So, if I'm remembering correctly, the last time I read Under a Velvet Cloak by Piers Anthony, it would have been 2009ish. I know I was living in Missouri, and that I got it froom the Glenstone Library branch, but....
Anyway, this is/was the final Incarnations of Immortality book he wrote, dealing with the incarnation of Night, Nox. And frankly, my memory of the major plot points wasn't that great, so it was a bit like reading it for the first time.
We start in roughly 500AD England, in the time of Arthur. We get a peek at Jolie from what they refer to as T1 (Timeline 1, the one where the rest of the series takes place) entering T2 and meeting the "ugly sister", Kerena. Jolie doesn't really possess Kerena as much as she rides her, only stepping in when T1 diverges from T2, since Orlene has seen that all the other timelines end in destruction of the universe. As such, trying to get the timelines to correct by following the path that worked previously leads to Jolie witnessing the rise of Kerena as she joins a traveling magician to learn to use her "Sight". Morley vanishes, so Kerena begins a quest to find him, leading to working in a brothel, then working for Morgan Le Fey. Mogan sends Kerena to seduce Sir Gawain so that he may not touch the Grail. She succeeds, but not until falling for him.
Anyway, After dropping Gawain off in Camelot, Morgan teaches Kerena the last trick, to find Morley. Which she does, in Scotland, where he's a Vampire named Vorley. The woman who turned him, turns Kerena as well, right before Kerena realizes she's knocked up with Gawain's bastard. Who in turn has a curse attached to him, which as we see later down the line, is upon his descendants as well. Kerena seeks out the Incarnations, who all rebuff her. She swears revenge, and eventually figures out how to become Nox. (Along the way, she meets Lilith, Molly Malone, and a whole host of other minor characters who play roles in the series.)
And then, as Nox, and with her "Sight", she learns to travel the timelines that branch off T2, meeting Niobe, who's name she gives to Gabriel Along the way, she's romanced by an Efreet, whom we later learn a heck of a lot more about than what we ever wanted to know. (This is not to say his story isn't interesting, but....)
So, basically, the entire book lays out the underpinnings of the previous 7 books, showing that Nox herself set up the entire series, as well as getting really involved in the ideas of alternate timelines, and the idea that the universe is a big tree with three major branches, one totally science based, one totally magic based, and one where they compete, and how to keep the tree from dying.
Which is really interesting, but gets bogged down occasionally under the whole "Women must pretend they don't enjoy carnal relations to keep men interested", mixed in with rape being a major factor in a few relationships.
Really, though, worth reading for completeness.
Showing posts with label Incarnations of Immortality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incarnations of Immortality. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
In Nomine
So, as the library finally found me a copy of the final book of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality, I found myself racing through the penultimate book, And Eternity. Which used to be the series finale, but ya know....
Anyway, thanks to the revelations of Satan in the previous volume, we're mostly following around Satan's first wife Jolie as she works on secret missions on behalf of Gaea. Unfortunately, Satan had her also working on observing someone, who just happened to be Gaea and Mars's bastard child, Orlene, Who had a baby by Chronos prior to him becoming Chronos, and who's grandmother is currently one of the faces of Fate, and who's cousin Luna is shacked up with Thanatos.
As we saw back in book 2, Orlene kills herself. So Jolie drags her ghost around for most of the book. Which works out, since Gaea needs Jolie and her shadow to check in on a teenaged hooker who's mother works for Luna. This leads us to Vita. We also see more of Nox, the incarnation of night, who has the soul of Orlene's baby, and who presents a quest to Orlene to recover said soul. Orlene only need to gather something from each of the seven Incarnations of Day (which we find out more about that split later on... Basically the Day incarnations split into 7 areas, while Night remained undivided.)
Anyway, after getting Vita off drugs, away from her pimp, and under the supervision of a juvenile court judge who she ends up sleeping with, the three (and on one occasion four) of them wind up seeking out each Incarnation, slowly revealing their relationships with Orlene and showing quite a bit of what each of their offices concerns.
In the end, after securing the items from six of the Incarnations, Orlene, Vita, and Jolie ascend to Heaven and find, like Satan did, God is so busy contemplating his own divinity that he no longer pays attention to the world. As such, Luna's big moment is due to come, as her destiny in thwarting Satan is to provide the deciding vote in declaring the Office of Good vacant. Indeed, one of the best scenes in the entire series, basically a throwaway, happens here, where Satan causes a traffic snarl to prevent her from voting. Which Death's white steed takes her through.
