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Bio of a Space Tyrant #3
Politician
From a New York Times–bestselling A former refugee and mercenary campaigns for president of Jupiter—even as his rival tries to brainwash him. He awoke in a tiny lightless cell, groping for memory . . . memory that had been erased. Hope Hubris, Jupiter governor, progressive populist, warrior hero, and presidential candidate . . . a “mem-washed” tool of the enemy. And if his captors’ plan worked, Hope would destroy his own political career, leaving the fate of his planet in the hands of its corrupt presidential incumbent—Tocsin. But Hope Hubris had a destiny to fulfill. He had the cunning to discover code words that could reactivate his mind . . . the strength to resist addiction to their drugs . . . the power to win the support of his countrymen, and finally, the courage to make an agonizing sacrifice that would ensure his planet’s future and his own destiny . . . Tyrant of Jupiter.
478 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1985
79 people are currently reading
927 people want to read
About the author
Piers Anthony
441 books4,215 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 47 reviews
September 26, 2017
Good start to this one, a narrative technique to keep the story coming that worked well, although not half confusing when you're falling asleep. probably the best of the whole lot apart from the first one.
March 21, 2012
The set-up of the book is strong. The main character loses memories and chapters alternate between him trying to recover those memories, and chapters detailing the events/memories he does recall. But this book was a bit of a drag as I found myself skimming. Politics very finely veiled as they echo political events of the 80's. Also the story became repititious in nature. Perhaps also the reality of politicians being unable to survive without special interest money and bald faced promisies is a downer to read as well.
October 19, 2022
There were parts of this that I really enjoyed (Hope's relationship with Thorley & Hope's rise to power). However, there are parts that I found unbelievable. The thin veil between the world in the book and the real world didn't work for me.
February 23, 2025
This is a review of the 1999 edition, which includes a special afterward by Anthony about the influences that went into the writing of this book. He notes that this was the last novel that ever started off life in pencil. Afterwards, everything would be written on computer. He was also working on not one, not two, but THREE other books while writing this one (two Xanth and one Incarnations of Immortality). Anthony was nothing if not prolific.
This was first published in 1985, so things like the Internet are conspicuous by their absence. However, even science fiction writers can't think of everything.
This is the worst book in the series so far, partly due to long, slow chunks of text trying to explain the science of the time, but mostly because it was about politics. Primarily, American politics. There is a good reason why most Americans know eff all about the politics in their own country -- because it's boring as hell. Anthony, British by birth but had been living in America for decades when he wrote this, knows more about Anerican politics than most of the natives.
Our Protagonist is classified as a liberal, but is sure to do something that will piss off modern day American liberals and conservatives. This book mentions issues that were prominent in the early 1980s -- and sadly, most are still relevant today. The United States of Jupiter is patterned identically to the United States, so issues like privatized medicine and the Electoral College were sad to read, since not even 600 years in the future could Americans figure out what to do. It was also painful to see that out of all of Anthony's characters, it had to be President Tocsin was the one that became reality.
Our Protagonist is at times numb in his memoirs this time around, which does get explained away at the end, but made for some tiresome reading at times. There was also some over the top bits of melodrama that left a very strong taste of cheese in my mouth.
And one more thing ... a flat tax would never work.
This was first published in 1985, so things like the Internet are conspicuous by their absence. However, even science fiction writers can't think of everything.
This is the worst book in the series so far, partly due to long, slow chunks of text trying to explain the science of the time, but mostly because it was about politics. Primarily, American politics. There is a good reason why most Americans know eff all about the politics in their own country -- because it's boring as hell. Anthony, British by birth but had been living in America for decades when he wrote this, knows more about Anerican politics than most of the natives.
Our Protagonist is classified as a liberal, but is sure to do something that will piss off modern day American liberals and conservatives. This book mentions issues that were prominent in the early 1980s -- and sadly, most are still relevant today. The United States of Jupiter is patterned identically to the United States, so issues like privatized medicine and the Electoral College were sad to read, since not even 600 years in the future could Americans figure out what to do. It was also painful to see that out of all of Anthony's characters, it had to be President Tocsin was the one that became reality.
Our Protagonist is at times numb in his memoirs this time around, which does get explained away at the end, but made for some tiresome reading at times. There was also some over the top bits of melodrama that left a very strong taste of cheese in my mouth.
And one more thing ... a flat tax would never work.
March 2, 2017
Weak, hackneyed and disappointing.
A painfully formulaic and uninspiring allegorical cliche paralleling the American political structure and process (of any decade since 1960), Volume 3 trots out all of the worst "novice writer parlor tricks" that make reading painful: future technology that mirrors ancient (i.e. steam locomotives but with a 'futuristic' power source), a geo-political structure so cloned from the US that the author uses current US State nicknames for Jovian state names, and convenient plot devices such as memory wipes and convenient coded messages. Even the "flashback" style of storytelling is tired and disconnected.
