Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site magic.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!magic!b2 From: b2@magic.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Re: Review of _Bearing_an_Hourglass_ Message-ID: <516@magic.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 13:59:03 EDT Article-I.D.: magic.516 Posted: Tue Jul 9 13:59:03 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 06:33:18 EDT References: <2554@topaz.ARPA> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc, Morristown, NJ Lines: 65 Someone wondered if Piers Anthony was a taboo author in net.sf-lovers. Since he has been writing "light" fantasy recently instead of "hard" sf, I suppose some might say a review of his latest novel doesn't belong there. Phooey on them. A Short Review of "Bearing An Hourglass" by Piers Anthony I picked up BAH as soon as I saw it in the library. It is the 2nd in a series of ... hmm, 5 or 6. 5, I think. The main character of each novel is an Incarnation, a mortal who personifies one of the great forces of existence. They include Death (the subject of the first book in the series, "On a Pale Horse"), Time (this book's emphasis), Fate, Nature, and War. 2 immortal Incarnations also figure in the story, Good ( played by God, whom we never see or meet ), and Evil ( played by Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub, whom we see quite a bit of ). The basic plot of each book seems to go as follows: a more or less ordinary mortal finds himself selected to become the next personification of the Incarnation that best fits the book's title. He (no women so far, Fate and Nature will come later) flounders about trying to control and use the powers of his office, getting help and cryptic advice from the other mortal Incarnations. He finds out Satan is trying to do something dastardly but is rather ineffectual and Satan turns on his charm and makes you the reader a bit tense. The new Incarnation, however, learns a lot about his powers and how they interact with the world (in which magic and science are equally well developed) and where he fits into it all, so he ends up confronting and battling the Devil, trying to foil his evil plans. Each book ends similarly, with the Devil either winning or losing ( No sir, no spoilers here! ). I enjoyed OPH very much. It had many interesting touches, allusions, and puns. Since the Incarnation in OPH was Death, Anthony presented the reader with quite a few interesting questions concerning mercy killing, babies going to Limbo, life extension at all cost, death and war, etc. I enjoyed BAH much less. For one thing, there wasn't the same sort of interesting moral questions to delve into. Anthony also spent a lot of time explaining how Time's equipment worked, and shifting the new Time around. I didn't find this very entertaining. There were some very interesting minor characters in OPH. I remember quite a bit about the details of the plot of OPH. Off hand, I can barely recall any minor characters in BAH that weren't also in OPH. I can't remember much about the plot , even though I read it much more recently. I guess the problem is that Death makes a much more interesting and believable main character than Time does. So, I was disappointed with BAH. But I am going to to read the next books. I think BAH failed for me because Time, and discussions about time arrows, living backwards, etc. just didn't hold my interest. The other Incarnations, however, might be presented better. Fate, Nature, and War all seem to have quite a bit of potential. One last note. At the end of each book, Anthony has an "Author's Note". He discusses his motivations and what he is currently doing and where he got some of his ideas. The Note after OPH was especially interesting, since he described his own brush with Death. One could clearly see the influence of his day-to-day life on his writing. In keeping with my statements above, I can't remember anything about the Note in BAH. b2 {backbone}ihnp4!bellcore!b2