[kalphiteking101]

I was looking around the forum and noticed that no one had posted a single thread about any of Piers Anthony's books, so I figured I'd just make my own.

Piers anthony has made around 32 Stand-Alone books from the last time I checked, with SEVERAL series

His longest series is "Xanth", being around 35 books long. He also has the Apprentice Adept series (around 7 books) Incarnations of Imortality (8 books) Battle Circle (3 books) Of Man and Manta (3 books) Cluster (5 books) Tarot (3 books in one volume) Bio of a Space Tyrant (7 books) Mode (4 books) Geodyssey (5 books) Chromagic (5 books) and 2 Erotica books (adult only)


and THEN he he as huge list of Collaborations
Dragon's gold (5 books) and SEVERAL stand-alone books

In total he has written 137 books as of 2007

My personal favorite happens to be the third Xanth book "Castle Roogna" in which a young High-Class magician boy of 12 gets sent into the past to discover how to bring a zombie back to life for his maid Millie which he has a crush on, getting put inside the body of a Muscular barbarian and befriending a giant spider, he uncovers several of the mysteries surrounding Xanth and matures enough to accept the position as King of Xanth.


For a full list of books refer to www.hipiers.com

Forgot to mention he's also won the a few Del Ray awards, Wizard Sites award, and Preditor's and Editor's award.

[Lars]

Never heard of him, and the storyline you posted of your favourite of him sound mostly like a flex of the "farmboy" clishe.
And just writing lots of books doesn't really make things epic. And I wonder how long they are.
Two good examples on epic. Robert Jordan's The wheel of Time... 11 books, unless book 12 has finaly come out.
Long books, rather big story line... All of those books have taken place, somehow, in less than four years, even tho it feels like more.
Looking at Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, so far eight books. And on an epic perspective that's really epic, there is timeskips and keeping check on the timeline keeps one in focus. But the story dwarfs most epic stories ever writen in it's size and complexity. And I am unsure of how many years that's run in the mainstory, not counting the shorter bits that take place before that has been in them.

So, in what way is Piers books epic, more than there just being lots of them? And with the amount of them I take it they aren't that long books.

[kalphiteking101]

Never heard of him, and the storyline you posted of your favourite of him sound mostly like a flex of the "farmboy" clishe.
And just writing lots of books doesn't really make things epic. And I wonder how long they are.
Two good examples on epic. Robert Jordan's The wheel of Time... 11 books, unless book 12 has finaly come out.
Long books, rather big story line... All of those books have taken place, somehow, in less than four years, even tho it feels like more.
Looking at Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, so far eight books. And on an epic perspective that's really epic, there is timeskips and keeping check on the timeline keeps one in focus. But the story dwarfs most epic stories ever writen in it's size and complexity. And I am unsure of how many years that's run in the mainstory, not counting the shorter bits that take place before that has been in them.

So, in what way is Piers books epic, more than there just being lots of them? And with the amount of them I take it they aren't that long books.

I didn't say that he was epic because he had so many books, but there's the fact that once you finish a great book you always go "Man, I wish there was more" and you probably will never get that feeling with him.

All of Pier's anthony's book are about 180-300 pages long, depending on the series. I think the longest books are in the Xanth series but I'm not quite sure.

One of the features about Piers Anthony that really made an impression on me is that I had never gone on a "power-trip" from just reading a book but It happened every single time in "Incarnations of Immortality" and in the Xanth book "In a Swell Foop"-The Incarnations of Immortality being about how a group of deities come into being, going from Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Satan, God, and then an 8th book which I haven't read. The "Swell Foop" book was an interesting twist on LoTR, and kept me hooked on every page.

My point being, it isn't the amount of books that makes Piers Anthony great, hell, when he officially became my "favorite author" I only knew of 6 of his books. It isnt Quanity>Quality here, but you can't argue that "QUANITY BAD!!!! JUST BECAUSE THERES ALOT AUTOMATICALLY MEANS THEY SUCK!!!"

[Bodhisattva]

Piers Anthony has been one of my favorite authors since I was in single-digits. "A Spell For Chameleon" was my very first novel, and while his books are entertaining, they're really light fantasy. They're not going to change your world if you read them, and I felt the Xanth series got bogged down in so many fan-submitted puns that it overwhelmed any actual storyline. His other series are all very good reads in my opinion (your mileage may vary).

[Jeff N.]

I personally loved the Incarnations of Immortality series. I keep meaning to pick up the Apprentice Adept series but I've got too many other series going right now.

[kalphiteking101]

I personally loved the Incarnations of Immortality series. I keep meaning to pick up the Apprentice Adept series but I've got too many other series going right now.

Before I jump the gun, is it against the rules for me to give you free e-books of it??
I've got all of the books scanned (Yes, I own them in printed version) or typed, but both have quite a few printing errors, still very readable though. Apprentice Adept actually has fewest errors I do beleive.

