Name that book?

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

OK, that sounds interesting. Is it any good?

Best regards,
Andy

They are OK, but after a while they all seem more of the same and you have to really like puns.

I read them as they were being published but only made it to book 4 before giving up.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BenG

They are OK, but after a while they all seem more of the same and you have to really like puns.

I read them as they were being published but only made it to book 4 before giving up.

Yes, there's definitely only so many of the "Xanth" books that I could stand. They'd probably appeal to a 6-year-old .

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

OK, that sounds interesting. Is it any good?

Best regards,
Andy

I haven't read any of it in quite some time but from what I remember it was pretty good. (I had checked a 3 book omnibus of some of his earlier books in the series out of the library.) Basically he took the state of Florida and made some alterations to form his fantasy world of Xanth and of course then put his own twist on some mythology for his story lines. Of course everyone has their own likes and dislikes in authors.

[BenG]

I generally don't mind Piers Anthony but he does have a tendency to drag out a series long after he has gotten all the good from it. I prefer his stand alone SF to his fantasy. His first novel Chthon was nominated for both a Nebula and a Hugo award.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BenG

I generally don't mind Piers Anthony but he does have a tendency to drag out a series long after he has gotten all the good from it. I prefer his stand alone SF to his fantasy. His first novel Chthon was nominated for both a Nebula and a Hugo award.

"When he's good, he's very, very good, but when he's bad he's awful."

to paraphrase someone or other.

EDIT: I discover that it's Longfellow:

"There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid."

I find some of Anthony's books rather disturbing - and not in a "good" sense.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find some of Anthony's books rather disturbing - and not in a "good" sense.

Yes. I recently started a re-read of the "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series and was disturbed enough by the paedophilia-friendly points that I abandoned them. I must be more sensitive to such things than when I first read them.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes. I recently started a re-read of the "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series and was disturbed enough by the paedophilia-friendly points that I abandoned them. I must be more sensitive to such things than when I first read them.

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of.

[BenG]

That's one I've never read. I've read Macroscope, Chthon, some of the Xanth series, some of the Split Infinity series, and the Omnivore series. I read the first one of the Incarnation series but it bored me. I think I was completely over him by that time.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crich70

Xanth is a series some 20+ books long.

And every title is a Pun(isher )

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by BenG

I generally don't mind Piers Anthony but he does have a tendency to drag out a series long after he has gotten all the good from it. I prefer his stand alone SF to his fantasy. His first novel Chthon was nominated for both a Nebula and a Hugo award.

Yes, when he does an interesting concept like space travel by personality transfer ("Cluster"), which would have made an interesting standalone book, instead he tries to spin it out into a prolonged series.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes. I recently started a re-read of the "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series and was disturbed enough by the paedophilia-friendly points that I abandoned them. I must be more sensitive to such things than when I first read them.

I had much the same reaction when I re-read them a few years ago. Anthony is never subtle, but in the first book of the series he bludgeons you over and over. And yet there are also some very good elements to that series. If you can get past the first book the rest of the series is better, but in that first book he really goes way over the top.

I have found that some of his other books also get rather uncomfortable in places (though none quite so extreme) and I came to the same conclusion as you: I must be more sensitive to such things than I was.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes. I recently started a re-read of the "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series and was disturbed enough by the paedophilia-friendly points that I abandoned them. I must be more sensitive to such things than when I first read them.

I remember buying the book when it was first published. I started to read it and put it away unfinished. What a waste of my dollars. I probably still have it in my collection.
Apache

[DrNefario]

The sexual content was probably a plus to me when I was full of teenage hormones (see also James Herbert, John Norman), but that was quite a while ago. Even when I was a fan I was never even tempted to try the Xanth series. I could just tell it wasn't for me.

[Ranny]

Originally Posted by Ranny

Sorry its fiction, I've been working through my library this afternoon with no luck. I think when browsing on amazon, I saw it again in a link, found I had already purchased it but can't remember neither title nor author now.

I can be dense at time, I picked it up as an audible audio book in the Christmas sales.

Its Broken Harbour by Tana French.

[alanHd]

Can anyone help me find this book, Its either a lawyer or private investigator set in England who is left a country house by a relation. When he goes to clean it out he finds the relation was a collector of the occult, with a secret basement full of occult things, he was planning on selling some books to a collector but one was stolen before the deal could be done.

If I remember right he was going to use the book to summon someone.