Under A Velvet Cloak

Incarnations of Immortality #8

by Piers Anthony

Nox, the Incarnation of Night and Mistress of Secrets...

It is the year 500 AD. Kerena, a beautiful young girl living near King Arthur's Camelot, is apprenticed to Morely the Seer. Morely teaches her fantastic magic, but when he mysteriously disappears, Kerena finds herself out on the street and must resort to prostitution to survive.

Kerena prospers as a skilled courtesan until she is taken into service by Morgan le Fey, the sorceress sister of King Arthur. Kerena's knowledge of magic grows as she is required to carry out nefarious deeds for the evil Lady Fey.

One of her missions is to seduce Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table, to prevent him from locating the Holy Grail. But Gawain and Kerena fall in love and she conceives his child, a child she discovers is cursed to die an early death.

Using her Seer abilities, Kerena tries to locate the fabled Incarnations of Immortality, seeking their aid in removing the taint from her baby. Rebuffed by all seven major Incarnations, Kerena vows revenge.

But revenge against such mighty immortals would require an even greater power...

(Book 8 of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series.)

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Paranormal

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2007

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

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seventeen years. After And Eternity was published, all was quiet with the Incarnations of Immortality series until 2007. Piers Anthony then published Under a Velvet Cloak and I was freaking thrilled. It took a few years, but I finally got around to getting the book and, in anticipation, I just re-read the entire series so I would be refreshed on all the details. Seven books and around 2100 pages I read just in preparation to read this one.

Don’t.

I still have carryover teenage fandom for Piers Anthony and his books, but there were parts where this book is just disturbing. And I have a job where, on a day-to-day basis, I deal with some seriously fucking twisted things. But this book has taken the Incarnations of Immortality series into a weird, child/teenage temptress sex romp. Seriously, like every other page. It’s Incarnation porn.

Clearly Anthony has his mind on other things at this point in his career. For those of you who have fond memories of the original series, I’d recommend leaving this book alone and keep those memories fond.

[Phill Coxon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many years back I read the original series and so was surprised and interested to stumble on this latest novel in the series.

Unfortunately I now pretty much wish I hadn't found it.

I started reading the book on a plane flight a few days ago and within 20 minutes things started to get awkward when the 12-13 year old protagonist starts having sex. Bucket loads of sex.

There I was sitting 10,000 feet in the air suddenly uncomfortably aware of the person next to me - hoping they weren't sneaking glances at what I was reading. Who knows what they'd think if they glanced at some of these pages out of context.

Right from chapter one the book continues to follow the trend of shag everything.

Seriously, it goes sort of like this...

Hi there! It's nice to meet you for the first time. Let's have sex.

That sex was great, let's do it four more times.

Okay, I should be going and... oh what the heck, do me again big boy.

Right, I'm off to the library to research something. Hey are you the librarian? That's AWESOME because we're gonna have sex!

Was your trip the library a success? Sure was - let's do it to celebrate.

We have to travel down this road and "oh noes" there are four nasty robbers who refuse to let us past. It's ok though - I can have sex with them. TWICE. EACH. Then they'll let us pass.

Hi there - I've just arrived in the future from the distant past and need a local guide, will you help me? Only if I register as your sex companion? Right On! But I can't stay in the future long because I have to travel back in time to hook up with an Angel, but I'll pop back and do you again on a regular basis too!

Wow look more new people to meet. Can't wait to bang them.

We need to visit the ghost carnival but the ghosts won't let us in until... you guessed it... we have ghost sex with them. MANY OF THEM.

Sex with men. Sex with women. Sex with demons. Sex with Incarnations. Sex with vampires. Sex with Ghosts.

I've just had sex with you but you're still up for more more so I'm letting one of the ghosts co-habitating me take over control of my body so you can have sex with her too - that way it feels like banging two different women for the price of one! YEAH!

Hello. Sex. Goodbye. Sex. You're my friend. Sex. You're my enemy and I swear to do whatever it takes to thwart your plans to destroy all parallel universes and so murdering countless billions (trillions?) of people... but let's have sex first. TWICE.

Seriously... if you think I'm kidding, I'm not. The entire book is like this. It's possibly worth picking up to get a feel for how truly weird it is.

The plot itself was interesting in the most part but by the final chapter I was so sick of the endless sex that I started to skim and missed some of the context.

Ah... the final battle. Our protagonist Rena ends up in a showdown against another powerful Incarnation. The survival of every parallel universe at stake. The rules of the battle? Capture the other Incarnation, pin them down and have sex with them for more than 60 seconds.

I am not kidding.

Oh... did I mention that the Incarnation she battles is her brother?

However, the single most cringe-worthy moment in the book is about half way through where Rena is traveling with a male companion (Gordon) who is not sexually attracted to women. She has just had a son and he asks if he can hold the new baby.

Rena is momentarily concerned. Gordon explains that the baby is perfectly safe with him because he's only sexually interested in boys that are sex to eight years old, not babies.

W.T.F?

Really?

It couldn't have been written so that Gordon was only attracted to adult men? Instead he is specifically written to be a pedophile?

Sigh.

No mention of the use of sexual protection. No mention of sexual disease. Everyone is banging away with total disregard for whether characters might get pregnant and the welfare of the mother / future children.

Unfortunately the weird nature of this writing focusing so much on sex detracts from the overall story.

Read it, but be prepared to cringe. Often.

[John Bullock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has caused me considerable worry. You see, Piers Anthony was the first author I really read (for my own enjoyment, rather than, say, school), and I loved it. My first book was On A Pale Horse, and I estimate that the following twelve books were all by Mr. Anthony. So, why does this book worry me?

Well, simply put, it is terrible.

I gave it two stars, but I have to admit that one of those stars stems from this novel's association with the other Incarnations of Immortality novels, and that is where the worry comes into play. I really enjoyed those books, so much so that, up to now, seventeen years later, I held them firmly in my mind as some of my favourite books. I was young, though, and now I am worried that my fond memory of those first novels is rose tinted by the filter of a child's mind that hadn't read much and had no concept of what makes a good story.

I still have the other Incarnations novels (some of them look a little battered) but I haven't revisited them since my early teens, and now I'm not so sure I should.

