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Xanth #12
Man from Mundania
For a bored, young princess of Xanth, there's nothing more exciting than a Quest. Especially when all you do is sit around Castle Roogna. But when Ivy uses the Heaven Cent, it takes her not to the top of Mount Rushmost, where the winged monsters gather, not to the sea where the merfolk swim--but to Mundania, a world much like our own (that is, boring). It is here that she meets a young college student so dull that he doesn't even believe in magic, or princesses, or Xanth!
Does he have a lot to learn.
The thrilling climax to the trilogy started in Vale of the Vole and continued in Heaven Cent.
Does he have a lot to learn.
The thrilling climax to the trilogy started in Vale of the Vole and continued in Heaven Cent.
344 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
53 people are currently reading
2296 people want to read
About the author
Piers Anthony
441 books4,214 followersThough he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
March 3, 2015
Note, March 3, 2015: I edited this just now to correct a typo.
This book falls, in the Xanth series, mid-way between The Heaven Cent and Isle of View (see my reviews of those), and explains how Princess Ivy and Grey Murphy met. (The reference in the above description to a "trilogy" should be taken with a grain, or a block, of salt; as Anthony points out in the Author's Note here, the preceding Xanth "trilogy" went to nine volumes.) Grey, of course, is the titular "man from Mundania" (that is, from our world). But can a regular guy raised in the U.S. be happy in a land populated by goblins, dragons and folk with assorted magic "talents?" Can a princess of Xanth find true love with a Mundane? And can the two of them foil the devious plot by the evil machine Com- Pewter to conquer Xanth? For answers to these and other weird questions, and for a goodly dose of clean romance, magical adventure, and puns galore, come along for the ride! (And not to worry about any of the questions --would Piers Anthony ever disappoint his fans?)
"If Mundanes could escape Mundania," Princess Ivy reflects at one point, "they would all move to Xanth!" She definitely got that right!
This book falls, in the Xanth series, mid-way between The Heaven Cent and Isle of View (see my reviews of those), and explains how Princess Ivy and Grey Murphy met. (The reference in the above description to a "trilogy" should be taken with a grain, or a block, of salt; as Anthony points out in the Author's Note here, the preceding Xanth "trilogy" went to nine volumes.) Grey, of course, is the titular "man from Mundania" (that is, from our world). But can a regular guy raised in the U.S. be happy in a land populated by goblins, dragons and folk with assorted magic "talents?" Can a princess of Xanth find true love with a Mundane? And can the two of them foil the devious plot by the evil machine Com- Pewter to conquer Xanth? For answers to these and other weird questions, and for a goodly dose of clean romance, magical adventure, and puns galore, come along for the ride! (And not to worry about any of the questions --would Piers Anthony ever disappoint his fans?)
"If Mundanes could escape Mundania," Princess Ivy reflects at one point, "they would all move to Xanth!" She definitely got that right!
July 3, 2008
Of all my Piers Anthony books from my Xanth loving years, this is one I won't ever throw away: after a year of spending my lunch breaks working in the elementary school library my teacher gave me this book with the inscription "To a girl who will never be 'mundane'". Still trying to live up to that one! This book of Anthony's deals more with the world of Mundania--ordinary Florida--than most others in the series, and brings in the son of the evil magician from the past as a charming character with an entertaining talent. It's a cute love story.
April 24, 2009
I love this book, if for no other reason than that Gray is asked to choose between Ivy and Freshman English. Despite having some aptitude for scholarship myself, I still find myself identifying with Gray Murphy more than any other character in the series so far. To me, one of the best of the Xanth books.
October 31, 2017
The story I just finished reading was titled Man From Mundania. It is the twelfth book in the Xanth book series. In this story, the Princess Ivy (who is the sister of Prince Dolph, who was the main character in the previous book) hopes to find the Good Magician Humfrey by using an object called the heaven cent, which takes its users to where they are most needed. She uses the Heaven cent and ends up in Mundania, which is a land without magic, instead of another part of Xanth. Once in Mundania she meets a college student named Grey, and needs his help to get back to Xanth. Grey helps her, but doesn’t believe in magic and doesn’t believe that Xanth is a real place. While Grey helps get Ivy back to her home he faces multiple obstacles and continues to help Ivy, even though he doesn’t believe what she says about magic.
In this story there are many characters, but the character that I can somewhat relate to in this book is Grey, because I would not believe in magic right away, even though I would wish I could. I cannot relate to any of the adventures that the characters in this book had though, because I have never met any sort of magical creature. This book reminds me of other fantasy novels like the books in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is very different, of course, but it is similar because they both use a lot of imagination and creativity, and make stories that are liked by many different people.
My favorite things in this book are the characters and the plot. I think the Piers Anthony (the author) did very well in this book and also in the books that he wrote before it by using imagination, and some humor in his books. I would highly recommend this book to any reader who likes fantasy books and also to other readers, even if they don’t read fantasy novels too often. It is a very good book, and I know many readers will enjoy it. Also, if you do want to read this book, you should read the eleven books that come before it in the series. It is not completely necessary to read the books that come before it, but it will help you understand some of the things that are happening.
