So, Piers Anthony is a pervert, a sexist pervert. That this particular book was written in 1977 is no excuse. That out of the way, what we have here is a classic light fantasy full of nice ideas and concepts. But the story lacks direction, a bit like a badly planned Dungeon and Dragons session: "an encounter! another encounter! a fight! you fall in a hole! Oh, look, a dragon! a sexy babe! another fight!" What also annoyed me was the constant rationalization. Characters talk all the time about their motives, fill the plot holes by ad hoc explanations, etc. Rule number 1, Piers: Show, Don't Tell. Final argument for why this book sucks: rape apology. Yeah, that's right. There is actually a rape trial in this book. (Spoiler alert: rapist gets scot-free, of course). Let's look at a couple extracts: "Bink felt sorry for his opposite. How could she avoid being seductive? She was a creature constructed for no visible purpose other than ra- than love". " 'Your opposite, the one you almost raped'. The bailiff smiled, making a signal with one hand (...) 'Not that I blame you' ". At that point, there's just nothing left to say. I finished the damn book... and I doubt I'll read anything else by Anthony in the near future.PS: Breasts breasts breasts getting married is what you should do breasts let's get married.
1