And in the end, the vote on who gets the office happens, and at last Satan and Nox's true plans come to light. And as Jolie swore early on, God kisses Satan while all the Incarnations applaud.
Of note, this is also the only book in the series which I've actually done more than skim the Afterward on. In it he talks a bit about he feels as if good is really not present in the world anymore, and feels good really only works if people work to bring it forward, which I kind of agree with.
I know some folks really hate this volume. While I get that, and I understand, since Anthony's conclusions on the nature of men and women is annoying, I rather enjoyed this reread. I enjoyed the idea that sometimes, if a system is broken, or really doesn't work, the time comes to stop and restart and find a new way. Something I think more than a few of us can associate with.
Anyway, thanks to the revelations of Satan in the previous volume, we're mostly following around Satan's first wife Jolie as she works on secret missions on behalf of Gaea. Unfortunately, Satan had her also working on observing someone, who just happened to be Gaea and Mars's bastard child, Orlene, Who had a baby by Chronos prior to him becoming Chronos, and who's grandmother is currently one of the faces of Fate, and who's cousin Luna is shacked up with Thanatos.
As we saw back in book 2, Orlene kills herself. So Jolie drags her ghost around for most of the book. Which works out, since Gaea needs Jolie and her shadow to check in on a teenaged hooker who's mother works for Luna. This leads us to Vita. We also see more of Nox, the incarnation of night, who has the soul of Orlene's baby, and who presents a quest to Orlene to recover said soul. Orlene only need to gather something from each of the seven Incarnations of Day (which we find out more about that split later on... Basically the Day incarnations split into 7 areas, while Night remained undivided.)
Anyway, after getting Vita off drugs, away from her pimp, and under the supervision of a juvenile court judge who she ends up sleeping with, the three (and on one occasion four) of them wind up seeking out each Incarnation, slowly revealing their relationships with Orlene and showing quite a bit of what each of their offices concerns.
In the end, after securing the items from six of the Incarnations, Orlene, Vita, and Jolie ascend to Heaven and find, like Satan did, God is so busy contemplating his own divinity that he no longer pays attention to the world. As such, Luna's big moment is due to come, as her destiny in thwarting Satan is to provide the deciding vote in declaring the Office of Good vacant. Indeed, one of the best scenes in the entire series, basically a throwaway, happens here, where Satan causes a traffic snarl to prevent her from voting. Which Death's white steed takes her through.
And in the end, the vote on who gets the office happens, and at last Satan and Nox's true plans come to light. And as Jolie swore early on, God kisses Satan while all the Incarnations applaud.
Of note, this is also the only book in the series which I've actually done more than skim the Afterward on. In it he talks a bit about he feels as if good is really not present in the world anymore, and feels good really only works if people work to bring it forward, which I kind of agree with.
I know some folks really hate this volume. While I get that, and I understand, since Anthony's conclusions on the nature of men and women is annoying, I rather enjoyed this reread. I enjoyed the idea that sometimes, if a system is broken, or really doesn't work, the time comes to stop and restart and find a new way. Something I think more than a few of us can associate with.
Monday, November 25, 2019
Could it be..... Satan?
As we're rounding in to the home stretch of Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony, I have again suffered through For Love of Evil, concerning the office of the Incarnation of Evil, who's title of office is Satan.
It's an interesting book up until most of the last third. We meet Perry, adopted son of a local sorcerer, in a medieval village in Southern France right prior to the Avignon Crusade. Perry trains and falls in love with Jolie, a local village girl. The Crusaders come, the sorcerer winds up dead, Jolie ends up dead, but Thanatos comes to collect her, even though Jolie is a good person. Seems her death will lead to a great evil. Death does put a spot of her blood on Perry's arm, which allows her ghost to stay with him as he escapes the enemy sorcerer and becomes a monk.
He does eventually track down his pursuer, curses him, and finds out that Lucifer has a plot in motion that will destroy Europe. Perry eventually figures out it has to do with the death of the Great Khan, and switched messages that won't stop the horde before they overrun the West. Perry and Jolie go deep into northern Russia and switch one of the messages back, stopping Lucifer's plot. However, in the process of stopping the plot, Jolie does possess a woman, and the marriage is consummated again, which of course, violates several of Perry's oaths. Something that the demoness Lilah is quick to point out after Lucifer assigns her to corrupt Perry.
