What’s the deal with Piers Anthony?

[duke]

Thought I'd add my 20 cents to this thread. Firstly, I've never read any PA before, so apologies if this is too far off-topic.

Variol said -

It's the exact opposite to the Charles Dickens method, where you throw in all kinds of unnecessary details to pad out the story because you're being paid by the page. Robert Jordan is a Dickensian author; SRD is a classicist; and that, at bottom, is why I like SRD's books better than either Jordan's or Dickens'.

The unfortunate thing about writing solely for money is that you run out of things to say, and start spinning out surplus wordage like Dickens and Jordan. It hasn't stopped either of them from being enormously popular authors, but it damages their trademarks, as it were, by putting their names on an awful lot of second-rate work.

Some background on Dickens - he was a journalist before becoming an author, and so much of his work has a journalistic attention to physical detail. Dickens may have used "surplus wordage" at times, but I think his command of English is so strong that I'm happy to indulge him. Its the "surplus wordage" that I would consider to be his trademark. Also, his later work (Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Hard Times) is much tighter in plot than his earlier work.

I could never call anything Dickens has written "second-rate". Even his poorer novels (The Old Curiosity Shop springs to mind) are better written than most authors can dream of.

I cant comment on Jordan, as I havent read him

[Loredoctor]

The unfortunate thing about writing solely for money is that you run out of things to say, and start spinning out surplus wordage like Dickens and Jordan. It hasn't stopped either of them from being enormously popular authors, but it damages their trademarks, as it were, by putting their names on an awful lot of second-rate work.

Each to their own opinion, but you're putting Dickens at the level of Jordan??!

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Well, I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said, but I've read a lot of Anthony's books, although it's been 20+ years since I did. The first two Xanth books were really good, but then the decline started. You didn't really notice it with the next two, but it was apparent with the third pair. I must've read the first 12 or so. By the time the main character was a baby, things were pretty awful. It was kind of like when John Hughes directed that stupid movie starring a baby wandering around Manhattan ("Baby's Day Out"). Ugg.

The first Apprentice Adept series (Split Infinity...) was really good. As mentioned earlier, it was part sci-fi, part fantasy. Definitely one of my favorite trilogy's. But the second one was like day-old bread. Not too good. Macroscope is probably the best sci-fi book of his that I've read. It's one of the few books that I've ever bothered to read twice, and I liked it better the second time around. Battle Circle was pretty darn good, and the Chthon (sp?) books were ok. Personally, I remember hating the Space-Tyrant series. I'm not sure how many of them I read. I also read a couple of the "Death" series; can't remember the name, but I wasn't too thrilled with it. The Orn books were kind of annoying. All I really remember was that they were about some kind of bubble-creatures on an ocean planet. They sprayed each other. I remember that the sex scenes pretty much blew (that's one thing that Piers was usually good at ).

Finally, he had one sci-fi book that I remember liking, but that had an entire chapter (maybe two) hacked out by his editors right before publication in order to fit his page quota. For the life of me, I can't remember the name, although it was short, maybe just one 3 or 4 lettered word. It was funny, because one chapter ended with the two main characters cornered and in desperate straights (I'm thinking they were in a barn). But in the next chapter, they were on another planet and everything was hunky-dory. It was really weird. At the end of the book, there was an author's note explaining that 30,000 words or so were cut in editting, and that's why the book made no sense. I'd love to know what that book was, and if there is an author's cut out there.

Lately, I've been thinking of re-reading the first two X books, and also the first Adept series. If anyone out there is interested in reading so of PA's books, that's where I'd start. Macroscope is also a worthy read. But you have to cut the cord after that, or else you'll end up like me.

Edit: Wow, the internet is awesome! Been wondering for a long time what the name of that book was. It was Mute (www.piers-anthony.com/mute.html). I've gotta say, the description sounds pretty dreadful. But I may have to get the restored version anyway.

[Roland of Gilead]

Mute was one of his better novels, IMHO. Although unbeknownst to me, I was probably reading the cut version . . . so I might have liked it even more uncut.

[Tulizar]

I read a bunch of the Xanth books years ago. They were fun to read. I thought the first few were enjoyable and original with the puns and different takes on familiar fantasy elements.
Even though the concept seemed to grow old and stale after a while, I continued to read at least a few more because I was familiar with the series and I thought that maybe it was supposed to end. Silly me. I wasn't exactly on the ball twenty years ago. I never suspected that Mr. Anthony had a mansion in central Florida that required massive amounts of american green to keep it up to his posh standards. The man had to make those monthly payments somehow.

I haven't read the entire Piers Anthony catalog, but I really enjoyed the Blue Adept series and the Incarnations of Immortality series.

[Roland of Gilead]

"I haven't read the entire Piers Anthony catalog . . ."

Nobody has. It's seven hundred fifty three books and counting.

[Tulizar]

"I haven't read the entire Piers Anthony catalog . . ."

Nobody has. It's seven hundred fifty three books and counting.

Whoa! Are you serious? That's one prolific man.

[Avatar]

That is a lot.

As I've mentioned before, I quite enjoyed the Mode books that I've read, (1-3 IIRC) and a few of the stand-alones. Never attempted any of the other series.

--A

[Roland of Gilead]

I was being facetious, of course. But Anthony does have an incredible number of novels to his credit, having published two or three every year since the early seventies.

That's actually one of his problems. He's capable of producing quality speculative fiction, when he takes the time to do it right. Instead of overdosing on puns and cranking out another insipid Xanth book for the masses.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

I was being facetious, of course. But Anthony does have an incredible number of novels to his credit, having published two or three every year since the early seventies.

That's actually one of his problems. He's capable of producing quality speculative fiction, when he takes the time to do it right. Instead of overdosing on puns and cranking out another insipid Xanth book for the masses.

I thought I read an interview with him once where he said he basically went off to a cabin in the woods to write, and that sometimes he could knock out a rough draft in 3 days or so. But I might be confusing him with Stephen King.

[Tulizar]

I thought I read an interview with him once where he said he basically went off to a cabin in the woods to write, and that sometimes he could knock out a rough draft in 3 days or so. But I might be confusing him with Stephen King.

On the one hand I want to be impressed---I know I'm not capable of that--but on the other hand I only have to think of a Xanth book to believe its true!

[Roland of Gilead]

I don't think King writes in a special place - just an office in his house (or houses, I should say, he has a place in Maine and another in Florida for the winters). King is very disciplined, though - writing almost every day of the year.

So I imagine it WAS Anthony you read about, writing in the cabin.

However, I guarantee you he didn't knock out a rough draft of Macroscope in three days!!

[burgs]

Regarding Piers...I think he's creative, but he's one dimensional as a writer. His one-trick pony act became tiring after a while.

Even his better ideas...mentioned in posts above...were never well written.

[Wyldewode]

I actually really liked Macroscope. I found it pretty interesting. As far as the Xanth books are concerned, the first few were fun, but I grew tired of them and quit reading very soon. Tarot was also enjoyable, as was Shade of the Tree. Aside from that, I liked the Incarnations series, with exactly the same complaints as the others have stated.