Read Series: Xanth
by Author Piers Anthony
Zombie Lover (1999)
I was given this book as part of a "Blind Date with a Book" promotion at the library at the college where I work.If this book had been a real blind date, I’m ashamed to say that in the middle of dinner I excused myself to the restroom then promptly climbed out the window and ran far, far away. I ...
Xone of Contention (2000)
I seem to need a fix of pun-ishment every once in a while, and for that I need look no further than an Xanth novel by Piers Anthony.Can you believe this is number 23 in his long running series? And yes, I am a sucker for puns and light stories housing heavy themes.This particular Xanth outing dea...
Man from Mundania (2000)
Princess Ivy's princessly duties apparently include absolutely nothing, so she's bored. She wants a quest. Good thing she's in a fantasy novel that hands out quests readily, though it seems the quest she's chosen is the same one they've been trying to solve for three books now. Ho-hum.Ivy ends...
Currant Events (2005)
This is the third novel in a row to use the formula of following a character's travels through Xanth and meeting a host of familiar and new people. The meandering nature of Clio's quest can get tedious if this isn't your favorite motif--that was my case. Other readers may enjoy it just fine. Metr...
Air Apparent (2007)
Wira is wild with worry. Her beloved husband, Hugo, has suddenly disappeared—and on the same night that they had planned to start a family. Could he have gotten cold feet—or has something more sinister happened to him? And what is worse, there is a strange, seemingly lifeless body in his place!To...
Isle of View (1990)
Obviously the title is yet another pun. Prince Dolph is dealing with figuring out which of two girls betrothed to him is going to actually be his wife. (Guess polygamy isn't allowed in Xanth. A pity.)I think this book was where I started to lose interest in this series. I wasn't a huge fan in...
Cube Route (2004)
Cube Route by Piers Anthony was my first foray into the land of Xanth, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I have seen his books on my local library's shelves for a long time, but never really felt the need or desire to give them a try. However, a couple of months ago I listened to a podcast where s...
Ogre, Ogre (1997)
This is the fifth book in Piers Anthony's Xanth series and the best of those first five by a wide margin. Piers Anthony has a quirky, almost clunky way of unfolding a story, but the deeper structure--the skeleton of his tales--is always sound and well imagined. Some story ideas just naturally s...
Heaven Cent (2000)
An the Xanth series continues30 December 2011tIt is fascinating read what other people's opinions on the various books on Goodreads, particularly those that I myself have read. A lot of the reviews suggest that these later Xanth books where the first that they read, and there is obviously the ext...
The Dastard (2001)
Many malevolent menaces have imperiled the magical land of Xanth in its long and storied history. But none has been as despicably dangerous as the Dastard-a craven miscreant who sold his soul to a detestable demon for the power to erase events. Now the entire future of Xanth is at the mercy of hi...
Question Quest (1991)
Xanth #14: Question Quest, by Piers AnthonyThe Good Magician makes an appearance in every Xanth book. That's how most books start - a character has a problem in their lives that they need to see him about. So they make a journey to his castle, battle through the three Challenges, get their Answer...
Castle Roogna (1997)
One of the few things I really liked about Xanth was that time moved forward. There are lots of fantasy series in which time goes so slowly that it seems like no one ever gets older. But in this book, the protagonist is Dor--the son of the protagonist from the previous two books in the series. ...
Centaur Aisle (1997)
What makes this book great is the Xanth formula, as mentioned in my review of A Spell for Chamelon:"As a general rule, Xanth novels are about a protagonist who doesn't really fit in and has no idea what their purpose in life is or what group they would fit in with. That is, they are a normal youn...
Geis of the Gargoyle (1995)
If it was possible, I would have rated this book 3 1/2 stars. However, since it is part of the a series that I love, I am somewhat biased and rated it 4 stars.Book 18 is about Gary Gar, a gargoyle who is filtering the water that comes into Xanth from Mundania. He is finding that it is becoming mo...
Harpy Thyme (1995)
The 17th tale in the Xanth series, Harpy Thyme involves the very lonely Gloha, the only female harpy-goblin in Xanth who is desperately in want of her very own male harpy-goblin. Naturally, since this is the pattern for all Xanth tales, Gloha undergoes the ritual set of riddles so she can finally...
Faun & Games (1997)
c1997A Tor BookPublished by Tom Doherty Associates,Inc I bought this book on vacation. It is like new with a perfect dust jacket. I plan to gift it to the library.IMHO this is wonderfull satire about sexual and courtship behavior, and about attitudes about proper sexual beliefs.p109"We'll just ha...
