tThis looks like it is the fifth book in the series, so I guess I am looking at it before the forth book, which isn't a bad thing because as soon as the reviews are done and posted it will not really look all that out of place (with the exception of this little introduction). I did enjoy the first three books, but I really cannot remember reading these books (though I suspect I did). I really did warm to Stile and Sheen (who was the feminine robot that one could have sex with) and wanted to continue their adventures, however by this time Anthony had moved in a new direction.tI do not think these novels are meant for young adults because it is clear that by this time (and it is also very, very clear in Bio of a Space Tyrant) that Piers Anthony is simply obsessed with sex. Okay, granted, he lived through the sexual revolution, but it seems that he had completely missed the point of the revolution. The sexual revolution was all about freeing ourselves of the tyranny of society, and more so, freeing women from the tyranny of marriage. By taking sex out of marriage it does destroy the institution of marriage to an extent. My argument (and I know many will disagree with me) is that the institution of marriage had already been destroyed. The reason I say that is because it had become a method to enslave women, and in many ways it is still used as such by certain communities today (and it is that aspect of marriage that repulses me).tMany of the socialist writers have flagged the concept of marriage as being a modern form of slavery. It is not that the male is enslaved by rather the female. That began to change with the women's rights movement in the early 20th century, and then pretty much broke away with the sexual revolution in the 1960s. The question that was asked was 'why do we have to wait for marriage to have sex?' The simple answer was 'because the bible says so.' Does it? I could quite easily argue that it does not (though I tend to prefer the late John Stott's explanation that it does). However, the response to that was clearly 'I'm not a Christian, so why should I listen to the bible?' This was not a new thing.tNow, I could go on about marriage and sexuality, but I will not and instead turn to Anthony's corruption of the sexual revolution. It is clear from his writings that Anthony hold a very clear sexist world view. His male characters are so sexually appealing to women that they fall over themselves to have sex with them. It almost seems as if his characters are some sort of sex-god. To me it suggests a lot of sexual frustration in Anthony's life, and maybe it is some regret that he did not have as much sex with different people as he would have liked. I have been down that road, and written stories in a similar vein, however I always try to be a little more realistic about it. As for Anthony, I really do question what he is writing here, it is clearly not erotic, but more science-fiction pornography.
I found the entire Apprentice Adept series in a used book store a while back, and since I only read 1-3 as a kid, I was super-pumped to get my hands on some craptacular fantasy/sci-fi (Piers Anthony is the MASTER of this particular subsection of the genre).Wow. WOW. Somehow I'd forgotten the beastiality overtones in the series (which he heavily implies and goes so far as to have other characters talking about the potential for it), along with the standard Anthony racism, sexism, and horrifying c
What do You think about Robot Adept (1989)?
Robot Adept lacks what little charm Out of Phaze has, but it's not nearly as offensive as Unicorn Point. It continues to bank on the stranger-in-paradise concept by this time having the love interests switch - which gives us rather more access to their characters, and they do develop into relatively sympathetic people. Moreso than their partners, certainly. There's only one attempted rape, and it's foiled in a rather satisfying way (raping an amoeba Does Not Work when she can easily reform her abdomen into a fully functional vise.) The book ends with yet another plot-determining set of contests - this mechanism is a little creaky at this point, but it's entertaining enough to read. (Although... another table tennis match? They could use all the games in the universe, but you had to use this one again? Weren't up for any reseach, were you, buddy?)Definitely the point at which the series begins to decline, but not all that objectionable in itself.
—Jeremy Preacher