In this story there are many characters, but the character that I can somewhat relate to in this book is Grey, because I would not believe in magic right away, even though I would wish I could. I cannot relate to any of the adventures that the characters in this book had though, because I have never met any sort of magical creature. This book reminds me of other fantasy novels like the books in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is very different, of course, but it is similar because they both use a lot of imagination and creativity, and make stories that are liked by many different people.
My favorite things in this book are the characters and the plot. I think the Piers Anthony (the author) did very well in this book and also in the books that he wrote before it by using imagination, and some humor in his books. I would highly recommend this book to any reader who likes fantasy books and also to other readers, even if they don’t read fantasy novels too often. It is a very good book, and I know many readers will enjoy it. Also, if you do want to read this book, you should read the eleven books that come before it in the series. It is not completely necessary to read the books that come before it, but it will help you understand some of the things that are happening.
November 2, 2012
Great ending to a three book cycle for Xanth and the search for Good Magician Humfrey. The perspective of Grey and the interactions with Xanth and the believe of Magic was very interesting. New subplots were dropped and some were resolved.
I have found that this series, after reading then in small batches, really refreshes the brain and work the brain with all of it's puns and literal translation of our world. I am always coming back to them like I would a really a classic movie on cable.
I highly recommend this series
I have found that this series, after reading then in small batches, really refreshes the brain and work the brain with all of it's puns and literal translation of our world. I am always coming back to them like I would a really a classic movie on cable.
I highly recommend this series
June 30, 2011
This is Piers Anthony at his best... This would be a great book to introduce newcomers to Xanth... 'Nuff said
Read
July 27, 2011I love Piers Anthony's books.
April 16, 2016
This was another Xanth book that it turns out I actually read long ago, although less of this one stuck in my mind, so I must not have read it very much. When I was a kid, I used to re-read books all the time. My old library card number at the Hartland Public Library was "4002," and in those days books were checked out with a card that they stamped with your library card number. In some books, there would be a string of 4002 4002 4002 on line after line, books that I loved so much I wanted to read them forever.
I must have, I figure, owned Man From Mundania at one point, because I didn't check the Xanth books out of libraries (or at least I don't recall doing that) and because by the time this one came out I'd have been living in Milwaukee and going to college and I don't recall ever checking a book out of the Milwaukee library or the college library. So I guess I owned this book and must have lost it or given it away or sold it back when I sold boxes and boxes of books, five or ten years ago or something like that. I must have read it when I was getting to the stage of my life where I didn't have time to read and re-read books, where my reading time got limited by classes and work and parenting and being so tired sometimes at night that I can barely focus on anything, let alone on reading.
That's one reason I like these Xanth books, as well as some of the other lighter stuff I'm reading; especially the past week, I often am so exhausted by 8 or 9 that I'm literally bleary-eyed, and reading heavier, harder-to-understand stuff is almost beyond me. Between work and the boys and my asthma, sometimes it's all I can do to make it to 9 just holding my head up. It's easier to read stuff that I can just sort of float along on.
Anyway, the thing I really want to talk about with this book is the idea of a character refusing to believe what happens to them, and thinking it's a dream/trick/hallucination etc. In Man From Mundania, the storyline from Heaven Cent continues, with Princess Ivy using the "Heaven Cent" to try to find the Good Magician; the Cent sends her to Mundania, where she meets Grey Murphy, who likes her and decides to help her try to get back to Xanth even though he thinks she's delusional.
Grey doesn't believe in magic, or Xanth, which is understandable in that they don't exist in his world; he just goes along with Ivy because he likes her and thinks she's pretty. But they make their way back into Xanth, and Grey even then refuses to believe in magic or Xanth. He goes into a giant gourd, finds himself in a new place with a castle and plants that move and even a giant river of blood coming from a chained giant, and a magically appearing statue that is the Night Stallion who runs the world of dreams, and through it all Grey keeps thinking it's special effects or he's imagining it; it's not until about 1/3 of the way through the book, after Grey has met a centaur and goblins and a giant dragon and exploding pies that he starts to actually believe magic is real.
It helps with Grey's disbelief that his own magic is the ability to cancel or nullify other magic, but even then the disbelief began to bother me when it stubbornly stuck around; it went beyond what seemed credible for a character and began to feel like a plot device that had been stretched too thin.
The point of Grey's disbelief, in the story, is that it makes Ivy realize he really does like her, because he doesn't think she's a princess or magical, so Ivy knows Grey doesn't want her just for those things; but that could've been accomplished without making Grey seem quite so stubborn/dumb.
