Odd Exam

by Piers Anthony

Odd Exam is a novella from Piers Anthony about an unusual college entrance examination. Entrance exams are taken in the form of a multi-player online game in a semi-virtual reality, with portals to other worlds and alien monsters. For those who qualify, board and tuition will be free; can this be serious?

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook

85 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2013

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

[Bandit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Second pick from my recently acquired older scifi collection and what a dud. Usually novellas are a nice noncommittal way to check out a new author, but based on this lackluster introduction I don't think I'd ever want to read more books by him. Odd Exam is about two 18 year olds, a nondescript boy named Ike and a girl most often described as luscious named Felony who get invited to try out for a secret academy named Pomegranate something. Of course, the kids fall in love, clumsily and immediately. The exam is conducted in a virtual reality setting as something of a game. Silly premise, terribly flat amateurish execution, the entire thing is just inane. The only surprising thing about it is that this is written by an experienced and fairly popular author. Not sure if this was meant to be YA or it's dumbed down or just dumb, but either way an utter waste of time, though not too much time at under 90 pages.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a lot of Piers Anthony in high school and college—The Xanth series, Bio of a Space Pirate, the Incarnations of Immortality. The books were clever and fun and when I stumbled across Odd Exam I wondered why I had stopped reading him. The premise isn’t really that unique—many authors play with some variation on the idea that regular people are put into a magical world. I’ve done it myself in an unpublished novella I wrote in college. So I was especially interested in discovering what Anthony’s take would be on this theme. The ending was pretty obvious early on, but it’s the journey that gets you there and I found that mostly enjoyable. What bothered me—and I can’t get past it—was the stilted dialogue which totally surprised me. I don’t remember this being a problem in the other Piers Anthony books I’ve read. It is possible that this stilted dialogue was on purpose. The two main characters are very smart but have a great deal of difficulty with social interaction. I kept thinking that autistic people I know sometimes speak this way especially when dealing with difficult emotional situations. If it was Anthony’s intention to place his two heroes on the autistic spectrum, I applaud him and apologize for the low rating. But as it is, the dialogue overwhelmed the parts of the story I liked and dampened my overall enjoyment.

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me save you the trouble of reading this garbage. Boy meets girl on a virtual reality tour of a school. Girl, Felony, immediately throws herself at boy, Ike. Boy rejects girl because her breasts are too small. Girl continues to desperately throw herself at boy. Boy decides her personality, which consists entirely of trying to have sex with him, might be more important than her bra size.

On page 12, 'She closed her eyes dreamily, 'I could fall in love with you without half trying,"' after their first kiss. They said hello for the first time like 5 minutes ago and she has already informed him she is a product of rape, insisted that he kiss her and mentioned her breasts half a dozen times.

In the next chapter, this still seems to be less than an hour after they've​ met, Felony says, "This time, when you kiss me, put your hands on my bottom. I've got the girl parts, and they will be yours at such time as you want them." In response to the kiss, Ike thinks, "Felony was smart and motivated; he surely could do worse. If only she had a better body." I think I may have hurt myself rolling my eyes.

Never fear! It's virtual reality remember? Felony can change her appearance to be more "luscious" so Ike will like her. She continues her desperate quest to have sex with him and he refuses because the virtual world isn't private. Repeat previous sentence several times, I'll wait.

"But it's not really the feminine thing to do. For you, I want to be feminine," Felony says referring to her leading the way. Can a man's ego ever recover from following a small breasted woman? It seems so since Ike tells her she is an independent thinker and he is okay with that. How progressive of him.

At the end we are told the school orchestrated their meeting so Ike could fix Felony's "self image, judgment, and emotional instability", and Felony is there to motivate Ike to use his "intelligence verging on genius". His previous girlfriend left him "not because you were unworthy" but because he made her feel inadequate with his perfection​.

The whole book is a male ego stroke. If this had been a paperback I would have thrown it across the room and possibly set fire to it, but my Kindle denied me the pleasure. I'm glad I didn't pay for this trash fire. It was temporarily offered as a free download by the publisher.

[Nancy Hudson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Piers Anthony in my twenties and early thirties and loved his stuff but this seemed very amateurish and thrown together. It was a very short novella so I read it in one sitting. The idea was good but the execution was not. And I see his obsession with sex hasn’t lessened with age. Good grief. Mr. Anthony needs to get with it but at age 86 I don’t hold out much hope. This type of fantasy doesn’t interest me much anymore I’m afraid but it’s good to know.