If this wasn't #3 in a 5-book arc I'd tell you to pass. It doesn't stand alone as a book, and even as part of a pentology, I suspect it could be dropped without really harming the story line.
A painfully formulaic and uninspiring allegorical cliche paralleling the American political structure and process (of any decade since 1960), Volume 3 trots out all of the worst "novice writer parlor tricks" that make reading painful: future technology that mirrors ancient (i.e. steam locomotives but with a 'futuristic' power source), a geo-political structure so cloned from the US that the author uses current US State nicknames for Jovian state names, and convenient plot devices such as memory wipes and convenient coded messages. Even the "flashback" style of storytelling is tired and disconnected.
If this wasn't #3 in a 5-book arc I'd tell you to pass. It doesn't stand alone as a book, and even as part of a pentology, I suspect it could be dropped without really harming the story line.
September 28, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. So far, the best in the series. Hope seemed to go through a lot of development. He was less of a womanizer, something that I don’t care for in this series. He seemed to have a good conscience and made me interested in seeing him succeed. Also, I enjoyed that this one had a slight mystery. Who kidnapped him? Why? Who is Hopie’s mom? The story gave me a lot to think about. It made me want to keep reading to have my questions answered. Lastly, the politics felt very real and relatable. It was engaging to hear his views, how policies would be enacted, and the unconventional ways of trying to show who he and his morals are. Definitely regained my interest with this book and will continue onto the next!
Read
June 25, 2019The third of the original five volumes of this series (Anthony would append a sixth volume fifteen years later, which I haven't read). In this one, the hero - Hope Hubris - is challenged by Tocsin, a political rival who, given the mid-1980s date of its publication, bears a lot of similarity to Richard Nixon. Of course, there are romantic involvements, culminating in a marriage, as well as suitable daring-do drama, this time involving a kidnap and potential brainwashing. Not remembered at all.
July 15, 2018
It started off a little rough, but after the beginning of Refugee (the first book in this series), I suppose this was not so bad. After the opening, I got swept up in it. Some of the things that Hope Hubris (the main character) did as a politician...I wonder if any of it would work in real life... Ah, the world may never know! It was a great read.
dont-read
January 7, 2020This read really dry to me, like a description of something that happened, versus a compelling story. Didn't like the awful in the first book, the second was okay, and this being really dry doesn't compel me to finish it out.
July 19, 2021
I know he says he modeled Tocsin after Nixon, but it could even more have been Trump. This book speaks to what was wrong with our political system back then, and even more to what is wrong with it today.
November 21, 2023
Had trouble with this one, boring and tedious and very political propaganda feeling which I suppose is the point considering its called "politician" I still enjoy the bio series but this novel is the low point of the series
May 18, 2017
Dirty, but brilliant.
February 3, 2018
I absolutely love this series of books! I began reading them when they were first published but only made it through #3. With #4, I will be entering into new territory in the story of Hope Hubris!
August 27, 2022
This is an interesting story which has a clear US tinge to it and even has parallels with the Trump saga long after this book was planned.
September 25, 2024
One word = puppet
March 22, 2017
was a rather slow start, but it tied a lot of the previous books together. overall good read
April 22, 2015
Calligula of the stars?
3 May 2012
First thing I have to mention is the idea that Hope Hubris is the Calligula of the Stars. Personally I am actually beginning to wonder what Anthony actually knows about Ancient History and the early Roman Emperors. Calligua was little more than an insane monster that was more interested in indulging in sensuality than actually running an empire. That is probably the main reason the Praetorian Guard ended up sticking a knife into him in the same way the senate stuck a knife into Julius Ceaser. However Ceaser was popular; Calligula was mad.
Maybe it has something to do with all of the sex that Hope indulges in, but once again there are limits to Hope's character that did not bind Calligua. I will not go into details and if anybody would like to know more about Calligua then I recommend reading Suetonius's The Twelve Ceasers. He is in there and Suetonius pulls no punches.
It is interesting looking over the reviews to see what people are saying about this particular book, and many of them refer to the politics of the 80s as the driving force behind this novel. One suggested that maybe Anthony is looking into the future, but personally I think not. Anthony has not shown any talent in any of his other books to be prescient, and I do not think that he is starting here. If anything, this book, along with the rest, is a badly written allegory that focuses on current political events at the time and proceeded to become obsolete with the fall of the Berlin Wall. I do hope that these books are not used in the future in the same way that Gulliver's Travels is used today (being an allegory of English Politics in the mid 18th century as opposed to a children's story).
The book begins with Hope waking up in a room as a prisoner and with many of his memories erased. It turns out that he has been captured by his political opponents in an attempt to brainwash him so that he might put their agendas in place. Hope has risen to the top of the navy, and upon doing so, he retires and enters politics. It is strange though because this does not necessarily seem to be in line with American politics of the time. Hope is clearly Hispanic but I do not know of any Hispanic politicians of the 80s, particularly during the Reagan era. However, it is not a period of history with which I am all that familiar.