[linuxelf]

It would be illegal, even if you own the originals, to give digital copies, so yes, that would be forbidden here.

[DIV]

I can't stand Piers Anthony. Possibly the worst fantasy author I've ever read. And I've read a fair deal of bad fantasy.

Mostly because:

- I found myself wondering "Where the hell did he come up with this" and not in a good way. Throwing the most random shit you can think of on paper doesn't really translate to creativity.

- The puns. Really? This insults me as a reader, a comedian and a concerned citizen.

- The plot was unfocused and poorly paced. It was like reading the rambling fanfiction for a mediocre series from some 14 year old fan.

[kalphiteking101]

I can't stand Piers Anthony. Possibly the worst fantasy author I've ever read. And I've read a fair deal of bad fantasy.

Mostly because:

- I found myself wondering "Where the hell did he come up with this" and not in a good way. Throwing the most random shit you can think of on paper doesn't really translate to creativity.

- The puns. Really? This insults me as a reader, a comedian and a concerned citizen.

- The plot was unfocused and poorly paced. It was like reading the rambling fanfiction for a mediocre series from some 14 year old fan.

I have to say, with some of the later Xanth novels you would be justified in saying this but you can't bunch every single one of his books into the same category. Incarnations of Immortality, as well as the Apprentice Adept books rarely used puns, and for a lot of people they're actually a pro instead of a con. If you just spout the same things as everyone else you aren't going to get noticed (although he isnt really widely-known anyways) and the whole Puns thing doesn't interupt storyline, and if you're caught off-guard by one they can be good for a really good chuckle.

Most of his stories are based on twists of pre-existing books or mythology, for example yet again, such as the Incarnations of Immortality and half of the Xanth books are also based off of Mythology.




On a different note, I would like to have a private chat with a Mod (I don't know who I should really talk to) about the whole e-book thing, and would like to know where "drawing the line is" I have printed copies as well as paid e-books with verification codes to PROVE i bought them, but this is just a forum so I don't know if it would be wrong of me to re-direct you to a bit-torrent file or rapidshare or personal sever for distribution, etc.
It seems a little silly even to me to go to these lengths to spread a little Piers out there for you guys but I'm just about as Die-Hard of a fan as you'll ever find for him

[linuxelf]

The problem with even legally bought ebooks is, unless they're released into the public domain, you are still not legally allowed to distribute them. If you wish to send, via snail mail, an actual purchased copy of the book (not a xerox copy, or a free-hand typed copy, or an OCR scanned copy etc, but one with an actual ISBN number as you would find it in a legal book store), that is perfectly acceptable. That being said, anyone who wants to find illegal content on a torrent server should already know where to look. Google makes finding torrent sites pretty simple.

As for Piers Anthony, I've read quite a few of the Xanth novels, as well as Incarnations of Immortality, and enjoyed them when I was younger. I don't know that I would enjoy them as much today.

[Useless Trivia Man]

Incarnations of Immortality remains one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. The way Anthony intertwined the plots of seven separate books into one grand finale was brilliant. I highly recommend this series.


Xanth was fun early on - very light-hearted fluff, but definitely entertaining. But I agree that it became bogged down and tiresome in later books; if you should decide to give 'em a try, start at the beginning and read until you stop enjoying them.

I haven't read the Apprentice Adept series, so I got nothing to say about that one.

[n9zee]

On a different note, I would like to have a private chat with a Mod (I don't know who I should really talk to) about the whole e-book thing, and would like to know where "drawing the line is" I have printed copies as well as paid e-books with verification codes to PROVE i bought them, but this is just a forum so I don't know if it would be wrong of me to re-direct you to a bit-torrent file or rapidshare or personal sever for distribution, etc.
It seems a little silly even to me to go to these lengths to spread a little Piers out there for you guys but I'm just about as Die-Hard of a fan as you'll ever find for him

Do you still want to have a chat? Feel free to send me a PM.

[kalphiteking101]

On a different note, I would like to have a private chat with a Mod (I don't know who I should really talk to) about the whole e-book thing, and would like to know where "drawing the line is" I have printed copies as well as paid e-books with verification codes to PROVE i bought them, but this is just a forum so I don't know if it would be wrong of me to re-direct you to a bit-torrent file or rapidshare or personal sever for distribution, etc.
It seems a little silly even to me to go to these lengths to spread a little Piers out there for you guys but I'm just about as Die-Hard of a fan as you'll ever find for him

Do you still want to have a chat? Feel free to send me a PM.

Eh, I finally figured it isn't worth the trouble. If people are going to find the books, they'll find them without my help. I just personally like recommending them because I actually dont send viruses and its just one of those "do unto others" things.