Under a Velvet Cloak does not fall flat because it continues a story that should have been left in peace. Indeed, I would have been OK with more Incarnations, perhaps some minor ones. It falls flat from a technical standpoint. The writing style seems rough, like a very detailed outline, rather than a novel. Mr. Anthony moves from occurrence to occurrence with all the fluidity of a dry rock. Certain parts felt rushed. For instance, I understand that the author did not want to rehash events of the previous novels, but some important events spin past so briefly that their significance in this story is lost.

Then there is the sex.

I'll admit to being a little too young when I read the other novels in this series, where sex is often described in more detail than any eleven year old should be reading, but this novel contains so much sex that it is almost punctuation. One night, I read thirty or so pages in one session, and genuinely couldn't remember if I'd read a page that didn't mention sex. But it's not only the quantity of sex, but also the quality. Very quickly, the sexual encounters become bullet point events, lacking any description beyond "They had sex".

The novel as a whole puts me in mind of an unfinished story in the second or third draft portion of its life, a couple of drafts and an editor's scrutiny away from prime-time readiness. I don't know much about the publisher of this novel, but as its called "Mundania Press", I imagine that Piers Anthony had a hand in setting it up at least, and perhaps the editors who work there were reluctant to tell their boss, a man who is notorious for falling out with his editors, that his novel needed a lot of work done.

I probably would be too.

But now I find myself in a situation where an author I loved has released a novel I was excited to read, which turned out to be very poor, and I am worried that if I go back and read those first novels, they will all have been this bad. I don't think that, truthfully, I'm more convinced that this was a one off flop, but I am worried.

[Adam Duclos · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this final book of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. I was overjoyed when I discovered that at some point he had added another followup to the series, and there was some interesting stuff going on in there, but it's impossible to overlook the books many flaws.

Before going further, here's the worst: The main characters have a scene midway through the book (and again at the end) where they're chatting about how rape, murder in cold blood, and pedophilia are okay and should be accepted. They are not okay, and they should not be accepted. Not good at all.

So, what about the rest of the book?

Lets start with the main series... Books 1-5. I read them long ago, and they blew my mind. The very first few chapters of the first book really draw you in... It's amazing. Now, that's how I remember it... It's important to note that as you read books in the genre, your tastes continually evolve. It may be that I could go back to that book, which I read in middle school, and find many of the same problems that I do now, its just that I didn't have anything to compare them to. However, those books were fresh, and the first 5 formed a coherent series.

In the first five books, we learn about a world filled with both science and modern technology, with aspects of life governed by powerful immortal entities who hold the reins of office. There were seven major ones, with 5 of them (Death, Time, Fate, War, and Nature) trying to do their jobs with interference from the 6th, Evil, currently known as Satan. Each of the first 5 books were awesome. The sixth book shook things up by revealing that the actions of Satan in the first books were motivated by good! It revealed Satan's backstory, which was a fun read, with the only downside being a boring retelling of the events of the first 5 books as the story began to catch up to the current time. The Seventh book started to lose focus, introducing Nox, Incarnation of Night, with an expanded view of the Incarnations, but mostly featuring a fetch quest, and introducing sex with minors as a major plot point, which was not good at all, although I didn't notice this at the time, being roughly the same age as the characters at the time of reading.

So, all in all, a fairly cool end to the series, and for a long time Piers Anthony refused to write any more books in the series. He had introduced a number of lesser incarnations over time, but he didn't want to explore them. A long time later though, he came out with...

Book 8, Under a Velvet Cloak! The premise is that events of the first 7 books resulted in the best possible universe, but there were many other parallel universes, and they all ended in destruction somehow! But, they could identify that all the changes always revolved around a single person, and they could send a ghost through to a single other parallel to inhabit that person and guide them along the right paths. They sent Jolie the ghost, and she inhabited Kerena the village girl who was also a Seer who could forsee the future. Long story short here, she was guided to meet a guy, the guy was abducted, so she became a prostitute for a while, had a baby with Sir Gowain from the round table, found the first guy, became a vampire while still pregnant, which cursed the baby. Then, in an effort to fix the baby, she went to all the incarnations in turn, but was rebuffed each time. She vowed vengeance and figured out how to become Nox! She went back to confront God, but he was already tuned out, and instead she made a deal with Gabriel. Time passed, and eventually all the things from the first seven books happened, except now it was revealed that it was all her doing! She had turned Lilah into a demoness, which is why she was around to mess with Parry, and it was she who planted the idea for Satan's entire wager in book 6, and therefore it was she who had revenge on the incarnations, replacing them all, starting with switching from Lucifer to Parry/Satan, then all the others, ending with Orlene. Except, near the end, this version of Nox went off the rails. From the beginning, she had been having sex with a super magical guy - so for about 1500 years - without knowing why. Turns out he's the bad guy... Erebus, incarnation of Darkness! Now there's a new view of the world... the timelines are arranged like a giant tree with three branches. On one side, the branch represents all timelines with just science, on the other side just magic, and in the middle? Both. That's where they are. That entire branch of timelines was made when Erebus and Nox, now the first two incarnations, boned, and Nox immediately had magical swirl babies who either became incarnations or full on timelines. However, Nox was duplicated in each timeline, but Erebus wasn't, and he was pissed enough to go around killing off all the timelines. So, Erebus told Nox that by following Jolie's lead to save their timeline, she was inadvertently killing off her friends! So, she saved her friends, assuming she'd be able to fix it later, but couldn't, because of Erebus's interference. Erebus explained that his goal was to reduce the entire middle branch of timelines to elemental chaos, then remake them so that he could be an integral part of them, and if it didn't work, he'd just destroy them again and start over as many times as it took. In the end, Nox had a sex contest with Erebus for the fate of the universe, with the Nox of the prime timeline overseeing it, and Nox won. Erebus was forced to have sex with Nox, so that she could create a new Incarnation of Immortality position (Dream) to put the baby Gawain, which was Orlene's baby, but also descended from Kerena's baby long ago. That happened, then everyone had a sex party to celebrate.

Problems I had with this book:

Again, pedophilia is said to be okay in this book, rape is okay in this book, and murder in cold blood is okay in this book. Not good at all. Oh, and that's aside from Kerena being 14 and entering into an adult relationship with a man, which also happened in book 7, now that I think about it. Honestly, book 7 was pretty screwed up too.

