Centaur aisle / Piers Anthony Book

The first Piers Anthony book I ever read.

At my middle school, there was a yearly book drive where everyone would bring in boxes of books from home and all the kids could go buy books for a dollar. I would always buy anything that had a dragon or a knight on the cover. That's how I got into Piers, Dragonlance, Eddings, and all that other Junior High stuff. Not to mention Conan.

I got this book there, and needless to say, as an eleven-year-old, Anthony was hilarious. Especially in these early books, which had not yet become the endless list of fan-suggested puns and ephebophilic anti-sexuality that are his current fare. His early works are fairly amusing and harmless; even his penchant for escapism is toned down considerably.

Of course, looking back upon him, one cannot but blanch at his stilted prose, Mary Sue protagonists, puerile humor, and even more puerile sexuality. I know he does have some adult fans, and truthfully, I'm glad they're inside reading the latest Xanth novel instead of out in the world somewhere, voting.

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