Search Worlds Without End

Table of Contents:

• Possible to Rue - (1963) - short story
• The Toaster - (1985) - short story
• Quinquepedalian - (1963) - short story
• Encounter - (1964) - short story
• Phog - (1965) - short story
• The Ghost Galaxies - (1966) - novelette
• Within the Cloud - (1967) - short story
• The Life of the Stripe - (1969) - short story
• In the Jaws of Danger - (1967) - short story
• Beak by Beak - (1967) - short story
• Getting Through University - (1968) - novelette
• In the Barn - (1972) - novelette
• Up Schist Creek - (1972) - novelette
• The Whole Truth - (1970) - short story
• The Bridge - (1970) - short story
• On the Uses of Torture - (1981) - novelette
• Small Mouth, Bad Taste - (1970) - short story
• Wood You? - (1970) - short story
• Hard Sell - (1972) - short story
• Hurdle - (1972) - novelette
• Gone to the Dogs - (1985) - short story

He was the largest land mammal of perhistoric times--a rhino. Now computers and genetic engineering have brought one of these magnificent creatures back to life and into the life of a boy named Thor. This moving and suspenseful tale will enchant readers, and offer an irresistible reminder of the bond between the creatures of the wild and the child that lives within us all.

It lures you in with the sensual promise of ecstasy beyond imagining. It seduces with a scent erotic and carnal, unleashing the raw animal passion in its once-civilzed human prey. And it kills with a terrible rapture no man or woman can resist. Beware the touch of... FIREFLY.

In its unearthly embrace awaits heven... and hell.

Starship Captain Shetland feels like a ghost on his own planet: Earth is an energy starved madhouse of compulsory sex and forced interbreeding, where eating meat and casting shadows are felonies - and spacers are hated as power "wasters." In fact, Shetland's life is dedicated to finding new energy for Earth - a search that takes him into deepest space.

And deepest time.

For Shetland is commander of the Meg II, a time-ship assigned to explore the void beyond the universe. What Shetland and his crew find are - ghosts. First the ghost of the ship's dead chemist. Then ghosts of dead planets, dead stars, dead nebulae. A galaxy-sized black hole - the ghost of a cosmos, the ghost of all reality... and beyond it, beyond the specter of Time...

The most powerful, terrifying, malignant ghost of all...

Join fantasy superstars Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey in a marvelous adult fantasy that examines the war between the sexes and the ethics of desire. In the Age of the Mazonians, women rule through magic--and men suffer what they must. When Xylina sympathizes with the men, she is ordered by the Queen to publicly conquer the most glorious male in the land.

Unable to move his legs after being injured in the line of duty, policeman Walter Toland finds new freedom in Killobyte, a virtual reality computer game, but when a deranged hacker blocks his exit from the game, Walter must fight for his life.

An alien from an alternate reality recruits five people on an exciting mission to save the Earth from a meteor strike. The alien's advanced technology allows the intrepid humans to breathe underwater as they embark on a wondrous journey through the ocean.

Mute is science fantasy of mutation and psi: special mental powers. The protagonist, Knot, is a double mutant: He has a physical deformity, and the psi power to make others forget him. He's satisfied with his life--until the lovely Finesse walks into his life to recruit him for a dangerous galactic mission. She is aided by two small animal mutants: a telepathic weasel and a clairvoyant crab. Knot tries to resist, aided by his psi, but the woman's beauty and the animals' powers doom him to a phenomenal adventure.

Odd Exam is a novella from Piers Anthony about an unusual college entrance examination. Entrance exams are taken in the form of a multi-player online game in a semi-virtual reality, with portals to other worlds and alien monsters. For those who qualify, board and tuition will be free. Can this be serious?

What's keeping you from your grand tour of the universe? Are you afraid of being caught out in the vastness of space with a painful cavity and no one capable of fixing it? Well fear not--the galaxy is simply teeming with dentists!

For Dr. Dillingham, dentist of Earth, it was the shock of his life--captured by aliens, forced to fix a strange cavity in an even stranger mouth; then whisked off to deep space. But luckily for the good dentist, Dillingham discovered that he liked zooming about the galaxy, solving unprecedented problems and making new and decidedly different acquaintances. And when he was offered the chance to apply to the Galactic University of Dentistry as Earth's first (and only) applicant, Dillingham had a choice to make: go back to his safe little world of bored housewives and miles of braces, or make a mark for mankind among the teeth of the stars.

It was really no choice at all.

John Smith is just a typical teenager growing up in a typical American town in 1960... Or is he?

He has a dog - that can climb trees and understand very complex commands.

He has parents - who watch him constantly, taking notes when they think he's not looking.

He has a girlfriend - a girl he's never met, whom he has been told he must marry.

John knows that something is wrong, but until he crosses the boundary fence late one night, he doesn't realize just how much. For wherever, whenever he lives, it is definitely not America, circa 1960!

'Zena and the boys went ice-ring planing, Boys fouled up and Earth got a raining!'

Which was why Gus and Thatch were desperately trying to drive the big mobile home up into the mountains, high above the floods rapidly drowning out the rest of the world.

They even had some crazy notion about saving civilization from the waters - which was why they took along uptight Zena - who knew far more than she was telling about why that vast canopy of ice had suddenly surrounded Earth - and voluptuous Gloria - who turned out sometimes to be a man and sometimes a woman as well. And then they picked up Karen, and Floy, and Dust Devil, and Foundling - two latterday Noahs in a motorized ark.

The trouble was, their little community wasn't the only one frantically trying to find dry land, food and fuel. And seeing robbery, looting, murder and cannibalism were now looked on as legitimate means of survival, the struggle for life was apt to become a little vicious at times.

New York had nearly destroyed Joshua Pinson. He had rejected his puritanical religious background for a high-powered urban career and the love of his wife, Mina. Now Mina was dead, murdered by a mugger; and Josh was left with their two small children, two large dogs, and a wealth of bad dreams. Suddenly, Josh was named sole heir to his eccentric Uncle Elijah's estate in rural Florida. Josh had never known his uncle, or seen the property, but it seemed a providential chance to take Sue and Chris away and begin like fresh.

Elijah's estate was at the end of a country road: thirty acres of forest and field, and abandoned mine, hidden caches of gold and gems, a warehouse of survivalist rations, chickens and a pony, and a solar house built beside a giant, ancient live-oak. There were just two problems. The house was only half built. And the land was rumored to be haunted - by animals and machines, by creatures which couldn't exist, by ghosts of the dead... and ghosts of the living.