Which she does, particularly since Lilah's presence means Jolie can't be present. Prerry does his best to mitigate the evil he does, but it's still evil. On his death bed, he casts a mirror spell on Lilah, causing Lucifer to die. Perry assume the office, taking the name Satan. All the incarnations other than Chronos hate him, and Hell is a mess.
He does encounter JHWH in the Void after seeing how badly managed Heaven is. (Both afterlife destinations draw heavily on Dante's Divine Comedy. As such, Heaven is dull. Indeed, God can't hear anyone, because God in this setting is too busy in narcissistic contemplation to do anything.) JHVH does explain more about how Incarnations work, then suggests Perry pull a Karen and go talk to the manager. Which leads us to Gabriel, who makes a bet with Satan, that eventually leads to Niobe and Orb.
Which is about the point the book pretty much rehashes the previous volumes, with some getting a brief mention and others getting whole chapters.
The only bright spot in all of this is a bit of history changing one could only wish happened in reality. As a favor to JHVH, Perry stops the Holocaust by convincing Chronos that the Nazis will lead to Satan's ultimate victory.
Anyway, we do eventually get the epilogue to Gaea's book, finding out what happens to Perry after he goes up in flames at his second wedding.
In reflection, the book is better than I remember, but it does still have a feeling of rehash in the latter parts. It also manages to further muddle the timeline in favor of narrative, which gets annoying.
It's an interesting book up until most of the last third. We meet Perry, adopted son of a local sorcerer, in a medieval village in Southern France right prior to the Avignon Crusade. Perry trains and falls in love with Jolie, a local village girl. The Crusaders come, the sorcerer winds up dead, Jolie ends up dead, but Thanatos comes to collect her, even though Jolie is a good person. Seems her death will lead to a great evil. Death does put a spot of her blood on Perry's arm, which allows her ghost to stay with him as he escapes the enemy sorcerer and becomes a monk.
He does eventually track down his pursuer, curses him, and finds out that Lucifer has a plot in motion that will destroy Europe. Perry eventually figures out it has to do with the death of the Great Khan, and switched messages that won't stop the horde before they overrun the West. Perry and Jolie go deep into northern Russia and switch one of the messages back, stopping Lucifer's plot. However, in the process of stopping the plot, Jolie does possess a woman, and the marriage is consummated again, which of course, violates several of Perry's oaths. Something that the demoness Lilah is quick to point out after Lucifer assigns her to corrupt Perry.
Which she does, particularly since Lilah's presence means Jolie can't be present. Prerry does his best to mitigate the evil he does, but it's still evil. On his death bed, he casts a mirror spell on Lilah, causing Lucifer to die. Perry assume the office, taking the name Satan. All the incarnations other than Chronos hate him, and Hell is a mess.
He does encounter JHWH in the Void after seeing how badly managed Heaven is. (Both afterlife destinations draw heavily on Dante's Divine Comedy. As such, Heaven is dull. Indeed, God can't hear anyone, because God in this setting is too busy in narcissistic contemplation to do anything.) JHVH does explain more about how Incarnations work, then suggests Perry pull a Karen and go talk to the manager. Which leads us to Gabriel, who makes a bet with Satan, that eventually leads to Niobe and Orb.
Which is about the point the book pretty much rehashes the previous volumes, with some getting a brief mention and others getting whole chapters.
The only bright spot in all of this is a bit of history changing one could only wish happened in reality. As a favor to JHVH, Perry stops the Holocaust by convincing Chronos that the Nazis will lead to Satan's ultimate victory.
Anyway, we do eventually get the epilogue to Gaea's book, finding out what happens to Perry after he goes up in flames at his second wedding.
In reflection, the book is better than I remember, but it does still have a feeling of rehash in the latter parts. It also manages to further muddle the timeline in favor of narrative, which gets annoying.
Monday, November 18, 2019
In accordance with the prophecy
Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony wraps up the original five books of Incarnations of Immortality, and covers events leading to the ultimate resolution of the prophecies surrounding Orb. Luna's, not so much, which is why we later got two more books.
Ok, so as a reminder, Orb is Niobe (Clotho/Lachesis)'s daughter, Luna's (destined to foil Satan) cousin, Mother of Orlene (who becomes Chronos's lover before he takes office), and Mym's (Now Mars) former lover. She's prophesied to become Gaea and may marry Evil.
