When Good Authors Go Bad

[martes]

Like most SF/Fantasy readers my age, I've read my share of Piers Anthony books.  Some I really liked, particularly the first 3 Xanth books, plus some of his other early work.  And like a lot of other readers, I quickly tired of Xanth after the initial trilogy, particularly the author's odd obsession with panties and little girls

Comments

[cockyfox]

Yet another reason why I stay away from Piers Anthony. Never could get into his books that much.

[hbruton]

I had to go look of course. Ugh.

[the_mcp]

Wow. Just... wow.

I had no idea Anthony had gone so far off the rails; honestly, I stopped paying attention to his stuff once I realized that all of the Xanth novels were essentially the same plot with a new batch of lame puns grafted onto them.

He did write some more interesting stuff earlier in his career, like the Cluster series, but I always had the impression that at some point he decided he was content to just coast on his name recognition and milk the Xanth series for all it was worth, and stopped trying to push the envelope. Although if this is what happens when he pushes the envelope these days, yeah, maybe he should just stick to milking the Xanth franchise.