The introductory summary begins:"There is trouble in Xanth again. The Gap Dragon had escaped and was ravaging across the land, the forget-spell was causing mass amnesia, three-year old Ivy was headed right for a hungry dragon. Could things get any worse? Probably...."Yes, the forget-spell has also escaped and had dissipated into 'forget whorls.' It was these that were causing the random events of amnesia all over civilized Xanth. Little Ivy is the daughter of Xanth's ruling King Dor and his wife Irene, and a forget whorl has passed through, causing Ivy to be separated from her parents.This sets up the plot: Princess Irene is on a quest to rescue her 'helpless' daughter. But out in the deepest wilds of Xanth little Ivy is managing to take care of herself by innocently wielding her Magician-Grade magical talent. She's not nearly as helpless as her mother might believe.Piers Anthony's seventh Xanth book, 'Dragon on a Pedestal,' follows the parallel adventures of both Ivy and her mother as they seek to reunite. The author alternates chapters from the point of view of mother and daughter. As the pages turn, Anthony unveils challenge after challenge for both protagonists, always unexpected, almost never foreshadowed, and usually quite imaginative. And as usual with the Xanth series, these challenges appear and are dispatched mostly in serial order.As the book comes to its climax a deadly threat to all of Xanth, which has lain dormant for thirty years, provides the focus for a satisfying denouement.As usual for the Xanth series, Anthony trots out a 'passel' of puns, reinforces his quaint and benignly sexist perspectives on the male/female divide, and builds his plot like a 'road-movie.' By this I mean that constant travel is involved from beginning to end, all the tension and conflict raised in the plot come from unexpected encounters along the way, and the denouement always involves (at least in part) reaching a destination.And as always Anthony delivers an entertaining and imaginative story. These are no literary masterpieces. They're not far from the 'Harlequin Romances' in terms of the quality of the prose. They're 'light fantasy' targeted at young adults. And for me that's just fine: they offer me a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy a rollicking roller-coaster ride.
Like Night Mare, Anthony skips over most of his sexist remarks because the main character is a very precocious three year old who believes herself to be even smarter than the average tyke. Ivy's talent is definitely creative, even in the world of Xanth, but it is funny how arbitrary the judgement of its caliber is.Of course, even Anthony can't keep a toddler and a dragon compelling, so her mother must trek through the wilderness after her, constantly worrying that no one wants to see her panties now that she's all of twenty-nine. Because if MY child were lost in the wilderness, that would be my primary concern. Nor would anyone convince me to stop and sleep while my three year old wandered around...and I can't imagine a father who would hand off the search for his only child to someone else so he could go back and be king. Especially a king who could talk to inanimate objects.Dragon also takes the opportunity to throw in approximately a trillion plant puns, often clustering them en masse in a single paragraph that least has the virtue of being easily skippable with zero loss content.Once again, Anthony tells a good, imaginative, and entertaining story, marred only with his constant sexism and inability to understand how a parent would react, responsibilities be damned.
What do You think about Dragon On A Pedestal (1997)?
This was a good book. Not fantastic, but piers anthony does have a great way with words and Xanth is most definitely a fanstastic world and Anthony had a great imagination that ties it all together.But, basically it's all about Ivy, a three-year-old whom meets a dragon and is wanting to find home. But, see everyone in xanth has a talent....well, i guess i would recommend the very first xanth book, a spell for chameleon...before you read this. I didn't read it and it messed me up, until i read zombie lover, it all got tied together. But, definetely start with one of the first 3 books i would say.
—Hannah
I really enjoyed this one. I tend to like books that shift perspectives between at least two characters. Keeps things moving along. I don't think the previous 6 Xanth books used more than one perspective. Maybe Ogre, Ogre did a little bit. I can't remember. Anyway, I really liked Ivy's talent and her character. I had a little bit of trouble with what happened to Zora Zombie, but only in relation to something that happened in Castle Roogna, the third Xanth book. It's just a minor issue of consistency regarding something the characters discover about zombies that apparently didn't hold true for a different zombie in the third book. Maybe someone else noticed it, too. The book is 28 years old. But I don't read Xanth for consistency, so I'm just going to overlook it.
—Blake
This is the very first book I ever read. Other than "See Spot Run" that is. I am mildly dyslexic. Not enough to get the special classes in school, or beneficial status in college, but enough to have made learning how to read a truly traumatic experience. Then one summer my father gave me his copy of this book. I was about 8 or 9-years-old. It took me several months, and a lot of help, but I finished this book, and never looked back. As a young girl I didn't understand a lot of the puns Anthony uses, but I did know this was a story about a little girl, and a dragon, and a wonderful world where anything could happen. I have never lost the love I felt for Xanth at that moment. And I often reach for one of these books when this mundane world becomes to overwhelming. And while my husband's puns make me groan in pain, Anthony's always make me laugh, chuckle or smile. I will always cherish this book and I recommend it to anyone.
—Kirsten