So, after a recap of her childhood and time with the carnival in India, we get going on Orb and her time among the gypsies and looking for the Llano, the song of songs. We see Orb join up with The Livin' Sludge, last seen in On a Pale Horse, hiring a succubus, and traveling around in the fish that swallowed Jonah. We see her courted by Natasha, who also knows parts of the Llano. And since that level of naming is up there with Alucard, Natasha is Ah, Satan.
Which isn't revealed until Orb has ascended into Nature, and manages to pretty much destroy the world for 40 pages. (Read as catfished woman gets irrationally mad about being deceived.)
And in the end, Orb makes the only choice she can make, after a long winded internal dialogue about good and evil.
Honestly, this is one of the better books in the series. It does have its faults (the courtship makes no sense to anyone, and the scene with her doing the Gypsy version of the lambada to kill of skeletons is silly), but the pacing is fun, the recaps of what's happened before don't totally overwhelm the narrative, and it does ultimately end the series in a way that makes sense. (Even if there are 3 more books.)
Ok, so as a reminder, Orb is Niobe (Clotho/Lachesis)'s daughter, Luna's (destined to foil Satan) cousin, Mother of Orlene (who becomes Chronos's lover before he takes office), and Mym's (Now Mars) former lover. She's prophesied to become Gaea and may marry Evil.
So, after a recap of her childhood and time with the carnival in India, we get going on Orb and her time among the gypsies and looking for the Llano, the song of songs. We see Orb join up with The Livin' Sludge, last seen in On a Pale Horse, hiring a succubus, and traveling around in the fish that swallowed Jonah. We see her courted by Natasha, who also knows parts of the Llano. And since that level of naming is up there with Alucard, Natasha is Ah, Satan.
Which isn't revealed until Orb has ascended into Nature, and manages to pretty much destroy the world for 40 pages. (Read as catfished woman gets irrationally mad about being deceived.)
And in the end, Orb makes the only choice she can make, after a long winded internal dialogue about good and evil.
Honestly, this is one of the better books in the series. It does have its faults (the courtship makes no sense to anyone, and the scene with her doing the Gypsy version of the lambada to kill of skeletons is silly), but the pacing is fun, the recaps of what's happened before don't totally overwhelm the narrative, and it does ultimately end the series in a way that makes sense. (Even if there are 3 more books.)
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
What is it good for?
Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony still remains one of my least favorite entries in Incarnations of Immortality. I mean, it's not that it's ever dull, but honestly, it's entire raison d' etre is to set up the eventual payoffs down the line, rather than give us something as interesting as the previous three books.
We start with Mym, "Pride of the Kingdom", a Brahmin stutterer on the run from his father and responsibilities of being the second born prince of the king. He joins a traveling circus (wearing a remarkably familiar snake ring that answers yes/no questions), shacks up with Luna's cousin Orb, and winds up being dragged back into his Kingdom as the circus tries to leave India. Seems Mym's brother died, leaving Mym the heir. Because we have to, Orb is payed off like a common whore, and Mym goes home, where Daddy dearest starts executing concubines until Mym agrees to marry Princess Rapture.
He and Rapture do wind up falling in love, but things happen, Mym happens to be the angriest person in the world when War flares up after a small break in fighting around the globe, Mym gets the Red Sword and becomes Mars, incarnation of War. (One should also mention Mars has a few Minor Incarnations [Slaughter, Conquest, Famine, and Pestilence] associated with him. Given Death is a separate Incarnation, and they never do explain how the minors work....)
Anyway....
Long story short, Satan sends a succubus to annoy Mym. Lila does her job, helping Rapture become an independent woman. Heaven forbid that Mym be without a subservient woman, so Lila sends him after Ligea, who's unfairly damned. Mym winds up trapped in Hell, so, being a rational man of War, he starts a revolt of the Damned.
Anyway, long story short, Mym winds up foiling Satan and having Ligea as wife and Lila as concubine.
It's all kind of silly, and really only seems to be written to explain where the heck Orlene came from.
But, it's readable.
We start with Mym, "Pride of the Kingdom", a Brahmin stutterer on the run from his father and responsibilities of being the second born prince of the king. He joins a traveling circus (wearing a remarkably familiar snake ring that answers yes/no questions), shacks up with Luna's cousin Orb, and winds up being dragged back into his Kingdom as the circus tries to leave India. Seems Mym's brother died, leaving Mym the heir. Because we have to, Orb is payed off like a common whore, and Mym goes home, where Daddy dearest starts executing concubines until Mym agrees to marry Princess Rapture.
