I went through a brief Piers Anthony phase. Incarnations of Immortality was interesting. The Bio of a Space Tyrant series was half fun mindless space opera, half pubescent sexual fantasy. I read one Xanth novel -- enjoyed it, but realized that a novel series based on puns would wear thin quickly.

The Incarnations of Immortality series were my Anthony crack of choice

I got to Being A Green Mother (I think that's what it was called), before I gave up and threw the damn thing across the room. I was already sick to death of the series by Wielding a Red Sword wherein the "hero" spends most of the time agonizing over how to get laid without guilt within the context of his religion or something. Oh, and then Satan shows up.

I read part of one Xanth book and threw it across the room.

Yeah, the Incarnations of Immortality series turned into a soap opera about this one family of divinely attractive womanly women and stopped being a very interesting series about the mechanics of Death and Time etc. On a Pale Horse is still the best of them.

On a Pale Horse is still the best of them.

Absolutely. Really enjoyed that book.

Then the enjoyment curve took a swift dive.

The mechanics of Death and all that were brilliant, and I was really looking forward to how Anthony handled the other Incarnations, but, sadly, no, it became all about the difficulties of having a serious relationship when living backwards, and how to be a caring Earth Mother while holding down a career as a Fate, and all that.

edit: along with some very self-serving Author's Notes about how hard his life is.

edit: along with some very self-serving Author's Notes about how hard his life is.

Always, ALWAYS with the "It's so hard to be Awesomest Me, you just don't know, man, you just don't know..."

Fuck you, Piers. Just...fuck you.

It's so odd that this conversation is happening right now. This week, for no reason other than they were on ND's bookshelf and I needed some bedtime brain candy, I picked up one of the later Xanth books and read it. Then I read its sequel the next night.

I totally agree that Anthony is an ass (from what I can glean from the Author's Notes) and that the books have all kinds of flaws, but they've been fun to reread nonetheless.

Then the enjoyment curve took a swift dive.

This is pretty much what I think of all Anthony's series. A Spell For Chameleon was good, but each book after got progressively worse. Ditto On a Pale Horse and those. Same for that Tarot series. I don't think it was part of a series, but the Author's Note in Steppe was so annoying it cancelled out the enjoyment I got from the book. And But What of Earth? was practically all Author's Note, and that sucked about as much as you would think.

If you want classic Piers Prickiness, read the authors note where he replies to a young fan who suggests that a character could have refused to carry a promise made by his parents on his behalf for him to commit genocide.

PA replied that to suggest such a thing shows that the young fan has no sense of honor. WTF? Umm I could explain the reasoning in more detail, but why would you want me to?

Did you guys know that Piers Anthony writes porn? They're published by Mundania. I have not read any.

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