Strange phenomena soon began - some eerie, some benign, all uncanny. A phantom train that ran on spectral tracks... a "possessed" chain saw... a specter washing dishes in a newly installed sink... a solar water tank that heated without sunlight. Then events turned darker, more menacing: an elderly neighbor found dead at the base of the tree; the pony turned murderous; a dog gored to death; hordes of hallucinatory, flesh-eating insects. Then skeletons rose from the earth to threaten the children; the Bigfoot-like Skunk Ape attacked Josh; and Sue fell victim to a weird, malignant disease.

But Josh refused to run, to abandon his family's new life, new friends... and his own new-found love. Not until he learned what pattern lay beneath the power, what force was in the land. Whether it could be reasoned with, or was beyond comprehension. Whether it was good, or evil; magic or necromancy. Whether he and his children had stumbled upon and confronted a horror... or a miracle.

A riveting tale of a barbarian snatched from ninth-century Asia to take part in a deadly far-future game. Alp, a Turkish warrior, is abducted by mysterious Galactics to fight in a strange recreation of his own era, played out on a vast interstellar scale--where horses are starships, cities are planets, and mountains are suns.

Sent by the spirits, Hotfoot, a native American prophet, travels among the various tribes of North America to deliver his people from the devastation that awaits them.

Jack, a struggling art student, is hired to drive a mute, crippled girl across the country. Tappy Concord can barely communicate, but something about her touches Jack, so much so that he follows her into the mountains - and through the gateway to another world.

There he finds himself surrounded by strange, alien creatures, and pursued by the relentless agents of the Gaol, an all-powerful galactic empire. Only one force in all the cosmos can hope to overcome the tyranny of the Gaol: The Imago, an immortal spirit capable of evolving into a being of immense power. The Imago can be anywhere or anyone... maybe even a crippled human girl.

The Caterpillar's Question is a world-spanning science fiction odyssey - as only Piers Anthony and Philip José Farmer could tell it.

The cast of cosmic characters: A prodigal worm, a telepathic, egotistical, totally unscrupulous little alien running away from his father becomes the biggest prize in the universe. Capture the slimy brat and win an entire planet! A cosmic hustler, an effete snob who ekes out a comfortable living as the president's son-in-law and perfects his reflexes with endless contests of cosmic pool, becomes the most important element in a delicate game of interspatial espionage--and the galaxy's prime target for assassination. The most sensual woman on Earth, completes the star-crossed triangle in one of the wildest, wickedest romps in the annals of science fiction!

After a youth spent trapped in space exile, Jeff Font returned to Earth to seek vengeance against the planetary mogul who had framed and destroyed his family. Jeff's plans backfired: He was captured, drugged, rammed through a computerized court system, convicted... and ringed.

The ring. The ultimate high-tech civics lesson. A surgically implanted electronic monitor that automatically caused unendurable agony when a convict strayed from righteousness. A ringer would do no evil, think no evil, see or hear evil robocops--nor defend himself or others from insult or injury.

And in a corrupt world of licensed sin and satanic parties, floral estates, and city-size slums, ringers were the ultimate victims. But the ring's data banks had not factored in Jeff Font's strength, courage, and his will to fight society, the world, and the agony of the ring to unravel the plot that entrapped him--and see justice done.

Earth and Kazo have created a unique peace. Kazo administers Earth, and Earth controls Kazo. Nothing is really complicated until both humans and Kazos discover the existence of a third intelligent race in the galaxy and try to bring them into the newly developing peace.

The Earth of the not-too-distant future is a dying world--overcrowded, polluted; its resources are almost exhausted; its people grown sickly. Then, at the eleventh hour, an amazing scientific breakthrough makes possible the impossible--escape to the stars! The stampede to leave--to open new worlds and found new civilizationscreates a heady delirium for most. But What of Earth? Those left behind must build a life for themselves out of the shambles of their world... or die.

Throughout history, man has been searching for better ways to gather information about his universe. But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the macroscope, until the twenty-first century. By analyzing information carried on macrons, this unbelievable tool brought the whole universe of wonders to man's doorstep. The macroscope was seen by many as the salvation of the human race.

But in the hands of the wrong man, the macroscope could be immensely destructive-infinitely more dangerous than the nuclear bomb. By searching to know too much, man could destroy the very essence of his mind. This is the powerful story of man's struggle with technology, and also the story of his human struggle with himself. This novel takes us across the breathtaking ranges of space as well as through the most touching places in the human heart. It is a story of coming of age, of sacrifice, and of love. It is the story of man's desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity.

On the technological, decadent world of Proton, someone was trying to destroy Stile, serf and master Gamesman. His only escape lay in Phaze, a world totally ruled by magic. Soon he learned that his alternate self had already been murdered, and that he was next. On Proton, his fate depended on winning the great Games. On Phaze, he must master magic to survive. And if he used any magic at all, his friends were determined to kill him at once!

In Book Two of the epic adventure that began in SPLIT INFINITY, Stile discovers life on Proton and Phaze is getting more difficult. On Proton he's a serf trying to prove his right to exist by competing in the Great Games. And on Phaze, where only magic worked, he was the Blue Adept trying to master the powers of sorcery. On both worlds, someone was trying to assassinate him. And as if that weren't enough, he has to win the love of Lady Blue, fight a dragon, discover the ultimate weapon, and of course, seek out the all-powerful Citizen who was trying to kill him!

Stile had problems on two different worlds. On Proton he was threatened with murder, and on Phaze, an alternate world ruled by magic, he had to master magic, fight a dragon, win the friendship of a lady unicorn, locate his enemy among the paranoid Adepts and return out of Phaze to win the Great Games on Proton. After that, he was ready to face the real problems!

Two worlds--the scientific Proton, and the magical Phaze--exist side-by-side. Now, Mach has crossed from Proton to Phaze, switching places with his counterpart Bane. And both must learn to survive in environments alien to their own nature.

The robotic Mach and the human Bane are the only contact between the technological world of Photon and the fantastical world of Phaze. So the Adverse Adepts devise a scheme to control the duo by kidnapping their lovers.

The combined magic and technology between the parallel worlds of Phaze and Proton is not enough to save the planets from a conquering invasion. Only Mach and Bane--robot and wizard, linked between worlds--have any chance of stopping this threat.

