony bad-touch is strong in this one, but I love the title!
August 16, 2009
lacked a good sex scene or two to be perfect.
January 14, 2023
I tend not to gravitate toward sword and sorcery fantasy, but this one seemed like it had an interesting premise: an authoritarian society where women rule and men are slaves. Plus magic. Indeed, I thought that about the first half of this novel was charming and unique, at least as some light reading. The main character, Xylina, was intriguing and as her situation became increasingly dire, I just kept wanting to know, well how is she going to get out of this one? Then about half way through, the book just seemed to take a sudden left turn and become a generic MacGuffin-quest through realms of increasing blandness. I'm pretty sure they said the realms were going to have wild magic. I felt let down. We explore an odd realm that seems to exist purely to satirize veganism, but which otherwise makes no impact on the story or any of the characters. A limp thread of a love story runs through this second half of the book, with some appreciated explorations of gender, but eh, why any of the characters feel the way they do at any point often seems more a matter of statement than any action-driven character growth. As the book wore on, the actual plot-driving action seemed to be happening increasingly in the background — this character or that goes off on a daring side quest, while the reader is left stranded following the protagonist through another undistinguished grass field. We get into a very apparent pattern by the final chapters: a challenge is encountered; a plan is described by which the characters will face the challenge; we are informed that the plan was carried out successfully. Rinse and repeat. Almost like reading authors' notes of what was supposed to happen in the book, rather than the events themselves. Got the general impression that the authors were maybe a little anxious to wrap this one up. And so was I.
June 12, 2023
This is an odd book.
It's a collaboration, and the styles of Mercedes Lackey and Piers Anthony don't quite mix, but they also don't not? The pacing of the book feels very early 90s, with the main love interest not being introduced until page 150... though, ultimately my romance heart loves that this was essentially a road trip romance. But, the "solution" to the major romantic problem was inelegant. I read this with @plottrysts and we discussed the fact that it feels like a queer erasure - in a world dominated by women, it feels absurd that there would not be FF relationships or that the only relationships the enslaved men would seek out would be the specially bred female prostitutes?
If I Pay Thee Not in Gold also lacks a thematic moral. I was left scratching my head wondering what the book's takeaway was.
But also, I didn't hate the book. It just took a lot to adjust my expectations for.
It's a collaboration, and the styles of Mercedes Lackey and Piers Anthony don't quite mix, but they also don't not? The pacing of the book feels very early 90s, with the main love interest not being introduced until page 150... though, ultimately my romance heart loves that this was essentially a road trip romance. But, the "solution" to the major romantic problem was inelegant. I read this with @plottrysts and we discussed the fact that it feels like a queer erasure - in a world dominated by women, it feels absurd that there would not be FF relationships or that the only relationships the enslaved men would seek out would be the specially bred female prostitutes?
If I Pay Thee Not in Gold also lacks a thematic moral. I was left scratching my head wondering what the book's takeaway was.
But also, I didn't hate the book. It just took a lot to adjust my expectations for.
August 25, 2016
This is an old favorite which I recently reread. What I enjoy most about this book is the way it subverts 'classic' gender roles - in Mazonia, women are the ruling class, and men are servants and slaves. This is due to the fact that women are able to conjure and use magic, and men are not. As a result of this, there are some gender stereotypes that are flipped - men are the ones with traditionally longer hair, while women almost always cut theirs short.
The demon Ware is also an interesting character because he changes physical gender every time he has sex - after having sex with his female lover, he becomes Wara, a female demon - it takes sex with a male lover to become the male Ware again.
Upon reread, I'm a little surprised at how inclusive Mazonia is - there are other realms beyond its borders, some where men and women are equals, others where women are subservient to men, but this realm has very little contact with them and Xylina is culture-shocked when she comes across a Free Man from another realm - one who has never been subserviant to women.
And yet, even with the gender inequality, there is no mention or even subtext of same-sex relations anywhere in this book. It makes me curious if it is the act of orgasm that changes Ware's gender (if Wara would still change to Ware if she had sex with a woman) or if is dependent on heterosexual intercourse (Wara must have sex with a man to become Ware again).
The demon Ware is also an interesting character because he changes physical gender every time he has sex - after having sex with his female lover, he becomes Wara, a female demon - it takes sex with a male lover to become the male Ware again.
Upon reread, I'm a little surprised at how inclusive Mazonia is - there are other realms beyond its borders, some where men and women are equals, others where women are subservient to men, but this realm has very little contact with them and Xylina is culture-shocked when she comes across a Free Man from another realm - one who has never been subserviant to women.