Again, as in book 7, men are shown to be in a constant state of barely holding their sexual desires in check, and any given moment that they aren't actively raping someone is a gift.

Story-wise, it was a rehash of Book 6, only now, in a case of direct one upsmanship, Kerena/Nox was the mover and shaker and Parry/Satan was shown to be a patsy, in a take down of a superior book. The writing is pretty terrible, with no-one expressing any emotion, even as they have sex. Everyone in 5th century Britain comes across as an autistic savant.

Sex is nonstop, yet oddly clinical. It's also treated as the only way our main character can get anything, and almost always from a man. Here's how it comes across... It's like... If you see someone with a stack of ten sandwiches for no reason, and then you see another person with ten of a different kind of sandwiches, and neither of them need that many sandwiches in the first place, and so they decide to trade sandwiches, and eat each other's sandwiches, maybe while in an odd position or wearing an interesting backpack, but they're also talking with their mouths full about trading cards or automobile stats or something at the same time. Just replace trading cards with vampire lore, automobile stats with time travel, and backpacks with, sadly, backpacks. Kerena/Nox just can't get anything done if she can't offer to bone for it.

Kerena is a dishrag of a main character. She has the magical ability to see the future, but never uses it without being prompted... and she's very rarely prompted. This could have solved most of her problems right there. Then she learned a little bit of magic, with the promise that that was just the beginning, but then never learned anything new! Then she became a vampire, but that was lame too... she didn't get any new powers out of it except for immortality, and she didn't need that since she became Nox and became immortal soon after... it was literally only as a reason to have a source for the curse for her baby. She found the Nox swirl, and had to shake her naked butt on a stage for her vamp friends to merge with it (even though she was in Britain and the swirl was in Australia). Once she was Nox, she only gained two powers, the ability to make copies of herself, and the ability to look at someone and learn one of their secrets. That's it. The story skipped ahead and claimed Nox was now crazy powerful and knowledgeable, but it turned out she hadn't learned anything of value, nor had she gotten any new powers or abilities. And even at the end, she could only ever get anything done by having sex.

Yes, Nox was demystified, and not in a good way.

In fact, even as Nox, Kerena was pretty dumb. Why was their timeline imperiled? Because she found out that when she visited a vamp friend of hers, it resulted in the death of the rest of the vamps. Later, when she visited her last remaining vamp friend, someone saw them through a window, decided they were evil, and had the vamp killed later. That time she just went with it and changed it. For every change, she only ever saw two scenarios. However, she could time travel, and she was a Seer! She could have just jumped back and had her friend close the window, crisis averted.

Speaking of which, the vamp coven getting killed could have been averted by Morely, the other seer, using his powers. Hell, why didn't Jolie just point out that Kerena never would have met Morely in the first place if she hadn't intervened?

Another way Kerena was dumb: She let Erebus talk down to her about the various 'Branches of the tree' universe description, despite her having direct knowledge of that for 1500 years! She visited the other two branches in order to find her - sigh - future atomic powered super computer in coin form, won in a futuristic database management class that she took without knowing anything about computers or computer programming (after having sex with a guy who got her into the class, of course).

In fact, that coin computer shows that Nox is terrible at her job! Before she got the coin, she learned the secrets of her friends... then immediately told them to the others! That's... not the actions of someone who keeps secrets well, which was the whole point. She's supposed to know the secrets, then keep the secrets. So what does she do with the coin? She duplicated it and gave it to Gabriel, who installed it as the Purgatory computer that knows what everyone's sins are and therefore which afterlife they should go to. She basically made it so that all of her secrets were free to all, while at the same time making Death's job worthless (and remember, that was the best book of them all).

The book was written (as stated by the author in the Author's Notes) just to tie up some perceived loose ends from the main series.

Orlene's baby Gawain II is somehow equated directly to Kerena's baby Gawain II despite one being a descendant, kinda maybe, not the same baby or soul at all.

The angel Gabriel is shown to be not an angel, but merely a tool of the office of the Incarnation of Good, like Mortis the horse is for Death, or a talking version of the Hourglass of time. Also, he's fully functional and anatomically correct.

Speaking of Gabriel, the entire thrust of the series was that Heaven was supposed to be updated so that goodly souls could have sex in the afterlife. Evidently that never actually happened because Gabriel was trying to get it on with Jolie at the sex party, but Orlene scolded him, showing that attitudes hadn't changed after all.

The weird sex battle at the end, aside from being entirely rapey, and incestuous, and involved trapping each other in blue or pink lighted areas, seemed like a rejected idea from the author's old Phaze/Proton series.

Why didn't Kerena know anything about Erebus? Put another way, why did Erebus know anything about Nox? They were both replaced by humans after the fact, so they should both have the same level of knowledge.

We never find out what the deal is with the Holy Grail.

The author teases a future confrontation between Morgan le Fey and Kerena, but they only meet again 1500 years later, when le Fey is let out of hell to attend the sex party at the end of the book.

Did I mention that Kerena never learns any new magic after leaving le Fey, not in the entire next 1500 years when she supposedly knows everyone's secrets?

Why did Erebus only want to destroy the Tree Branch with the incarnations? Why wouldn't the Incarnations be in the Tree Branch with pure magic? Why did Kerena's magic work in the Tree Branch with zero magic? Later, why can't she just not destroy, or reverse the destruction, of all those other realities now that she has the power of Erebus? Especially because no one's actively destroying them, so it shouldn't it all work out on it's own? Also, they started by saying that each reality was meeting a foul end state, but then later they said the realities were 'pruned', or destroyed, so why are they still there to go to?

The magical nature of the Velvet Cloak of Nox was a huge let down. It literally doesn't ever do anything except look nice!

About halfway through the book, weird errors start cropping up. Mostly typos, but sometimes a conversation will flip and the wrong people are talking.

Speaking of weird sex, here are the standouts for me:

-Giving an ancient magical mastodon bone dildo to an under aged girl so she could have sex earlier.

-Hiring a bodyguard, but when accosted by a trio of bandits, sexing them until they were like 'fine, whatever, leave already'.

-Sexing the librarian so that he'd help.

-The vampire's love cave, where everyone's so bored with sex that when Kerena accidentally has sex with a backpack on, it starts a whole craze.

-Kerena letting Ghosts swarm her and gang ghost bone her so she could ride on a ghost rollercoaster.