The merged worlds of Phaze and Proton face a new threat from an invading force--leaving the fate of the two planets in the hands of Nepe and Flach, two children possessing magical powers.

Chthon was Piers Anthony's first published novel in 1967, written over the course of seven years. He started it when he was in the US Army, so it has a long prison sequence that is reminiscent of that experience, being dark and grim. It features Aton Five, a space man who commits the crime of falling in love with the dangerous alluring Minionette and is therefore condemned to death in the subterranean prison of Chthon. It uses flashbacks to show how he came to know the Minionette, and flashforwards to show how he dealt with her after his escape from prison. The author regards this as perhaps the most intricately structured novel the science fantasy genre has seen. It was a contender for awards, but not a winner.

The return to the caverns of Chthon! The planet Chthon was a prison world of ruby caverns where rebels and outlaws were exiled to endless darkness. Aton's crime was loving a minionette, one of the sensuous woman warriors it was death to touch. His son Arlo was both minion and human. Arlo's destiny was war with the deadliest enemy of all - the very planet Chthon, which was alive and furious at the life forms within its depths.

Contains:

• Sos the Rope
• Var the Stick
• Neq the Sword

They were the first who dared to enter the badlands: Sol, man of many weapons, Sola his wife, and Sos, who loved them both.

The kill-spirits of the blast were retreating, taking with them the evil which the old books had called 'radiation'. But still the badlands held their secrets - terrible secrets laying in wait for those who dared to return. And yet there was no other way, for Sos was pledged to follow Sol - and Sol had been chosen to build a dream - the same dream which had been built so many times, eons before...

Sol controlled the mountain and Sos the Empire. Two worlds so completely different from each other that they could not exist together on the same planet. There had to be war...

Var was the chosen one. Half man, half animal, a mutant victim of the blast, he would have continued to live as a savage if Sos had not rescued him from the badlands. And now Var was called upon to repay that debt, to risk his life as the champion of the Empire in a duel he was secretly afraid of winning...

An age of darkness was descending upon the Empire. Soon there would be no food, no weapons and no honour--the laws of the nomads were forgotten in the struggle to survive.

Neq was the greatest of warriors. No man faced his sword without feeling its sting. Yet even he could not save the Empire alone, he needed the help of those who had begun its destruction...the great leaders who had thought only of war. And so Neq travelled many dangerous miles to find them,knowing that upon his journey rested the future of the world...

Though he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.

But the space travelers had not reckoned on the terrible threat of high space--the pirates, barbaric men who rape, rob, and murder, with no thought but to satisfy their bestial appetites. It will take all Hope's ingenuity to survive, but the atrocities he witnesses will never die. There is only one way he can be rid of them...

Revenge.

He was driven by violent injustice from his home moon of Callisto--and set forth to claim the epic destiny that would blaze across worlds and time. He saw his family destroyed, his sister carried off into sexual slavery, his beautiful lover killed--and he swore revenge against the murderous pirates who held the Jupiter planetoids in a stranglehold of terror.

Fired by raw courage, steeled by young might, he rose in the navy of Jupiter to command a personal squadron loyal to the death. And it was death they faced--against piratical warlords of the Jupiter Elliptic who laughed at the young commander's challenge... until they met the merciless fury of the warrior who would annihilate all obstacles in his path to immortal renown as the tyrant of Jupiter.

He awoke in a tiny lightless cell, groping for memory... memory that had been erased. Hope Hubris, Jupiter governor, progressive populist, warrior hero, and presidential candidate... a "mem-washed" tool of the enemy. And if his captors' plan worked, Hope would destroy his own political career, leaving the fate of his planet in the hands of its corrupt presidential incumbent--Tocsin.

But Hope Hubris had a destiny to fulfill. He had the cunning to discover code words that could reactivate his mind... the strength to resist addiction to their drugs... the power to win the support of his countrymen, and finally, the courage to make an agonizing sacrifice that would ensure his planet's future and his own destiny...

Tyrant of Jupiter.

He was shaping his times as no one before him dared, mercilessly scourging an entire planet of crime and corruption wherever he found them--and destroying anyone who stood in his way. Absolute dictator of the United States of Jupiter, Hope Hubris was destined to become the most hated and feared man of an era, a tyrant charged with countless heinous acts and sexual cruelties. Yet justice remained his fiercest passion.

Now, to insure his goals, Hope would assume an alternate identity and become a rebel--the brilliant leader in a revolution dedicated to his own overthrow. To fulfill his dreams, he would sacrifice love... and plunge headlong into madness...

Executive.

This is the fifth in the series Bio of a Space Tyrant, featuring the stages in the life of Hope Hubris, the tyrant of Jupiter, and his beloved sister, Spirit.

Child of flame and terror, born and bred to violence, Hope Hubris had ruled the solar system's most powerful empire with a fierce, uncompromising passion. His was a white-hot flame of justice that scarred friend and foe alike. Yet now he left Jupiter as an exile, his autocratic rule overthrown by the one person he could not oppose. Deposed, disgraced, but forever unbroken, the tyrant's greatest hour was still to come. For only he could shoulder the burden of humanity's boldest dream: to leave behind the confines of the solar system and journey outward to the stars.

The epic of Hope Hubris comes to a blazing climax!

The final installment of the Bio of a Space Tyrant series covers the same period as the first five books, but with a twist. The Iron Maiden is told from the point of view of Hope's sister, Spirit. This book fills in the gaps when the two siblings were apart and perfectly wraps up this scintillating series!

UK title Vicinity Cluster

There are a few ways to travel in this future with conflict between humans and aliens. Teleportation, which costs a hell of a lot. Freeze the people and stick them on a ship, which is dangerous and unreliable, or use Kirlian transfer, which basically imprints a personality on one of the locals.

The latter, to be effective, is limited to people with high Kirlian ratings. One such is chosen to do a job, and he soon finds himself pursued by an alien counterpart of similar ability. They soon find opposites with high aureas are kind of hot.

Melody, a product of Flint and the Andromedan's mating in CLUSTER, must save the Milky Way Galaxy and create a place where creatures can transfer without limitations. Melody must survive in worlds unknown and alien to her and she does that where others fail when her aura augments her skills and abilities.

The book opens with the discovery that Andromeda, the enemy galaxy of the first novel, has discovered the secret of involuntary hosting: a Kirlian aura that is sufficiently stronger than that of an individual can take possession of that individual. Andromeda has secretly infiltrated the highest levels of government in Sphere Sol and its allies and resurrect its plot to steal the energy of the Milky Way. Melody of Mintaka, a direct descendant of Flint of Outworld and his Andromedan nemesis, has a Kirlian aura of well over 200.

