| Authors | Title | Series | Description | Format |
|---|
| Patricia Anthony | Brother Termite | | By cleverly spinning an intricate plot that draws on tabloid tales of UFOs, alien abductions and conspiracy theories, the author of Cold Allies has created an occasionally farcical but essentially poignant story. An alien race called the Cousins have for decades lived openly on Earth, working in posts at the highest levels of government and industry--ostensibly for humanity's betterment. Actually, the Cousins are completing the implementation of an ominous secret agenda using mind control, covert assassinations and concealed genetic experiments to create human-Cousin hybrids. White House chief of staff Reen is a Cousin who is finding his loyalties increasingly divided between his duty to his own species and his growing attachment to humans, particularly to the sometimes senile, sometimes sly U.S. president and also to the CIA director who happens to be the mother of Reen's own hybrid daughter. Amid increasing domestic unrest, Reen becomes involved in the investigation of mysterious Cousin kidnappings, uncovering complex power bargains and hidden betrayals that could cost both Cousins and humans their fragile futures. With incisive political satire and canny observations, Anthony adroitly inverts the SF cliche by telling the story from the aliens' point of view. And though their tactics are unjustifiable, the Cousins are still sympathetic characters with a moving plight. This tense, often disturbing book is a difficult, but rewarding read.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Hardcover |
| Patricia Anthony | God's Fires | | God has fallen to the Earth. Angels are sleeping with women. There is an immaculate conception, and lights are seen in the heavens. Heady stuff for the small village of Quintas, located in Portugal about the time of the Inquisition. While the pragmatic Father Pessoa struggles to keep the strange goings-on hidden from the eyes of the inquistors, the simple King Alfonso has decided that the stricken alien ship is God Himself. And God has let Alfonso in on a secret: the Earth orbits the sun. Unfortunately, the inquisitor-general is on his way to straighten things out. There will be no easy answers. | Hardcover |
| Patricia Anthony | Cradle of Splendor | | Like her Cold Allies, which won Locus's Best First Novel award, Anthony's breakneck fifth book is set in a near-future roiling with intrigue and rumors of UFO activity. When the first Brazilian space shot manages to achieve orbit without booster rockets, the world is stunned, then pushed to the brink of cataclysm as the U.S. accuses Brazil of launching nuclear weapons into orbit. The escalating crisis plays out against a background of erupting brutality and sexual depravity, instigated mostly by industrial, political and military spies, and against convincing TV news reports presented in transcript form. In the face of technological achievement that has possibly been bought by selling Brazil's national soul to an extraterrestrial demon, Anthony's sharply realized characters undergo abrupt changes (the women generally take nobler paths than the men). Former CIA agent Dolores Sims and her (somewhat estranged) friend, Brazilian president Ana Maria Bonfim, give until nothing remains of themselves, while young NASA scientist Roger Lintenberg, Japanese industrial spy Hiroshi Sato, Brazilian general Fernando Machado and jaded Brazilian security chief Edson Carvalho take until they relinquish their humanity. Dramatic shifts of scene and point of view enhance the sense of social fragmentation. Anthony adds to her reputation through a briskly involving narrative that offers disturbing glimpses into the black holes of the human heart.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Battle Circle | | Battle Circle is a trilogy of science fiction novels by Piers Anthony. Originally published separately, the trilogy was later combined into a single volume.[1] The three novels are: 1. Sos the Rope (1968) 2. Var the Stick (1972) 3. Neq the Sword (1975) The novels take place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. The history is not given in detail, but the landscape is filled with the ruins of the previous civilization, and large areas (referred to as the "badlands") are still deadly because of radiation, presumably from nuclear war. In North America, there are three main civilizations: the crazies and underworlders, and the nomads who are the main focus of the novels. