Wow. Just...wow.

Having just finnished reading And Eternity, I have completed Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series. And I have experiaced what can only be described as an intellectual orgasm.

Incarnations is EASALY the most intense book series I have ever read, and I loved every moment of them. And Eternity brought the series to a nice close.

Let me give a big shout-out to Val for turning me on to this series. :smiley:

I’m thinking of looking into His Dark Materials next time I’m looking for books…I’ve heard only good things.

So has anyone else read Incarnations?

Um…what are the book names, because I’m looking for new Anthony stuff since I’ve read all the Xanth stuff and I dunno whats what when I reserve stuff from my library via the comps there.

Incarnations of Immortality is an excellent series. Then again, most of Piers Anthony’s stuff is pretty good. I like how wide a genre he writes in, most of his series are vastly different from all the others.

I’ve read most of Anthony’s works. The Incarnation books are his best work, I think. His Xanth series was also good in the beginning, but after Golem in the Gears, it kinda stopped being interesting, and started being… stupid.

And the Incarnation books are as follows:

On A Pale Horse
Bearing an Hourglass
With a Tangled Skein
Wielding A Red Sword
Being A Green Mother
For Love Of Evil
And Eternity

and, for those looking into Xanth, It starts with “A Spell For Chameleon,” which was one of the best books I ever read.

I don’t know, I like his later Xanth books, but as a distraction. They’re entertaining, and don’t take themselves very seriously. While I usually prefer a more significant story, Xanth remains a fun series for me.

Also, check out Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series. very good.

I hate you so much right now, GG. :hahaha;

You see, I LOVED Anthony’s novels and used to collect them back in the 80’s. And I liked Incarnations better than Xanth- it wasn’t as silly. (Xanth I read for laughs, Incarnations for the cool ideas.) Sadly, back then I was still Catholic, so when Anthony turned Satan into a good guy (In For Love of Evil) I felt torn about it. The influence of a friend of mine (who was even MORE fanatical about religion than I was) led me to NOT buy the last two novels (thought I DID sneek a peak at them, so I know what happens.) Ironically, today I’m a Free-Thinking Christian and no longer bothered by fictional takes on Christianity- and so is my friend! But I never got around to buying For Love of Evil or And Eternity (mainly because my local bookshop closed down.) I WILL someday, tho- count on that.

Ah, Piers Anthony, the author my english teacher called the medieval porn writer.

Read the Apprentice Adept series, read a part of Xanth…that’s about it.

The Incarnations of Immortality and the Apprentice Adept series is all you should read. Xanth sucks. It really, really sucks. I mean- the first five or six books aren’t bad… but then it gets fucking ridiculous.

Also, I’d like to say: Piers Anthony is the biggest dirty old man of a writer I have seen. Don’t believe me? He wrote a short story about a man fucking a doll. That’s all the proof you need.

EDIT: Wil: “And Eternity” is possibly one of the better ones… although I’m not sure you’ll like it since you seem to shy away from “dark” stuff. Pedophilia, a serial rapist/murderer, amongst other things are big plot points.

And Wil…if you can’t find them at a local bookstore, remember, eBay and amazon are thy friends. :wink:

These books would definately be worth going through the trouble for.

I would say “On a Pale Horse” is the best out of the Incarnations bunch. Maybe it’s just my attraction to the humanistic view of death it has, but I enjoyed it more than any of the others.

Loki: You’re right about Xanth. Personally, I think it was when they started bringing in the “Adult Conspiracy” crap that it officially got really stupid and not good. But before that, they were nice reads.

And personally, I’m torn between Pale Horse and Love of Evil as my favorites in the Incarnations series. Both are very well done. But to be honest, it was Being a Green Mother that affected me the most. I tend to consider nearly any possible outcome in a story before it happens, but I hadn’t expected how Green Mother ended, and it affected me for awhile. First time I’d been surprised by something in a book for years.

I liked For Love of Evil the best, followed closely by On A Pale Horse. And Eternity was only ok in my opinion I would have liked to see the take on Gods job a bit more than her becoming God and it ending. As for Xanth, I like the begining 9 and 2-3 of the rest. I honestly liked the ones that had a lot to do with Mundania like Demons Don’t Dream and Man From Mundania. Yon Ill Wind was meh though. The apprentice adapt kicks ass too, but I’m missing one so can’t continue it.

Thinking about it, I think my absolute favorite moment in the Incarnations series was when he had Satan sing Amazing Grace, while both he and his audience knew how bad the consequences would be for him alone.

As for Xanth, some of the early ones were really, really good. I didn’t know until last year what to call it, but having Grundy Golem doing the Prisoner Puzzle (that’s one name for it…maybe it’s known by others) in <u>The Magic of Xanth</u> was an injection of intelligence not found in many of your average fantasies (especially stuff like most of the Forgotten Realms fare). I agree that the books haven’t been as good lately. The only one in the last five or six years that I really, really liked was the one where he had another Mundane girl travel to Xanth. I think it was the 2nd-newest one one out there.