She is pressed into service to "possess" and interrogate a captured Andromedan transferee. Melody, hosted in the young and beautiful body of Yael of Dragon, must, like her progenitor Flint, find a way to defeat the Andromedan threat and save the galaxy. The mysterious Ancients are present again in the form of their artifacts and sites. The themes of Tarot and of various myths of Sphere Sol (in this case that of Perseus and Andromeda) play a big part this novel. The interSphere fleet of starships has forms analogous to the Tarot suits of Disks, Cups, Wands and Swords.

(Amazon.com)

The CLUSTER series of SF adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets. Sphere Sol is about 100 light years in diameter, centered on the Earth's sun. Surrounding this sphere are other, similar spheres each centered on another star such as Polaris or Canopus. Colonization is accomplished by: instantaneous teleportation, called matter transmission or mattermission (very expensive); "freezer" ships in which colonists are sent in cryonic preservation at very high speeds (much decay and average 50% loss of colonists occurs during the voyages) and lifeships, slower, safer multigenerational vessels with voyages that run to centuries (during which the travelers regress in technical sophistication.) Because of the difficulty of colonization and the smaller population bases, all spheres suffer spherical regression--the greater the distance from source star to colony, the lower the level of technology that survives. Social organizations regress backward to historical periods of the home planet's past. Outworld, Sphere Sol's farthest colony, is populated by paleolithic tribes who hunt with flint spears and make fire. Colonists know about the interstellar empire and the home worlds mattermit government and security personnel to all colony worlds. Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement.

The first three novels in the sequence, CLUSTER, CHAINING THE LADY and KIRLIAN QUEST form a linked trilogy. THOUSANDSTAR and VISCOUS CIRCLE came later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy.

On the world called Eccentric a new Ancient Site has been discovered, and unlike others which are "dead" this one appears to be active and functioning. To determine which Sphere has the right to explore it and investigate its secrets, a competition is being held. Each competing team consists of a carefully-matched host and transferee pair, chosen for their complementary skills and knowledge. The tasks test all of the competitors' abilities to their limit and range from word puzzles to navigating past a black hole. However, both Heem of Highfalls and his transferee Jessica of Capella have deep dark secrets that may cost them not just the competition but their lives.

VISCOUS CIRCLE is a story about a strange and inhuman race of beings and an experimental attempt to transfer into creatures that seem only slightly sapient. They are ultimate pacifists who take the form of magnetic disks that float through space and simply demagnetize and destroy themselves when faced with an unpleasant thought. The bloodthirsty Solarians, in their desperate hurry to find the mysterious Ancient Site, are determined to wipe out the Bands, a strange and beautiful species whose society is an anarchy of peace. Only Rondl, the whirling green Band can save his race, for he has a singular and awesome knowledge. But suddenly Rondl makes a shocking discovery about his identity--a discovery that may cost him his honor, his beautiful lover Cirl, even his very life."

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in If, August 1968. It was later incorporated in the fix-up novel Prostho Plus (1971). The story is included in the collection Anthonology (1985).

A magnificent saga of passion, heroism, and survival, Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman is a tale like no other ever written. It is nothing less than the story of humanity itself, from its savage origins to its troubled future, told through the lives of one family reborn throughout history.

At once grand in scope and intimate in human detail, Isle of Woman tells the story of a man and a woman born at the dawn of human history, separated by fate, yet united by an unquenchable passion that even time could not conquer: Blaze, the fireworker who raised his kind out of savagery, and Ember, the beautiful green-eyed woman who forever haunted his dreams.

Isle of Woman is a powerful and prophetic masterwork from one of the bestselling storytellers of our time.

Piers Anthony's Shame of Man is a towering saga of remarkable scope, retelling the story of humanity in a daring and exciting way. At once grand in scope and intimate in human detail, Shame of Man recounts the stunning journey of a single family reborn again and again throughout history. Beginning in the earliest origins of our ancient ancestors who emerged from the Eden of Africa millions of years ago Shame of Man follows two lovers - Hugh, a dreamer and musician, and his beloved Ann, a beautiful dancer - as they struggle to preserve their family and their way of life during some of the most turbulent periods of our savage past.

Their saga takes them from the caves of prehistoric Europe to the Holy Land in the time of King David, through the imperial court of third century Japan, and Damascus in the early days of Islam, to Central Asia in the era of Genghis Khan, and the fallen paradise of Easter Island, concluding with a harrowing glimpse of our future, in the wreckage of a world devastated by global ecological catastrophe. Through their eyes we experience humanity's greatest triumphs, and witness its greatest shame, the relentless exploitation of nature that now threatens our very survival.

In Isle of Woman and Shame of Man, the firs two volumes of the monumental Geodyssey saga, bestselling author Piers Anthony chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of two remarkable families reborn again and again in some of the most turbulent eras of human history.

Now, with Hope of Earth, Anthony brings us a stirring epic that ranges from our ancient beginnings in Africa's Great Rift Valley to the windswept Andes a century from now, and includes some of history's most fascinating figures--the mysterious "Ice Man" of the Swiss Alps, the decadent King Herod, the British Warrior Queen Boudica, the Mongol Chieftan Tamurlane, and King Louis XIV of France.

Exciting, imaginative, and inspiring, Hope of Earth is the story of a group of heroic men and women, bound by ties of passion, honor, and blood, who struggle to transcend our violent past and forge and new and shinning future.

A towering testament of ambition and desire, hope and despair, Piers Anthony's epic Geodyssey saga is nothing less than the story of humanity itself. As seen through the eyes of a handful of courageous, passionate men and women reborn again and again in some of the most turbulent ages of history. Muse of Art is the newest chapter in this astonishing chronicle, probing the heart of our deepest fears and highest aspirations, illuminating the spark that makes us what we are.

It is the arts that truly define humanity and set us apart from all other species on earth. In a rousing, passionate story that ranges from the mists of prehistory to a terrifyingly plausible near future, Muse of Art explores the special talents that have inspired and motivated us since the earliest days of our existence: curiosity and creativity, seduction and survival, destruction and healing.

A remarkable epic of passion and courage, savagery and survival, Piers Anthony's "Geodyssey" is a saga unlike any ever written. It is nothing less than the story of humanity itself, told through the lives of a handful of extraordinary men and women reborn throughout history.