The Color of Her Panties (1992)
This is one of the Xanth books which i look back on most fondly. It doesn't hurt that it is targeted to exactly the audience which was me (13 year old boy at the time). I read it all in one day when I happened to be sick and had stayed home from school.One aspect of this book that I really loved ...
Demons Don't Dream (2015)
I remember liking this one okay when I read it in high school, primarily because it involved kids from the "real world" (well, Mundania, as Xanth calls it), and involved a computer game. Overall I kinda hate the trope of "kids play a game and OOPS IT'S REAL," but since everything about Xanth is ...
Golem in the Gears (1997)
Golem in the Gears is the first book I've read by popular fantasy author, Piers Anthony. While this is not what I'd consider "my cup of tea", a lady from work brought it in for me to read and I do enjoy delving into books that are outside of my usual scope. Plus, I love to read books that are f...
Vale of the Vole (2000)
This is the 10th Xanth novel, and the beginning of what I have always considered the second trilogy. At this point, Piers had moved from the TOR publisher to Avon. Since Avon doesn't ever list TOR novels and TOR doesn't ever list Avon ones, many readers may have long been confused on what was in ...
The Source of Magic (1997)
Hmmm... it's a strange thing to read your childhood favourites as an adult - except with Harry Potter, which for me is timeless. I will never stop enjoying them. I quite enjoyed 'The Source of Magic', though reading it now, a few things strike me. Firstly an obvious one - the prose are not nearly...
A Spell for Chameleon (1977)
I saw A Spell for Chameleon on a shelving cart the other day and realized two things. First, that I'd read it before and enjoyed it, but had forgotten it completely. Second, that the author was Piers Anthony, who's been described as an outrageous sexist even among sci-fi/fantasy writers. So I pic...
Yon Ill Wind (1997)
At the tender age of ten or eleven, the one thing I wanted most was to be able to hire a book from the adult fiction section of my library. The rules were that no one under thirteen could hire any novel outside of the teen section, but I was terribly bored with the books there, and had read all o...
Swell Foop (2002)
by Piers Anthony, published in 2001.Xanth, the one fictitious world in which all else are real . . .. . . Er, or something.This is indeed another (number 26) Xanth novel by Piers Anthony, full of puns, low necklines and magical mayhem. So after twenty six novels in the same magical world, has the...
Dragon on a Pedestal (1997)
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 als...
Night Mare (1997)
Frustrating though imaginative, mean-spirited and misogynistic, an example of how not to portray women in fiction. It saddens me to say that this will be the last Xanth novel I read for the forseeable future. Once I slogged through Night Mare I no longer wanted to spend time with this writer, a...
Roc and a Hard Place (1996)
My wife Barb and I have read a number of books in the author's Xanth series; I've only reviewed a few of them here, but the general observations from those reviews would apply to this installment as well (and probably to all or most of the Xanth novels --it would be fair to say that in many ways,...
Up in a Heaval (2003)
I don't know whether I used to like Anthony more when I was younger, or if his books have just gotten worse the further into the series he goes. I suspect it's a bit of both. I didn't enjoy this one much at all. When he was writing the actual story (which was only about the last 20 pages of the e...
Pet Peeve (2006)
What can I say? I will, unto eternity, be a Piers Anthony fan.When I was ten to eleven, I saw the book "Night Mare" at the library. I tried to read it twice but it was too much for me. That third time? I was up until seven in the morning reading it and I was hooked, despite the fact that I read t...
Stork Naked (2006)
Xanth #30: Stork Naked, by Piers AnthonySurprise Golem gets the shock of her life when her baby is delivered, but the stork flies off with the baby because of a technicality. She immediately decides to see the Good Magician, to find out how to get her baby back. He tries to dissuade her from her ...
Crewel Lye (1987)
Ah, punny titles. I wonder if he thinks of the titles first and then writes a book to match? Seems like it.This book features Princess Ivy again. I like Princess Ivy. Partly because she's a female character whose talent isn't somehow related to sex or appearance, thanks. (Though that would h...
Esrever Doom (2013)
Another fantastic adventure in the land of Xanth! Piers Anthony has really outdone himself with this one. Some of the puns are hilarious while others will have you groaning they're so bad. Loved the varied cast of companions this time. Was lovely to see some new creatures never presented before. ...
Knot Gneiss (2010)
Dare I say some of the more negative/surprised reviews here seem like they haven't touched the Xanth series in a while.If you have read the last 3 books, you know just what you're in store for, though there are a few less panty-related plot points in this one. (Finally)It's the same formula that ...
Jumper Cable (2009)
I've been a fan of the Xanth series for over ten years, and in general the series has had its ups and downs. I've always felt that out of the 30+ books in the series, the best of the best were around books #12-20. Some of those earlier books had epic tales that were truly magnificent. Some of the...