Message-ID: <828@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 14:43:32 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.828
Posted: Thu Feb 28 14:43:32 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 20:31:25 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: war@mit-dutch (Chris Warack)

	After everything lately concerning Piers Anthony, I thought it was time
to add my two cents.  First I'll say that I like Anthony enough that he is one
of three authors whose books I'll buy on name alone.  I've read most everything
he's written.
	First, you cannot judge his writing by reading just one series or book,
ESPECIALLY Xanth.  He tends to write in series, with three exceptions --
Macroscope (excellent), Hasan (his worst), and Rings of Ice (the one I haven't
read [out of print?]).
	Xanth is very different from other stuff he's done.  It is almost like
a cheap verbal comic strip or cartoon; and that's the way I read it.  The only
reasons there have been so many is that they are so easy to write and a LOT of
people buy them for some reason.  I don't hold it against him to satisfy that
audience with new Xanthia as long as he brings out new Anthony (like the
Incarnations.
	Someone mentioned reading Thousandstar which was the first sequel to
the Cluster trilogy.  There have been two others added to the series (Viscous
Circle and "name forgotten").  These books are interesting in the universe
they create and different races of aliens (and how they work.)  However, each
book has a different set of characters.  The Tarot trilogy is also set in the
Cluster universe and is good.  I think Cluster is probably his best series.
	Others have mentioned the Battlecircle trilogy which I rate in the
middle of his writing.  Also, Orn, Omnivore and Ox are good but not his best.
Cthon was one of Anthony's first novels.  It was recently re-released along
with a sequel, Pthor.  These two are also interesting but a little weak.
	More recently he wrote the Split_Infinity/Blue_Adept/Juxtaposition
trilogy.  This is his closest work to Xanth but is still quite different.
The ideas are great -- the game, parallel worlds, etc; but the characters
are somewhat plastic.  (I did like the little female unicorn, Nessa? .)
The new Bio of a Space Tyrant series is in yet a different vein.  This work
has more 'misery' a.k.a. Thomas Covenent and is long winded; but the story
has kept my interest so far and I'm not going to pass judgment until the next
(third) book at least.
	In summary, I can count on Anthony to write an interesting and exciting
story; but I don't count on him being a literary god.  And, if you judge him
solely on his Xanth series, you aren't really judging Piers Anthony.

				-- Chris Warack
				   war@dutch

please excuse misspellings and wrong names/titles -- this is off the top of my
	head.

Message-ID: <5375@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 8-Mar-85 20:28:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.5375
Posted: Fri Mar  8 20:28:18 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 04:55:16 EST
References: <828@topaz.ARPA>
Reply-To: grady@ucbvax.UUCP (Steven grady)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 6
Summary: 

(Sorry if others have said this, but I have 120 to go in net.sf-lovers)
Chthon was Anthony's first.

		Steven
(P.S.  I got this out of the S.F. Book of Lists -- not absolutely complete,
		but still very fun to look through)