Xanth - an overview of the famous series by Piers Anthony
Oct 17 '06 (Updated Oct 22 '06)
The Bottom Line Full of humor and puns while not sacrificing wonderful characters and storylines.
tweaked on 10/22/06 in responce to a comment/rating issue
History of the Series
According to Wikipedia.com Mr. Anthony originally intended the stories of Xanth to be told in a trilogy. Because of the success of those books the original plan was expanded to end after 9 books. The fact that Mr. Anthony's 31st book in this series is due to be published in 2007, and a 32nd book has been written, can only be attributed to its strong fan-base.
Understanding Xanth
The history of Xanth spans from 4000 years before the First Wave of Humans entered the world and continues for another 1100+ years, taking the readers into the most recent stories being written.
You can read more detail about the timeline of the realm here :
http://www.xanthians.com/books-Information.php
Xanth is a Florida-shaped world which somehow borders on Mundania in what seems to be for all intents and purposes and alternate dimension/reality. Due to reasons unknown prior to book #16, most being and most things in Xanth are magical.
Every human character in Xanth is born with a unique magical ability, called a talent. Some talents are annoyances, some are little more than quirks, and some are "Magician caliber". However, more than one story line has explored, even just briefly, the fact that not everyone is able to immediately recognize their talent. Additionally while you may find a talent result repeated (i.e. flying) the exact mechanism of the talent is always unique.
Aside from human characters, Xanth is also home to centaurs, demons, dragons, goblins, golems, harpies, merfolk, nymphs, ogres, zombies, and many other fictional or mythological beings.
Xanth is also home to magic, spells, and puns and is often a case of what you hear may be what you get. Are you a woman wandering the landscape and finding yourself in need of shoes? Find a ladyslipper plant!
More Examples of the Puns
Babbling Brook - a freshwater stream that can talk
BootRear - tastes like rootbear, but its got a "kick"
Firewater - Streams, pools, etc. of orange steaming water which is hot enough to be used for cooking.
Butternut Tree - The nuts it bears hold the best quality butter.
Hypnogoard - each has a peephole that traps any creature who peers in in the world inside, where bad dreams are created.
Tail-Lights - Fluffy hopping animals with glowing cottony tails.
Soda Water Springs - lime, strawberry, cream soda, celery, or orange flavored effervescent springs.
Characters
Most characters that pop up in the novels are unique to that book. Perusing a cast list will find you quickly overwhelmed as it contains more than 50 names before you even get out of the A's.
However there are some characters that are more what you would call regular cast members who appear in multiple stories, even if only in passing.
A few of them include:
Bink - has appeared in 8 books and was the main character in the first book of the series. His magical ability, originally very hard to decipher, is immunity from magic.
Chameleon - has appeared in 11 books and was a major chacter in the first book of the series. Her "talent" is that she goes through phase changes in her beauty and her intellect that match the phases of the moon. She is married to Bink.
Dor - the son of Bink and Chameleon. His talent is the ability to converse with the inanimate. He has appeared in 16 books.
Dolph - the son of Dor. His talent is the ability to shape-change instantly. He has appeared in 10 books.
Gorgon - a nymph who wound up the 5th wife of the Good Magician Humphrey. She can turn any living creature into store with a gaze. She has appeared in 15 books.
Humphrey - also known as The Good Magician Humphrey. Can provide the answer, however obscure, to any question. However he often charges the fee of a year of service. He has appeared in 27 out of 31 books.
Trent - once an evil magician, now reformed after being excilled to Mundania for 20 years. His talent is to transform any living being into another living form. He has appeared in 13 books.
Rapunzel - a half elf who has the ability to change at will not only her size, but the length of her hair. She has appeared in 9 books.
Grundy Golem - a living being who was once just a bundle of rags and twigs. His talnet is the ability to converse with all living beings. He has appeared in 16 books.
Mare Imbri - once carried night mares, but now possessing a half-soul she carries daydreams instead. Was once briefly royalty and has appeared in 14 books.
Millie - she has appeared in 16 books. Her talent is "sex appeal" and she once spent 800 years living as a ghost.
Com Pewter - a machine created by the Muses which has the magical talent of being able to change reality instead of just recording it. Has appeared in 12 books.
and so on ....
You can peruse a thorough a cast overview over at Mr. Anthony's official website http://www.hipiers.com/chartad.html. The list includes character name, race, magical talent (when applicable), as well as what book(s) the character appears in. However, the list has only been updated through book #27.
A complete list, thru book #31, is available as a pdf download http://www.hipiers.com/Xanthch.pdf
The Series
Bear in mind that this is a long running series. As a result (and also quite obviously) it is impossible for later books to be as fresh as Mr. Anthony's earlier works in this chain of stories.
The books themselves are basically innocent, though there are references to "summoning the stork" (which actually puts in an order for a baby to the Stork), "curse words" (which have the ability to inflict harm), and "panty flashing" (which can cause a grown man to "freak out", there is nothing too overtly inappropriate for teenage (or older) readers.
