After reading the Split Infinity Series by Piers Anthony I jumped right into the Xanth series. A good light hearted fantasy series that, after trying to read again much later in life I can not get into. ( )

I got book 2 of this series first, read it a couple of times before I finally got the first. I think the first 4 books are well worth reading - a must read for anyone into fantasy books. I think the series is up in the 20 odd count somewhere now. The first 3 or 4 are excellent. After that, I just couldn't get too into it any more. Might just be me. When this came out, it was unlike any series before it AND was funny on top of that. Humor in this sort of fiction is hard to pull off, but Anthony did it very well. ( )

I really enjoyed this first book in the Xanth series. The characters are well written and the story is stronger than I would have expected from a tonque and cheek fantasy like this. The puns were fun, too. I loved how the characters took in stride what we would find utterly ridiculous. ( )

It has been over 20 years since I read this first Xanth novel. I have to say that it was just as enjoyable the second time around as it was the first.
Piers Anthony seems to capture the essence of what it is like to be different and how we search for a way to become like everyone else so as not to be considered an outcast only to discover that being unique is really an asset in the end.
For Bink, Chameleon, and Trent it is a story of self discovery that being different is really not so bad.
Bink finds out that it is not that he doesn’t have magic, it is that he has a very unique magic. Chameleon discovers that her monthly phases are not so undesirable after all, and Trent discovers that he can be a good king instead of an evil one.
I thought the characters were very well thought out and the story covered, although masked in a different environment, some of the same things we see every day, like the bureaucratic wall we come up against when dealing with politics; whether it is in government, corporate, or the educational field, such as the old king being left in charge, forget the fact he really is not in any stable mental condition to do so, and how Herman the Hermit was condemned and exiled by the centaurs (representing as I see it the educational field) for being a magical creature who could perform magic. Because the norm in Xanth is that you are either a magical creature (i.e. the Centaurs) or you are not but have magical abilities. Yet Herman gave his life trying to protect Xanth from the Wiggle Swarms.
We also see the friction between couples where the female is very dominant and the Male very macho with Chester and Cherie the Centaurs. Chester is always looking for a fight and Cherie is always bossing him around with her I’m better than you attitude which Chester always gives into. However once Bink tells of Chester’s uncle Herman’s (the centaur that was exiled for doing magic) heroic deeds with the wiggle fight, and sees how Cherie does not want to hear the disturbing tale of someone she obviously looked down on, Chester is all for Bink coming to visit to relate the story just to irritate Cherie if for nothing else.
The story was very easy to read and very easy to relate to. I would recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy stories with some substance and the puns will also keep you entertained. ( )

Bink is nearly 25, and he has a problem. He has no magic. This means that he will be exiled from Xanth, unless he can demonstrate a talent in front of the Storm King (who once was great, but now could barely conjure a dust devil and is failing fast) on his birthday. In a last-ditch effort to avoid exile, he travels to the Good Magician Humfrey for help in finding his magic talent. Will he succeed, or will he have to leave behind everything he knows and loves?

I read this book years ago, and had forgotten all the veiled and not-so-veiled sexual references, which annoyed me, but not enough to stop reading. It suffers just a tad from being the first book in a series, setting up the world of Xanth and the "rules" in order to prepare you for coming information, but all in all it's well done and fun fantasy read. ( )