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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I still have not read the 8th book that came many years after this, but I'd characterize this as a good culmination of all that came before it. While most of the series can stand alone, this is one where you'd do yourself a serious disservice not to be familiar with all the characters involved. Half of this may feel like a connect the dots game, but the dots being connected are gratifying for any existing fan.
This hasn't aged well though when it comes to sexuality -- men are essentially slave to their sexual desires and it's all good when an underaged girl persues an older man because older or wiser ghosts can verify her consent. This challenges what might otherwise be considered sex-positive narrative. Oh well.
This hasn't aged well though when it comes to sexuality -- men are essentially slave to their sexual desires and it's all good when an underaged girl persues an older man because older or wiser ghosts can verify her consent. This challenges what might otherwise be considered sex-positive narrative. Oh well.
Everyone I met who has read this series has a favorite, and it is without fail the first one they read. I read the fifth (Being a Green Mother) first, and it is my favorite. The first five can be read in any order, with intriguing plots interwoven through the entire set, but the sixth and seventh are best left for the end.
The earthly incarnations of Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature and Evil have all been explained in the Incarnations of Immortality series and finally Piers Anthony tackles probably the most challenging aspect yet, that of Good. And Eternity focuses on a God that has become ambivalent to the mortal realm and has effectively become a non-existent incarnation. The determinations of what qualifies as sin have become outdated, but with no incarnation of Good available to realign the definitions of good and evil the future of humanity is doomed.[return][return]In this setting, we follow an unlikely trio: Orlean (deceased daughter of Nature), Jolie (deceased wife of Satan) and an underage prostitute. The three are set forth on a quest by the incarnation of Night that weaves them through the lives of all the Incarnations and they have no idea that the role they play may just save the world.[return][return]The seventh, and arguably, the final book in the series closes out the series well. Piers Anthony does an admirable job of tackling the final incarnation of Good though I am sure he upset a few along the way. It is challenging to write a novel that calls out in no uncertain terms that the current God is ineffective and due for replacement, but the six preceding books in the series prepare the reader for this conclusion. In spite of a few "stinkers" (Wielding a Red Sword and Being a Green Mother) the series is worth a read. Will I read them all again? Probably not, but it was a fun ride while it lasted.
There were a few things to love about this book - the concept behind it, its thought-provoking nature at times, and several great scenes. The problem is that there were too many bad things - offensively bad things - to count. I say this as a lifelong Piers Anthony fan - I read with enthusiasm all the biographical Author's Notes from this series, and I remember him fondly as the famous author who responded to a letter from my sister in the mid-80s with a thoughtful critique of the short story she wrote and sent her personal advice on how to make it as a writer. The lost potential made me even angrier at the end of the book than I would have been if it had no redeeming qualities.
This book makes clear Piers Anthony's strange obsession with underage girls. There's something wrong when you write up the character of a middle-aged man who "falls in love" and repeatedly has sex with a 15-year old girl and have every other character try to justify this by saying "age is just a construct," and "they're really in love."
In Lolita, the story was at least presented without glorifying pedophilia - instead, it seemed designed to make you feel uncomfortable by following the point of view of a very flawed villainous figure and showing the damage that resulted from the violation of trust when a grown man pursued a sexual relationship with a young girl. Here, it is clear from the outset that the design is to try and convince you that there is nothing wrong with it.
He doesn't even try a "she may be 15, but she's much older in maturity" angle. The "good" main character says that he fantasizes about young girls, and what he likes about her is her immaturity. Anthony even takes pains to repeatedly highlight just how young the girl is. She starts about half her sentences with "Gee!", including sexual quotes that appear out of nowhere for absolutely no reason, like "Gee, I wish I could be having sex with [my 50-year-old boyfriend] right now!" The older man refers to her with pet names like "my juvenile delight."
Dialogue that was so over the top that it was funny (With lines along the lines of, "I must admit, although this tryst we have just completed has me spent, I will do my utmost to recuperate with haste in order to achieve a reiteration"), an awkward Evolution vs. Creationism debate (in which the 15-year-old runaway drug addict prostitute somehow knows enough about science to be the champion of Evolution), and repeated pointless sex scenes round out why this book could have been very good, but instead was a big disappointment.
This book makes clear Piers Anthony's strange obsession with underage girls. There's something wrong when you write up the character of a middle-aged man who "falls in love" and repeatedly has sex with a 15-year old girl and have every other character try to justify this by saying "age is just a construct," and "they're really in love."
In Lolita, the story was at least presented without glorifying pedophilia - instead, it seemed designed to make you feel uncomfortable by following the point of view of a very flawed villainous figure and showing the damage that resulted from the violation of trust when a grown man pursued a sexual relationship with a young girl. Here, it is clear from the outset that the design is to try and convince you that there is nothing wrong with it.
He doesn't even try a "she may be 15, but she's much older in maturity" angle. The "good" main character says that he fantasizes about young girls, and what he likes about her is her immaturity. Anthony even takes pains to repeatedly highlight just how young the girl is. She starts about half her sentences with "Gee!", including sexual quotes that appear out of nowhere for absolutely no reason, like "Gee, I wish I could be having sex with [my 50-year-old boyfriend] right now!" The older man refers to her with pet names like "my juvenile delight."
Dialogue that was so over the top that it was funny (With lines along the lines of, "I must admit, although this tryst we have just completed has me spent, I will do my utmost to recuperate with haste in order to achieve a reiteration"), an awkward Evolution vs. Creationism debate (in which the 15-year-old runaway drug addict prostitute somehow knows enough about science to be the champion of Evolution), and repeated pointless sex scenes round out why this book could have been very good, but instead was a big disappointment.
