Showing results by author "Piers Anthony" in All Categories

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.

The mysterious prophecy that has shaped the life of Kelvin Knight Hackleberry and his family seems nearly to have run its course. The Two Kingdoms that were joined by Kelvin to form Kelvinia have now been united with three others, to make a great confederation under the rule of the young twin kings, Kildom and Kildee. Kelvin has earned some time to rest with his family. Charles and Merlain are now 20 years old, and so is Dragon Horace, their brother who is the Great King of all the land.

Piers Anthony delivers the breathtaking climax to the awesome Mode 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.

Elasa the robot's friend Mona exchanges to the colony planet to occupy the body of a woman five months pregnant. Even so, she gets more than she bargained for, as she works with a precognitive lamb.

Elasa contacts the very special Awares, folk who attune so perfectly to their environment that they can disappear, literally and figuratively. She needs to work with them to try to save Earth from being eaten by huge telepathic galactic maggots.

Humanoid robots are surely in our future, but their uses are likely to be limited to body guarding, childcare, companionship, and sex. Other chores can better be done by smart non-humanoid machines designed for those specific tasks. But for these limited purposes, the best robots must be so realistic that they are indistinguishable from live people. Elasa is such a robot. You can't tell her nature if she doesn't reveal it. You can talk with her, embrace her, kiss her, and she is the perfect woman. Until she becomes the first conscious robot.

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 unpleasant thoughts.

A roundear there shall surely be born to a strong, raised to be free fighting dragons in his youth leading armies, nothing loth ridding his country of a sore joining two, then united four until from seven there be one only the will his task be done....

Kelvin and Heln's children are now six years old, and while Charles and Merlain are normal other than being telepathic, Dragon Horace is another story entirely. But when an evil witch hatches a monstrous scheme to send Charles and Merlain to steal the greatest treasure of the Kingdom of Orcs - hoping they die in the process - she reckons without their innate magical abilities...and the sibling loyalty of Dragon Horace.

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.

When Shep participates in the student exchange program, he finds himself in the body of a man on a rustic colony planet. Then a native sheep comes to the door. It seems Shep must become a literal shepherd, to his dismay. These are very special sheep, deadly, telepathic, and precognitive, and their will governs. They also recruit a Vulture, a Python, and a lovely Elf girl for a dangerous journey. Then things get interesting. Soon Shep is deep in adventure and love. But he can't marry a native girl by proxy. Or can he?

As Cluster opens, the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh seeks help from Sphere Sol in a shared galactic-level crisis: Galaxy Andromeda has discovered the secret of energy transfer and intends to use it to steal the basic energy of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Knyfh offers the secret of aura transfer on the understanding that Sphere Sol will spread the technology to help create a galactic coalition to find and defeat agents of Andromeda.

If you love axe-wielding barbarians, shape-shifting dragons, possessed toys, or cryptic assassins, then grab your traveling pack and join in the adventures.

Before Tod Timmins meets the naked waif, the vampire, the wizard, and the others, he’s just a dull man engaged in manual labor. The job, good for the body but a waste for the mind, is the whole of Tod’s life—and it isn’t for him. So when a trail appears out of the blue, gambling on fate, he follows it through the city, across the country, and into a realm of adventure and uncertainty. Navigating the path, Tod encounters a mix of creatures—human, nonhuman, and others, something else altogether. They come from alternate realities.

Phthor is the sequel to Chthon, less intricately structured and less complicated in plot, but still quite dark and ugly in theme and detail. Rather than flashbacks and flash-forwards, it has a Y outline, with the stem the initial story and the ends alternate futures, neither of which is acceptable to Aton's son Arlo. Arlo has his own encounter with a Minionette, and naturally, destruction is upon him and all with whom he associates.

The classy dame who walks into fledgling private eye Philemon's office is like Venus in motion and is most definitely a Witch. But dealing with Supernaturals - or "Supes" for short - is Phil's beat, since he himself is a shape-changing Were. And this sexy sorceress is offering him the "friendship of her thighs" to investigate a murder, so how can he possibly refuse? But the Warlock slaying in question turns out to be only the first in a series of homicides, because someone - or something - is picking off Supes like insects.

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.

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.

When a coming-of-age tradition sends young Floyd on The Journey, he soon encounters a fantasy world rife with mythical creatures and real danger. Unfortunately, he also gets the attention of a violent press gang who intend to make him a galley slave. With a little luck and the help of a magical elf in disguise, Floyd escapes and finds himself aboard a ship bound to the Far East. Let the adventure begin! It is here where Floyd befriends a fellow passenger named Jonathan Swift, a young writer suffering from debilitating writer’s block. And when the ship wrecks on an uncharted island, Floyd ...

As a young man, Kelvin Knight Hackleberry proved to be the Roundear of the Prophecy: He liberated his own Kingdom of Rud from the cruel usurper Zoanna, and then went on to defeat the evil king Rowforth in the alternate world of Hud. But now Zoanna and Rowforth have joined forces to take revenge on Kelvin -- and they intend to have it through his unborn child.