There are few writers more entertaining than Piers Anthony and this ro...
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The eighth book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series....
A collection of Piers Anthony shorts that probably rival any other collection I've read. Sexy and funny (minnie's crew), horror, all in classic Anthony style. Just a bit too graphic, I think for people used to Anthony-lite (Xanth).
In his Anthonology, Piers Anthony gives us a collection of stories that range from the incredibly hot and sexy to the horribly brutal. If you are not squeamish (sp?) and enjoy a wide variety of topics, this is a good collection to read.
Piers makes the point in the intros for several of these stories that they were rejected over and over or never even accepted for publication. Well, they should have stayed that way. This is a collection of desperate amateurish stories that would have been better left alone.
Theodore Sturgeon used introductory material in several of his collections of stories as tributes to science fiction editors. Piers Anthony's _Anthonology_ (1985) is largely concerned with science fiction editors, but it is no tribute. The story introductions are filled with sardonic anecdotes about harsh rejection letters, rejected stories, slow response rates, low rates of pay, titles changed without permission, incompetent editorial practices, and the reluctance of editors to acknowledge the value of a story. Even assuming that Anthony succeeded in spite of editors rather than because of them, there seems to be something rather small-minded and vindictive about the theme of this collection. One quickly begins to suspect that the real sin of the various editors that Anthony "exposes" was a failure on their part to acknowledge his brilliance and a reluctance to accept his every opinion as gospel truth. Of course, there is no law that says an author is obligated to sing praises of editors. But it seems to me that if you are going to take the critical tack, you must show a respectable number of quality tales that belie the short-sighted judgement of those editors. Of the twenty-one stories in this collection, three ("Phog," "Quinquipedalian," and "Getting Through University") are good entertainment and four ("In the Barn," "Up Schist Creek," "The Bridge," and "On the Uses of Pain") are reasonably clever taboo breakers. The other fourteen are at best minor fare, readily forgettable; and several ("Possible to Rue," "The Toaster," "Wood You?," and "Within the Cloud") are awesomely bad. I cannot say that you won't find any stories of value in this collection. And there is some interest in taking a look at some of Anthony's early pieces. But I can't recommend this collection with a great deal of enthusiasm. It needed either better stories or a bit more humility. It doesn't have enough of either.
This really is one of the better collections of stories that I have read. However, I have probably read each story at least ten times. That just proves how captivating they are. I keep getting more after each reading. Of course, every story is not the greatest story ever, but all of the stories at the very least are good. And the great stories are truly amazing.
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