[Robin Rose Graves · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fun to read but not for the right reasons. Not sure who the intended audience is for this book. The whole thing reads like a daydream I might've had while bored in class in middle school, yet the constant and awkward talk of sex and body parts, including erections, gives it the illusion of being more mature. The Love Interest was incredibly annoying. She could've been potentially interesting had the author explored why she desperately and persistently threw herself at the first boy she talked to, but he doesn't and she remains shallow. Not sure what she even likes about the main character. Within minutes of first meeting, they kiss, but he rejects her because she's "too skinny" and he likes big breasts. She also immediately trauma dumps her tragic backstory, unprompted. An hour later, apropos of nothing, she asks him to have sex with her. I honestly thought a plot twist might be she was actually not even real, but part of the virtual reality to test him, just because nobody actually acts the way she does. She obsessively pursues him throughout the book, while he focuses on getting them both accepted at "Pomegranate University". Eventually, he falls for her over the course of four days. His ultimate character development is learning that big boobs aren't everything.

This book could've been decent if it just committed to the whole "virtual reality sex" storyline and made it an erotica instead of being this sexually awkward confused pseudo-deep maybe(????) YA/MG adventure book??

[James Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a relatively quick read and I am rating it quickly as well. The rating might be different if I sat back and reflected on this more deeply. I don't think that this book is meant for that. It is not a "deep" or "dense" read, imo.

What it was for me MOSTLY was a fun read. I do not know if it is part of a series or not. It certainly COULD be, as it was left with a possibility of future adventures and it seemed to be set up for that. But this book had a clear ending and there was no cliffhanger, as such.

The two main characters did not have a ton of depth, but they were like-able enough. Some authors seem to be SO focused on giving their characters huge flaws and weaknesses to (I guess) make them more relatable, that many times, they just wind up frustrating me and getting me mad at their stupidity. They have them behave in ways or make constant poor decisions that to me are just not believable. That doesn't happen here. These characters are mostly cool and you actually root for them and want them to do well.

The world building in this is somewhat minimal, but it is sufficient. The action drives the story, which I am quite fine with. This kind of book is not going to solve any of the world problems. But it is a nice escape for a couple of hours and sometimes that is all you really need.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd Exam is an odd book. Reminded me a lot of Ready Player One, but laden with uncomfortable teenage sex talk, weird talking animals, and given the author, a heavy dose of magical fantasy.
The premise and early chapters are quite good, but then the quality declines as the tedious adventuring and awful dialogue dominate.
Best for hardcore Anthony fans, but everyone else should probably skip this one and read one his many better works instead.

[Viva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead. Piers Anthony is one of my very favorite authors. When he's good, he's good. When he's bad he stinks. This is one of the bad ones. The writing is simplistic and this is one of his puerile infantile books. Not that he can't write great romantic or erotic (cf Anthonology) work. But when the protagonist started to get sexy it was just infantile and silly. I dnf'd it right there, not because of the se

[Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audio version, story was not really helped by the narrator, seeming somewhat stilted. The story was light entertainment, but I didn't really think the emotions of the characters were truly believable.

[Maura Muller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Premise was very interesting but it was executed poorly.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star is too many.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical, almost vintage Piers. Too short to really go far, and without any of the real engagement felt by some novels.

[Cyberpope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof positivethat Piers Anthony writes good standalone novels, too.

As always, excellent character development, a rich plot, & lots to keep you thinking/guessing right til the end.

[Taylor Penrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked it up and did not put it down.

I had read this prior. Probably from a used book store or the library. It was a good read and I always hope for more. Thanks.

[K. Counihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Story

This story has unusual characters that play well together in the story world. I really liked this book. The characters attach themselves to you in a good way.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is almost fantasy fantasy adventure with some sciencey explanations I expect in sci-fi
There's virtual reality, an aggressive "heroine", unusual animals, a virtually-deadly competition, and a mysterious competition overseer.

Felony is a bit much, with painfully low self esteem / body image. The writing involving her definitely falls under "menwritingwomen". The dialogue is rather abrupt, brusk, but with mainly just two speaking characters, that could be attributed to intentional character design. World building is surprisingly dense given how short the story is.

It's similarity with Xanth is limited, but still seems very Piers Anthony to me, like a spin off of Eroma (but significantly less graphic).

[J. Alston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, interesting plot mired in a weird, overly sexual side story. I wanted to know what was going on with the school, and visually I was engaged, but every time they mentioned how luscious Felony could make herself I wanted to pull my hair out, and dear God was the romance unnecessary. It seemed that at every turn we were reminded that Felony wasn't hot but was easy and Ike struggled against his better judgement to not jump her bones in every chapter. Like the action completely stopped for Felony to beg Ike to give to her one real quick, but our valient hero wanted to save himself for the true reward. Just super weird.

[KnitsorKnots · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found Xanth in highschool and fell in love. I haven't really kept up with the books but I considered Piers Anthony an author I liked. When this digital book popped up on a good sale I didn't hesitate. Unfortunately I just couldn't get through it. I've forced myself through many a bad book but apparently everyone has limits. Not sure what happened here but the characters were not engaging, the dialogue was eyerolling, and I didn't care to find out how it ends.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely one of his weaker works. The story is heavily padded with repetition. It's too lame for adults, but a bit too racy for teens. I suspect that had it not been written by Piers Anthony, it would never have been published.

[Marissa Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way cheesy, forced, and not that interesting.