Like the "people forget technology and textbooks are a thing" of post-apocalyptic stories, the "I don't believe this because it's not possible" thing also strikes me as overused and kind of silly. I don't know that I've ever in my life been exposed to something so far outside of my experience or understanding of how things work that I wouldn't believe it; I can't think of anything like that offhand. So I don't know for sure how I'd react if something supernatural or unimaginable happened to me.
Although I have some clues, and those clues are that I'd probably accept it pretty quickly. Remember that time I thought we maybe had a poltergeist in our house because the door was flapping slightly back and forth with nobody in the room? I didn't, when I thought briefly that there was something weird happening, think oh I must be imagining this or that's not possible. I thought oh man this is cool that door is moving for no reason whatsoever.
So I feel like maybe I'd be pretty quick to just say yep this is happening and magic it up, but then I think about Bible stories, where God would appear to Moses as a burning bush or angels talked to shepherds, and I wonder what would happen if that kind of thing actually happened: not some low-level thing like a door moving for no reason, but a big honest-to-God happening.
I'm not so sure I'd believe that, or even talk about it. I think my first thought really would be that I was going insane. I remember reading A Beautiful Mind and learning that John Nash thought at times that he was a toe on God's foot; he really honestly believed that, among his other delusions. Back when my mom was first becoming a nurse she told us about a psychology class she had to take, in which one of the people was a case study. The guy thought that two pigeons that sat outside his window frequently were talking about him; also, he believed that one of the pigeons was Napoleon. Travis Walton still swears he was really abducted.
So if I really began to think something supernatural was happening to me, I suppose I wouldn't say anything at all to anyone, at least until it got scary -- like people who say God told them to kill someone or something -- or until I thought I had proof. But what would proof be if you're really crazy? Or hypnotized? (Note: I don't believe in hypnotism. We had one come to our school once and I am pretty sure that nobody who claimed to be hypnotized really was under some sort of hypnotic suggestion.) The guy who thought the pigeons were talking about him was convinced he had proof: he could see the pigeons talking about him.
I think the main thing to me would be someone else would have to see it independently before I would bring it up around them. Like if I thought a UFO came down in my yard, I doubt I'd say anything until someone else said they saw it, before I ever mentioned it. If someone else said hey did you see that table just lift up and tip over, I'd probably believe it really happened.
Although to be fair, then I might not automatically think ghost notwithstanding my previous instantaneous thought that we had a poltergeist. If I were sitting around and a table suddenly flipped over on its own, and other people saw it, I suppose I'd reach for more natural explanations, first: maybe there'd been a tremor? Or it was a trick rigged by someone? Or ... swamp gas?
The thing is, something that makes us unwilling to mention it to other people because it's so weird isn't going to have a rational explanation. When I see lights in the sky, I don't flip out because they're doing what lights in the sky are supposed to be doing: traveling steadily in one direction, or just being stars. But something like that scene from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind where they aliens get the kid from the house doesn't have a rational explanation, and it would be about 1 minute into it that I'd be thinking okay I'm crazy and two minutes into it when someone else experienced it where I'd stop saying it was swamp gas.
I guess where I end up is that it's simply not that believable for characters to spend inordinate amounts of time saying I must be dreaming or That can't be real or whatever. I think Close Encounters of the Third Kind actually did a great job of showing how I imagine I, and most real people, would react: when Richard Dreyfus first sees aliens, he doesn't spend the next 14 years saying I must have been dreaming or it was all some sort of trick. When something's real it's harder to shake off, and reality can be shown by physical effects: a table flipping over or a sunburn on half your face or, in Man From Mundania's case, by magic actually working. So when characters continue to insist that it's all a fake or imaginary long after being shown that magic/spaceships/God actually exists, it starts to ring false. The more I read this year, the more I'm noticing all these little author gimmicks and tropes that really serve more to detract from the book than to enhance it. I think, like civilization-has-fallen-apart, the I-can't-believe-it trope really speaks to a dearth of imagination, which is a weird thing to say about a guy as prolific as Piers Anthony; like will-they-or-won't-they on romantic sitcoms, it's a false setup that gets played on too long because the writer can't drum up dramatic tension any other way. I suppose eventually I'll stumble across a book in which a character wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world where they live like medieval times, and he finds someone he's totally attracted to but also somewhat bugged by, and he just won't believe it and will have to repeatedly be convinced it's all for real. That book will sell ten trillion copies because apparently that's what people want in a story.
I must have, I figure, owned Man From Mundania at one point, because I didn't check the Xanth books out of libraries (or at least I don't recall doing that) and because by the time this one came out I'd have been living in Milwaukee and going to college and I don't recall ever checking a book out of the Milwaukee library or the college library. So I guess I owned this book and must have lost it or given it away or sold it back when I sold boxes and boxes of books, five or ten years ago or something like that. I must have read it when I was getting to the stage of my life where I didn't have time to read and re-read books, where my reading time got limited by classes and work and parenting and being so tired sometimes at night that I can barely focus on anything, let alone on reading.
