Fantasy Aficionados discussion

I discovered him recently through my girlfriend. I started with On a Pale Horse, the first of the incarnation series then read A Spell for Chameleon, the first of his Xanth series. I loved both books. I'm currently reading, and almost finished, Bearing an Hourglass which is a lot less interesting than the previous two.

I've recently purchased in a bargain deal of £2.74 on eBay, the second to eighth Xanth books and the whole Kelvin of Rud series (five books), I've also got hold of With a Tangled Skein. This is going to give me a fair few hours of reading in the near future. Despite being slightly disappointed with Bearing an Hourglass, Anthony is fast becoming a favourite of mine. I like how easy the books are to read and how his stories are all over the place, although that is the main hick in Bearing an Hourglass, it often creates something different and very entertaining.

What are your thoughts on this author?

I love Piers Anthony and I have for years. He tends to attract very different opinions.

I've read almost all of the Xanth series and all of the Incarnations of Immortality series except the newest one.

I really love his Tatham Mound and I've read only few of his other novels but his auto-bio was very interesting. His parents were Quakers IIRC.

I used to write to him in high school and he would always answer. Very cool guy with a bit of a panty fetish. :-)

Well the man is prolific to say the least! I've enjoyed a fair bit of his writing but he's always been very hit and miss for me. I did thoroughly enjoy his Xanth works tho!

Ummm...panty fetish, MrsJ? Yeah you're gonna have to expand on that in an email! lol

LOL! Not me! I was talking about the whole "panty conspiracy" in his Xanth novels, lol.

piers anthony is a freak, IMO. i used to love him between the ages of 12-14 and read all of xanth and the incarnations, and other random books of his. then there was this sneaking suspicion that something just wasn't right. kiddie-sex; five year olds having "consensual" sex with old men; young boys being seduced by older women; bizarre unrealistic portrayals of women; obsession with young girls' underwear....
anyway, i thought something was wrong with me. so i googled "piers anthony rampant pedophilia" or some version of that and it turns out a lot of other people are equally appalled. the guy absolutely creeps me the hell out. haven't touched his books in years and don't plan to.

I think people show too much importance to the sex in Piers Anthony novels. He just shows how men are, and they seem to be more degraded than the women in my opinion. However, his main characters seem to be more faithful, although still conscious of beauty. I think there is that constant feel for beauty as a whole, the women who are striking but offer nothing more always seem to be second part to those who have brains and beauty.

I have (so far) only read the first 27 Xanth books (3 more are sitting in my TBR pile), 7 out of 8 of the Incarnations of Immortality series, the 4 books of the Mode trilogy, and all 7 of the Apprentice Adept series. Oh, and Killobyte and Shade of the Tree. His books take up almost a four-foot section of my bookshelf. lol I think I might be a fan.

Melissa wrote: "I have (so far) only read the first 27 Xanth books (3 more are sitting in my TBR pile), 7 out of 8 of the Incarnations of Immortality series, the 4 books of the Mode trilogy, and all 7 of the Appre..."

:-) Ya think? lol!

Melissa wrote: "I have (so far) only read the first 27 Xanth books (3 more are sitting in my TBR pile), 7 out of 8 of the Incarnations of Immortality series, the 4 books of the Mode trilogy, and all 7 of the Appre..."

I thought I had a nice collection with my 3 incarnation, 8 Xanth and 5 Kelvin of Rud books

I have all of the incarnations (except book 8).

I was disappointed with Bearing an Hourglass, will be reading With a Tangled Skein soon though, hope it will bring the series back to track somewhat.

François wrote: "I was disappointed with Bearing an Hourglass, will be reading With a Tangled Skein soon though, hope it will bring the series back to track somewhat."

Yeah, me too. Hourglass didn't flow for me as others did. I think my favorite is the first one but IIRC I also liked Being a Green Mother and For Love of Evil.