-Letting some random dude she didn't know show up and bone her off and on for 1500 years.

-Finding out that Erebus, a humanized incarnation, somehow boned a... swirl of dark energy? For 4500 years?

-The rapey sex battle with her brother at the end of the book.




All in all... You know what? This book feels like he forgot he was writing an Incarnations book, and wrote it as if he was rewriting his Pornucopia, or maybe the more sexual parts of Gods of Tarot.

I can only give this one star, not just because it's bad, because that would be enough, but because it tarnishes the rest of the series. I started reading the series when an excited librarian showed it to me in middle school... how could I ever suggest this series to a kid? It also made me realize that Book 7 had also gone too far, with all the rape apologist stuff. Sigh.

The book would have been better as an outline. Sort of like what Niven did with his Known Space series, so you can point to it and say, "I'm glad that was never written, it would have ruined everything!"

[sj · Rating 1 out of 5]

Originally posted here as part of the 30 Day Book Challenge.

A Book I Wish I'd Never Read

I should have known better than to think that I'd enjoy Piers Anthony's attempt to bring FURTHER CLOSURE to his Incarnations of Immortality series.  Cos, y'know - he'd already released the last book twice already.

Once in 1986 with For Love of Evil (Evil/Satan, dur) and again in 1990 with And Eternity (Good/God) - so when this came out (self-published, btw, and apparently he didn't spend any of his Xanth money on editors) my initial reaction was "Oh, FFS AGAIN?!" because he'd already played me with "NO THIS TIME IT'S REALLY THE END GUYS!" before.

BUT, of course I still had to read it.

Because I'm an effing stubborn ass completist and it takes A LOT for me to give up on a series.

So, one day a few years ago, I decided I'd spend the afternoon knocking this one out, just so I could (figuratively) close the book on this series.

Aside:  That's not to say I don't still love the first few books (particularly Gaia, Death and Fate), but really - done should be done, dude.

Anyway.  I started reading.

This book is supposed to follow Nyx, the Incarnation of Night.  It does, but it takes a really roundabout way of getting there, with stops in Magic Dildo Town and Pedophilia Station.

So, yes.  I pretty much just skimmed it after the Magic Dildo made an appearance and couldn't tell you more after that.

I wish I didn't even know about Nyx's Magic Dildo.

For realsies.

[Quinten · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised and pleased to learn that there was a new addition to this series that I had never heard of. The series was a favorite of mine when I was in high school. Having read it, now I understand why I never heard of it! This book was printed on Piers Anthony's self published line. It is much thinner than the previous books, and the characterization, plot, and content are much weaker. The sexual content is bizarrely out of place and excessive. I'm not sure if part of the problem may be that my standards have increased, but despite this being a quick read, it was ultimately disappointing.

Piers Anthony tells us in the author's note that much of the book was based on the notes of a fan who spent time reading through all of the previous seven books in this series in order to pin down connections and possible dates that events took place. Well, the book reads kind of like that list. It seems that the point of the book is just to tie up a bunch of loose ends, and the independent story of this novel is pretty unsatisfying. Some typos and confusing sections help us understand why Piers Anthony is better off with an editor. And the Author's Note at the end is pretty depressing, as Piers Anthony bares to us his resignation with peaking as a best-selling author in the mid 1990s.

Avoid it.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nox, the Incarnation of Night and the Mistress of Secrets

It is the year 500 AD. Kerena, a beautiful young girl living near King Arthur's Camelot, is apprenticed to Morely the Seer. Morley teachers her fantastic magic, but when he mysteriously disappears, Kerena finds herself out on the street and must resort to prostitution to survive.

Kerena prospers as a skilled courtesan until she is taken into service by Morgan le Fey, the sorceress sister of King Arthur. Kerena's knowledge of magic grows as she is required to carry out nefarious deeds for the evil Lady Fey.

One of her missions is to seduce Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round table, to prevent him from locating the Holy Grail. But Gawain and Kerena fall in love and she concevies his child, a child she discovers is cursed to die an early death.

Using her Seer abilites, Kerena tries to locate the Incarnations of Immortality, seeking their aid in removing the taint from her baby. Rebuffed by all seven of the Incarnations Kerena vows revenge.

But revenge against such mighty immortals would require an even greater power...
^
From the back of the book |
--->|



***************
Personal Review
***************

Let it be know that I am a big fan of Piers Anthony. I've read his books when I was younger and I still read them today. I find his work fascinating. The idea for this book was submitted to the author by a fan who made a timeline for the series. Click here for timeline

This book is Part 8 of the Incarnations of Immortality series. The story unfolds around Jolie and Kerena, two woman from different time periods. Because Jolie is a ghost, she has the ability to travel to the future and to the past. She is also capable of "possessing" someone by merging with their mind. For the first part of the book, Kerena is largely unaware of Jolie's presence inside her mind. However, she mets a man named Morely, a Master Seer, who recognizes the power within her and takes her on as an apprentice. Through the use of this power, (and a mysterious djinn) she discovers Jolie insider her mind. More curious than shocked, Kerena subjects Jolie to a mental interragation. When she finds out about Jolie's mission to save the timelines, Kerena agrees to help.

However, a mysterious entity, wishes to stop Jolie and her plans of restoration....


As I said earlier this book was suggested by a fan to Piers Anthony. The earlier chapters are evidence. As you progress to the middle of the story, the writing style shifts and the reader is once again swept up into a magnificent adventure.

I notice that in some reviews, the reviewers state that the novel was all about sex, that there was no plot to it. To all those who have read this book and thought that, I must give a slap upside the head. For it is quite clearly that you have not read any of the other books in the series and do understand the nature of the Incarantion of Night. This book tells how the all the things in the series came to be; the orgin of the Incarantions; the birth of the world, etc. etc.

Regardless of what anybody else thinks, I give this book a five out of five.

JoshuaJr is a resident of Fredericksburg and a lover of books. If you would like to debate with him on any of his reviews, you may contact him at devilhunterjosh@aol.com.

[Mical · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've just finished reading the book and I have to say; Piers Anthony has a good talent for intertwining his stories and changing perspectives. This story focused on Nox, the Incarnation of Night. This story brought us again full circle with a brief history of how Nox came to be, and the mortal who stepped into the Office of the Incarnation of Night.
Now, I would have preferred to see him take this book and show us something fresh, but he decided to stick with the formula of the Incarnations we have come to know; only taking us further back to see how 'it' all started from Nox's point of view. Some of the plot points were predictable, and some were a pleasant surprise. Though I can't say I love the story; I did enjoy it and would reccomend it to other fans of the series.