That's one reason I like these Xanth books, as well as some of the other lighter stuff I'm reading; especially the past week, I often am so exhausted by 8 or 9 that I'm literally bleary-eyed, and reading heavier, harder-to-understand stuff is almost beyond me. Between work and the boys and my asthma, sometimes it's all I can do to make it to 9 just holding my head up. It's easier to read stuff that I can just sort of float along on.
Anyway, the thing I really want to talk about with this book is the idea of a character refusing to believe what happens to them, and thinking it's a dream/trick/hallucination etc. In Man From Mundania, the storyline from Heaven Cent continues, with Princess Ivy using the "Heaven Cent" to try to find the Good Magician; the Cent sends her to Mundania, where she meets Grey Murphy, who likes her and decides to help her try to get back to Xanth even though he thinks she's delusional.
Grey doesn't believe in magic, or Xanth, which is understandable in that they don't exist in his world; he just goes along with Ivy because he likes her and thinks she's pretty. But they make their way back into Xanth, and Grey even then refuses to believe in magic or Xanth. He goes into a giant gourd, finds himself in a new place with a castle and plants that move and even a giant river of blood coming from a chained giant, and a magically appearing statue that is the Night Stallion who runs the world of dreams, and through it all Grey keeps thinking it's special effects or he's imagining it; it's not until about 1/3 of the way through the book, after Grey has met a centaur and goblins and a giant dragon and exploding pies that he starts to actually believe magic is real.
It helps with Grey's disbelief that his own magic is the ability to cancel or nullify other magic, but even then the disbelief began to bother me when it stubbornly stuck around; it went beyond what seemed credible for a character and began to feel like a plot device that had been stretched too thin.
The point of Grey's disbelief, in the story, is that it makes Ivy realize he really does like her, because he doesn't think she's a princess or magical, so Ivy knows Grey doesn't want her just for those things; but that could've been accomplished without making Grey seem quite so stubborn/dumb.
Like the "people forget technology and textbooks are a thing" of post-apocalyptic stories, the "I don't believe this because it's not possible" thing also strikes me as overused and kind of silly. I don't know that I've ever in my life been exposed to something so far outside of my experience or understanding of how things work that I wouldn't believe it; I can't think of anything like that offhand. So I don't know for sure how I'd react if something supernatural or unimaginable happened to me.
Although I have some clues, and those clues are that I'd probably accept it pretty quickly. Remember that time I thought we maybe had a poltergeist in our house because the door was flapping slightly back and forth with nobody in the room? I didn't, when I thought briefly that there was something weird happening, think oh I must be imagining this or that's not possible. I thought oh man this is cool that door is moving for no reason whatsoever.
So I feel like maybe I'd be pretty quick to just say yep this is happening and magic it up, but then I think about Bible stories, where God would appear to Moses as a burning bush or angels talked to shepherds, and I wonder what would happen if that kind of thing actually happened: not some low-level thing like a door moving for no reason, but a big honest-to-God happening.
I'm not so sure I'd believe that, or even talk about it. I think my first thought really would be that I was going insane. I remember reading A Beautiful Mind and learning that John Nash thought at times that he was a toe on God's foot; he really honestly believed that, among his other delusions. Back when my mom was first becoming a nurse she told us about a psychology class she had to take, in which one of the people was a case study. The guy thought that two pigeons that sat outside his window frequently were talking about him; also, he believed that one of the pigeons was Napoleon. Travis Walton still swears he was really abducted.
So if I really began to think something supernatural was happening to me, I suppose I wouldn't say anything at all to anyone, at least until it got scary -- like people who say God told them to kill someone or something -- or until I thought I had proof. But what would proof be if you're really crazy? Or hypnotized? (Note: I don't believe in hypnotism. We had one come to our school once and I am pretty sure that nobody who claimed to be hypnotized really was under some sort of hypnotic suggestion.) The guy who thought the pigeons were talking about him was convinced he had proof: he could see the pigeons talking about him.
I think the main thing to me would be someone else would have to see it independently before I would bring it up around them. Like if I thought a UFO came down in my yard, I doubt I'd say anything until someone else said they saw it, before I ever mentioned it. If someone else said hey did you see that table just lift up and tip over, I'd probably believe it really happened.
Although to be fair, then I might not automatically think ghost notwithstanding my previous instantaneous thought that we had a poltergeist. If I were sitting around and a table suddenly flipped over on its own, and other people saw it, I suppose I'd reach for more natural explanations, first: maybe there'd been a tremor? Or it was a trick rigged by someone? Or ... swamp gas?
The thing is, something that makes us unwilling to mention it to other people because it's so weird isn't going to have a rational explanation. When I see lights in the sky, I don't flip out because they're doing what lights in the sky are supposed to be doing: traveling steadily in one direction, or just being stars. But something like that scene from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind where they aliens get the kid from the house doesn't have a rational explanation, and it would be about 1 minute into it that I'd be thinking okay I'm crazy and two minutes into it when someone else experienced it where I'd stop saying it was swamp gas.
