When I was young, I devoured Anthony's fantasy fiction voraciously, and as I got a bit older, I started exploring his forays into "hard" sf, occasionally being surprised at the depth he was capable of. This book stands sort of at the precipice between those two extremes. It posits a world called Tarot, which causes hallucinations in its visitors, based on their visual-emotional states, which is becoming the center of a religious movement. Paul, a young monk from Earth, is sent to examine this planet for his Order, and to attempt to determine if the God of Tarot is real.Anthony structures the plot around the first nine trumps of the Tarot deck, with an odd interlude for a "Ghost" card which he introduces himself, but for the most part this book appears to follow the traditional deck in a structured and interesting manner (the next book would not). Anthony explores a number of themes, including spirituality and its relationship to carnality, drug addiction, faith, the occult, and the impact of matter-transmission technology on society, with intelligence and care. Although his understanding of the tarot itself seems fairly superficial, to judge by the appendices, he nevertheless manages to create an interesting story here that will not annoy those with greater knowledge. Unfortunately, the rest of the series did not retain this high standard.
Piers Anthony is far too obsessed with sex, and his apparent view of women merely as sexual objects (the main character objects to this view, yet almost all of his thoughts dealing with women are sexual) does nothing to endear him or this book to me.The plot itself is decent enough, though it takes far too long to really get started, and the first few chapters are pretty boring. But the idea of a planet where Tarot cards come to life is fascinating, even though I know next to nothing about Tarot symbolism. The ending, however, wasn't so much an ending as it was the place the book stopped. Each book in a trilogy (or any series) should be self-contained, and this one was not.The characters... Well. The Antarean that we see all too briefly had potential. Some of the religious leaders also have potential, but like with the Antarean, we don't see nearly enough of them. Instead, we're stuck with Brother Paul. Brother Paul is, in a word, annoying. He knows the answer to everything, even while he's assuring us that he doesn't. He was a mysterious past that we don't learn about until the end, when it turns out to be the perfect background to convince anyone that while he is a religious man, he does know how the world works, really! He was a drug runner! He's seen all the dark sides! We promise.Again, annoying.
What do You think about God Of Tarot (1987)?
Now, Mr. Anthony has sold millions of books, so what do I know, but this book was kind of racially and gender-related ... not offensive, but at least insensitive. I don't think I've ever read a well-rounded black or female character from him. When I was a kid, that was fine (cause I didn't know better), but now it's not so much. And his writing/ideas aren't sophisticated enough to carry it. This book is so heavy-handed and clumsy. Sigh. For all that, Piers Anthony is nothing if not ambitious (the plot reminded me of Star Trek 6, where they're looking for god; maybe Shatner read this book). He's delving into rich terrain - the search for God - and his heart's in the right place. I feel like he thinks he's being super deep and sensitive...he just doesn't quite do it.
—Michael B Tager
Probably the worst book I've ever read. Anthony's sentence construction and language range from amateur to needlessly convoluted. His imagery is often poorly drawn and obscure unless you have knowledge of the particular Tarot deck and card he references, so there's a lot of "filling in the blanks." The initial idea is intriguing but, like A.E "Dead" Waite, quickly grows tiresome and pedantic. Tangents are many, and the story structure, such as it is, amounts to basically a series of meditations on Tarot cards twisted to fit a sci-fi world. This is the first of a trilogy intended to be a complete work, but frankly the effort is not worth the payoff. Not recommended.
—David Magnenat
I have read several books by Piers Anthony in the past and when I saw this title in the used book section, I was rather pleased to find it. However the joy ended there.This book features are a rather bland main character who constantly debates in his head about how best to tackle relatively benign problems. If you can get passed the middle-school humor and the rather stereotyped religious factions, the action still doesn't get any better. The most interesting part of the book was a chapter was "Ghost." Other than that it was very disappointing.
—Rose