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Race Against Time. | | | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Ogre, Ogre (The Magic of Xanth, No. 5) | The Magic of Xanth | Smash, himself, was part ogre. Although ogres were considered so stupid they coud hardly speak, and spent their time eating young girls, seven assorted females had suddenly turned to him for guidance and saftety? In Xanth, one visit to the Good Magician Humfrey worked wonders.... | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Hope of Earth (Geodyssey) | Geodyssey | As a stand-alone novel following Isle of Woman, LJ 9/15/93) and Shame of Man (LJ 9/15/94), this latest in Anthony's geodyssey series explores what makes humans human via several characters living in various places and times throughout the world's history. Based on meticulous historical research, the book paints a vivid portrait of humanity and its hell-bent rush to destruction from disease. Highly recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Vision of Tarot | Tarot Trilogy | The wanderer-monk Paul is trapped in a nightmare of dragons, demons, and spectacular lusts as the shimmering Animation curtain storms across the worldscape, changing fantasy into hideous reality. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn (The Magic of Xanth, No. 8) | The Magic of Xanth | Jordan was a ghost in Castle Roogna now. Although once he had been the most valorus of knights--that is, until he was betrayed by two wily magicians and the woman he loves. Now, if he only can remember how he was killed, he'll be able to reassemble his body. And he is getting impatient.... --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | A Spell for Chameleon (The Magic of Xanth, No. 1) | The Magic of Xanth | Though already developing a successful career in SF with such heady novels as Chthon and Omnivore, Piers Anthony did not reach brand-name status until he cooked up some fantasy in 1977. And it was cheerful, humorous fantasy at that, as in his first Xanth series novel, A Spell for Chameleon. The book's young hero, Bink, is without magical powers in a world ruled entirely by magic. Worse still, if he doesn't discover his own magical talent soon, he will be forever banished from his homeland. Naturally, it takes an epic quest for Bink to learn what his unique talent truly is--and perhaps to win the girl of his dreams as well. A Spell for Chameleon was the very first of Anthony's bestselling (and still ongoing) humorous fantasy series. Noteworthy for their outrageous word puns and bizarre characters, the Xanth books are a light yet often satisfying brew, especially when compared with the author's sometimes nihilistic and ultraviolent hard SF. --Stanley Wiater --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | With A Tangled Skein (Incarnations of Immortality #3) | Incarnations of Immortality | When the man Niobe loved was shot, she learned that she had been the target, in a devious plot of the Devil's. Hoping for revenge, she discovered, too late, how intricate his scheming was, and that he had managed to trap her son and her granddaughter, Luna. Niobe's only chance to save them was to accept a challenge by the Prince of Deceit--a challenge to be decided in Hell and in a maze of Satan's devising! --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Dragon on a Pedestal (The Magic of Xanth, No. 7) | The Magic of Xanth | There is trouble in Xanth again. The Gap Dragon had escaped and was ravaging across the land, the forget-spell was causing mass amnesia, three-year old Ivy was headed right for a hungry dragon. Could things get any worse? Probably.... --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Thousandstar (Cluster, Bk. 4) | Cluster Trilogy | "The CLUSTER series of adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets, where every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant. The first three novels in the sequence, CLUSTER, CHAINING THE LADY and KIRLIAN QUEST form a linked trilogy. THOUSANDSTAR, and VISCOUS CIRCLE came later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy. VISCOUS CIRCLE is a story about a strange and inhuman race of beings and an experimental attempt to transfer into creatures that seem only slightly sapient. They are ultimate pacifists who take the form of magnetic disks that float through space and simply demagnetize and destroy themselves when faced with an unpleasant thought. The bloodthirsty Solarians, in their desperate hurry to find the mysterious Ancient Site, are determined to wipe out the Bands, a strange and beautiful species whose society is an anarchy of peace. Only Rondl, the whirling green Band can save his race, for he has a singular and awesome knowledge. But suddenly Rondl makes a shocking discovery about his identity--a discovery that may cost him his honor, his beautiful lover Cirl, even his very life." --This text refers to the Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Vale