I guess where I end up is that it's simply not that believable for characters to spend inordinate amounts of time saying I must be dreaming or That can't be real or whatever. I think Close Encounters of the Third Kind actually did a great job of showing how I imagine I, and most real people, would react: when Richard Dreyfus first sees aliens, he doesn't spend the next 14 years saying I must have been dreaming or it was all some sort of trick. When something's real it's harder to shake off, and reality can be shown by physical effects: a table flipping over or a sunburn on half your face or, in Man From Mundania's case, by magic actually working. So when characters continue to insist that it's all a fake or imaginary long after being shown that magic/spaceships/God actually exists, it starts to ring false. The more I read this year, the more I'm noticing all these little author gimmicks and tropes that really serve more to detract from the book than to enhance it. I think, like civilization-has-fallen-apart, the I-can't-believe-it trope really speaks to a dearth of imagination, which is a weird thing to say about a guy as prolific as Piers Anthony; like will-they-or-won't-they on romantic sitcoms, it's a false setup that gets played on too long because the writer can't drum up dramatic tension any other way. I suppose eventually I'll stumble across a book in which a character wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world where they live like medieval times, and he finds someone he's totally attracted to but also somewhat bugged by, and he just won't believe it and will have to repeatedly be convinced it's all for real. That book will sell ten trillion copies because apparently that's what people want in a story.
June 23, 2020
I don't know what compelled me to read the Xanth books when I was younger. I suppose it was because I was younger. And being in that younger state of being and living in a world without easy access to material that my hormone-infused growing state was eager to get his hands on, I enjoyed the risque and titillating sequences. If I had one chance to describe what being an early teenage boy was like, I'd just hand somebody a boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons. But if I had a second chance, I'd give them the Xanth books.
I'm sure the same could be said of being a young teenage girl but since I wasn't that, I won't be speaking for them. But I'm still speaking for all teenage boys because why not? What are they going to do?! Make me depressed by having to see them enjoying the seemingly infinite freedom of youth with their whole lives ahead of them, yet to be wasted?! I mean, that's what they're doing to me already which is why I'm going to speak for them.
All that is to say I haven't really been enjoying my rereads of the Xanth books because I've noticed some serious problems with them (note I said serious and not super serious so I won't be discussing Anthony's penchant for sexualizing minors or his really terrible take on reforming justice for rape victims which mostly sounds like the current system that seems to only care about protecting the accused). The biggest non-super serious problem is that most of the books barely have a plot. Maybe that was just a problem with fantasy books of the time which is why I didn't really notice (also I was young and horny so why would I notice structural problems in story telling? As long as there was a scene where Dor ripped off Ivy's top as they splashed around in the moat, I was good). But Piers Anthony still had to fill three hundred pages with story while not having more plot than "Some guy or gal goes to ask Humfrey a question and then gets railroaded into some stupid quest that is actually the answer to the question."
Sure, some of the books had plots and those were the better ones. Man From Mundania is one of those which is why I brought the whole thing up. You didn't think I just brought it up to point out that young me was fiddling with himself while reading Xanth books, did you? Gross! I mean, he wasn't!
Man From Mundania has a well constructed story and some nice solutions to plot problems. That and the fact I enjoyed this book were surprising to me. I wish I'd been on Goodreads while I was rereading the other Xanth books so I'd have a complete recollection of which books were worth the time and effort. Not that I'll ever read them again! Who would make that mistake three times in one short life?! Ha ha! Not me!
I'm sure the same could be said of being a young teenage girl but since I wasn't that, I won't be speaking for them. But I'm still speaking for all teenage boys because why not? What are they going to do?! Make me depressed by having to see them enjoying the seemingly infinite freedom of youth with their whole lives ahead of them, yet to be wasted?! I mean, that's what they're doing to me already which is why I'm going to speak for them.
All that is to say I haven't really been enjoying my rereads of the Xanth books because I've noticed some serious problems with them (note I said serious and not super serious so I won't be discussing Anthony's penchant for sexualizing minors or his really terrible take on reforming justice for rape victims which mostly sounds like the current system that seems to only care about protecting the accused). The biggest non-super serious problem is that most of the books barely have a plot. Maybe that was just a problem with fantasy books of the time which is why I didn't really notice (also I was young and horny so why would I notice structural problems in story telling? As long as there was a scene where Dor ripped off Ivy's top as they splashed around in the moat, I was good). But Piers Anthony still had to fill three hundred pages with story while not having more plot than "Some guy or gal goes to ask Humfrey a question and then gets railroaded into some stupid quest that is actually the answer to the question."
Sure, some of the books had plots and those were the better ones. Man From Mundania is one of those which is why I brought the whole thing up. You didn't think I just brought it up to point out that young me was fiddling with himself while reading Xanth books, did you? Gross! I mean, he wasn't!