He and Rapture do wind up falling in love, but things happen, Mym happens to be the angriest person in the world when War flares up after a small break in fighting around the globe, Mym gets the Red Sword and becomes Mars, incarnation of War. (One should also mention Mars has a few Minor Incarnations [Slaughter, Conquest, Famine, and Pestilence] associated with him. Given Death is a separate Incarnation, and they never do explain how the minors work....)
Anyway....
Long story short, Satan sends a succubus to annoy Mym. Lila does her job, helping Rapture become an independent woman. Heaven forbid that Mym be without a subservient woman, so Lila sends him after Ligea, who's unfairly damned. Mym winds up trapped in Hell, so, being a rational man of War, he starts a revolt of the Damned.
Anyway, long story short, Mym winds up foiling Satan and having Ligea as wife and Lila as concubine.
It's all kind of silly, and really only seems to be written to explain where the heck Orlene came from.
But, it's readable.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Oh what a tangled web we weave
With a Tangled Skein is the book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality wherein we see that the Earthly Incarnations are basically the Skywalker family from Star Wars.
We start with nubile Niobe, the most beautiful girl in her generation, being forced to marry Cedric, 5 years her junior. They eventually do come to love each other, befriending a dryad in the wetlands in the process. Cedric goes to college, becomes a wetlands advocate. Niobe births Junior. Cedric gets shot by developers. Niobe, being emotional, floats on a boat and sets it on fire to get Death's attention. Death, Time, and Nature all get involved, and we learn Niobe is destined to become Clotho soon. Which she does, foiling a few plots of Satan in the meantime.
Junior and his cousin Pacian go with Fate to a carnival where certain prophecies come to light, namely, their children will become interesting beings... one to love Death, one to marry Evil. Pacian thinsk he's stopped it by marrying Blanche, it didn't work, since Niobe leaves Fate to marry him.
Junior, in the meantime, married Blenda and births Luna. Niobe and Pacian birth Orb.
Later, Niobe comes back to Fate as Lachesis, since all three aspects wind up switching at the same time, which is unheard of.
Eventually Niobe risks hell to get information from The Magician (aka Junior).
While it does help put the timeline back in order after the previous two books, it still turns the series into "One Family to Rule Them All, and in the darkness bind them."
We start with nubile Niobe, the most beautiful girl in her generation, being forced to marry Cedric, 5 years her junior. They eventually do come to love each other, befriending a dryad in the wetlands in the process. Cedric goes to college, becomes a wetlands advocate. Niobe births Junior. Cedric gets shot by developers. Niobe, being emotional, floats on a boat and sets it on fire to get Death's attention. Death, Time, and Nature all get involved, and we learn Niobe is destined to become Clotho soon. Which she does, foiling a few plots of Satan in the meantime.
Junior and his cousin Pacian go with Fate to a carnival where certain prophecies come to light, namely, their children will become interesting beings... one to love Death, one to marry Evil. Pacian thinsk he's stopped it by marrying Blanche, it didn't work, since Niobe leaves Fate to marry him.
Junior, in the meantime, married Blenda and births Luna. Niobe and Pacian birth Orb.
Later, Niobe comes back to Fate as Lachesis, since all three aspects wind up switching at the same time, which is unheard of.
Eventually Niobe risks hell to get information from The Magician (aka Junior).
While it does help put the timeline back in order after the previous two books, it still turns the series into "One Family to Rule Them All, and in the darkness bind them."
Monday, November 4, 2019
Oh yes, Chronotons
After rereading book two of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality, Bearing an Hourglass, I got a sterling reminder of how much of a headache it is. Not that it isn't fairly well written, but the set up is involved.
We start with Norton, who's more or less an uninvolved drifter, living in different wilderness areas on and off. He's approached by a ghost, Gawain, who needs someone to sire his heir. Seems Gawain died fighting what he thought was a dragon, but was really a dinosaur, and he died without a child. As such, his family married the ghost to Orlene, who is supposed to bear a child to continue the line. Enter Norton.
Norton and Orlene do hit it off, and she indeed bears a child, Gawain II. However, Gawain I made arrangements with Gaea to make the child a true heir, which includes some vaguely defined genetic defect that causes the baby to die before a year. (As I recall, this gets better defined in Book 8.) Thanatos does show up and explain the situation to Norton, which doesn't help when Orlene commits suicide in her grief later on. Gawain does attempt to get Norton to provide stud service with the new ghost wife, but it doesn't happen. Eventually though, Gawain does get Norton into the position of Chronos, Incarnation of Time, as a way of apologizing for getting him into the situation in the first place.