Now, with Climate of Change, Anthony introduces us to a new cast of characters, including Keeper, who knows the ways of nature, Rebel, a headstrong girl as brave as any man, Craft, a cunning inventor, and Crenelle, who uses her seductive charms to defend her people.

Through their eyes, we see how some of the most crucial moments in human history have been driven by natural forces, from the great ice ages of prehistory to the droughts and plagues that have destroyed history's proudest civilizations. And we witness a harsh but hopeful future in which humanity at last transcends the devastating effects of climate change.

When Zane shot Death, he learned, too late, that he would have to assume his place, speeding over the world riding his pale horse, and ending the lives of others. Sooner than he would have thought possible, Zane found himself being drawn to Satan's plot. Already the Prince of Evil was forging a trap in which Zane must act to destroy Luna, the woman he loved... unless he could discover the only way out....

When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past. The other seemingly all-powerful incantations of Immortality--Death, Fate, War, and Nature--made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps and he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good....

When the man Niobe loved was shot, she learned that she had been the target, in a devious plot of the Devil's. Hoping for revenge, she discovered, too late, how intricate his scheming was, and that he had managed to trap her son and her granddaughter, Luna. Niobe's only chance to save them was to accept a challenge by the Prince of Deceit--a challenge to be decided in Hell and in a maze of Satan's devising!

Mym was a dutiful son, but rather than agree to his father's choice for his marriage, he took up the Red Sword, symbol of office of the Incarnation of War, in order to ameliorate some of the suffering caused by Earth's constant petty wars. But Mym discovered that Satan was waiting to trap him, and he must now take desperate measures to outwit the evil genius who aimed to destroy the world....

Orb had a rare gift--the magic which manifested whenever she sang or played her harp. No one could resist her music. But she knew that greater magic lay in the Llano, the mystic music that controlled all things. The quest for the Llano occupied Orb's life. Until she met Natasha, handsome and charming, and an even finer musician. But her mother Niobe came as an Aspect of Fire, with the news that Orb had been chosen for the role of Incarnation of Nature--The Green Mother. But she also warned of a prophecy that Orb was to marry Evil. Could she be sure that Natasha was not really Satan, the Master of Illusion, laying a trap for her...?

Parry was a gifted musician and an apprentice in the arts of White Magic. But his life of sweet promise went disastrously awry following the sudden, violent death of his beloved Jolie.

Led down the twisted path of wickedness and depravity by Lilah the harlot demoness, Parry thrived -- first as a sorceror, then as a monk, and finally as a feared inquisitor.

But it wasn't until his mortal flame was extinguished that Parry found his true calling -- as the Incarnation of Evil. And, at the gates of Hell, he prepared to wage war on the master himself -- Lucifer, the dark lord -- with dominion over the infernal realms the ultimate prize!

After an overwhelming succession of tragedies, life has finally, mercifully ended for Orlene, once-mortal daughter of Gaea.

Joined in Afterlife by Jolie -- her protector and the sometime consort of Satan himself -- together they seek out a third: Vita, a very contemporary mortal with troubles, attractions, and an unsettling moral code uniquely her own.

An extraordinary triumvirate, they embark on a great quest to reawaken the Incarnation of Good in a world where evil reigns -- facing challenges that will test the very fiber of their beings with trials as numerous, as mysterious, and as devastating as the Incarnations themselves.

Colene does not know what to think of the stranger she has rescued. Darius tells her he has traveled from "his reality" to find her. In proving to Colene that other worlds do exist, he uses up the power of the artifact that would allow them to travel back to his universe. They must try a slower, more dangerous method: the creation of a four-dimensional universe. Darius picks five anchor points in five different universes to set up a skew path, a "Virtual Mode," on which the anchors can walk. Thus begins a tale of romance, danger, adventure, and intrigue as the two travel through a myriad of alternate realities where anything is possible.

Saved from death at the hands of the Emperor Ddwng, would-be lovers Colene and Darius and their companions - Provos, a woman who remembers only the future, and Sequiro, a telepathic horse - stumble into yet another dangerous reality where despots rule with a cruel and heavy hand. Held captive, the friends must combine their unusual talents in a daring escape that leads them on adventure after adventure with the most intriguing characters - some threatening, some friendly - ever to grace the page. Among them, Angus, the adorable flying giant; Nona, the lovely and magical "ninth of the ninth;" Slick, the gangster with a death sentence; and the megaplayers, mysterious musicians of old whose giant instruments still dot the landscape.

Colene, Darius, and the magnificent telepathic horse Sequiro, travelling companions from Virtual Mode and Fractal Mode, face their most dangerous adventure ever as they pass freely from one universe to the next. They are joined by a most unlikely companion: Burgess, a tentacled creature from a world where evolution went entirely differently from the path it took for us. And their travels take them to a place that in some ways is the strangest of all - a place called Earth.

Beyond the world we know there is a multiverse of Modes where many strange realities interlock in an infinitely intricate pattern, and a perverse and deranged Emperor plays a deadly multidimensional game with human pawns as his slaves.

Now, with DoOon Mode, Piers Anthony at last delivers the breathtaking climax to this awesome saga. Fearing the heroine Coleen's dawning power, the depraved Emperor Ddwng dispatches a terrible Mind Monster to assault her soul and bend her to his will. To protect herself, and those she loves, Coleen must journey back through many worlds to her own home on Earth, face her deepest and darkest fears, and draw the strength for a final confrontation to save the multiverse from tyranny and domination.

Eighteen space explorers had died or disappeared on Nacre, a planet dominated by mushrooms, spore-clouds, a dim sub, and strange one-eyed creatures called mantas.To this forbidden planet came three more scientists to explore, discover and record. They barely understood what their mission was, and the significance of the mantas they were able to bring back with them to Earth. Subble, a government investigator, was sent to interview them-to learn how they succeeded where many others before them had failed.Subble was a very particular kind of investigator--one who could be judgmental without bias, who could kill without guilt, whose only real job would be, eventually, to die in a job well done. He couldn't know when that eventuality would arrive. He could only keep trying...The trio of scientists he confronted was indeed strange: Veg, the brawn of the group was a vegetarian. Aquilon, the beauty, ate everything-she was an omnivore. Cal was the brains of the crew. His emaciated body could only survive by drinking the blood of animals ... a carnivore. Just as the three of them discovered one another's dark secrets, Subble was able to learn the true meaning of the relationship between Aquilon, Veg and Cal...between omnivore, herbivore, and carnivore-and the effect they had on the mantas and ultimately, on Earth's survival.