[Santiclause · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't think it was possible to be this disappointed by one of my favourite authors as a burgeoning reader. I quite enjoyed the Incarnations of Immortality series, and when I found out it had an eighth, I set to reading.

I don't mind sex in books. A healthy dose of erotic encounters doesn't spoil a written work for me - but this was absurd. The dialogue was inhuman and unnatural, and the entire book read more like a timeline of events than a well-woven narrative. There were no sexual experiences - just points at which copulation occurred. I still wouldn't really mind, as you can just say that sex happens without describing it, but it had been shoehorned in to absolutely everything to the point that it was distracting. Unnecessary. Disturbing, even.

The characters didn't speak or emote - the author told us they did. There was quite a bit too much tell, and not nearly enough show. What I read wasn't a story. It was a history book set in an alternate universe. Disappointment doesn't begin to describe what I feel. This isn't Piers Anthony at his best, for sure. I hesitate to say that it's Piers Anthony at his worst, because that would do disservice to all his books that I had previously thought bad. This was better left unwritten.

I only hope that nobody is turned off his works by this errant aberration.

[Mornblade Keltoislave · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an amazing disappointment. I loved the first seven books of the Incarnations of Immortality series. They were well written, and while interesting to read as an adult, they were also teen friendly. But not this book.

Under a Velvet Cloak reads like low-grade softcore porn. There is so much sex in this book that the characters get bored and have complete conversations while having sex. The various sexual combinations are written as if Piers Anthony is trying to fulfil every male reader's sexual fantasies. And while the book starts in 500 A.D., the writer does nothing to acknowledge the differences in culture in regard to marital ages from our own. Therefore it's a bit of a shock when you realize that the main character is between the ages of 13 and 15 when she goes away with a strange older man and becomes his lover.

After reading the "Afterword", it's hard to tell if Piers Anthony wrote this because he suddenly felt he had a great idea to continue the story, or if he wrote it to get the fans of the series off of his back.

Fan of the series or no, you would be better off just skipping this book.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

When I was younger I liked this series, before it descended into lots and lots of Anthony's typical weirdness and apparent sexual hangups. Interesting that he wrote another one after the ostensible concluding volume ... though it seems to be (based on the description and a quick skim) more of the same.

[Korin: A Crone Running Amok · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is the year 500 AD. Kerena, a beautiful young girl living near King Arthur's Camelot, is apprenticed to Morely the Seer. Morely teaches her fantastic magic, but when he mysteriously disappears, Kerena finds herself out on the street and must resort to prostitution to survive
Not nearly as good as the previous books in the series. It is self-published & it shows.

[Jason Brown (Toastx2) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Under A Velvet Cloak

Twenty years ago I read one of the most influential book series of my lifetime. In recent years I learned that a new chapter had been created. The original Incarnations of Immortality, written by Piers Anthony, was a seven book package of awesomeness. In 2007, an eighth book was written. Created entirely due to readership demand and some amazing collaborative efforts by the author and a handful of dedicated fans, the final book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality left me satisfied though a little ambivalent.

Readers who are fanatical for the Incarnations of Immortality should investigate this immediately. It's worth reading in my opinion, though mixed reviews are to be had. This is a highly sexualized novel, and is dissimilar to the other novels in much the same way as the others differed in style and presentation. The full cast of characters is there and you have basically all the answers you have been wanting. Not a fanatic? You can skip it with no concern. Dont want to risk muddling your fond memories with a questionsle premise 20 ish years in the making sequel? Then skip it, no harm no foul.

I fall into the fanatic camp. I describe the plot of the series to anyone who will listen, and can instantly bond with others who read them (I love you Jenn). I commonly think of Nox and Eris, contemplating loose ties. I never to this day have truely forgiven a woman who swiped my copy of 'On a pale horse' and wrote 'property of' her name in the cover.

I am not sure how much I have to say here. I have opinions.

Was it good? Well of course. Piers Anthony is a great writer. The authors note about the writing and concept was fascination. The book was amazing.

Is it for everyone? No. Absolutely not. People uncomfortable with sex should avoid this. Seriously. It is like reading Pornucopia part III (yes, there is a second P-copia). Most important conversations take place during or post coitus in this novel. Detailed but not to the point of indecency, sex is used as a tool in the cultivation and diplomacy of mankinds existence. Especially hard to read is opening sequences which detail the analytical breakdown and sexual awakening of (at that time in the story) the fourteen year old protagonist. Context must be kept. Historical timeline and such make this timing appropriate and not out if the norm. It never borders lewdness, staying fairly clinical and detached.. But still difficult to get past with modern perspectives in place. Also, I would not categorize this regarding the topic of feminism, you will find it can be argued both directions as there are many blurred lines.

This was not my favorite book of the series. I would probably not read it again, not because of it's quality. It's ship only needed to sail once to reach the right destination. Unlike the other novels, this one is complex for the purpose of completion. It fails to have the reread value of the others because it is designed to fill the gaps that caused one to scratch repeatedly the surface of the others.

I greatly appreciate closure to what felt like an incomplete story for a large portion of my life. I always wanted a Nox tale. Chaos deserved a voice in the Piers Anthony universe and has finally received it.

[⚜️XAR the Bookwyrm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been so excited to hear that this had been published, but it would take me years before I could actually get my hands on a copy. After reading it, I wish I hadn't been able to access a copy! This book is a 1.5 star read for me, but due to Goodreads not being able to do half stars, I'm forced to round up, purely for nostalgia's sake.

It's a much shorter book than the previous ones, and the characterization, plot, and content all seem to suffer for it, as they come across as much weaker than other books in the series, especially since the plot was tied to the Arthur myth, as if it couldn't stand on its own. I'm no prude, but the sexual content is bizarrely out of place and excessive, since it's not even well written sex scenes. Piers Anthony tells us in the author's note that much of the book was based on the notes of a fan who spent time reading through all of the previous seven books in this series in order to pin down connections and possible dates that events took place, as well as a 3 page summary written by another fan of the series. Well, the book reads kind of like both of those have been smashed together and fleshed out a bit. It seems that the point of the book is just to tie up a bunch of loose ends, and the independent story of this novel is pretty unsatisfying and largely confusing, especially since there were some typos that jarred me out of the story. It's like what I read wasn't a story, but more of a history timeline for the Incarnations series set in an alternate universe.