And yet, even with the gender inequality, there is no mention or even subtext of same-sex relations anywhere in this book. It makes me curious if it is the act of orgasm that changes Ware's gender (if Wara would still change to Ware if she had sex with a woman) or if is dependent on heterosexual intercourse (Wara must have sex with a man to become Ware again).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2011
I chose this book because I am a fan of Mercedes Lackey - I had never read Piers Anthony before. What a shame this is out of print, because it had a great twist on the cliche Amazon warrior story, with a surprisingly tongue-in-cheek tone. Mazonia is a matriarchy and men are slaves. Only women can command magic, and the most powerful of them rules. Xylina lives in poverty and also fear of her upcoming Rite of Passage wherein she must battle a gladiator in the arena. Despite the overwhelming odds, she is victorious and wins the the slave as her own. She also makes a powerful and unknown enemy. When Xylina takes the unusual step of befriending her slave, it sets in motion a chain of events that will change the fabric of Mazonia forever.
A good story, with an interesting concept and fun. well-developed characters. It can be a little cheesy at time, but not every book needs to be "deep!" Highly Recommended.
A good story, with an interesting concept and fun. well-developed characters. It can be a little cheesy at time, but not every book needs to be "deep!" Highly Recommended.
April 1, 2016
I remember loving this when I read it years ago. Many years. Also remember that there was something off about it too.
What I love are the very interesting concepts in love and gender. But the writing is all over the place. Anything that doesn't directly explore those concepts is hurried and often very formulaic.
This time, there was a brief afterword by Piers that shed a lot of light on why its so disjointed and it's interesting to have that context.
I think of this now as still stuck in rewrites between two very busy & prolific writers. Shame it was never fully polished.
The core of the story is 5 stars for me. The poorness of the writing is a 3 so I'll punch in a 4. Yeti can't recommend this to others.
What I love are the very interesting concepts in love and gender. But the writing is all over the place. Anything that doesn't directly explore those concepts is hurried and often very formulaic.
This time, there was a brief afterword by Piers that shed a lot of light on why its so disjointed and it's interesting to have that context.
I think of this now as still stuck in rewrites between two very busy & prolific writers. Shame it was never fully polished.
The core of the story is 5 stars for me. The poorness of the writing is a 3 so I'll punch in a 4. Yeti can't recommend this to others.
December 17, 2007
This book manages to capture the worst of both authors styles. It's pretty terrible.
February 25, 2008
I don't know why I like this book so much. It doesn't seem like it's that good.
September 7, 2008
Two of my favorite fantasy authors at the time this was published, this was a wonderful collaboration and I could see both their styles in the layout of the story and it's resolution.
March 4, 2010
Good book. Different kind of wold, but neat characters and plot twists!
March 30, 2021
I'm in two minds about this book.
On the one hand, if taken as is, and thinking about the era it was written in, its not a bad attempt at exploring ideas about role models, sexual orientation and exploration, and a bit of fantasy thrown in.
On the other hand - and for me this is a big one - the book felt almost like conjoined twins who don't like each other very much.
I admit that I haven't read anything from Piers Anthony for decades - probably since this book was actually first published - but the fact that this is the only book, that I know of, offhand, that I own with his name attached, tells me that I didn't enjoy his works sufficiently to keep any of them on my shelves - and I know that I had read whatever he had published at that time - except this one, of course, that I only really have, because Misty is one of the co-authors!
Although the premise of the story was good, I didn't feel that much thought was put into plotting the ending. It began okay, and the characters had that same something that I've always found with Misty's characters - unfortunately, unlike her other stories, these didn't go anywhere!
There was no further exploration after the almost immediate joining of Ware/ Wara, Xylina, and Thesius, once they'd got together. It was as if, once the three of them had become a unit, it didn't matter to the authors that any more exploration of their emotional lives was really necessary.
There was no growth to either their characters together as a unit, nor their relationships with others, which left them rather sterile to me - in fact, I found that last quarter of the book to be a bit hurried, with rather simplistic action choices that didn't really change anything for the Mazonians, and the fact of their still owning slaves, at all.
It was a very disappointing ending, to an idea that could have been explored much more thoroughly - and with much more of the wit, and sensitivity, I've always expected in Misty's works
It surprised me greatly, to have a book with Misty's name on it, to be this simplistic, too, as every other book I've read of hers, also when she was coauthoring with anybody else, had been ones that I couldn't put down until the very last page because of the multi layering of plot and character.
