Reviews

Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony

owenneil's review

3.0

This didn't really have the same impact as the first book. On a Pale Horse was probably my first audio book, so that helped it feel dramatic, but this felt more formulaic, less exciting and more sexist.

peramene's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

My least favorite of all seven books in the series that I've read to-date. Norton's story is told halfway in vacation sequences that don't impact life on earth, and I've never understood that choice. However, you can see the first beginnings of the broader Incarnations expanded universe here, in bits and pieces throughout.

miadvelasco's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

3.25

gordonm's review

2.0

Could not even finish this book. Just not any good.

alfgaba's review

4.0

I read this book the first time 25 years ago. I loved it and I still think it's a great book.

adamrshields's review

2.0

I liked the first book in this series and was interested on Anthony's take on death. But he just didn't seem to have much to say on time. It too me forever to wade through it and when it finished I just don't have much to say. It isn't horrible but it wasn't all that great either.

fwog19's review

3.0

Once again, it's interesting to see how you feel about a book when you read it as a teenager vs adult. I remember loving this book as a teenager and thinking that Norton was a neat, if nerdy guy who fit the job of Chronos quite well. Now? Well...

As with On A Pale Horse, I was reading this and thinking, "Dang, I don't remember Norton being this slow!" Also, he could have saved a LOT of trouble for everyone if he'd just quit thinking with his penis. Seriously, Nort? I don't care how much Excelsia's boobs are bouncing! What's that got to do with your mission? Sigh. Men.

Overall, it was still a good book, but the pacing was meh. Most of the book was him just bumbling around because he hadn't realized that he was being (shocker) manipulated by Satan! It was fun to revisit how he helped the other Incarnations and see how he came into his own. It was good to get to see everyone from his eyes. It was like visiting old friends. I'm still taking a break before I read the next book, though.

carlylottsofbookz's review

3.0

This is book 2 of the Incarnations of Immortality, and while I enjoyed reading it, I didn't find it as amazing as the first book in the series. This could be because as a character, I am more interested in learning about the 'man' behind Death--his is a role that is more intrinsically interesting to me.

This book follows the Incarnation of Chronos: Time. Pretty powerful dude, but when it came down to it, it was a lot more confusing for me to follow...and I was wishing for something a tad easier to follow.

I liked the story line, and in the end Satan was--once again--foiled. :)

n1nak's review

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It was alright

beetree's review

2.0

I liked this one, but not as much as On a Pale Horse, the first book of the series. There were some crazy other-worldly tangents when all I really wanted to do was stay on Earth. This book was also a little confusing because Chronos lives and does everything backwards. This resulted in the president of my company as well as another co-worker coming by to ask me if my head hurt, because I was reading with my hand held up on my furrowed forehead, trying to make sense of the fact that Chronos was meeting Thanatos for the first time, but to Thanatos, Chronos was an old friend, and that Thanatos was teaching Chronos stuff that Chronos had taught him 40 years ago. Yes, that sentence was super long on purpose.