Chronos has issues, not the least of which being her travels backwards in time in relation to everyone else. In other words, when Norton takes the Hourglass, his natural progression is now from the moment he took the office until he reaches his birth or conception. As such, he takes the office roughly twenty years after the events of On a Pale Horse, but before the events of And Eternity. (As I stated at the outset, the timeline in the series is a bit wonky. Chronos makes it even worse.)
Anyway, Norton gets an offer from Satan that leads to a changed timeline, and Norton has to go fix it. Satan gets mad and keeps throwing Norton into what he claims as contraterrine worlds, made of antimatter, where time runs the way Chronos lives. Which leads to three really cheesy adventures involving Bug Eyed Monsters and Alicorns.
Oh yes, and Orlene give Norton Sning, a snake ring that can answer yes-or-no questions as well as indicate the passage of time. And other things. Sning is awesome.
The problem is, a later part of the book involves a really involved explanation of General Relativity, which, while presented in ways to make it easier to understand, still is just as lofty and migraine inducing as the 10 page chaos theory explanation in Jurrasic Park.
Still fun to read after all these years, and I remain amazed at how many clues to other volumes are hidden within.
We start with Norton, who's more or less an uninvolved drifter, living in different wilderness areas on and off. He's approached by a ghost, Gawain, who needs someone to sire his heir. Seems Gawain died fighting what he thought was a dragon, but was really a dinosaur, and he died without a child. As such, his family married the ghost to Orlene, who is supposed to bear a child to continue the line. Enter Norton.
Norton and Orlene do hit it off, and she indeed bears a child, Gawain II. However, Gawain I made arrangements with Gaea to make the child a true heir, which includes some vaguely defined genetic defect that causes the baby to die before a year. (As I recall, this gets better defined in Book 8.) Thanatos does show up and explain the situation to Norton, which doesn't help when Orlene commits suicide in her grief later on. Gawain does attempt to get Norton to provide stud service with the new ghost wife, but it doesn't happen. Eventually though, Gawain does get Norton into the position of Chronos, Incarnation of Time, as a way of apologizing for getting him into the situation in the first place.
Chronos has issues, not the least of which being her travels backwards in time in relation to everyone else. In other words, when Norton takes the Hourglass, his natural progression is now from the moment he took the office until he reaches his birth or conception. As such, he takes the office roughly twenty years after the events of On a Pale Horse, but before the events of And Eternity. (As I stated at the outset, the timeline in the series is a bit wonky. Chronos makes it even worse.)
Anyway, Norton gets an offer from Satan that leads to a changed timeline, and Norton has to go fix it. Satan gets mad and keeps throwing Norton into what he claims as contraterrine worlds, made of antimatter, where time runs the way Chronos lives. Which leads to three really cheesy adventures involving Bug Eyed Monsters and Alicorns.
Oh yes, and Orlene give Norton Sning, a snake ring that can answer yes-or-no questions as well as indicate the passage of time. And other things. Sning is awesome.
The problem is, a later part of the book involves a really involved explanation of General Relativity, which, while presented in ways to make it easier to understand, still is just as lofty and migraine inducing as the 10 page chaos theory explanation in Jurrasic Park.
Still fun to read after all these years, and I remain amazed at how many clues to other volumes are hidden within.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
The Final Ride
Many years ago, someone I haven't thought of in probably as many years, told me of a book series he was reading and how I should check it out. Thus how I was introduced to Piers Anthony and his Incarnations of Immortality series. I've read the series a few times in the intervening years, although the final book, released 17 years after what had been book 7, I've only read once. However, I had some Amazon gift cards and they had a good deal on the first 7 as a boxed set, so here we are.
On a Pale Horse gets attention quickly in chapter one, after showing us this alternate Earth where magic and science coexist fairly easily. Indeed, when we meet Zane, he's at a literal Sky Mall in a magic stone store looking for something to improve his existence. The proprietor, showing Zane stones that show Zane is destined to meet a great love and his own death within the hour, ends up talking Zane into using the love stone so that the shop keep can have his love in exchange for a wealth stone that will lead Zane to money. Zane makes the exchange, gets home to find his wealth stone is really a junk stone that finds loose change, and decides to fulfill the Death Stone prophecy with a gun he got off a mugger. As he pulls the trigger, Death himself walks in, which Zane reacts to by turning the muzzle at the last second, actually shooting and killing Death.
