Shannon's Review - Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony (Xanth #3)

Title: Castle Roogna
Series: Xanth #3
Author: Piers Anthony
Illustrator/Book Cover Design: unknown
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Magic, Series,
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Received: Bought
Release Date: Jan 1979
Pages: 329
Rating:





Official Piers Anthony Websites:





Website:
http://www.hipiers.com/

Blog:
http://piersanthonyblog.blogspot.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorPiersAnthony/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/piersanthony

Instagram:
None found






Shannon’s Thoughts:


The third installment in Piers Anthony’s Xanth series. We meet the son of the previous main characters, Bink and Chameleon. Dor is a young boy of twelve who has magic and is being raised to someday be King. Most heroes of Xanth have to go on quests and Dor must as well. With his “babysitter”, an ex gargoyle, and a spell from the wizard Humphreys he goes back hundreds of years in time to find a cure for a girl and her zombie.


I find over the years I like series that are family sagas. Probably why I like genealogy as well. I really like the Xanth books for the magic and the humor. I had started this book 2 other times and then lost the book because we moved. The start of the story never left my mind which is rare for me to remember anything I have read for very long. I was happy to finally get to finish and find out how Dor’s first quest went.


Dor's quest seems fairly hard for a 12-year-old but he finds friends and helpers. One friend in a spider he calls Jumper. I mention this because if you are not a friend of spiders you may not like this story as he is in the book for most of it. I don’t love spiders and I don’t hate them either. Jumper was much nicer than Aragog from the Harry Potter series.


I can’t wait to read the next book, Centaur Aisle. I have also read other series from Piers Anthony and I do recommend his books for fantasy lovers.

Shannon's Review - On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Title: On A Pale Horse
Series: Incarnations Of Immortality #1
Author: Piers Anthony
Illustrator/Book Cover Design: Michael Whelan
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Del Rey
Received: Borrowed
Release Date: September 1986
Pages: 325
Rating:






Official Piers Anthony Websites:




Website:
http://www.hipiers.com/

Blog:
http://piersanthonyblog.blogspot.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorPiersAnthony/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/piersanthony

Instagram:
None found





Shannon’s Thoughts:

There is a new Death in town. An ordinary man named, Zane ends up as Death in an unordinary way. The Universe has been conspiring to put Zane into the job of Death. As Zane grows comfortable in his role he discovers the failing systems of the otherworlds. The living are mostly damned, the damned have no hope to redeem themselves to heaven, heaven is a mystery and the only sane place seems to be purgatory. Love drives Zane to correct a broken system.

I have read many of Pier Anthony’s books before. This is the first time I am delving into the series, Incarnations Of Immortality. It was recommended by a friend that I would like it and they thought that the series was the basis for the tv series Dead Like Me. Well if that is true the book is very different from the tv show. As with most Piers Anthony books it is filled with cheekiness, fantasy, and truth. I love the ideas that the author comes up with, they are so different and I never know what will come next even if I think I do. That is why I enjoy his books so much.

There are those who think his books are sexist. While there are things you could describe as sexist I believe that the author is creating those scenes or dialogs on purpose to make you think. Sometimes the scenes are so over the top in Anthony’s books they just can’t be serious. That is my thoughts on the negative side of his stories even though I really have nothing negative to complain about this story.

I have enjoyed Piers Anthony books from the moment I read the Isle Of Woman, the first book in his Geodessy Series. I will continue to enjoy when I have time to read more.

Shame of Man by Piers Anthony

Summary: This story follows a man, Hue, and later his family through trials and tribulations. Their stories are starting from 8millions years ago in different reincarnations throughout time to the year 2050.

My Thoughts: This book is sequel to Isle of Woman, which I did like a lot This one was good but not as good as the first. Shame of Man mostly revolved around the character Hue, or Hugh or other variations of his was used also. Revolving around one character made it different from the first book because the first had two main characters and it was more of a love story. This one was more about struggles of man versus evil or man vs. survival. There was more history and mythology involved in this also, which I found in parts were kinda of dry and hard for my thought process. I had a problem with trying to figure out in each chapter reincarnation, who was who because their names changed slightly each time to fit the area a time period. It also had characters from the first book in the series so I was trying to remember them as well and sometimes coming up blank. Then there was new character to which I would try to figure out if I had met them yet. So that made it a little frustrating. I still like the book and the thought of the way it is written but whether I will read the third one in the series, Hope of Earth, is up in the air. On one side I really liked Isle of Woman but on the other Shame of Man was only so so. Maybe it was just the fact that the story was man vs. evil and that there is always a balancing act between the two and not yay good won! I don’t know resembles life to much for me. Yet if it had been yay good wins I probably would have said predicable. (shakes head at self) 3 Stars

About the Author: Piers Anthony is probably better known for his fantasy series on the world of Xanth. He mostly writes fantasy and science fiction. He has written other novels about historical fiction such as this series.