Man From Mundania has a well constructed story and some nice solutions to plot problems. That and the fact I enjoyed this book were surprising to me. I wish I'd been on Goodreads while I was rereading the other Xanth books so I'd have a complete recollection of which books were worth the time and effort. Not that I'll ever read them again! Who would make that mistake three times in one short life?! Ha ha! Not me!
August 26, 2019
4 Stars
Man from Mundania is the twelfth book in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. What happens when a bored Princess looking for excitement gets more than she bargained for, when she is transported to another realm- Mundania. She meets Grey, an inhabitant of Mundania, who doesn't even believe in Princesses, let alone magic. There is much to discover, for both of them.
The Xanth Series is quite a really long series that has spanned many decades. I remember reading the first few books back in the very early 1980’s and was totally captivated by the epic fantasy that unfolded before my eyes. I collected all the books as each new one was released and have revisited them a few times over the years. Recently I had been reorganising my bookshelves, because eight book cases have become insufficient to house all my books (#bookwhoredilemma)- and it came to the point where I was going to have to get rid of some of my older books/series in order to make way for new favourites. I looked at all the larger/longer series first and this is one of the larger series that I have, it came under scrutiny. I decided to reread all the books I was considering getting rid of first- before making a final decision. I can honestly say that although I these books didn’t blow me away as they once did- I still really enjoyed all the adventure, magic, swords & sorcery like epic fantasy that Mr. Anthony is renowned for. He has imbued his stories with plenty of humour, a playfulness, lots of fun, action, some history, conspiracies, secrets, surprising developments, and much, much more. We meet so many varied and original characters along the way- the books are full of wonderful fictional beasts and paranormal creatures/beasts. From centaurs, to demons, dragons, fauns, gargoyles, goblins, golems, harpies, merfolk, elves, nymphs, ogres, zombies, and curse fiends- and a few more I am sure I have missed.
The world of Xanth is wonderfully rich and vividly descriptive. It is really well written and is so easy to imagine, it came to life before my eyes. Each ‘person’ in Xanth is born with their own unique magical ability, which is called a ‘talent’. We follow along on many epic adventures and explore the world as the story unfolds.
I have many fond memories of reading this book/series- and in the end I can’t cull any of my collection. So I decided to just purchase a couple of extra bookcases instead. #myprecious
A series worth exploring- especially for any epic fantasy lover who loves some fun and humour served with their adventure.
Thank you, Mr. Anthony!
Man from Mundania is the twelfth book in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. What happens when a bored Princess looking for excitement gets more than she bargained for, when she is transported to another realm- Mundania. She meets Grey, an inhabitant of Mundania, who doesn't even believe in Princesses, let alone magic. There is much to discover, for both of them.
The Xanth Series is quite a really long series that has spanned many decades. I remember reading the first few books back in the very early 1980’s and was totally captivated by the epic fantasy that unfolded before my eyes. I collected all the books as each new one was released and have revisited them a few times over the years. Recently I had been reorganising my bookshelves, because eight book cases have become insufficient to house all my books (#bookwhoredilemma)- and it came to the point where I was going to have to get rid of some of my older books/series in order to make way for new favourites. I looked at all the larger/longer series first and this is one of the larger series that I have, it came under scrutiny. I decided to reread all the books I was considering getting rid of first- before making a final decision. I can honestly say that although I these books didn’t blow me away as they once did- I still really enjoyed all the adventure, magic, swords & sorcery like epic fantasy that Mr. Anthony is renowned for. He has imbued his stories with plenty of humour, a playfulness, lots of fun, action, some history, conspiracies, secrets, surprising developments, and much, much more. We meet so many varied and original characters along the way- the books are full of wonderful fictional beasts and paranormal creatures/beasts. From centaurs, to demons, dragons, fauns, gargoyles, goblins, golems, harpies, merfolk, elves, nymphs, ogres, zombies, and curse fiends- and a few more I am sure I have missed.
The world of Xanth is wonderfully rich and vividly descriptive. It is really well written and is so easy to imagine, it came to life before my eyes. Each ‘person’ in Xanth is born with their own unique magical ability, which is called a ‘talent’. We follow along on many epic adventures and explore the world as the story unfolds.
I have many fond memories of reading this book/series- and in the end I can’t cull any of my collection. So I decided to just purchase a couple of extra bookcases instead. #myprecious
A series worth exploring- especially for any epic fantasy lover who loves some fun and humour served with their adventure.
Thank you, Mr. Anthony!
July 7, 2023
Good magician Humphreys and his family are still missing. Dolph is still betrothed to both girls, so Ivy is picked to use the Heaven Cent to try to find the good magician.
Gray Murphy, a young man in mundania who is in college, gets a flyer advertising a computer program that will help him find a girlfriend. He doesn't think it will work, but he sends away for it with the little pocket money he has. When it arrives, he puts it in his old computer and suddenly it starts talking to him. He decides to try it and ends up getting many strange girls to go out with that suddenly live in the apartment across from his. Fed up with the weird girls, he tells it that he wants a normal girl and finds Ivy in the apartment.
