Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immoratality

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Just dropping this in to see if anyone's read any of this great series, and if they have, if they've read Under a Velvet Cloak, and whether it would be worth trying to look for.......

 

[jenna]

Well, it's only my all-time favourite series! Haven't read the new one yet though, I have been meaning to order it, but something always comes up. I hope that it's as good as the rest of the series, given the large gap between when he wrote the first ones and this one, but I gather that it will be brilliant regardless..

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

That's exactly what I'm thinking. I read the series out of order-I started with With A Tangled Skein-but I got enough through the eclectic storylines to really understand what went on. Wonderful series, I'd say it's also my favorite.


I hope Under A Velvet Cloak will be as good as the rest, but there's a chance it won't. It's been a while since he wrote And Eternity, as you said, and his style has changed greatly this decade.......

 

[The Ace]

I take it that's a new one. I've read a couple of them and found them surprisingly good, considering some of the dross he's written, he does write the occasional good book and these are among his best.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Dross? Hehe. I take it you're not a big Xanth fan, Ace.



Actually, yes, Under a Velvet Cloak is new, released in December of '07. Still haven't made an effort of searching for it, though.......

 

[The Ace]

Xanth started off reasonably but descended into a soap opera. "Battle Circle," and "Bio of a Space Tyrant," were dire and the Phase/Proton series was OK. Most of his output is only suitable for toilet-paper.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Never did go into Bio or Battle Circle, but what few Photon/Phaze books I have I like pretty well, and I still like Xanth.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I have both the Incarnations series and the Phaze series stopped buying the Xanth ones a few years ago also Pornucopia which was a bit cobbled mishmash of a book.

I will have to check out the new one and look for reviews in Locus.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Hehe. I'll have to see if I can find any in local bookshops, that's all I can do. I don't have enough money in the bank to buy online.

 

[Nesacat]

Have read and very much like Incarnations of Immortality. I read One A Pale Horse first and spent several years chasing the rest of the books down. I like some of the books better than others and On A Pale Horse best of all. This is possibly my favourite set of books by Piers Anthony.

I liked the first few Xanth books (A Spell for Chameleon; Castle Roogna; Centaur Aisle; Ogre, Ogre; Night Mare and Dragon on a Pedestal)and then gave up on them when they quite repetitive and as Ace said, began sounding like the evening soaps .... and there was that title with green panties in it.

 

[chrispenycate]

They weren't green (well, they might be, partly).
Yes, the series did rather drag on, without the puns getting any better; but when it started, and started selling, it broke fantasy out of its "I have to take myself seriously, otherwise everyone will think I'm silly" prison, and opened the door to the entire half spoof, half humeroserious market featuring Pratchett, as one example.
The occasional successes of humorous SF(harry Harrison, Douglas Adams) have never succeeded in breaking that genre out of its ghetto.
I was not even away of a new incarnation; I felt they were already getting too intermingled in "For love of Evil", but what do I know?

(It'll be Nox, with a title like that, I suppose)

 

[Nesacat]

I think am quite happy with the existing Incarnations. Am not likely to pick up this new one unless I can get it remaindered.

Yes, when Xanth started it broke new ground. It was amusing and silly and everyone could laugh at themselves and the world around us. Then it got tedious and Anthony went to explain as how he got quite a lot of the puns from people writing in and he just tied them up together in a book.

Yes ... they were some extensive debates on the exact colour of said underwear.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah, number eight is supposed to deal with Nox. I have to say, my favorite volume of IoI was Bearing an Hourglass, even though a lot of readers might find it a bit hard to follow and confusing. But that's what I liked about it.


I finally got up some courage and ordered Under a Velvet Cloak from a local bookshop. Probably take half a month to get here, but I think it'll be worth the wait.


I don't know why people always find Xanth to be repetitive and dull, he's starting to break some new areas of it, I think.......

 

[ghost8772]

there's an NEW one?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
wouldn't be Nox would it?

ohhhkay, looks like time to finallly start hunting down the "new" books, finish up Betancourt's Amber prequels, then see about this new Anthony novel......

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah, this one deals with Nox.....I finally ordered it in the other day. Hope it's worth the wait and the effort........

 

[jenna]

Yes, I must order it myself. I do admit to being a bit apprehensive, as I would have given my kingdom for another IoI book when I was 15.. Maybe it would be best to treat this as a stand alone, and not really part of the series. I wonder how many of the characters from the original series will make an appearance? They were always so wonderfully intertwined..

This is really, really hard, but I think my favourite book was For Love of Evil. Although, as I typed that I changed my mind about 10 times! Ok, maybe a tie between FLoE, With a Tangled Skein, and Wielding a Red Sword...

 

[Tansy]

I read these many years ago when I was about 15 and loved the series. Never really got into Xanth, I read a couple of them and found it all a bit silly/childish from what I remember.

I hadn't realised there was a new one out - might have to take a look. Mind you I can only vaguely remember the series so would probably have to re-read them before starting a new one, I would be inerested to hear from anyone who has read it to see if it is worthwhile as I don't own any of them - I used to use the library a lot more back in the day

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Hands down, my favorite volume of the series is Bearing an Hourglass. Its complexity I found fun.


Tansy, I would highly recommend buying every IoI book you can find. It's a great series, I discovered it only a few years ago, but I don't regret buying any of them.




As for Xanth, it's SUPPOSED to be silly and childish. That's the charm of it. He's changed later volumes up some so it doesn't seem that way anymore-Xanth is always growing up, sigh-but it hasn't totally lost its innocent quality.

 

[ghost8772]

as far as the series went, think favorites were FLoE, followed by Pale horse, then and Eternity, because it did an awesome job of tying up ends, and completing the interactions between the major characters of the previous six books. I think I'm likely to read it then go back and reread the series to see how it might fit in. from what I saw of the synopsis, this one starts nearly 800 years before FloE began.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah, I don't know.....still waiting for it to come in. From Tennessee! It'll take forever and a year, I bet.