If you're a fan of the Incarnations series, skip it. I wouldn't even recommend it to a non-fan!

[M.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had considered rereading the other seven books first, but that's really not necessary. Although, after finishing this one, I do want to go back and read them again. If I can find this one to purchase, I will as we do own the other seven.

I was actually a bit surprised at the writing in this one. I don't remember if the others in this series were the same way. If I had been reviewing this for an author on writing.com, I would have told him that he should show more than tell.

Despite that, I really enjoyed it. I also have a thing for night and such, but I also have fond memories of the previous book. Although, the other incarnations don't come up for some time in the book. Once they are there, their presences are not as strong as in other books. That's because this book shows how Nox was instrumental in all their lives. You thought Satan was the master manipulator.

The time lines that are mentioned in this book are a bit confusing, but I learned long ago that as soon as time lines are mentioned, I kinda zone out because I don't want a headache. As long as I get the gist and the main character understands, I'm happy.

One of the things that drew me to the series were the author notes at the end of each book. This one doesn't really compare to them, but it's always nice to hear from the author. I didn't realize that On a Pale Horse was being considered for a movie. Although, given the length of time, I'd have to say the project was dumped.

A nice wrap up for the series. Then again, the seventh book was supposed to be the end.

[Baron Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long in coming, the eighth book of the series addresses Nox, the Incarnation of Secrets. The last book being published byHarper/Voyager in 1991, this one released in 2007 by Mundania Press. It has the good plot twists one expects from a Piers Anthony book with some interesting insights on biblical Genesis. One drawback was a constant predilection for the main character to have sex, though not descriptive, it was a bit much. It tells an interesting story of a younger daughter who has the powers of a seer in King Arthurs time, Sir Gwaine and Morgan le Fay being prime characters in the girl's development and a curse laid upon her that she passes onto her unborn son by Sir Gwaine. She seeks to have the curse removed which leads her to seek out the original Incarnations of Immortality, who deny or outright ignore her request for assistance in removing the curse. This leads her to seek vengeance on them by becoming a previously unknown Incarnation and traveling back to the creation of the world to do so. This leads to the discovery of yet the ninth Incarnation, Erebus, the Incarnation of Chaos and a climatic battle between them

Very easy to read, it stayed truthful to the original seven book, despite a 16 year gap and enfolds the original cast of characters in the latter half of the book to bring this tale into canon. Wonderful work that I've come to expect from the author of the Apprentice Adept, Tarot and Xanth as well as the Incarnations of Immortality. Under a Velvet Cloak was a refreshing return to a writer I'd thought I'd outgrown

[Rory · Rating 2 out of 5]

There Was No Point To This

For some reason--money obviously--Piers Anthony decided to try and tack on a new book to the Incarnations of Immorality series. Now i understand that sometimes authors get pressured to create and add to their more popular works but this novel was beyond unnecessary. Besides the fact that the original series was 5 novels and then he added two more novels because of the fans--it was a perfect series and one of the best I have ever read.

So to have a book done that seriously undercuts that legacy is sad to say the least. It is a book obsessed with sex, all sex, all the time and not even well written or fun sex. There is more than one hint of pedophilia in the book with characters who don't sleep with the main character because they prefer children--which more awful is the narrator is made immortal in the story and is trapped looking like 14 for a huge portion of the story but this is not young enough for some characters.

And even that aside--when the book gets to the point of tying itself to the events and characters of the actual series--it is all about alternate timeline and how things that happen here may not effect what happened elsewhere. This is to justify making their own timeline and mistakes but not being held accountable to the original books and not some grand creative spin.

Just read the first 7 and avoid this

[Lucas Aubrey Paynter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hadn't read anything by Piers Anthony in a long time, when I discovered he'd done an 8th "Incarnations of Immortality" novel. It was certainly an easy buy, and I enjoyed it well enough, even if my memory of the series' nuances are too distant to remember or appreciate how well the novel ties to the original seven preceding it. It was certainly good enough on its own terms for a while, though some of the hurdles the protagonist, Karena, encounters feel too easily resolved for the scope of the mission she had set out on.

On the other hand, returning to an Anthony novel after so long made me realize/remember how he tends to write his women. I don't believe his work is sexist, but rather he's had a long habit of tangling female empowerment and sexuality tightly together. Many women in his novels (I certainly remember a fair share of Xanth) are or find confidence through sex and the power they have over men, and in the case of "Under a Velvet Cloak," Karena and a few of the other women depicted are really no different.

I generally had a good time with the book, which is more than I can say for a decade old Xanth novel that I'm only finally getting around to reading, but despite my haste to purchase it, I don't think I'll be reading it again for quite a while.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a completest. Thus when I discovered an 8th (and final?) book in Piers Anthony's "Incarnations of Immortality" series, I had to complete the series. I've enjoyed most of the other books in this series, although some are better than others. But in this one, what started out as a reasonable story deteriorated into a mess. Yes there is sex in this book. Loads of it. More sex than any other novel that I can recall at the moment. But it isn't descriptive sex and certainly not passionate or sensual. It is simply constant, with every character completing at least one sex act that lasts only one to two sentences. I would hazard a guess that the protagonist of the story participates in over 100 such moments. It rapidly becomes so mundane as to be both an impediment to the story and even laughable. The only reason I bestowed 2 stars instead of 1 is because of the first 1/4th of the book where an actual story is building up and had me caring about the main character enough to plow through the rest just to see how it ended.

Recommend avoiding this one, even for those who enjoyed the rest of the series.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a little while to get into this one, with so many years having transpired since reading the other seven books in the series. But, once I settled into the rhythm, it moved quite readily along. This reader found it interesting after the initial set-up how completely the story was woven into the universe that had been created for the series. The characters in the first seven books all make a reappearance in this tale which more or less brings it full circle. Almost as interesting as the story itself was the afterword by the author, explaining how the story came into being as he had never planned on writing another installment after book seven. According to the afterword, Mr Anthony only did so because of enormous fan interest and the legwork done by two of them, which provided the guide and framework for this story. As is typical of Anthony's work, this tale is full of modestly lusty action throughout. The scenes describe the setting and then leave the details to the imagination. Again, it's not great literature, but it is a fascinating and interesting tale. And in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Having read the first seven, I, of course, had to read this one.

