Piers Anthony

[jenna]

Lol, can't believe I missed this thread the first time around! I do try to limit my Piers ramblings on other threads, but since this is Piers-specific, here I go...

Piers has been my favourite author since I was in my early teens. The first book I read of his was the horror Shade of the Tree. I am lucky enough to come from good sci-fi stock, my parents having a massive collection. They have a very good collection of Piers books, many of which I've stolen for my own collection! In my teens I read several of the Xanth books, the Virtual Mode series, The Apprentice Adpet series, the Dragon's Gold series and my all time fave series, the Incarnations of Immortality. I also read a few of his stand alone books like Chthon and Anthonology. In the last few years I've also read the Bio of a Space Tyrant series, the Tarot series, and his new ChroMagic series, as well as re-reading Incarnations and Virtual Mode.

I've never read anything of Piers that I hated. Obviously some I've liked less than others, but I always appreciate anything that he's written. He might not technically be the best writer around, but I've always adored his creativity and his ideas. The Incarnations series is one that's always stuck so vividly in my mind. I'm actually just about to re-read them (when I'm done with GRRM ASoIaF) which is going to be such a pleasure, rediscovering that amazing world he created. I love Piers!

/adoring fan rant.

 

[cape_royds]

He's prolific, with a fertile imagination.

But I'm not a fan. I find him too often cute, clever, or silly--it gets on my nerves.

That being said, a number of his books have made lasting impressions on me:

1. Macroscope is not only superb science fiction, but also a fascinating psychological novel: the super-genius Schon is forced to create a complete artificial persona, Ivo, through whom he must interact with the world. Meanwhile, the story's narrative ranges from ancient times to the far future, and from a few people on a spaceship to entire galaxies.

2. In the trilogy of Omnivore, Orn, and OX, Anthony shows an extraordinary ability to put the reader into the skin of other species, with their different perceptions, instincts and entire alien workings of intelligence itself. Orn is my favourite of the three.