Yes, Anthony has changed the style but others have suggested that the books have all become quite the same once you get to this point. This is not surprising though because I suspect that Anthony was already intending on writing a five book series, with each of the books exploring a specific stage of Hope's life. It is the next book that we begin to see a lot of the reforms that Hope makes, but here it is about him remembering who he is, and fighting off the corporate interests that are threatened by his meteoric rise to power.
3 May 2012
First thing I have to mention is the idea that Hope Hubris is the Calligula of the Stars. Personally I am actually beginning to wonder what Anthony actually knows about Ancient History and the early Roman Emperors. Calligua was little more than an insane monster that was more interested in indulging in sensuality than actually running an empire. That is probably the main reason the Praetorian Guard ended up sticking a knife into him in the same way the senate stuck a knife into Julius Ceaser. However Ceaser was popular; Calligula was mad.
Maybe it has something to do with all of the sex that Hope indulges in, but once again there are limits to Hope's character that did not bind Calligua. I will not go into details and if anybody would like to know more about Calligua then I recommend reading Suetonius's The Twelve Ceasers. He is in there and Suetonius pulls no punches.
It is interesting looking over the reviews to see what people are saying about this particular book, and many of them refer to the politics of the 80s as the driving force behind this novel. One suggested that maybe Anthony is looking into the future, but personally I think not. Anthony has not shown any talent in any of his other books to be prescient, and I do not think that he is starting here. If anything, this book, along with the rest, is a badly written allegory that focuses on current political events at the time and proceeded to become obsolete with the fall of the Berlin Wall. I do hope that these books are not used in the future in the same way that Gulliver's Travels is used today (being an allegory of English Politics in the mid 18th century as opposed to a children's story).
The book begins with Hope waking up in a room as a prisoner and with many of his memories erased. It turns out that he has been captured by his political opponents in an attempt to brainwash him so that he might put their agendas in place. Hope has risen to the top of the navy, and upon doing so, he retires and enters politics. It is strange though because this does not necessarily seem to be in line with American politics of the time. Hope is clearly Hispanic but I do not know of any Hispanic politicians of the 80s, particularly during the Reagan era. However, it is not a period of history with which I am all that familiar.
Yes, Anthony has changed the style but others have suggested that the books have all become quite the same once you get to this point. This is not surprising though because I suspect that Anthony was already intending on writing a five book series, with each of the books exploring a specific stage of Hope's life. It is the next book that we begin to see a lot of the reforms that Hope makes, but here it is about him remembering who he is, and fighting off the corporate interests that are threatened by his meteoric rise to power.
January 4, 2015
The third in the series sees Hope Hubris go from the navy to become the leader of the United States of Jupiter, fending off various attempts to undermine him, kill him, and brainwash him.
The essence of the book is a satire on the Cold War and, particularly on the USA's political process. Jupiter is a thinly veiled USA, Saturn a thinly veiled USSR.
The narrative structure is different in this book to the two previous, in that it shifts back and forth between Hope captured by some, initially unknown enemy, and him regaining his memory piece by piece. He manages not to rape anyone in this book which is a relief, indeed there is almost no reference at all to rape which makes this book rather unique so far in the series.
Still there is plenty of progressive racial and gender politics on show and, as Hubris is essentially a liberal, one constantly roots for him.
I did have to laugh at the way the author manages to get Hubris to use coded butt squeezes to communicate in secret with his fellow prisoner.
Onto number 4.
The essence of the book is a satire on the Cold War and, particularly on the USA's political process. Jupiter is a thinly veiled USA, Saturn a thinly veiled USSR.
The narrative structure is different in this book to the two previous, in that it shifts back and forth between Hope captured by some, initially unknown enemy, and him regaining his memory piece by piece. He manages not to rape anyone in this book which is a relief, indeed there is almost no reference at all to rape which makes this book rather unique so far in the series.
Still there is plenty of progressive racial and gender politics on show and, as Hubris is essentially a liberal, one constantly roots for him.
I did have to laugh at the way the author manages to get Hubris to use coded butt squeezes to communicate in secret with his fellow prisoner.
Onto number 4.
February 10, 2012
Read this book and remember it was written in 1983-86... No, it wasn't written in this century, but a generation before.
Does that make Piers Anthony someone able to see the future? Or are we simply fated to repeat history over and over with each generation, never learning from it?
Sure some things have changed and changed drastically, but so much has not. The battles over balancing the budget made me laugh and cry. Talk of the recesion, the disappearing middle class, drugs, unemployment and resonanted strongly. If it wasn't the very thinly valed references to the Cold War world, you'd almost think he'd written it recently, and not 25'ish years ago...