This, on the other hand, had me doing anything else possible, rather than finish it!
I will keep this book, but purely because it's one that Misty was a part of. But I'll probably skip it, the next time around on my book shelves though.
On the one hand, if taken as is, and thinking about the era it was written in, its not a bad attempt at exploring ideas about role models, sexual orientation and exploration, and a bit of fantasy thrown in.
On the other hand - and for me this is a big one - the book felt almost like conjoined twins who don't like each other very much.
I admit that I haven't read anything from Piers Anthony for decades - probably since this book was actually first published - but the fact that this is the only book, that I know of, offhand, that I own with his name attached, tells me that I didn't enjoy his works sufficiently to keep any of them on my shelves - and I know that I had read whatever he had published at that time - except this one, of course, that I only really have, because Misty is one of the co-authors!
Although the premise of the story was good, I didn't feel that much thought was put into plotting the ending. It began okay, and the characters had that same something that I've always found with Misty's characters - unfortunately, unlike her other stories, these didn't go anywhere!
There was no further exploration after the almost immediate joining of Ware/ Wara, Xylina, and Thesius, once they'd got together. It was as if, once the three of them had become a unit, it didn't matter to the authors that any more exploration of their emotional lives was really necessary.
There was no growth to either their characters together as a unit, nor their relationships with others, which left them rather sterile to me - in fact, I found that last quarter of the book to be a bit hurried, with rather simplistic action choices that didn't really change anything for the Mazonians, and the fact of their still owning slaves, at all.
It was a very disappointing ending, to an idea that could have been explored much more thoroughly - and with much more of the wit, and sensitivity, I've always expected in Misty's works
It surprised me greatly, to have a book with Misty's name on it, to be this simplistic, too, as every other book I've read of hers, also when she was coauthoring with anybody else, had been ones that I couldn't put down until the very last page because of the multi layering of plot and character.
This, on the other hand, had me doing anything else possible, rather than finish it!
I will keep this book, but purely because it's one that Misty was a part of. But I'll probably skip it, the next time around on my book shelves though.
June 9, 2022
Two esteemed fantasy authors came together and I thought their union could ONLY mean magic. I RAVISHED Piers Anthony books as a kid, after all. The jacket description was too funny; I really thought I had struck gold with this find.
Then the book....wasn't funny in the slightest. Has zero humor or if it does, is so clouded with dreary description and numbing over-exposition it gliiiiiides right on by, delivered in the same dull tone as the rest. OOF the story itself was so off-track it was hard to get through!
*Spoiler*
The first third deals mostly with our protagonist being treated unfairly and incurring an escalating debt (snore).....and, if I may be so bold, behaving absolutely pathetically. Xylina is NOT my idea of an admirable heroine.
Then, there's FINALLY something resembling a point to all this in the form of a quest (which takes its sweet time coming about, halfway in). And then a lot of weirdness....unexpected and just.....strange. It could be perceived as a positive example of polyamory, though not all players were fully consensual at first....does feel Stockholmy....did raise questions and made me lose even more respect for the heroine. Just, ehhhh. I'll leave that alone.
For a world where magical conjuration plays a key role, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of it except for the most mundane of uses. What's the point of creating a story revolving around magic, if the magic is only ever used for practicality? This was a huge miss~ there could have been so much humor, wonder and beauty through their abilities. The execution lacks luster.
It helped somewhat to read Anthony's note at the end~ that the story was inspired by one of the Arabian Nights tales (concerning a woman who's accumulated debt).
In the end, this was just rough.....and rough without a diamond in it, though I ardently searched.
Then the book....wasn't funny in the slightest. Has zero humor or if it does, is so clouded with dreary description and numbing over-exposition it gliiiiiides right on by, delivered in the same dull tone as the rest. OOF the story itself was so off-track it was hard to get through!
*Spoiler*
The first third deals mostly with our protagonist being treated unfairly and incurring an escalating debt (snore).....and, if I may be so bold, behaving absolutely pathetically. Xylina is NOT my idea of an admirable heroine.
Then, there's FINALLY something resembling a point to all this in the form of a quest (which takes its sweet time coming about, halfway in). And then a lot of weirdness....unexpected and just.....strange. It could be perceived as a positive example of polyamory, though not all players were fully consensual at first....does feel Stockholmy....did raise questions and made me lose even more respect for the heroine. Just, ehhhh. I'll leave that alone.