The trio of scientists had been ordered to survey the planet's flora, fauna and mineral resources, and from the very beginning of their mission everything they observed led to one startling conclusion-the mysterious world was virtually identical with the Earth of the Paleocene period, 70,000,000 years ago at the very dawn of the age of mammals!

Their names were Cal, Veg, and Aquilon, the most resourceful-and rebellious-of Earth's explorers, and with them came four alien companions, the mantas. Strange flying beings, half-animal, half-fungus, the mantas possessed the keenest senses of any creatures in the universe, a gift which immediately saved the mission from complete disaster.

Detecting strong vibrations coming from a great distance, the mantas warned the humans, and Cal realized that it could mean only one thing: an earthquake-one large enough to produce a tidal wave that would totally inundate the small island where they had set up camp. Veg, the strongest member of the team, constructed a crude sailing raft, and the party put out to sea to escape the doomed island. It was the beginning of an incredible series of adventures which would lead them to discoveries as momentous as they were deadly. Sailing for weeks, the raft took them to a region vastly different from the island they had left behind. And when a brachiosaurus, supposedly extinct in the Paleocene period, nearly swamped the raft, they knew they had reached an area of priceless scientific value-an isolated enclave of the Cretaceous period where the full spectrum of the golden age of reptiles was present!

But just as incredible as the dinosaurs was another creature they were soon to meet-Orn, a man-sized bird who belonged to the most advanced species ever to develop on this world. Unsurpassed racial memory enabled Orn's mind to reach millions of years into the past, and it was his presence that led the three humans and the mantas to open revolt. Determined to prevent man's destructive exploitation of this world, they must pit themselves not only against the creatures they wish to save from extinction, but also against the all-consuming greed of Earth's powerful authorities.

As rich in scientific detail as it is in breathtaking excitement, Orn is a masterwork of the imagination and a tribute to the creative genius of Piers Anthony.

X involves the three scientists attempting to return to Earth from another dimension inhabited by hostile machines. Interlopers from other realities (using technology similar to that of the scientists' government) guide and hamper the explorers. A secondary story tells of a multidimensional cellular automaton energy being named 0x and its attempts to share living space with an infant human male, a fledgling creature of Orn's species, and one of the manta-carnivores; their developing relationship leads to attempts to learn the reasons for their strange isolation from others of their kind, which eventually ties in to the story of Cal, Veg, and Aquilon.

Paul is a monk, which is better than a warrior on the planet Tarot, where religions are wielded like swords.

The wanderer-monk Paul is trapped in a nightmare of dragons, demons, and spectacular lusts as the shimmering Animation curtain storms across the worldscape, changing fantasy into hideous reality.

On far Tarot dreams come true-and fanged nightmares stalk the land. Sent to pierce the dread curtain of the Animation that turns fantasy into hideous reality, the wanderer-monk Paul finds himself on a trip to the ultimate and most terrifying fantasy of them all...Hell.

Xanth was the enchanted land where magic ruled--where every citizen had a special spell only he could cast. That is, except for Bink of North Village. He was sure he possessed no magic, and knew that if he didn't find some soon, he would be exiled. According to the Good Magician Humpfrey, the charts said that Bink was as powerful as the King or even the Evil Magician Trent. Unfortunately, no one could determine its form. Meanwhile, Bink was in despair. If he didn't find his magic soon, he would be forced to leave....

Ordered by King Trent to determine the source of Xanth's magic, Bink and his companions were harried by an unseen enemy determined to thwart them. When even their protector turned against them, Bink still managed to reach his goal and carry out the King's orders... but the king did not expect Bink's next act - to actually destroy the magic of Xanth!

Millie the ghost is beautiful. Of course, she isn't a ghost any more. She's Millie the nurse. She's not especially bright, and she's hardly young. She looks twenty-nine, but actually she's about eight hundred and twenty-nine -- the oldest creature currently associated with Castle Roogna. She had been ensorceled as a maid of seventeen, eight centuries ago, when Castle Roogna was young, and restored to life at the time of Dor's birth. In the Interim she had been a ghost, and the label has never quite worn off.

Millie wants only one man -- Jonathan, and he's a zombie. To prove himself, Magician Dor volunteers to get the potion that can restore Jonathan to full life. But he has to go back through time to do it, to a peril-haunted, ancient Xanth, where danger lurks at every turn.

Dor agreed to act as King of Xanth so long as Trent was gone for a week. But the weeks passed and Trent did not return. Dor knew he had to rescue his king but with no magic powers, how could it be done...?

Smash, himself, was part ogre. Although ogres were considered so stupid they could hardly speak, and spent their time eating young girls, seven assorted females had suddenly turned to him for guidance and safety? In Xanth, one visit to the Good Magician Humfrey worked wonders....

Although the Nextwave of barbarian warriors was invading Xanth, Mare Imbrium discovered that ever since she had gained the half soul, the night mare had begun to mishandle her job of delivering bad dreams. Exiled to the day world with a message for King Trent, Mare met the relentless, unforgiving Horseman. For the night mare, it began to be all a horrible nightmare!

There is trouble in Xanth again--all kinds of trouble, in fact.

The Gap Dragon had escaped from the Gap and was ravaging across the land. The forget-spell that had covered the Gap was breaking up into small forget-whorls that wandered about, giving amnesia to all they touched. Good Magician Humfrey might have had the Answer, but he had overdosed on water from the Fountain of Youth and was only a helpless baby.

And Ivy, three-year-old daughter of King Dor and Queen Irene, as lost in the jungles south of the Gap. While Irene sought her without much hope, Ivy was wandering further into danger, her memories erased by a passing forget-whorl. Her path was leading her directly to where the Gap Dragon was seeking dinner.

A knight of ghosts and shadows!

Jordan was a ghost in Castle Roogna now, spending his time with little five-year-old Ivy and watching his own past unfold on the magic tapestry. But once he had been a valorous knight, riding his ghost horse Pook on a fabulous and dangerous mission.

He had been betrayed with a cruel lie by two wily magicians and the woman he loved. He had been killed at the end, and his bones had been scattered. Now he could not even remember where they had been buried.

That was important, because Jordan's talent had been to recover from almost any injury, provided enough of his body could be assembled to grow together again. But all that had been four hundred years before. Nobody who was alive today knew or cared where his bones might be.

