Showing results by author "Piers Anthony" in All Categories

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.

Elasa the robot's friend Mona exchanges to the colony planet to occupy the body of a woman five months pregnant. Even so, she gets more than she bargained for, as she works with a precognitive lamb.

Saved from death at the hands of the Emperor Ddwng, would-be lovers Colene and Darius and their companions - Provos, a woman who remembers only the future, and Sequiro, a telepathic horse - stumble into yet another dangerous reality where despots rule with a cruel and heavy hand. Held captive, the friends must combine their unusual talents in a daring escape that leads them on adventure after adventure with the most intriguing characters.

He was driven by violent injustice from his home moon of Callisto - and set forth to claim the epic destiny that would blaze across worlds and time. He saw his family destroyed, his sister carried off into sexual slavery, his beautiful lover killed - and he swore revenge against the murderous pirates who held the Jupiter planetoids in a stranglehold of terror. Fired by raw courage, steeled by young might, he rose in the navy of Jupiter to command a personal squadron loyal to the death.

The robotic Mach and the human Bane are the only contact between the technological world of Photon and the fantastical world of Phaze. So the Adverse Adepts devise a scheme to control the duo by kidnapping their lovers.

Colene does not know what to think of the stranger she has rescued. Darius tells her he has traveled from "his reality" to find her. In proving to Colene that other worlds do exist, he uses up the power of the artifact that would allow them to travel back to his universe.

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 minds and personalities of individuals with high auras can be sent to animate bodies that are physically distant. The first three novels in the sequence, Cluster, Chaining the Lady, and Kirlian Quest form a linked trilogy.

Piers Anthony delivers another tale set in the best-selling world of Xanth, filled with magic, surprises, adventure, and a few puns. Here's what the author has to say about his new book: "Five Portraits is a kind of sequel to Board Stiff in that it picks up where the other leaves off, with the same characters. Apart from that, it's one of my favorites within the series.

Mute is science fantasy of mutation and psi: special mental powers. The protagonist, Knot, is a double mutant: He has a physical deformity, and the psi power to make others forget him. He's satisfied with his life - until the lovely Finesse walks into his life to recruit him for a dangerous galactic mission. She is aided by two small animal mutants: a telepathic weasel and a clairvoyant crab.

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.

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 unpleasant thoughts.

"I'm actually a smart girl who would make any man an excellent wife. But no man sees that. No man is interested in my mind or personality, just my whatevers. So here is my wish: I'm board stiff. I want Adventure, Excitement, and Romance." So begins Piers Anthony's 38th Xanth novel, in which Irrelevant Candy looks at her reflection in the water of the shallow well and sees luxuriant midnight-black hair reaching down to her breathtakingly slender waist, matching the dark eyes in her lovely face.

The Kingdom of Rud languishes under the heel of a usurper; an evil sorcerer has taken the throne in the name of his wicked daughter. Even deep in the forest, away from all power, the people tremble and await the day of prophecy's fulfillment. It cannot come too soon: Charlain and her children are soon to lose their home to the tax collector.

Return to the magical land of the Arabian Nights....The end of "Aladdin of the Lamp" finds the cunning Aladdin ruler of a great kingdom. Now, many years have passed and Aladdin is older, richer and wiser - and heart broken. After losing his beloved wife and son to foul play, he resigns from being king and sets out to do what he does best.

When Aladdin is summoned to save the magical Sirens from a ruthless and mysterious enemy, he soon discovers that the Key to Hades has been stolen from the sea nymphs' lair. Now the King of Agrabagh must venture deep into the heart of the Dark Continent in search of the legendary entrance to the Underworld. But when a costly mistake unknowingly bestows upon their flying ship all the knowledge of the Universe, plans radically change.

Life as the king of Agrabah is never boring, especially when the dashing Sinbad the Sailor requests a ship to save his kidnapped wife. Aladdin, never one to run from danger, agrees to help and accompanies Sinbad as they set sail to accumulate enough treasure to ransom the sailor's wife. Soon they run afoul of zombies, sirens, demons, nymphs, evil djinns, and a dastardly plot to take over his kingdom.

Phthor is the sequel to Chthon, less intricately structured and less complicated in plot, but still quite dark and ugly in theme and detail. Rather than flashbacks and flash-forwards, it has a Y outline, with the stem the initial story and the ends alternate futures, neither of which is acceptable to Aton's son Arlo. Arlo has his own encounter with a Minionette, and naturally, destruction is upon him and all with whom he associates.

This is the sixth volume of stories in this series. This time there is one about the idealized love of a man for a mute wild girl, and another about an older woman who takes a hot young lover. There is one brief essay relating to my own relationship to writing. There are two story sets, one with an older man and young woman, the other relating to a fearsome god. The shortest story is only 500 words; the longest is 13,600 words. Some are erotic as hell, others not. In short, there should be something here to intrigue or offend any taste.

In Kirlian Quest the galaxies are united in an alliance of peace. But Hweeh of Weew, the Milky Way's leading research astronomer, observes that Amoeba--just beyond the galaxies' common frontier--is expanding ominously in the direction of the twin galaxies. Herald the Healer is called in.

Piers Anthony delivers the breathtaking climax to the awesome Mode saga. Fearing the heroine Coleen's dawning power, the depraved Emperor Ddwng dispatches a terrible Mind Monster to assault her soul and bend her to his will. To protect herself, and those she loves, Coleen must journey back through many worlds to her own home on Earth, face her deepest and darkest fears, and draw the strength for a final confrontation to save the multiverse from tyranny and domination.