of the Vole (Xanth, No. 10) | The Magic of Xanth | | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Golem in the Gears (The Magic of Xanth, Book 9) | The Magic of Xanth | YA In this ninth Xanth novel, Grundy Golem is feeling unappreciated, so he decides to begin a Quest to locate Princess Ivy's lost pet dragon, Stanley Steamer. Consultation with Good Magician Humfrey leads him to the Ivory Tower, where he rescues Rapunzel from the Sea Hag. As the Quest procedes, the Hag harries the couple and their companions. The puns that have made this series so popular with teens come thick and fast, although perhaps more forced and wearily than before. A lexicon of Xanthian people, places and things is attached.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Mercenary (Bio of a Space Tyrant, Vol. 2) | Bio of a Space Tyrant | This is the second in the series BIO OF A SPACE TYRANT, featuring the stages in the life of Hope Hubris, the Tyrant of Jupiter, and his beloved sister Spirit. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Cluster (Cluster, Book 1) | Cluster Trilogy | "The CLUSTER series of SF adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets. Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement. As CLUSTER opens, the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh seeks help from Sphere Sol in a shared galactic-level crisis: Galaxy Andromeda has discovered the secret of energy transfer and intends to use it to steal the basic energy of the Milky Way Galaxy. Knyfh offers the secret of aura transfer on the understanding that Sphere Sol will spread the technology to help create a galactic coalition to find and defeat agents of Andromeda. Sol's highest-Kirlian individual is Flint, a green-skinned native of Outworld, who has a Kirlian aura of 200, an eidetic memory (useful for memorizing the complex equations of Kirlian transfer that he will need to communicate to other spheres). He has extraordinary intelligence, and is highly adaptable. His mission is complicated, however, by the fact that he is pursued everywhere by a very high Kirlian female Andromedan agent and, somehow, the Andromedans are able to detect and trace Kirlian transfers." --This text refers to the Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Politician (Bio of a Space Tyrant #3) | Bio of a Space Tyrant | This is the third in the series BIO OF A SPACE TYRANT, featuring the stages in the life of Hope Hubris, the Tyrant of Jupiter, and his beloved sister Spirit. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony, Ron Leming | The Gutbucket Quest | | Anthony's collaborations with unknowns (Dream a Little Dream, etc.) have a mixed record, but this latest effort is notably successful. The novel draws on Leming's background as a Texas blues musician, by flipping its hero, blues guitarist Slim Chance, into an alternate reality where racial and environmental harmony prevail and music (especially the blues) holds magical power. The key to the power of the blues is the Gutbucket, a magical guitar incorporating the ashes of a famous musician. The Gutbucket has been stolen by the corporate villain T-Bone Pickens, who threatens all magic and music. With a classic elder mentor, the African-American Progress Hornsby, and Progress's gorgeous daughter, Nadine, Slim sets out on the quest to turn his own music into a magical weapon against Pickens and to retrieve the Gutbucket. Along the way to the inevitable victory, he meets a colorful gaggle of largely New Age but largely well-drawn secondary characters, and eventually becomes Nadine's lover and husband. The long passages of dialogue sometimes overwhelm the pacing, but readers will appreciate the graceful use of dialect and the compelling passion for the blues that positively sings out of the pages. Best of all, Slim is slowly and believably changed by his situation into a person worthy of Nadine's love, not handed her as a reward by auctorial fiat. This is a very readable variation on the theme of music as a source of magic. (May)
Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Bearing an Hourglass (Incarnations of Immortality #2) | Incarnations of Immortality | When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past. The other seemingly all-powerful incantations of Immortality--Death, Fate, War, and Nature--made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps and he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good.... --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | For Love of Evil (Incarnations of Immortality #6) | Incarnations of Immortality | Fleeing persecution by the Church, a young sorcerer in medieval France seeks refuge among the Franciscans, dedicating his life to the triumph of good over evil until a strange twist of fate forces him to assume the role of his greatest enemy and take his place among the immortal Incarnations. In his most ambitious work yet, Anthony tackles sensitive moral issues with his customary high spirits. This latest in a popular series is recommended for fantasy collections. JC
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Chaining the Lady (Cluster, Book 2) | Cluster Trilogy | "CHAINING THE LADY is the second CLUSTER book. Melody, a product of Flint and the Andromedan’s mating in CLUSTER, must save the Milky Way Galaxy and create a place where creatures can transfer without limitations. Melody must survive in worlds unknown and alien to her and she does that where others fail when her aura augments her skills and abilities. The book opens with the discovery that Andromeda, the enemy galaxy of the first novel, has discovered the secret of involuntary hosting: a Kirlian aura that is sufficiently stronger than that of an individual can take possession of that individual. Andromeda has secretly infiltrated the highest levels of government in Sphere Sol and its allies and resurrect its plot to steal the energy of the Milky Way. Melody of Mintaka, a direct descendant of Flint of Outworld and his Andromedan nemesis, has a Kirlian aura of well over 200. She is pressed into service to ""possess"" and interrogate a captured Andromedan transferee. Melody, hosted in the young and beautiful body of Yael of Dragon, must, like her progenitor Flint, find a way to defeat the Andromedan threat and save the galaxy. The mysterious Ancients are present again in the form of their artifacts and sites. The themes of Tarot and of various myths of Sphere Sol (in this case that of Perseus and Andromeda) play a big part this novel. The interSphere fleet of starships has forms analogous to the Tarot suits of Disks, Cups, Wands and Swords." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Wielding a Red Sword (Incarnations of Immortality #3) | Incarnations of Immortality | The fourth book in Anthony's popular Incarnations of Immortality series describes the recruitment of an Indian prince to become the latest Incarnation of Warserving alongside Death, Time, Nature and others. Mym reluctantly accepts the office as a way to cut through the tangled political web that has produced famine in his homeland and trampled on his private life. As hard as Mym works to keep earthly peace, however, Satan is ahead of him with snares and lures that lead to hell. Anthony's setting of a world where both science and magic work was charming in previous volumes but becomes troublesome here: demons coexist with biological warfare; two teardrops from an Incarnation are all it takes to end one aspect of the conflict in Ireland. In fact, most of this weak entry in the series is concerned with finding a proper mate for the hapless Mym. As before, though, the liveliest part of the book is the author's note, a 30-page open letter to his fans in which Anthony feels free to be cantankerous, boastful, whimsical and self-revealing. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. | Hardcover |
| Piers Anthony | Out of Phaze (Apprentice Adept, Book 4) | Apprentice Adept | Out of print no longer: Book Four of the Apprentice Adept series--from the New York Times bestselling author.
Two worlds--the scientific Proton, and the magical Phaze--exist side-by-side. Now, Mach has crossed from Proton to Phaze, switching places with his counterpart Bane. And both must learn to survive in environments alien to their own nature. | Paperback |
| Piers Anthony | Killobyte | | Not so much a novel as a series of situational puzzles, this stand-alone book by the bestselling author of the Xanth series features two characters who play a computer-generated virtual reality game called Killobyte. Walter Toland, an incapacitated former policeman, and Baal Curran, an angst-ridden, diabetic teenage girl, get to know each other as they enter into a game that calls for them to rescue a princess from a castle. But then they find themselves trapped inside the simulation by a hacker named Phoney Phreak. While the character-bodies they wear in the computer world are in no danger, their real bodies--Baal's weakened by diabetes and Walter's by a bad heart--are very much at risk. Written in Anthony's usual glib style, the novel is unimaginative in the extreme. Watching these paper-thin characters solve uninteresting puzzles is a maddening bore; and gaping holes in the plot, technological inconsistencies and Anthony's apparent ignorance of current methods of treating diabetes combine to make this one of his weakest efforts.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. | Paperback |