The stories themselves tend to have a common theme whereby a main character needs to (or needs to help someone else) solve a problem. Often this involves a year of service to the Good Magician.
While each book tells a stand-alone story, it would be hard for one of the later books to be your first introduction to the series as there is a need to comprehend the world itself and some background on repeating characters.
Why I enjoy them
As a teen these books were hilarious. They held lots of humor and occassionally slightly naughty innuendos.
As a woman in my late 30s they are still very funny. I enjoy them now as light reading when I just want a bit of escape. These are books I choose when I don't want to have to think too hard, or moralize, or delve into deep emotion.
That is not to say that they are not well-crafted books.
These are juicy stories with well rounded characters and often convoluted plots. However, it is the subject matter itself that makes it fluff reading.
Quests for magical talents, escape from lecherous Demons, cross-species true love, puns puns and even more puns.
This is fantasy at it's lightest and fluffiest. But that's exactly what makes it so much fun to read.
The Books Thus Far
1 A Spell for Chameleon (1977) - Bink's search for his magical talent before he is expelled from Xanth forever.
2 The Source of Magic (1979) - Bink is sent on a quest to discover the source of Xanth's magic.
3 Castle Roogna (1979) - Unrequited love between a ghost (now again mortal) and a zombie.
4 Centaur Aisle (1981) - King Trent has not returned from a trip to Mundania and Dor sets out to save him.
5 Ogre, Ogre (1982) - Smash (half-ogre/half-human) and Tandy (half-human/half-nymph) set out on a quest to find the answers to their questions.
6 Night Mare (1983) - Mare Imbri just can't seem to deliver good nightmares anymore. Now she's been "fired" and sent to deliver a message to King Trent.
7 Dragon on a Pedestal (1983) - A terrorizing dragon and waves of amnesia befall the land.
8 Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn (1984) - A Magic tapestry reminds Jordan the ghost of an unfulfilled quest from his past.
9 Golem in the Gears (1986) - Tired of being ignored Grundy Golem sets on a quest in order to become a hero.
10 Vale of the Vole (1987) - Esk, a young ogre-nymph-human, sets out to be rid of a pesky demoness but winds up taking on a mission of mercy instead.
11 Heaven Cent (1988) - 9-year-old Dolph sets out to solve the mystery of Good Magician Humfrey's disappearance in a puff of smoke.
12 Man From Mundania (1989) - Princess Ivy of Xanth uses the Heaven Cent to aid her in a search for the Good Magician Humphrey and finds herself transported to the magicless world of "Mundania".
13 Isle of View (1990) - Perplexed Prince Dolph, Xanth's precocious shapeshifter, should be in love but isn't. Nonetheless, he must chose between two fiancées
14 Question Quest (1991) - Thirsty for a taste of the Elixir of Youth, Lacuna will help the Good Magician Greyoutwit the evil Com-Pewter if he'll send her to Hell (in a handbasket, no less) to find Humphrey, the missing sorcerer.
15 The Color of Her Panties (1992) - Gwenny Goblin, Che Centaur and Jenny Elf are just about the only creatures on Xanth who have been spared the sight of Mela Merwoman's undergarment -- preoccupied as they are with helping Gwenny beat out her awful half-brother Gobble for chiefship of the goblin horde.
16 Demons Don't Dream (1992) - A computer game becomes the doorway between Mundania and the magical, pun-filled world of Xanth in the 16th installment of one of the genre's most popular series.
17 Harpy Thyme (1993) - Ghola, the harpy girl, as she searches for true love against impossible odds.
18 Geis of the Gargoyle (1994) - An environmentally conscious gargoyle searches for a spell to purify a polluted river.
19 Roc and a Hard Place (1995) - Demoness Metria has a problem that only the good magician Humfrey can help her solve. There is a price to pay, however--finding a jury to give Roxanne Roc, under indictment for some bizarre crimes.
20 Yon Ill Wind (1996) - On a bet, the Demon of Xanth agrees to travel incognito and win the sympathy of an inferior mortal woman without revealing his identity.
28 Currant Events (2004) - Clio, the muse of history, has a problem connected with the twenty-eighth chronicle of Xanth. When she sits down to write it, she discovers that it has already been written-- and unintelligibly.
29 Pet Peeve (2005) The most ungoblinlike (he's nice) Goody Goblin has to find a home for the Pet Peeve, a talking bird that speaks only insults.
30 Stork Naked (2006) - Stymy Stork refuses to deliver Surprise Golem's baby, because Surprise is too young. After the stork flies off with his bundle, Surprise, the two bratty children she's babysitting and the pet peeve resolve to bring the baby back.
31 Air Apparent (announced 2007) - no info available
32 Two to the Fifth (announced as having been written on Mr. Anthony's website) - no info available
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