The Xanth Xone

[vovat]

I'm not sure anyone has been reading my ongoing reviews of Piers Anthony's Xanth series, but I'm going to keep writing them anyway, if only for my own benefit. Here are my thoughts on the twentieth through twenty-third volumes:

Yon Ill Wind - The demon who is the source of all magic in Xanth is challenged by his fellows to take mortal form. It's

Comments

[vilajunkie]

I'm not really a Xanth?Piers fan, mostly because it seems like it's so...silly. I realize that the Oz books are relatively silly, but those are meant for kids, so it's okay to be silly at times. I dunno, maybe it's just the mashing-up of conflicting mythologies that gets to me. And all the self-inserts by the author.

[vovat]

I realize that the Oz books are relatively silly, but those are meant for kids, so it's okay to be silly at times.

Oz has generally felt pretty real to me, even as an adult who's able to see more of the flaws in the books. I think it's pretty easy to roll with the jokey parts, and the super-pun-heavy incidents are usually somewhat isolated. With Xanth, the puns seem more in-your-face, as if Piers were saying, "Hey, everybody! Look! I'm making another pun!" I like puns, and Piers sometimes comes up with (or at least utilizes) really clever ones, but I think his desire to throw in as many fan-suggested puns as possible kind of makes for an overkill in silliness.

And all the self-inserts by the author.

It's definitely heavy on wish fulfillment, what with pretty ordinary guys ending up with drop-dead gorgeous girls. I think his more successful females tend to be the ones who DON'T have supermodel bodies, like Electra and Jenny Elf.