It was hardly the proper ending for a gallant adventure!

A golem to the rescue!

Grundy Golem was the size of an inconsequence, and nobody had any respect for him--including Grundy! To prove himself, he volunteered to ride the Monster Under the Bed to the Ivory Tower to find little Ivy's long-lost dragon, Stanley Steamer.

After many adventures, he reached the Tower, to learn that the evil Sea Hag kept lovely Rapunzel imprisoned there, her body destined to be used to maintain the witch's immortality. Grundy managed to free the damsel, and they fled together.

As the descendant of Jordan the Barbarian and Bluebell Elf, Rapunzel could become any size, even that of any Golem's dreamgirl. But Grundy knew she was surely fated for someone better than he. Besides, the Sea Hag still pursued them to destroy him and get her back.

And he still hadn't found Stanley Steamer.

When Esk, a young ogre-nymph-human, began his pilgrimage to the Good Magician Humfrey to rid himself of a seductive demoness, little did he know it would become a mission of mercy. A running river paradise and its harmless inhabitants were perishing in the wrathful wake of a greedy demon horde. Now it is up to Esk and his companions - a beautiful winged centaur named Chex and the brave burrower Volney - to search Xanth's treacherous reaches, gathering together a mind-boggling company of creatures to defend the precious Vale of the Vole.

In the mind of Xanth's precious shapeshifting Prince Dolph, the perfect way to see the world is to search for the missing sorcerer, Humfrey. Setting off with his faithful companion, Marrow, an enchanted skeleton, Dolph will penetrate an island of illusion, escape a goblin kingdom, outwit a husband-hungry mermaid, save Marrow from bone-starved harpies, and find romance with a slinky snake princess - all on his way to discovering a magic coin with all the answers!

For a bored, young princess of Xanth, there's nothing more exciting than a Quest. Especially when all you do is sit around Castle Roogna. But when Ivy uses the Heaven Cent, it takes her not to the top of Mount Rushmost, where the winged monsters gather, not to the sea where the merfolk swim - but to Mundania, a world much like our own (that is, boring). It is here that she meets a young college student so dull that he doesn't even believe in magic, or princesses, or Xanth!

Perplexed Prince Dolph should be in love but isn't. Nonetheless, he must choose between two fiancées – Nada the uninterested and Electra the uninteresting – or all three of them will suffer the most dire consequences. Luckily a convenient catastrophe has popped up to distract Dolph form his dilemma – the foal-napping of young Che Centaur by goblins. And the only one who knows the whereabouts of Che is Jenny Elf. If anyone can save the missing centaur… she sure can't.

Being grown up is a drag... or so thinks Lacuna, one of the mischievous Castle Zombie twins. So she makes the Good Magician Grey an offer he can't refuse. She'll help him outwit the evil Com-Pewter if he'll send her to Hell (in a handbasket, no less) to find Humphrey, the missing sorcerer. And while there, she'll learn the True History of Xanth (simplified) and help rescue a blushing Rose from the demon X(A/N)th... with the help of a gorgon or two.

We See England, We See Xanth, We See Mela's Underpanth! In fact, Gwenny Goblin, Che Centaur and Jenny Elf are just about the only creatures on Xanth who have been spared the sight of Mela Merwoman's undergarment – preoccupied as they are with helping Gwenny beat out her awful half-brother Gobble for chiefship of the goblin horde.

Playing the new fantasy/adventure computer game Companions of Xanth, teenagers Dug and Kim select companions from among the characters of Xanth, Dug choosing a sultry half-woman/half serpent and Kim a young Elven girl. Soon Dug and Kim find they have entered the actual Land of Xanth. Unknown to them, the demons that provide Xanth's magic are in mystic competition, using Kim, Dug and their companions as pawns.

Gloha, the only goblin-harpy crossbreed in Xanth, attempts to find a male goblin-harpy to mate with and thus become a member of the Adult Conspiracy. After seeking advice from the Good Magician Humfrey from whom she receives a non-committal answer, she embarks on her quest alone, eventually joining up with a rejuvenated magician, a sultry demoness, a walking skeleton and a formerly invisible giant, among others.

Gargoyle Gary Gar, hereditary guardian and purifier of the waters of the Swan Knee River flowing from Mundania into Xanth, wants to make his job easier. The Good Magician Humfrey offers him an idea, but in exchange Gary must teach the wild child Surprise self-control, a task that requires him to assume human form. Agreeing with reluctance, Gary sets off to search for the suggested "philter" in the company of the multi-talented Surprise, the Sorceress Iris, demoness D. Mentia and the former juvenile delinquent Hiatus, who is seeking his true love, Desiree Dryad. Nearing their goal in the Region of Madness, the crew is cast back a millennium in time to find their quest tied to serious danger for all of Xanth.

Metria and company must assemble a court and jury to try Roxanne Roc, under unspecified charges from another magical Xanth bird, the Simurgh. On this loose structure are hung many outlandish characters, adventures, jokes and plays on words-such as the quarter horse that splits into four one-legged creatures, or the twins Ordinate and Abscissa, who can travel "by geometry."

A Mundane (human) family is blown to Xanth by a tropical storm that threatens the land's existence. To save Xanth and to win a cosmic wager, the Demon X(A/N)th must become Nimby, a mortal, ass-headed pink-and-green-striped dragon and wring an unlikely tear from the hard-hearted maiden Chlorine. Anthony relates each episode of this frothy adventure through a different character's eyes in order to reinforce a gentle lesson about gifts and responsibilities.

The miraculous and mirth-filled land of Xanth holds many marvels. But now an extraordinary new aspect of this remarkable realm unfolds as young Forrest Faun's quest takes him to a tiny planet hidden in the heart of Xanth. There, with a delightful "day mare" as his constant companion, Forrest will find more marvels than he ever dreamed of. Packed with magic, mystery, and mirth, Faun & Games is the freshest and most exciting Xanth adventure in a month of Pundays!

Since she spent most of her life in Mundania, Breanna knows all about stork-summoning, but she needs help to escape the unwelcome attentions of King Xeth of the Zombies. With the help of Justin Tree, Breanna escapes Xeth in a rather unconventional style. Along the way, she meets We Three Kings, and helps a werewolf prince find his true love.