I've read many Piers Anthony novels, mostly in high school. While the Xanth novels are great, I highly recommend the Apprentice Adept trilogy too. One of my favorites.

I have only read the Xanth series, but I think he's a great.

I read Piers Anthony years and years ago. I read the first 13 or 14 Xanth series, about 6 or 7 of the imortality series, and the apprentice adept series.

After reading Shade of the Tree, that was a dealbreaker for me. I stopped reading his new stuff and only read in the series.

He went by way of Heinlein in wish fulfillment sexual fantasies. I have no problems with those, but I didn't want to read about his.

Think I read up to about 18 in his Xanth series. I have the entire Incarnations of Immortality series and Blue Adept series. However I haven't read any of them in years.

Honestly I don't think I've ever forgiven Anthony for Firefly. It is one of the few books I have ever regretted reading, especially as young as I was at the time.

Even Jack L. Chalker was weird with some of the sexual themes, but I've never read anything that set me off like Firefly did.

He is an author I intend to read more of. The few Xanth books I've read were entertaining, easy reads, at times hilarious...but, with little lasting effect making me want to read another.
I have a couple sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I'm just waiting for that moment when I want an easy read full of imagination.

I don't think I've read a Piers Anthony book since I was in high school 25 years ago. I wonder how I'll view his books now as an adult. I remember Terry Brooks was one of my favorites and high school but when I read his books when I was older, they didn't hook me like they used to.

Mark wrote: "I don't think I've read a Piers Anthony book since I was in high school 25 years ago. I wonder how I'll view his books now as an adult. I remember Terry Brooks was one of my favorites and high sc..."

I think i'd echo that...I read his books mostly in my teenage years and not sure how they might stand up these days.

I have read the first 6-7 Xanth books, the first 4 or so Apprentice Adept books, all of the Bio of a Space Tyrant books, the first couple of the Incarnations books and the Battle circle series. My main problem with them is always diminishing returns. The series' always start out great but tail off quite sharply.

The one series i do return to occasionally is the Battle Circle series. This still works for me. I'm too scared to go back to the others. I also had the same problem as you with the Terry Brooks books. I suspect that i might have the same problem with the David Eddings books as well.

Also on the other issue raised in this thread, probably the fact that they had that sexual element was something that attracted me, a teenage boy, to them in the first place.

I didn't really see anything sinister in them and not sure i do (in the ones i read) now. I was far more concerned with the sexual domination shown in the GOR books by John Norman which even as a teenage boy i couldn't stomach.

I was a big fan of him when I was younger. I've read some of the Xanth books (I quit when they became nothing more than a long string of puns), the Blue Adept series, the first seven Incarnation books, the Mode series, Isle of Woman and the sequels, and several others; I'd need to look at my bookshelf to remember all the titles. I still remember coming home from college one break and engaging in a twelve-hour readathon with the last four books in the Incarnation series. I finally stopped reading him when I realized how many tropes he repeated from series to series. I think this is when the younger woman/older man combo started bothering me. I wonder if I would still enjoy his books if I read them today.

I found the first Xanth book I read to be clever, imaginative and witty, even with all the puns. I found the second Xanth book to be quite similar to the first. I never read a third. This is nothing against Piers Anthony: He just didn't appeal to me all that much, but it's clear that he did to a lot of other people.

Read most of the Xanth books, the Adept books and also the Space Tyrant ones. Don't think I enjoyed the Space Tyrant ones as much as I did the others. I don't tend to enjoy a lot of humour with my fantasy but I did like Anthony's books.

Quite fancy at some point starting the Xanth books from the beginning again in fact!

I read the first five books in the Xanth series. After that I skipped around and read a few of the others. I really enjoyed the ridiculously funny puns.

Piers Anthony is one of my favorite authors in the fantasy genre. I love his ability to make you do a mental double take. There are only a few authors who can do that without losing you. Piers Anthony and Douglas Adams come to mind. The Xanth books are a wonderful collection and I highly recommend them to anyone.