For a world where magical conjuration plays a key role, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of it except for the most mundane of uses. What's the point of creating a story revolving around magic, if the magic is only ever used for practicality? This was a huge miss~ there could have been so much humor, wonder and beauty through their abilities. The execution lacks luster.
It helped somewhat to read Anthony's note at the end~ that the story was inspired by one of the Arabian Nights tales (concerning a woman who's accumulated debt).
In the end, this was just rough.....and rough without a diamond in it, though I ardently searched.
August 4, 2021
I read it my sophomore year of high school and thought it was ok but weird. The story is interesting to read but the way the main character is objectified is unacceptable. She isn’t even really an interesting character, just your average “beautiful but she doesn’t know it” heroine with no personality. Rereading it as an adult, I’ve grown to be disgusted with much of the book, and have occasionally thought that I should reread it only to regret it. I’ve only finished it once and cannot bring myself to finish it again. What an embarrassment of a book.
notable crap:
it’s mentioned main character has a great body because she doesn’t eat?
a weird plot point where the love interest changes genders every time the main character has sex with him
gross descriptions of the main character’s body in a sexualized manner that adds nothing to the plot
ending is forgettable and boring
notable crap:
it’s mentioned main character has a great body because she doesn’t eat?
a weird plot point where the love interest changes genders every time the main character has sex with him
gross descriptions of the main character’s body in a sexualized manner that adds nothing to the plot
ending is forgettable and boring
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2019
Exceptional with one very rushed terrible book-ruining twist. It was going to be 5 stars until the end. Now I feel generous at 4.
You expect Piers Anthony to have his weird awkward erotic moments but this one was poorly done. You cant devote 90% of a book evolving a romantic relationship, then quickly throw in a random 3rd partner in the last chapter and have it be well-received. We dont know this guy and never had a chance to warm up to him, let alone to the whole polygamy concept.
Also, I'm bummed we never get to see the crystal shards meet, thus changing the course of magic. I have so many unanswered questions and there's no sequel to fix any of it.
UGGGHHH, BUT EVERYTHING ELSE WAS SO STINKING GOOOD!!!!!
You expect Piers Anthony to have his weird awkward erotic moments but this one was poorly done. You cant devote 90% of a book evolving a romantic relationship, then quickly throw in a random 3rd partner in the last chapter and have it be well-received. We dont know this guy and never had a chance to warm up to him, let alone to the whole polygamy concept.
Also, I'm bummed we never get to see the crystal shards meet, thus changing the course of magic. I have so many unanswered questions and there's no sequel to fix any of it.
UGGGHHH, BUT EVERYTHING ELSE WAS SO STINKING GOOOD!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2024
I absolutely loved this book. It took you on a wild adventure with twists you didn’t see coming. Love triangles that are so obvious to the reader with the only true evidence being their own feelings. I love how the main character is so different from her peers that she has a better understanding of the people around her than anyone else does. She develops new beliefs and feelings throughout the book. The hardships that she faces while still being of the “chosen population” helps her along with her true understanding. I also love how the author had a wild and vivid imagination when creating monsters and creatures that are like nothing you would see in real life. I wish there was a book to movie adaptation of this but I fear the movie would not do it justice.
December 16, 2022
Fairly good. Weird that the women in this world do not just allow themselves to be like women and fashion themselves as men with bound breasts and short hair. Hair doesn't matter, but???? Binding breasts??? they shouldn't want that because they're the top dogs of this world. If anything, the freedmen should try and stuff their clothing so they have breasts in order to look more like women. Like some women nowadays bind and wear suits to appear more masculine. Idk. Strange.
Also I understand that this is a 90s book, I get why they can't like. Be a throuple. But like. C'mon. Let Ware, Xylina, and Thesius bang it out together.
Also I understand that this is a 90s book, I get why they can't like. Be a throuple. But like. C'mon. Let Ware, Xylina, and Thesius bang it out together.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2023
The plot of this is great and original, but honestly the thing I love it for is it's my go-to "smut" book. I'm not into the super explicit stuff. I will never read 50 Shades and I had to stop A Touch of Darkness when every. single. scene. started to be about sex (yawn, too much of anything gets boring), but this is just the right amount of smut. When I want something light and fluffy and just turning my brain off while still having interest, this is the book I use to turn to every time. I've since discovered Sophie Kinsella, and she fills that role as well now, so this isn't my only go-to anymore, but it's still a fun one.
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