When an environmental disaster threatens Xanth, Edsel and Pia, earthling game designers with a shaky marriage, exchange bodies with the presiding demon of Xanth, Nimby, and his consort, Chlorine. Nimby and Chlorine face culture shock and the risk of being trapped on Mundania (aka Earth), while Edsel and Pia grapple with the more complex task of averting a catastrophe.

Frustrated farm boy Anomy (aka the Dastard) gives up his soul in return for the ability to unhappen events. Since he uses this power mostly for ill, he adopts the sobriquet the Dastard and becomes a problem. The good guys send a half-dragon, half-human girl, a roc, and the princesses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm on his trail.

The twenty-fifth book of Xanth deals with a matter of some gravity. Specifically, the Demon Earth has disappeared, which means that eventually not only some but all gravity will disappear from Earth and Xanth. To solve the mystery and rescue the Demon Earth, the Swell Foop is required. That involves using the six magical rings of Xanth, which need to be found by means of a quest by five old friends of Xanth mavens - Cynthia and Che Centaur, Brianna and Justin Tree, and Sim, the immortal bird - as well as Jaylin, a girl from Mundane Hawaii.

An innocent piece of Mundane Snail Mail has provoked the dreaded Demon Jupiter to hurl his Red Spot at the magical land of Xanth. The unwelcome ordeal of saving the enchanted realm falls to Umlaut, an unlikely lad with an unknown past and an uncertain future. With a handful of colorful companions at his side, Umlaut must unravel a high-stakes intergalactic puzzle, uncover the secret of his mysterious past, and learn to understand the urgings of his own heart.

In the magical land of Xanth, wishes are far more than mere words. So when a Plain Jane called Cube whispers a wistful wish to be beautiful, she finds herself leading a company of colorful companions on a search for the mysterious Cube Route - a perilous path that leads to danger, adventure, and perhaps her heart's desire as well.

Clio, the muse of history, has a problem connected with the twenty-eighth chronicle of Xanth. When she sits down to write it, she discovers that it has already been written – and unintelligibly. So the scholarly lady must repair to the real Xanth, where she is sent by the Good Magician Humfrey on a quest to save two pocket-sized dragons, Drew and Drusie, who are essential to the environment of Xanth. Naturally, the quest is successful – and what is more, along the way Clio finds true love with the magician Sherlock and meets a good many of the ongoing characters in the Xanth series.

This novel follows polite, generous and even-tempered Goody Goblin – an anomaly among males of his race, who are usually crass, unkind and violent – as Goody tours Xanth on a quest to dispose of a foul-mouthed bird known as the "Pet Peeve," which can mimic anyone's speech. Accompanied by the tough Hannah Barbarian, one of Anthony's most completely realized female characters, Goody passes through many parts and meets many people of Xanth, none of whom is willing to take the dangerously annoying bird off his hands.

Surprise Golem is expecting. But Stymy Stork refuses to deliver and flies off through a hole in the fabric of reality. To track down her baby, Surprise embarks, with the brats she babysits and the obnoxious pet peeve in tow, on a quest through several alternate Xanths. While seeking the baby, the odd lot has trouble keeping track of each other. Eventually, mom finds babe and returns to... Is this the home she left?

Hugo, son of the Gorgon and Good Magician Humfrey, vanishes from his cellar, where the body of a murdered man just as suddenly appears. What's worse, Humfrey's book of answers has been scrambled, and blind Wira, Hugo's wife, has no idea how to solve a mystery. As they hunt down Hugo and the killer, Debra and Wira encounter the usual crop of terrible puns and characters both new and familiar.

The future of Xanth is in frightful peril. A powerful magical bird named Ragna Roc has embarked on a campaign to become absolute ruler of that mystical realm. Those who swear loyalty to him are spared. The rest are simply disappeared. Cyrus the Cyborg, a handsome half-human playwright with little knowledge of the world, must assemble a troupe of traveling players to attract Ragna’s interest. And hidden in disguise among the bevy of beautiful young actresses are the young princesses, Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, whose magics might just be a match for the evil bird.

In the thirty-third thrilling escapade in Piers Anthony's rousing Xanth fantasy series, an adventurous arachnid named Jumper must assume human form to save the enchanted realm from a cosmic peril.

A cataclysmic battle between two all-powerful Demons has severed a mystical connection that joins Xanth to our own world. The key to restoring it is hidden within a cryptic prophecy that Jumper discovers when he is suddenly transformed from spider to man. As he sets out to discern the prophecy's meaning, he gathers about him a half dozen alluring damsels who do their best to help him solve the riddle while vying for his attentions.

But a seductive siren and her demonic consort have determined to use their wiles to lure Jumper and his lovely companions away from their urgent mission. In a madcap adventure that is alternately harrowing and hilarious, they soon discover that danger, deception, and even true love may be found where they least expect it.

In Jumper Cable, master storyteller Piers Anthony spins a wild and witty web of wonder that is sure to captivate fans of fantastic adventure everywhere!

Wenda Woodwife has a knotty problem--her mood swings have sent her beloved husband, Prince Charming, off on Adventure. She seeks the cure from the Good Magician Humphrey, only to discover that he has a knotty problem of his own and that only Wenda Woodwife can help him.

She'll need Companions. Luckily, in Xanth magical companions are never far away, and all roads lead to Adventure.

This 34th installment in the saga of the magical land of Xanth proves the enduring appeal of Piers Anthony's peerless creation.

Picka Bones and his sister Joy'nt are off in search of adventure with three creatures newly arrived from Mundania--and not the sort of creatures you might expect! Join them in a madcap quest, in this 35th tale of the land of Xanth.

Bryce is summoned to Xanth as part of a wager between the Demons Earth and Xanth. To his surprise, he has left behind his home and family and eighty-year-old body forever, in exchange for youth and magic....and a quest. He must court and marry Princess Harmony, who is anything but willing to be courted!

Luck of the Draw is Anthony's thirty-sixth pun-filled adventure in the magical land of Xanth.

Piers Anthony's 37th adventure in Xanth changes the Mood to one of Doom!

Kody woke up in a hospital bed, not knowing how he got there. Before his questions could be answered, he was told that he was about to undergo surgery, and that there could be some side effects.... And then he woke up again, this time in Xanth.

Kody is the only person in Xanth who has not been affected by a dreadful spell that reverses how people see each other. What was adorable is now loathsome. What was ugly is now beautiful. What was loved is now hated. Kody has clearly arrived just in time! Only he has any hope of reversing the spell, turning Esrever Doom into Reverse Mood.