[Andrew Wodzianski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Under a Velvet Cloak is the worst Piers Anthony book I've ever read.
And I've read quite a few.

It's highly questionable if his Incarnations of Immortality series should have ever continued past volume five. For Love of Evil had occasion points of interest, but it was largely unnecessary. And Eternity was completely unnecessary. Fifteen years since Eternity's publication, Anthony returns to this peculiar world-building for a tale that is not only unnecessary, it's an abomination.

Anthony has frequently been saddled with sexist mannerisms, but this book is smut. Sadly, it reads as though a perverted misogynist is advocating women's liberation. Worse, the book falls under the banner of the Incarnations of Immortality. The entire series falls into the law of diminishing returns, with this poorly conceived and executed shoe-horned story tarnishing itself, and the reader's commitment through its seven previous titles.

Piers Anthony should be ashamed of himself.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What's the connection between Night and Chance? A strong one, I suspect. If Night shrouds the unknown, nothing is more unknown than the outcome of pure chance."

After Orlene ascends to the Incarnation of Good (God) she discerns the true fabric of the cosmos as a multiverse, and realizes Her own timeline is the only one which survives total destruction. At Nox's suggestion, she locates the source of divergence in the closest timeline to Her own and dispatches the ghost Jolie to the year 500 A.D., the city of Camelot, to bring it into alignment.

Kerena is an ugly peasant girl, jealous of her older sister's beauty, when Jolie first possesses her body. She leaves town apprenticed to a traveling sorcerer unaware of the grand adventure that awaits her. She will learn to control a velvet cloak of cosmic power… she will work as a high end prostitute pleasuring men for information… she will join a warren of vampires… she will indenture herself to Morgan le Fey… she will corrupt the good Sir Gawain and thus foil his quest for the Holy Grail… She will ultimately consolidate the greatest of all powers into the office of the Incarnation of Night (Nox)…

Nox has full authority and stewardship over the secrets of mortals, particularly their secret sex lives and sexual desires. She collects, maintains, and indexes the unknown and the unknowable. Her database is the core of the Purgatory Computer.

The is the final volume of the Incarnations of Immortality series. It was published by a small publisher some seventeen years after And Eternity. Fans are strongly divided over this one, for good reason. It is best approached as a coda to the series, not a finale. The previous novel wrapped up all the dangling plot threads in an elegant manner, so this book does not necessarily have to be read. However, this one does share thematic touchpoints with the others, and it offers larger perspectives on this universe.

For example, And Eternity implied there were originally two original Incarnations of Night and Day. Day then sundered into seven offices because it was too much work for a single incarnation to handle. Nox, on the other hand, remained whole, being in nature an actual goddess rather than a mortal. This understanding is not quite correct. In this book, we learn that Nox mated with her brother Erebus, the Incarnation of Darkness. She then birthed the seven incarnations from that union. The office of Night is assumed by Kerena, not a mortal but a vampire. The office of Darkness is assumed by Cain after he kills Abel.

There is much more that is retconned and/or expanded:

In the previous book, we learned that both evolution and creationism can be true, depending on your point of view. In this book, we learn why. The cosmos is akin to a Tree of Life with three main branches. One branch contains pure science timelines where all life evolved from strictly natural processes. Another branch contains pure magic timelines in which God created the heavens and the earth in six days. The branch in the middle contains timelines with a mixture of science and magic, and it is those timelines that are in danger of destruction.

We already knew Lilah was once a mortal named Lilith who corrupted the line of Adam and Eve. Now, we learn she is the first woman, a failed proto-Eve who was not compatible with Adam and so had to be replaced. Cain slew her, she was a ghost for a time (known as Delilah during the time of Samson), then Kerena traveled back in time and clothed her in the substance of a demoness.

Nox manipulates Lilah, Parry, and the Angel Gabriel to bring about the infamous 600-year bet that paves the way for all the Incarnations to be replaced in the original/prime timeline. It is only because of Nox that Gabriel knows to make Niobe and her family the central figures in that wager.

Nox introduces the spiritual taint into the line of Sir Gawain because she is turned into a vampire while Gawain II is still in utero. The taint is passed from generation to generation for 1,500 years, until Nox steals the soul of Orlene's child from Purgatory in order to cure him and create a new office for him.

For all the zany fantasy fun this book offers, it is seriously flawed. It is half the length of the previous novels, yet the story is arguably the most complicated. As a consequence, it feels rushed. It would have benefited from more character development and an extra hundred pages to let the narrative breathe.

Another flaw is the overabundance of sex scenes; there is one on almost every other page. The series has always had its share of cheeky naughtiness, and Nox is closely identified with sex in her very nature, but this reaches the level of farce. Kerena has sex with men, women, ghosts, vampires, gods and goddesses, even her supernatural brother who takes the form of animals.

Much of this sex occurs between older men and Kerena when she is fourteen years old. This same dynamic existed in the last book between Vita and Roque, but it feels less icky here because the story is set in the Middle Ages. Girls could be legally entered into arranged marriages out the outset of puberty as long as "her Curse has arrived."

More problematic is the character of Gordon who is only attracted to boys between the ages of six and eight. He does not molest anyone in the course of the narrative, but he is portrayed as a positive character and his pederasty is referred to as a trait he was born with rather than, say, a horrible crime against children. Child rape was common in the Roman Empire, so maybe that is why the author put this in the book, but the messaging feels wrong.

Despite its flaws, I cannot say I regret reading this book, but I do wish the author had made some different creative choices.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has *a lot* of sex in it. And I mean a lot. That doesn't happen to bother me overly much and I had fun reading it. Not as good as some of the other Incarnations of Immortality books but still fun.

[Kisran Kiaran]

This book was amazing to me personally for a couple reasons. One it's main character shares her name with someone I've loved for years and years. Second it renewed my intrest in the Incarnation Saga, makes me want to read the entire series again just to revist the characters again.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

See first in series.

[Goth Gone Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many other reviewers, I read and loved the original series decades ago, and wanted more. I hesitated at first before purchasing this one, due to negative reviews, but finally purchased a paperback copy to complete my collection.

