# Somebody please explain Piers Anthony to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212 "2003-01-08T00:00:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/21 "2003-01-08T04:20:56Z")
If you really want to see petty and vindictive, check out his _But What of Earth?_ It’s a reprint of one of his earliest novels, in which he picks apart and insults every change the copy editors made to the original (which wasn’t particularly good). Basically, it’s 200 pages of some 5-year-old’s “Just you wait! When I’m rich and famous, I’ll show you and then you’ll be sorry!” fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Vanyel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@Vanyel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vanyel)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/22 "2003-01-08T04:27:25Z")
I enjoy the Xanth Author’s Notes about what he was doing while writing the book, but I hate the credits for the various puns! However, he obviously came up with the puns in the first few Xanth books himself, since that was before people were writing in to give him puns. On another subject, what did you people think of _Letters to Jenny_? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/23 "2003-01-08T04:40:43Z")
ooh, simulpost. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/24 "2003-01-08T05:10:37Z")
> [@](#): > > **magog** : Then there’s _“In The Barn,”_ in _Again, Dangerous Visions_. The footnote was, well, interesting. I had to dig out my disintegrating, nearly-as-old-as-I-am copy of _ADV_ to refresh my memory. (Not about _In The Bar_, which is unforgettable, but about the footnote.) Here’s the first paragraph of the afterword: > [@](#): > > The name inscribed over the bullpen is HARLAN, though the description is not necessarily physical. I was one of those who supposed his intellectual scrotum contained two jellybeans, but I learned that there were, after all, nitties in his gritty. Thus I applauded the potency of the first DANG VIS and clamored for admission the the second. (If you haven’t read it, the story is about a bloke who finds himself in an alternate reality where, after cows are wiped out somehow, people have selectively bred a sub-mental class of human beings for use in the dairy industry. The protagonist tries, and fails, to have congress with a ‘cow’, and understands why when he sees the massively-membered, urine-stinky ‘bull’.) It’s always fun to see someone taking the piss out of Harlan Ellison. What a clash of egos! ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/25 "2003-01-08T06:20:17Z")
I for one liked the Xanth series. When I was in middle school anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/26 "2003-01-08T08:09:08Z")
Some of the Xanth stuff is okay. The Incarnations definately got progressively worse: indeed, mostly because it often took longer and longer before each character actually became the Incarnation in the first place. But that series stays pretty good up until War, then a mostly crappy one with some sort of flying whale (but includes important plot points), and then there’s For Love of Evil, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand it is pretty poorly written and drags at many points. On the other hand, a lot of the ideas are neat, and shed a new light on the whole series. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/27 "2003-01-08T10:51:26Z")
Why did you start in the middle of the Incarnations series? You really should read those in order since each book is essentially telling a different part of the same story and telling the same story from a different angle. Like “On a Pale Horse” is the first in the series. I can’t really think of how to summarize his style. He’s been around a long time. I would say he does try to write strong women but his women always sound weird to me. He did write a pornographic novel, “Pornucopia.” I only read an exerpt of it though. I believe it involved a man with a prehensile penis. “For Love of Evil” does involve contact between a cross and the “furry” part of a woman. He does seem to enjoy putting peopel, sometimes fairly young people, in sexual situations. I imagine he would enjoy writing things like “La Blue Girl.” His 70s books seem to be less so. Ox, Orn and Omnivore were some of my favorite books of his. Although it’s very dated to the 70s. In that series he played a lot with mathmatics. In the Battle Circle series he plays around with apocalyptic societies. And he’s always very imaginative, he just can’t always deliver. Personally I almost always find his women very disappointing. I gues that’s how I would describe him. He likes to play with concepts. Ox, Orn & Omnivore (3 books) - Mathmatics Battle Circle - Apocalyptic socities Tarot series - Religion and stuff Cluster series - I forget, spheres in space, something. Incarnations - Deities Apprentuce Adept series - Making science and magic mirrors of each other. Xanth - Magic/puns Bio of a Space Tyrant - Great men make history in our solar system. Mode series - Again I forget but I know involved a once suicidal young girl and magica; places. He can also easily be convinced to carry on a series but almost always should stop where he originally planned. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/28 "2003-01-08T10:55:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Osiris \* > \*\* Like “On a Pale Horse” is the first in the series. \*\* and at one point Zane gets to meet Time and the meeting is told from Zane’s point of view. In the next book about Time, Time get’s to meet Zane and the meeting is told from Time’s point of view. Now I can’t confirm that that was exactly what happened there but I know it happened many times over the series. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/29 "2003-01-08T11:32:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SpazCat \* > \*\*The stuff he wrote pre-computer is good because he actually had to think about it. Post-computer is crap. Craptastic, in fact. > > David and Leigh Eddings, people. That’s where the good stuff is. \*\* ah c’mon… I mean I like Eddings fine, I’ve got a complete set of his books on the shelf and I re-read them fairly often…but I would never put him up as someone who thinks about his writing… for example: 1. Every one of his series is the same basic story, with minor variations, using all the same characters with different names and minor variations. 2. His magic systems rarely make any sense. Redemption of althalus wasn’t too bad in this sense, but Belgariad and especially Sparhawk have the most inconsistent, illogical magic systems I have ever come across in a fantasy world. It gets worse when he tries to explain how they work, because that just makes the Holes more apparent. 3. ‘The Rivan Codex’ was the biggest rip-off I have ever purchased from a bookstore. (Also, he pretty much admits to points 1 and 2 in it). It still annoys me when I see it on the shelf, it’s only my deep reluctance to throw out any book that keeps it there. 4. I much prefer Raymond Feist or David Gemmell (although they both have their faults, I’d say the worlds are much better thought out than Edding’s) 5. (I was going to stop at 4, but I just remembered) Eddings has no continuity… logical errors crop up all over the place in his stories, and the Belgariad ‘pre-histories’ in particular flatly contradict the original story in so many places it’s hard to believe they are connected. Ok, rant over… I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread… ---
**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/30 "2003-01-08T11:36:30Z")
eh? what? oh the OP… erm, right, yes… I only ever read a handful of PA books, the only ones I can remember being Fate, Death and Time from Incarnations, which I enjoyed a lot (again when I was 17/18ish) but I my library never got the others of the series, and I didn’t like it enough to spend money on them… Also, there was a couple of books about two worlds that were joined - one was a tech-world, the other magic. One of the characters was an amoeba who had taken human form… Is this a PA book? if so, it was pretty good, not obviously not good enough for the title to impress itself into my brain ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/31 "2003-01-08T11:39:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > \*\*So by chance I happened on one of the less-bad ones. Lucky me. > > Since he has big fandom, I thought I would ask what is all the fuss about. Usually people mention his racy stuff, but _With a Tangled Skein_ was not noticeably sexy… it was more about religion. Pop religion and pop mythology, that is. > > Thanks, everyone, for warning me off of PA. Since my precious reading time is limited these days, it’s important to choose carefully only good quality stuff. What’s up with Lloyd Alexander? > \*\* Perhaps I was overly harsh. He often starts out with interesting ideas; the problem is that they always fizzle out before the end of the series (and often before the end of the book). I also get the impression he doesn’t meet many actual women, given the way he portrays them in his books. What’s up with Lloyd? His five-book **Chronicles of Prydain** are a considerably more mature set of fantasy adventures. On reconsideration, however, if you’re looking for light comic fantasy you should rush right out and start reading Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” series, starting with **The Colour of Magic** and on through the twenty-some (or is it thirty-some?) books in the whole series. IMHO, he gets better as he goes, his puns are superlative, his satire is witty, his plot twists are rarely predictable, and he seems to get better every book. If your reading time is limited and you like that genre, read Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/32 "2003-01-08T12:08:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\*The name inscribed over the bullpen is HARLAN, though the description is not necessarily physical. I was one of those who supposed his intellectual scrotum contained two jellybeans, but I learned that there were, after all, nitties in his gritty. Thus I applauded the potency of the first DANG VIS and clamored for admission the the second. > \*\* 😕 That made absolutely no sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/33 "2003-01-08T12:16:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SpazCat \* > \*\*😕 > > That made absolutely no sense at all. \*\* WAG: “That guy has a huge dick.” ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/34 "2003-01-08T12:26:20Z")
