Kevin's Watch

Ok, ok, you can put the stones down. I'll be brief.

In Man from Mundania, Grey seems to exhibit the whole "unbelief" thing. Grey = TC

Good Magician Humphry = Mhoram
A long shot, I know, but it makes sense to me.

Com-Pewter = Lord Foul, of course!

The demonesses Metria and Mentia = Daphin, I think.

Smash Ogre = Bannor *dodges pebbles*

Iris = Atiaran

Irene = Linden

And my personal fav, Grundy Golem = Amok

For those of you who like Xanth, help me with the comparisons!

It's been about 18 years since I read any of the Xanth novels, but I do remember thinking that they had a "very familiar feel" to the TC books.

**Puts down stone** Somehow SRD's writting talent appears just a leee-tel bit better than Mr. Anthony's...

Let me just back up this dump truck full of stones...

LOL, I'll reiterate what I said somewhere in the Library: Piers Anthony? Ack!

I think A Spell for Chameleon is worth a read, but after that it sorta goes downhill. Gets really goofy, IMO. I do confess to having read some of his other stuff, and I am inclined to believe he may have been influenced by SRD - his author's notes suggest he's the kind of guy who'd relate with some of the themes in TC. Of course, you'd have to ask the man himself. I'm sure he'd tell - he always seemed eager to share.

Anthony's not all bad. Except for (the vast majority of) Xanth, I'd put him on about the same level as Alan Dean Foster (loved the Spellsinger books, btw) or Jennifer Robberson. Blue Adept, Bio of a Space Tyrant, and the Incarnation of Immortality series were enjoyable.

Maybe Anthony did borrow (and I use that in the Donaldsonian sense of the word) from SRD for Man from Mundania. That book represented a rise out of the trough the series had sunk into. One that, Anthony's promises aside in the Author's Note, continued to sink again soon after.

Anthony has written some enjoyable novels (the "Apprentice Adept" trilogy was fun) but I can hardly think of two more different works (in the realm of Fantasy literature at least) than the Chronicles and the Xanth books.

I havent read "Man From Mundania", however. I became extremely bored with Xanth and its pun-filled environs sometime around Book 8. I hear the series is now up to almost 30 books, which is staggering, and not in a good way.

Anthony ruins all of his series.

Incarnations of Immortality started off well (1) then trailed off until 6, which was magnificent, then died a horrible death with book 7.

Apprentice Adept, books 1 and 2 were fun fun fun, but books 3-7 got worse with each step.

I think the only one he didn't ruin was Bio of a Space Tyrant, but I get the feeling that if I re-read that one I'd think it was silly.

Bah. I guess I'm just better adapted to puns. *settles self by a pie tree* C'mon, ya gotta love the trees!

Xanth novels are like....rock candy or something. Tasty, quickly gone, but utterly nutritionless. Yes, that about sums it up. They're book candy! I like candy. But I like a balanced diet too, with cruciferous veggies and lean meats, hence, I read books with levels like TCTC. Xanth isn't bad, it's just...insubstantial.