And thus begins our interactions with the Five major Incarnations; Death, Time, Fate, War, and Nature. Later on, in books 6 and 7, we meet Evil and Good, and book 8 concerns Night. But right now, we're dealing with Death, and ignoring the problematic timelines that come into play later. After killing Death, Fate herself shows up and informs Zane that since he killed Death, he now gets to assume the role. Kind of like The Santa Clause, only more entertaining. It takes a while, since the position doesn't come with an instruction book, and his pale steed, Mortis, isn't good at communication. Indeed, on his second or third collection, Zane saves his client from dying and tries to get said client to kill him and take on the position.
Eventually, though, we meet The Magician and his daughter Luna, which is when some of the greater threads come into play. The Magician is a Black Magician, and has put some of the smut from his soul onto Luna's soul, thereby bringing his soul into balance, as it's only balanced souls that get direct attention from Death (also known as Thanatos.) Most souls either find their own way to Heaven or Hell. Anyway, Luna is foretold to thwart Satan's plans in 20 years, so The Magician gives her to Zane as a gift, to protect her from Satan's wiles.
Which, well, Satan does have plans, and Zane does eventually figure out that the other 4 non alignment Incarnations set him up the bomb. He got chosen for this role, since he was one of the only candidates who would fight for Luna.
After all these years, I find myself still loving this book. Yes, I could live without Anthony's rampant sexism and belief in male and female archetypes, but he's still less obnoxious about it than other authors I could name, like David Eddings. I love the world building, and the PR campaign Satan runs on Earth to convince humans that Hell is the place to be in the afterlife. I love the meditations on Death that occur throughout, and how Death works. Even knowing where all of this eventually leads, and the formula that repeats quite a bit through the next few books, this particular volume still remains on my influential book list, and one I would highly recommend to folks.
On a Pale Horse gets attention quickly in chapter one, after showing us this alternate Earth where magic and science coexist fairly easily. Indeed, when we meet Zane, he's at a literal Sky Mall in a magic stone store looking for something to improve his existence. The proprietor, showing Zane stones that show Zane is destined to meet a great love and his own death within the hour, ends up talking Zane into using the love stone so that the shop keep can have his love in exchange for a wealth stone that will lead Zane to money. Zane makes the exchange, gets home to find his wealth stone is really a junk stone that finds loose change, and decides to fulfill the Death Stone prophecy with a gun he got off a mugger. As he pulls the trigger, Death himself walks in, which Zane reacts to by turning the muzzle at the last second, actually shooting and killing Death.
And thus begins our interactions with the Five major Incarnations; Death, Time, Fate, War, and Nature. Later on, in books 6 and 7, we meet Evil and Good, and book 8 concerns Night. But right now, we're dealing with Death, and ignoring the problematic timelines that come into play later. After killing Death, Fate herself shows up and informs Zane that since he killed Death, he now gets to assume the role. Kind of like The Santa Clause, only more entertaining. It takes a while, since the position doesn't come with an instruction book, and his pale steed, Mortis, isn't good at communication. Indeed, on his second or third collection, Zane saves his client from dying and tries to get said client to kill him and take on the position.
Eventually, though, we meet The Magician and his daughter Luna, which is when some of the greater threads come into play. The Magician is a Black Magician, and has put some of the smut from his soul onto Luna's soul, thereby bringing his soul into balance, as it's only balanced souls that get direct attention from Death (also known as Thanatos.) Most souls either find their own way to Heaven or Hell. Anyway, Luna is foretold to thwart Satan's plans in 20 years, so The Magician gives her to Zane as a gift, to protect her from Satan's wiles.
Which, well, Satan does have plans, and Zane does eventually figure out that the other 4 non alignment Incarnations set him up the bomb. He got chosen for this role, since he was one of the only candidates who would fight for Luna.
After all these years, I find myself still loving this book. Yes, I could live without Anthony's rampant sexism and belief in male and female archetypes, but he's still less obnoxious about it than other authors I could name, like David Eddings. I love the world building, and the PR campaign Satan runs on Earth to convince humans that Hell is the place to be in the afterlife. I love the meditations on Death that occur throughout, and how Death works. Even knowing where all of this eventually leads, and the formula that repeats quite a bit through the next few books, this particular volume still remains on my influential book list, and one I would highly recommend to folks.
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