Actually Theres been tons of ragging on fsnatasy story aurhors just look them up I liked piers anthony when I first read him becuase he appeals to the sniggering male teenage set With double meanings smutty jokes ect The last book of his I read was one that was made into a pc game and the game people included it as a hint guide It included a few snipes at racism and alvin toffler but other than that it was cotton candy But theres various debates on themerits of fanatasy authors … check the “guilty pleasures book thread” and otheres for suggestions ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/35 "2003-01-08T12:28:34Z")
> [@](#): > > David and Leigh Eddings, people. That’s where the good stuff is. Continuing from a previous poster’s response, I’d have to note that the Eddings’ can’t even get two books in a series any different from each other. They even reuse whole paragraphs. I for one like Peirs Anthony. He is, if nothing else, rather unique among the major modern authors. I liked his author’s notes. While I do think the Xanth series has lost steam (and should have taken a break after “Question Quest” so he could find a new focus for the series) I’m not unhappy. Ultimately, uinderstand that he is writing for the Teen market. The books heavily appeal to young people, if for not other reason than that he makes light of sexuality. There aren’t many authors who can do that effectively. He makes “it” funny! For people at a certain stage in their lives, this is invaluable. And hell, anyone who can get teenagers to read 300+ page books is all right in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowKatmandu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@ShadowKatmandu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowKatmandu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/36 "2003-01-08T12:29:31Z")
Geez, you people are harsh! Piers is one of my favorite authors. Yeah, he’s a bit formulaic with the Xanth stuff, but it is still terribly fun to read. No, he’s not into the gratuitous sex as much as perhaps he is reputed to be, but neither does he shy away from it if it plays a part in the tale he is telling. I’ve not read everything he’s done, but I have read most of Xanth, all of Incarnations (one of his best series), all but the last of his Mode series (deep stuff), and his Phaze/Proton series (good stuff, although the second trilogy did seem to be a bit of unnecessary overkill). Letters To Jenny was very touching and sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/37 "2003-01-08T12:32:06Z")
What’s up with Piers Anthony? He started out as a promising writer (he even had a novel (or two?) nominated for a Hugo award) and his second Xanth book ( **The Source of Magic** ) is actually extremely good. Then he learned that a quickly written, crappy Xanth book sold as well as a good Xanth book. At least one Xanth book was nothing more than an innacucurate advertisement (he claimed the game’s graphics would be presented in those SIRDS/Magic Eye format) for a Xanth video game (“Gee! I have just gotten the NEW XANTH VIDEO GAME! I shall play it and be transported magically to Xanth (OF WHICH THERE’S A NEW VIDEO GAME) where events in the book will mirror events in the NEW XANTH VIDEO GAME. Or not.”) And he (or at least his authorial voice) has a weird fixation on little girl’s underwear\* and as time goes on, he indulges it more. **Shadowwarrior** : Yeah. The series is called “The Apprentice Adept” and the first three books ( **Split Infinity** , (something) and **Juxtaposition** ) aren’t dreadful. The series continues past book three though and becomes some of the worst crap I’ve ever read. Apparently he figured out that a crappy book in that series would sell as well as a good one, too. Fenris \*There’s a couple of Xanth books in the 15-17 range where the authorial voice spends _pages_ describing in nauseating detail how young girls (12? 13?) look in pretty dainty panties. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/38 "2003-01-08T12:36:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ShadowKatmandu \* > \*\*No, he’s not into the gratuitous sex as much as perhaps he is reputed to be, but neither does he shy away from it if it plays a part in the tale he is telling. > \*\* Explain to me how the pedophilia in Bio of a Space Tyrant plays a part in the tale he’s telling. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowKatmandu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@ShadowKatmandu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowKatmandu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/39 "2003-01-08T12:40:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Explain to me how the pedophilia in Bio of a Space Tyrant plays a part in the tale he’s telling. Sorry, haven’t read that one yet. And don’t ask me about Pornucopia; haven’t been able to get a copy of that one, but then (by its title) its designed for gratuitous sex. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212/40 "2003-01-08T13:04:23Z")
The puns are what ruined Xanth for me. It is rare that I come across a pun that isn’t annoying anyway, but I swear the guy bases entire books around fitting the puns in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-piers-anthony-to-me/147212.md?page=3)