Uh, yeah, it's probably not a good idea for a survivor of rape (I was about the age of the girl in this story) to even contemplate reading it. Pass.
Back in high school, I read Piers Anthony’s And Enternity. I don’t remember much about what I thought about it, except that I was incredibly irked at the ending. Afterall, it slammed in the face of everything I believed. Nowadays the ending isn’t that irksome, it’s all the events that lead up to it. The God of And Enternity is a clockmaker god, one who has turned in on himself and abandoned the rest of the world. The Incarnations must elect a new god to take his place, but they must find one even the Incarnation of Evil will approve of. I realize now that this fictional god isn’t the same one I believe in, so that aspect of the book doesn’t bother me. Anthony sets out to remake Heaven into a better place for basically good people, but his logic is flawed.
I will give Anthony credit for creating vibrant, mostly well-rounded lady characters for this book. Orlene, a recent suicide, has legitimate emotional baggage rather than the usual “Oh, I’m overly emotional because of my ovaries” that I found in With A Tangled Skein and Being A Green Mother. Jolie is a refreshingly wise ghost, having..uh…died through several centuries. Vita I liked at first, as I have a soft-spot for rough-and-tumble characters. She’s a runaway and a kid prostitute, caught in the middle of sex trafficking, but managing to come off as strong and independent. Well, at least she does until she meets the judge.
After that point, she becomes the stomach-curdling vixen of every pedophile’s dream, and the judge secretly fantasizes about bedding underage girls. Then they hook up, with two ghosts sharing Vita’s body eventually deciding it’s okay because it’s “consensual.” If Anthony’s point is to prove that all people are basically good, this is NOT the way to do it.
Then there’s the scene where the Incarnation of Night, or Nox, turns Orlene into a man, causing her to lust after Jolie and nearly rape her. Orlene has a revelation that men are helpless against women’s wiles and their violence is just natural/em>, and can’t be helped. I gagged.
One refreshing scene came soon after, in which Nox had our heroes reason between different creation myths: Creationism and Evolutionism. Reconciling the two isn’t really news today, but it might have been when Anthony published this book, so he gets points for that. In my opinion, it doesn’t redeem the rest of the book by a long shot.
I will give Anthony credit for creating vibrant, mostly well-rounded lady characters for this book. Orlene, a recent suicide, has legitimate emotional baggage rather than the usual “Oh, I’m overly emotional because of my ovaries” that I found in With A Tangled Skein and Being A Green Mother. Jolie is a refreshingly wise ghost, having..uh…died through several centuries. Vita I liked at first, as I have a soft-spot for rough-and-tumble characters. She’s a runaway and a kid prostitute, caught in the middle of sex trafficking, but managing to come off as strong and independent. Well, at least she does until she meets the judge.
After that point, she becomes the stomach-curdling vixen of every pedophile’s dream, and the judge secretly fantasizes about bedding underage girls. Then they hook up, with two ghosts sharing Vita’s body eventually deciding it’s okay because it’s “consensual.” If Anthony’s point is to prove that all people are basically good, this is NOT the way to do it.
Then there’s the scene where the Incarnation of Night, or Nox, turns Orlene into a man, causing her to lust after Jolie and nearly rape her. Orlene has a revelation that men are helpless against women’s wiles and their violence is just natural/em>, and can’t be helped. I gagged.
One refreshing scene came soon after, in which Nox had our heroes reason between different creation myths: Creationism and Evolutionism. Reconciling the two isn’t really news today, but it might have been when Anthony published this book, so he gets points for that. In my opinion, it doesn’t redeem the rest of the book by a long shot.
God is not dead.
He is just a self absorbed egomaniac that could care less about his subjects. So what do the subjects rightfully do in response?
Elect a new God.
The journey that the three girls went through to find a suitable candidate and Orleanes items to free her baby from the Incarnation of Night is a rough one to say the least. I had to put the book down at times because of the horror of the trials they went through.
However I was a bit disturbed when Vita started a sexual relationship with the judge. But overtime it became the norm in the book and I accepted that it was better for her in this case.
I doubt it would be effectively applicable in real life.
He is just a self absorbed egomaniac that could care less about his subjects. So what do the subjects rightfully do in response?
Elect a new God.
The journey that the three girls went through to find a suitable candidate and Orleanes items to free her baby from the Incarnation of Night is a rough one to say the least. I had to put the book down at times because of the horror of the trials they went through.
However I was a bit disturbed when Vita started a sexual relationship with the judge. But overtime it became the norm in the book and I accepted that it was better for her in this case.
I doubt it would be effectively applicable in real life.
The somewhat disappointing but inevitable conclusion to the series. Still an enjoyable read.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm done with the series. There's another one he did quite a few years after this book, but it seems many people felt it was an unneeded addition. It was nice to finally finish it, and I liked how it was pretty much tied together and wrapped up. Other than that, nothing really good to say. Average story to wrap up what had been quite an interesting set of books.
My ranking for the series:
1. On A Pale Horse
2. For Love Of Evil
3. Being A Green Mother
4. Wielding A Red Sword
5. With A Tangled Skien
6. Bearing An Hourglass
7. And Eternity
1. On A Pale Horse
2. For Love Of Evil
3. Being A Green Mother
4. Wielding A Red Sword
5. With A Tangled Skien
6. Bearing An Hourglass
7. And Eternity