Re: SF authors by alphabet: J

In article <geo4mt$o5$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Christopher Adams wrote:

The only Piers Anthony I ever read was the fourth Apprentice Adept
novel, _Out Of Phaze_, and the Incarnations of Immortality series
(excluding the one added to the lineup in 2007, since I read these in
the early part of the decade). They, at least, got steadily worse - _On
A Pale Horse_ and _Bearing An Hourglass_ were pretty good, and I didn't
mind _With A Tangled Skein_, but everything from _Wielding A Red Sword_
on was much less than what had come before.
8-) Now that I'm seeing titles, I'm seeing reflections of my
own reactions. I don't get to stores nor to large libraries on a
regular basis, so I tend to look for familiar author names. I've
started every Anthony series and kept reading them too long, but I
haven't kept up. Yes, I did like the first Apprentice Adept and the
first couple Intimations, for instance, but even though I tend to read
books as they're published, which spaces them out enough that it takes a
while for declining quality to become obvious, I did give up on Anthony
entirely eventually. Inertia 8-)

This is the standard Anthony pattern. The first three Apprentice Adept
books were pretty good. The first three Xanth books were pretty good.
The first couple of Incarnations books were pretty good. His standalone
"Macroscope" was excellent.

But for god's sake don't read stuff past #3 in an Anthony series.
Especially for larger values of "past 3".

And above all double digits in Xanth! I kept getting them and
passing them on to grandchildren while they were young. They have now
outgrown them, too, but my youngest sister has much younger
grandchildren, so I gave them all to her and made room for better books.
(Most sf/fantasy loaned to family members and even any they buy
eventually ends up here.)



--
Mary Loomer Oliver (aka Erilar)

You can't reason with someone whose first line of argument is
that reason doesn't count. --Isaac Asimov

Erilar's Cave Annex: http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo ;


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Successful Series
    ... Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of ... Immortality" series. ... continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold ... or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Successful Series
    ... Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of ... Immortality" series. ... continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold ... or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: SF authors by alphabet: J
    ... novel, _Out Of Phaze_, and the Incarnations of Immortality series (excluding the one added to the lineup in 2007, since I read these in the early part of the decade). ... The first three Xanth books were pretty good. ... The first couple of Incarnations books were pretty good. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Successful Series
    ... Apparently Piers Anthony has written 8 books in the "Incarnations of ... Immortality" series. ... continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold ... or the gap between the 7th and 8th books was too long. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)