A review by jenmcgee
Dragon on a Pedestal by Piers Anthony

1.0

I loved the Xanth series as a kid, but I had a feeling when I found one on a shelf and decided to re-read it that it wouldn't have aged well, and I was right. It's frustrating because there are plot points I love and characters I adored, and seeing them again makes me feel nostalgic, but like all Xanth books there's a distinctive and unpleasant horny energy that I was pretty oblivious to as a kid. And by "distinctive" I mean specifically how the main character, all the other characters, and the narrator all agree that being 28 means you're "middle aged" and would be lucky to have a man ever look at you again, and how girls explicitly stated to be 15 and 16 are held up as being at the height of their sexual attractiveness--everyone stops to ogle their legs and "bosoms," and the main character (that ancient crone of 28) is jealous of all the attention they get. When I was 13, 16 did indeed seem quite mature. Now... it's pretty gross to read.