Audiobook finished

[johnridley]

On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Good stuff, good story, not predictable as so much stuff seems to be. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. It seemed really short, but that's because I just finished Moby Dick, which went on for quite a while.

I remember when some friends were eagerly awaiting these books as they came out. I told them that I don't read books until the series is done. Well, it's been 23 years since this was published, and 19 years since "and Eternity" was published, so I guess it's safe to start now.

Comments

[abpeed.livejournal.com]

On a Pale Horse was one of the stronger books in the series; but then that's classic Anthony. He gets a good idea, writes a really good first book, and then the rest of the series doesn't quite bear up to the same standard.

Have I said too much?

(They're all readable; I only threw one of them across the room -- and that was at the very end.)

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Well, of course, the last book in a series will probably sell the same regardless of whether it's utter crap or good.

I could actually see reading 1 thorough 5 and skipping 6 and 7.

Huh, according to Wikipedia, he's got a new book in the series out as of 2007. I don't know if I'm allowed to read a series that had a book come out only 2 years ago. Though hopefully 17 years between books means he got the pumps primed again? Either that or he needed some money for something and had some ideas that didn't fit into the Xanth money mill.

[abpeed.livejournal.com]

Don't skip #6, For Love Of Evil. It's probably the best of the bunch, if for no other reason that it's a very good description of how one can evolve into doing evil with only the best of intentions.

#7, And Eternity, is okay; it was obviously written to achieve completeness and tie everything together. (Not tie up loose ends, but just tie everything together.) It makes some very pointed comments on the current nature of Good that a lot of its most visibly prominent practitioners (e.g., evangelists) would be well advised to take into consideration.

The one that I threw across the room was #5, On Being a Green Mother... simply because the ending was so trite, even for Anthony.

I hadn't heard that there was a new book in the series; I'm going to have to go have the used bookstore go find it for me.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

I threw #2 across the room. I was very excited about #6 until about 1/2 way thru, then he lost it. #1 is on my list of really good books, #2 is on my list of worst (altho if you're doing audio, you'll miss the worst part which was all the damned dialog printed in reverse) #3 was good, I liked #4 (but Andy didn't) I thought #5 was ok, being that by then I knew there were 2 more books. #7 was a stupid ending and a huge letdown for a series that had started with such a good idea.

The idea for the series is excellent... just, as usual with Anthony, the execution is spotty. I've quit buying his books... I had quit buying his books by #3 in this series... He should get a job as a plumber or something and only write the good books, not all the books he's managed to convince someone to buy.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with Mary and Andy. I loved the first book but you're in the process of experiencing the worst of an Anthony series: You're reading it back to back. His books are far more tolerable when you give them a bit more space to realize that you're reading the *SAME THING FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN*.

Sometimes the change in view is interesting, but it gets very tedious if a few years haven't lapsed.

Mike Wayne ran into something similar when I loaned him the Recluce books by Modesitt. The first book was very good. The next two were okay. But reading the lot of them close together emphasized the repeat nature of the *entire* series. He was particularly struck by Modesitts use of dinner as a means for all of the characters to get together and talk out loud; it left him hungry a lot.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, my memory is such that if I wait a year or two between books, I'll have forgotten not only the characters and situation, but sometimes the entire premise of the book.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm often fine with these series. If I give it the two years, I will have forgotten the similarities and can enjoy the book more on a standalone basis. It's only when I read such things back to back that I have problems with them.

It's probably the big reason I read so much Anthony earlier in my life.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I don't mind reading the same story back to back from different points of view, IF it's a good story and a good writer. For instance, I read The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale back to back, and thoroughly enjoyed both.

The real reason that I'm not enjoying all of the Incarnations book is simply that they aren't very good. Bearing an Hourglass, in fact, pretty much sucked. It would have made an OK short story, as I said. Maybe 50 pages.