Kind of scary and sad. Let's hope we don't end up with out own "Hope" in the near future...
Does that make Piers Anthony someone able to see the future? Or are we simply fated to repeat history over and over with each generation, never learning from it?
Sure some things have changed and changed drastically, but so much has not. The battles over balancing the budget made me laugh and cry. Talk of the recesion, the disappearing middle class, drugs, unemployment and resonanted strongly. If it wasn't the very thinly valed references to the Cold War world, you'd almost think he'd written it recently, and not 25'ish years ago...
Kind of scary and sad. Let's hope we don't end up with out own "Hope" in the near future...
October 5, 2007
This whole series was interesting because it followed a character through several stages of his life. With the blindfold off, you read about the character's shortcomings and how he feels about them himself. It humanizes the hero to the point that you understand and accept what he's done, but do not always like him. Basically, he's one of us with all our foibles. He's just a somewhat ordinary man raised himself to achievements in extraordinary circumstances.
June 12, 2012
The second book in the series surpasses the first book in my opinion. The protagonist was a little easier to relate to though he was still somewhat silly in nature considering his environment and not wise to the situation he was in by any means. I find it difficult to believe that he rose to the level he did considering he just doesn't seem all that bright.
Overall a decent book that made me look forward to the next installment.
Overall a decent book that made me look forward to the next installment.
September 30, 2012
The Space Tyrant series gets better and better!
Brilliantly written with Hope telling us his latest story through the use of flashbacks and memory recall mixed in with his real time situation...although this wasn't immediately clear after the first chapter. I wondered if I had missed something!
Yep, there's a lot of politics in here and not too much action (there is some) but the main theme of the story is Hope's current predicament and how he deals with it. And a jolly good story it is!
Brilliantly written with Hope telling us his latest story through the use of flashbacks and memory recall mixed in with his real time situation...although this wasn't immediately clear after the first chapter. I wondered if I had missed something!
Yep, there's a lot of politics in here and not too much action (there is some) but the main theme of the story is Hope's current predicament and how he deals with it. And a jolly good story it is!
November 24, 2015
Hope Hubris has now been a refugee, a high-ranking officer in the Navy, and this book has him in the political realm. There are lots of parallels to current day issues, and Hope is, as always, a fascinating character. The book is made more interesting as you flash between current time and him being held captive--brainwashed and tortured.
A good read.
A good read.
October 18, 2014
I liked this as a teen, but re-reading it some decades later I found myself unable to finish it. Liked the initial set up and the shout out to some basic cryptography, even like the (very) thinly veiled analogies to 80s geopolitics, but I felt the way the characters acted and talked was too unbelievable for me.
September 9, 2020
In the beginning it was very confusing, switching in the chapters between views. Once you settle in and realise why the views are changing that becomes less disconcerting. I still felt that this book lacked something compared to the first two from the series.
The politician side of Hope's life is rather humdrum, punctuated by the more intriguing chapters detailing his imprisonment.
The politician side of Hope's life is rather humdrum, punctuated by the more intriguing chapters detailing his imprisonment.
September 16, 2015
Another good book in this series. It is different in style and format than the previous two books, but it was still a very good read.
It was interesting to read the paralells in the political climate of the 60s-80s that he was writing about with what is happening today. Just goes to show that nothing really changes, and it makes no difference who's in office, we'll all bitch about something...
It was interesting to read the paralells in the political climate of the 60s-80s that he was writing about with what is happening today. Just goes to show that nothing really changes, and it makes no difference who's in office, we'll all bitch about something...
December 27, 2016
BIO of a Space Tyrant series was one of the best, hard core sci-fi reads when I was in school, and has always remained one of my favorite stories. Loved the arc of the character from book one to book five...so amazing to develop a character so much over a series like this. It was really brave in retrospect, but so glad he did it this way. Was a brilliant, thoughtful, well-written series.
October 18, 2022
This effort by Piers Anthony is truly one of the darkest, most violent, and frightening trilogies out there. I got the first book and spent 10 years trying to find the 2nd and 3rd (before the internet) just to see if the protagonist would be able to survive.
The triumphant end of the initial trilogy, this book is filled with intrigue and the politics of the moons of Jupiter.
The triumphant end of the initial trilogy, this book is filled with intrigue and the politics of the moons of Jupiter.
September 26, 2010
Hope wakes up in a prison cell, and is being brainwashed and sexually compromised. He triggers a series of flashbacks that bring back his memories of his political career culminating in his run for president.
Warning, a lot of sex in this book.
Warning, a lot of sex in this book.
June 12, 2011
I loved this entire series and reread it several times, though not in the last decade. My next reread, I will provide a detailed review. The evolution of the character and of the political changes he accomplishes are so beautifully modeled after the very problems we wrestle with on Earth each day.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews