magical attacks, which is a talent in itself. Bink’s
subsequent search for The Source of Magic(1979)
nearly ends in disaster.
Anthony tried to vary the formula for the
third, Castle Roogna(1979), the story of a love af-
fair between a ghost and a zombie, with time
travel thrown in as well, and the quality of the se-
ries became uneven thereafter. The best of the
later titles include Dragon on a Pedestal(1983), in
which a plague of amnesia complicates life even
more than it usually is, Crewel Lye(1984), which
features a ghost whose quest is to find living assis-
tance in order to reassemble his scattered bones,
and Golem in the Gears (1986), which casts a
golem anachronistically in the role of a fearless
hero. Also of note are The Man from Mundania
(1989), in which Xanth and our reality interact,
and The Color of Her Panties(1992), in which a
pair of enchanted underpants are the focus for the
usual comic events. Other titles have involved
such diverse topics as floods, deals with the devil,
a visit to hell, missing kings, star-crossed lovers,
and attempts to retroactively meddle with history.
The Xanth series has been criticized for its light-
ness, and certainly some of the individual volumes
have been less successful than others, but they are
intended as light entertainment for a slightly older
audience than the Oz series, which they resemble
in many ways, and Anthony clearly has a large
and loyal readership.
Anthony has written a considerable body of
non-Xanth fantasy as well, much of it more sophis-
ticated and ambitious, although not always suc-
cessful. The Tarot trilogy, God of Tarot (1979),
Vision of Tarot(1980), and Faith of Tarot(1980),
was Anthony’s first attempt to merge fantasy and
science fiction in the same story. Tarot is a distant
world where some elements of the occult are valid.
The creation of supernatural creatures is semira-
tionalized as an untapped power of the human
mind, but the stories themselves are clearly fantasy.
This use of magic on another planet recurs in the
less-interesting Havoc(2003). Anthony explored
this dichotomy from a different perspective in the
Apprentice Adept series, which began with Split
Infinity(1980). Two worlds exist parallel to each
other, Proton, in which science is all important,
and Phaze, where magic works. Stile is from the
former world and is transported into the latter,
where he discovers that his counterpart there has
been murdered and that someone is trying to kill
him as well. The mystery continues in Blue Adept
(1981) and Juxtaposition(1983), with Stile growing
uncertain of his allies. He and his robot sidekick
have further adventures in Out of Phaze(1987),
Robot Adept1988), and Unicorn Point(1989) be-
fore finally defeating an alien invasion of both
worlds in the final volume, Phaze Doubt(1990).
The Incarnations of Immortality series was
Anthony’s most ambitious fantasy project. The
premise this time is that various archetypes—Evil,
Nature, Fate, and so on—are actual physical be-
ings but that they are mortal and periodically are
replaced by candidates recruited from ordinary hu-
mans. In the opening volume, On a Pale Horse
(1983), a man kills Death himself and must take
his place. Although there are moments of humor,
it is of a darker variety, and the series is much more
serious in tone than Anthony’s other fantasy. An-
other human agrees to become Time personified in
Bearing an Hourglass(1984), and the role of Satan,
who appears to be genuinely immortal, becomes
more complex as he begins manipulating the other
incarnations to suit his own desires. With a Tangled
Skein(1985) introduced Fate, and Wielding a Red
Sword(1986), the best single title in the series,
casts a peaceful man as War, much to the dismay of
Satan, who tricks him into visiting hell, where War
incites a rebellion. A musician is transformed into
Nature in Being a Green Mother(1987), and Evil
becomes a rival to Satan in For Love of Evil(1990).
The final volume, And Eternity(1990), opens with
Evil becoming the ruler of the world, although his
power is eventually broken.
Science and magic are blended again in the
Mode series, which began with Virtual Mode
(1991). A woman from our reality crosses into an
alternate world, where magic is the source of all
power and women are forbidden to use it, resulting
in a patriarchal system the newcomer finds abhor-
rent. She battles to change things in the sequel,
Fractal Mode(1992), but the plot begins to frag-
ment toward the end. An alien visitor complicates
matters even further in Chaos Mode(1993), which
brought the series to an apparent end, although
Anthony has recently returned to that world forAnthony, Piers 9