When Ivy figures out she is in mundania and that Gray thinks what to her looks like the evil machine com-pewter brought her there, she convinces Gray to help her go to the no name key so she can get back to Xanth. She also decides to take Gray with her into Xanth to prove to him that she is a princess and that Xanth is a magical land.
When they get back and it turns out that Gray has a magical talent, Ivy and Gray to the cave of the evil com-pewter to try and figure out why Gray has a magical talent and how come the heaven cent sent her to Gray instead of the good magician. And since Ivy and Gray are now betrothed, these things need to be figured out before they can marry.
This book does have the puns you expect in a Xanth novel, but not as many, and the story holds your attention much better than the last couple of books have. There are more adult situations as Ivy is getting older and is ready to be part of the adult conspiracy.
Gray Murphy, a young man in mundania who is in college, gets a flyer advertising a computer program that will help him find a girlfriend. He doesn't think it will work, but he sends away for it with the little pocket money he has. When it arrives, he puts it in his old computer and suddenly it starts talking to him. He decides to try it and ends up getting many strange girls to go out with that suddenly live in the apartment across from his. Fed up with the weird girls, he tells it that he wants a normal girl and finds Ivy in the apartment.
When Ivy figures out she is in mundania and that Gray thinks what to her looks like the evil machine com-pewter brought her there, she convinces Gray to help her go to the no name key so she can get back to Xanth. She also decides to take Gray with her into Xanth to prove to him that she is a princess and that Xanth is a magical land.
When they get back and it turns out that Gray has a magical talent, Ivy and Gray to the cave of the evil com-pewter to try and figure out why Gray has a magical talent and how come the heaven cent sent her to Gray instead of the good magician. And since Ivy and Gray are now betrothed, these things need to be figured out before they can marry.
This book does have the puns you expect in a Xanth novel, but not as many, and the story holds your attention much better than the last couple of books have. There are more adult situations as Ivy is getting older and is ready to be part of the adult conspiracy.
April 5, 2020
First of all, a note to everyone who are thinking of reading this and stumble upon this review: do not read these books one immediately after the previous. They will lose their charm and you won't be able to enjoy them as much.
Man from Mundania is a story of finding true love and then probably realising that it isn't worth much but still ending up with everything that you wished for including a happily-ever-after. The story has the necessary twists and turns and the use of puns is either a LOT in a few pages or none in a few. There is no in-between. And hence they either overwhelm you to boredom or you start reading between the lines trying to find a pun when there isn't one and spoiling your fun.
Princess Ivy is now accompanied by Nada Naga (can turn into a snake) and Electra (produces shock). She is "Heaven Cent" to a Murphy and a plot begins to unfold. The adventures are fun, but I didnt feel the need for all the sexual innuendo that crept along. The story would have been the same without it minus a few paragraphs of jealous stares, flushed cheeks and mentions of panties (yes, it's there).
Read it for the puns and never look at anything in the mundane world the same way again!
Man from Mundania is a story of finding true love and then probably realising that it isn't worth much but still ending up with everything that you wished for including a happily-ever-after. The story has the necessary twists and turns and the use of puns is either a LOT in a few pages or none in a few. There is no in-between. And hence they either overwhelm you to boredom or you start reading between the lines trying to find a pun when there isn't one and spoiling your fun.
Princess Ivy is now accompanied by Nada Naga (can turn into a snake) and Electra (produces shock). She is "Heaven Cent" to a Murphy and a plot begins to unfold. The adventures are fun, but I didnt feel the need for all the sexual innuendo that crept along. The story would have been the same without it minus a few paragraphs of jealous stares, flushed cheeks and mentions of panties (yes, it's there).
Read it for the puns and never look at anything in the mundane world the same way again!
May 12, 2020
Puns,Magic,Xanth!
This was just a fun read.Starting with a college boy living in Mundania (the non-magical world).He desperately wants a girlfriend,and being a computer nerd he gets an upgrade for his computer.And the computer starts communicating with him and this leads to him getting a couple girlfriends and one being Princess Ivy from Xanth.
He falls for Ivy and the adventure begins.They travel from City College to southern Florida and she tries to make him believe in magic.Now Grey (human college boy) is stubborn and no matter what Ivy does he won't believe in magic,there's always some kind of reason whatever happens happened.
And there's no shortage of puns,which made me happy.:)
But to be fair Piers Anthony has written better books.
This was just a fun read.Starting with a college boy living in Mundania (the non-magical world).He desperately wants a girlfriend,and being a computer nerd he gets an upgrade for his computer.And the computer starts communicating with him and this leads to him getting a couple girlfriends and one being Princess Ivy from Xanth.
