A long time ago when I was tweenish, I loved this series. I know it won't survive a re-read, so I'm noting it and letting it go.

Xanth is a great and very quirky series and this is my favorite book of the entire series. I think the earlier Xanth books were the best and this one was always great with its hints of romance and puns. Love this book. ( )

Dor was having troubles growing up to be the next Magician-King of the magic Land of Xanth. He wanted no part of running the Kingdom. But now the Good King Trent was leaving on a trade mission to non-magical Mundania, home of such weird beasts as horses and bears, so Dor had to take over as King for a week.

A week passes. No Trent. Then three weeks. King Trent still hasn't returned. Surely, something terrible had happened; he was apparently held captive in some foul dungeon, unable to escape. Dor was left with the burden of ruling—and with Irene, who was entirely too willing to be his Queen!

His only hope was to enter Mundania and free King Trent. But how could it be done without the powers of magic? Nevertheless, he started forth bravely—together with Irene, a golem, a centaur, and a young ogre—heading for the far south of Xanth.

I look forward to these books, the characters are engaging, the situations amusing. ( )

A friend gave me this book. I was traveling and gave it a shot, because I hadn't tried any other books by Piers Anthony.

So, it's better than most magazines. It's not Terry Pratchett entertaining, but it was (barely) entertaining enough that I finished the book. A couple times, I almost stopped, but did finish it. The book contains some stereotypes of women that I found pretty sexist, but might also be the sort of mild titillation that could get a teenager interested in reading more.

I will say that if you're a fan of this series, you'll probably enjoy the book just fine. And Piers Anthony does a fairly good job of taking his universe's rules and tweaking them a bit, then examining the consequences.

If you're looking for funny or pun-related fantasy novels, I'd start with Terry Pratchett. If you're looking for serious fantasy novels, I'd start with The Name of the Wind. If you're looking for self-aware fantasy novels that play with the crossover between our world and a fantasy world--and you've already read the Chronicles of Narnia--then you might try Wizard's Bane, about a computer programmer who is transported into a fantasy world.

Maybe I'm being a bit too negative. If I ran across another Piers Anthony book, I'd probably be pretty happy to read it. ( )