Like many other reviewers, I may regret that decision. I'm not a prude - you can see from my other reviews that I'm an avid fan of erotica in a number of flavors. Yes, there was an underlying appreciation for the human form and the many ways it could be used in the previous books. Yes, it took over the plot more as the series continued. Given that, sex being a strong theme in this book probably should have been expected, and yet I was taken aback by how much of the book was sex vs. actually advancing the plot.

**SeXXXy spoilers***
Teenage sex, a glorious magical insertable, prostitution, ghost sex, vampire sex, lesbian sex, vampire menage, casual mention of pedophilia, incest, and a final glorious sex-off. All while the lead character is inhabited by a ghost, so we may as well add voyeurism to every one of the above. I didn't take notes, so I may have missed something...

There are books that are so steaming hot that you need a cold shower afterwards; this is not one of them. Perhaps a hot, cleansing shower instead. The sex scenes (herein referred to as "the book" as it's nearly every page) are excessive and matter of fact, like such a mundane part of life that they're as common as waking up.

In the midst of this, familiar characters from past books appear, oddly like random celebrity cameos in a porn movie. Their part and the non-sexual parts of the plot race by in a blur and could have been wrapped up in a chapter or two rather than the sex-a-thon that actually happened. I would have strongly preferred more exposition, less explicit action.

The author notes reflect that this began due to the work of two fans. I'd be interested in learning their actual take on the plot to see how far off it veered. As it stands, this novel booted 50 Shades off the top of my "bad fanfic" list, without question.

I both want to and fear rereading the original series now... And yet, out of perhaps misguided affection for the original series, I still can't give this book one star, so two it is.

TL;DR: Jolie!, sex, sex, sex, Gawain!, sex, sex, sex, Niobe!, sex, sex, sex, Parry!, and so forth...

[Ken Karcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent wrap up

I've been a fan of this series since I first heard about it from a stranger on a beach one Sunday afternoon. The description he related fascinated me and I set out to see if the reality could live up to the hype, surprisingly it surpassed my expectations and I tore throu the original five books. Then I was pleased to learn about the sixth and seventh books and was thrilled to increase my time spent in this wondrous world and related to others my love of the series as it was passed onto me. Years later, and a couple of rereads, I happened completely by chance to find this final book in the series, I was totally unaware of and luckily it was available for Kindle purchase so I immediately bought it. I read the reviews to see what others felt after being away from books for so long and was apprehensive by the claims that this was a poorly written porn novel, but was delighted to find that this was the furthest thing from the truth. It is an absolute delight to learn about Kerena and Jolie, and watch as Rena moves through her life and sets herself on a course to become an unexpected Incarnation and champion of the multiverse! Those who label this as smut are too prudish and miss the inherent sexuality of this Office, that would be akin to warning Wielding a Red Sword as too violent to read because it deals with the Incarnation of War, or On a Pale Horse because of it subject matter of death. The language is NOT graphic and has been broached elsewhere in the series, but if your morals are corrupted by this, the depiction of God and Satan should have already made your head explode so I'm at a loss to why people are so critical. All in all, a delightful tale and grand wrap up to the series, my only regret is that this is probably the final book of the series and I sincerely wish there were a dozen more.

[J. Hance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally got a copy of Under a Velvet Cloak from an eBay auction. The Incarnations of Immortality was one of my favorite series from my youth and I've wanted to read this book ever since I learned of its existence (despite the generally abysmal reviews).

I, of course, encountered many of the same problems as other readers. Anthony has traditionally shown difficulty writing believable women, especially when writing from their own point of view. He has also shown a tendency to write quite misogynistically about sex. While these facts have always existed, this self-published book unfortunately shows what happens with those tendencies are allowed to flourish unchecked by a strong editor.

The book is probably over half sex, most of which is not necessary, interesting or impactful and, to be honest, much of it isn't even believable. The story is contorted ludicrously to create opportunities for sex, sexual references, and moral shock value pieces that simply fall flat.

Unlike some other readers, I was able to enjoy the few bits of the story that didn't orbit around sex. It was fun to revisit some of the people, places and things that made the original series great, even if they were viewed through this unnecessarily grimy lens.

Ultimately, though, the book felt pointless. It really didn't add anything to the original story arc, providing explanations for things that never needed explanation and filling gaps best left unfilled.

I'm not sorry I read it, but nor am I particularly pleased.

[Brendan Powell · Rating 1 out of 5]

My friends: I have slogged though this book for one purpose - so *you* don't have to.

I started the Incarnations of Immortality somewhere in my highschool years.... by and large, I've loved the books. I dimly recall thinking "And Eternity" was a bit of a let-down, but otherwise, the series still held a fond place in my heart.

This book released in 2007, and I'm just now getting to it (in 2025) ... I wish I'd have waited a few more decades ... This was utter crap.

I really hate slogging on a book from an author I respect ... and frankly, I've published exactly ZERO books, and Piers ... well .... but this one just flat sucks.

Piers is fully into his "dirty old man" phase, and this book reflects that in spades. It's just like reading a poorly written fan-fiction of the Incarnations universe .. but written by a teenage boy.

If you liked the Incarnations of Immortality series ... then do NOT read this book ... nothing is added in this book that improves the story line of the previous 7.

Shit ... two big disappointments today: This book, and the Chiefs losing Super Bowl LIX ... hopefully there's some good karma headed my way!

[Adrienne Abbott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute Garbage! I read all of the previous Incarnation books and I couldn't even get 1/3 of the way through this. Piers Anthony has a history of weakness when it comes to writing female characters in this series. But it was clear in this book that he wasn't even trying. His Incarnations series has been focused primarily on the different facets of the overarching plot, leaving character development a bit lacking. And while I got the gist that this was supposed to fill in the holes of significance in the role played by Orlenes baby pretty early on in the book, I felt far more satisfied with drawing my own conclusions rather than reading the rest of this crap. A previous reviewer called it porn. And he was right. I can forgive a bit of porn here and there, even enjoy it. But this isn't even good porn! What's worse, the main character is 14 when it all starts. That speaks for itself, so I won't go further into that. All in all, this book reads like nothing more than a half assed scrawl to fill a contractual obligation by the publisher. Very disappointing!