Imaginary Interviewer: And on to the next book. Who are we reading now?
Humble Writer: We're reading something by Piers Anthony. The selection is for the Xanth Series of books. The first one, which is our sole target, is called 'A Spell for Chameleon'.
II: What should we know about Anthony?
HW: Prior to 1977 he had published a dozen or so books. In '77 he started the Xanth series and that's almost exclusively what he's been writing. Wikipedia has a quote where he says that this is all that his publishers have wanted from him.
II: Does it constitute a lot of books?
HW: Oh yes. per Wikipedia there are now 46 books in the series with two more announced.
II: 46?
HW: Yes. If each one is around 300 pages (a guess on my part), then the series is just short of 14,000 pages long.
II: Wow. Any good?
HW: Well, I haven't read any of the Xanth books until this project. I've seen a huge number of them in used bookstores over the years, so I'm sure collecting a large number of them would be easy enough. So they're obviously very popular and have a dedicated fan base. That speaks to some level of quality.
II: But what do you think?
HW: Having dipped my toe in only, I can tell you that I'm pretty pleased with what I've read. The Xanth region is one where (most) everyone has some level of magic. Anthony plays with this premise in a joyful way. He's obviously having fun with this writing and that makes the reading easier.
II: Hard magic or soft magic?
HW: Oh, very much driven by rules so hard magic.
II: Anything else we should know?
HW: In the print edition, the book starts out with a map (as the best ones do.) The area for Xanth is clearly modeled after the state of Florida. I got a kick out of this and I'm sure Anthony did too.
II: Recommended?
HW: Yes. At least try the first 100 or so pages.