He falls for Ivy and the adventure begins.They travel from City College to southern Florida and she tries to make him believe in magic.Now Grey (human college boy) is stubborn and no matter what Ivy does he won't believe in magic,there's always some kind of reason whatever happens happened.
And there's no shortage of puns,which made me happy.:)
But to be fair Piers Anthony has written better books.
June 4, 2020
Princess Ivy is on a quest to find good magician Hunphrey. It takes her to Mundania where there is no magic. She meets and falls in love with Grey Murphy, a mundane and they decide to go back to Xanth though she dreads a meeting with her parents as she knows a Princess cannot marry a Mundane man. Except Grey is not Mundane as you will have guessed from reading the story. But it all turns out to be a plot by the evil Com-Pewter and due to a bargain made with his parents, Grey will be forced to serve the evil computer which will allow it to take over Xanth. Grey has one month to somehow foil Com-Pewter whose plot seems to be cast iron, so leaving Grey no choice but to leave Xanth and Ivy and return to his deadly boring life in a land without magic.
July 7, 2023
*SPOILER*
Not bad.
Descent story, I knew right off that Grey Murphy was the Son of Evil Magician Murphy that was suspended in the brain coil.
After a 7 year hunt, The kids with the help of Magician Murphy from Mundania was able to help find and locate The Good Magician Humfrey, but he could not come back until he found answers, Basically giving the Answer to Good Magician Murphy to handle the Castle until his return, giving him access to the Book of Answers.
In which he found the Answer he was looking for to beat the Com-Pewter at his own game until the Return of Humfrey which I HOPE will be sooner than later.
Not bad.
Descent story, I knew right off that Grey Murphy was the Son of Evil Magician Murphy that was suspended in the brain coil.
After a 7 year hunt, The kids with the help of Magician Murphy from Mundania was able to help find and locate The Good Magician Humfrey, but he could not come back until he found answers, Basically giving the Answer to Good Magician Murphy to handle the Castle until his return, giving him access to the Book of Answers.
In which he found the Answer he was looking for to beat the Com-Pewter at his own game until the Return of Humfrey which I HOPE will be sooner than later.
Read
October 23, 2025For a bored, young princess of Xanth, there's nothing more exciting than a Quest. Especially when all you do is sit around Castle Roogna. But when Ivy uses the Heaven Cent, it takes her not to the top of Mount Rushmost, where the winged monsters gather, not to the sea where the merfolk swim--but to Mundania, a world much like out own (that is, boring). It is here that she meets a young college student so dull that he doesn't even believe in magic, or princesses, or Xanth!Does he have a lot to learn.The thrilling climax to the trilogy started in Vale of the Vole and continued in Heaven Cent.
December 5, 2017
This book was more meta than any of the previous novels. It even referenced books that came after this. Not just referenced the stories, but the actual published books as a kind of written history/future. I couldn't help but think of the TV show Supernatural, except the show is more entertaining. One more done!
June 24, 2019
The Xanth books by Piers Anthony were some of the first SciFi/Fantasy books I ever read. I love puns so I have always enjoyed them. Upon re-reading them I can see that they have some weaknesses but overall they stand the test of time. They are a fun and fast read that keeps me amused without any deep thinking required.
July 15, 2025
Unfortunately if I’m being honest Grey drove me insane as a character. I didn’t like him for the majority of the book. I understand why he was the way he was but it was king of annoying to say the least. But the ending they gave him was kind of sweet. I’m still going a little stir crazy waiting for the situation with Dolph to unfold but I guess I’m going to have to wait a little while longer.
August 9, 2017
This was another in the Xanth series. It's filled with puns and has a good story line. The ending seems abrupt. It also ended pretty much as expected, yet it was still fun to read and a good way to escape our sometimes mundane existence.
June 6, 2020
I went back through my records and realized I missed reading this one. It was a good read, with the expected puns, and explained some things that confused me when reading later works. Now when I read #42 things should make more sense.
February 25, 2022
I picked this up on a whim in a used book store and found it was nice to read first thing in the morning. I had remembered the books being a little prurient from childhood but the way this book talked about adulthood and sex seemed sweet and unembarrassed, which I liked.
November 10, 2025
This is a very fun fantasy read. Felt like a nice unique setting within the genre. parts of the book drag and other chapters are bit odd. But overall a good read. The plot is a little predictable but not in a bad way.
February 3, 2018
I definitely enjoyed this one. It didn't seem as slow as some and a bit predictable, it even So, it worked. Definitely pleased I read this one.
August 15, 2019
Another good addition to Xanth, bringing in a pretty good power to match Ivy's.
October 27, 2019
Puntastic.
May 8, 2020
Great book.
May 13, 2020
Long story but ties into other stories
This was a more enjoyable book that was very creative to follow the chains in the book. I enjoy it.
This was a more enjoyable book that was very creative to follow the chains in the book. I enjoy it.
June 3, 2020
I love all of Xanth Novels. But this is one of weakest one. To hold my attention in a few points was hard to keep. But I glad to have the book
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