Search For Humfrey Continues
Written: Oct 06 '08 (Updated Oct 06 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great come back from a drear path that the Xanth series had been headed down
Cons: Uhm, none? Do I really need to have one?
The Bottom Line: Grey and Ivy are a wonderful combination and this is a fun adventure.
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| BlackBear's Full Review: Piers Anthony - Man from Mundania |
Three years have passed and the Heaven Cent has been charged up by Electra and is ready for use. Young Dolph is still grounded after his foul up of getting engaged to TWO women at the same time while seeking out the magic cent. Therefore, Ivy decides to take up the quest and activate the item. Too bad for Ivy that the device doesn't work the way she was expecting it to. The Heaven Cent takes the person who activates it to the place where she/he is needed MOST, not where the person most wants to go. In Ivy's case, she most wanted to find the Good Magician, but instead she was Cent to meet the Man From Mundania.
Grey Murphy is a college student of completely average nature. His "hair colored hair" and "neutral" eyes make him the most forgettable person ever to walk the land of Mundania. His grades aren't that great, floating in the completely average range of C and C- and he has a meager lifestyle because he can't seem to do anything that would significantly improve it. He decides to attempt to buy into a new life by sending off for a computer program from a company called Vaporware that claims it will better everything for him, including romance! unknown to Grey, what he got was really a sending from the evil Com-Puter of Xanth that would set up a sequence of events he would not be able to escape from.
Enter Ivy, Princess of Xanth, last in a long line of really disastrous girlfriends that the Sending introduced Grey to. This one seems to be insane, because she speaks gibberish (except in the presence of Grey's computer that translates for him), believes in magic and insists that she is from another world! Grey decides to help her get back home and begins the long adventure into Xanth.
Once they reach Xanth by using the gourd path, Grey continually disbelieves in magic. It's all a trick of some sort and he looks for the strings or the mirrors or whatever special effect equipment is allowing such strange things to happen. Funny thing is, the more he doubts the magic, the less effective it is to him and anyone he is in contact with. A mystery in itself, Grey and Ivy decide that it is just a side effect of being from Mundaina. As they continue to make their way back to Castle Roogna, they fall in love and then the real trouble begins. Grey cannot marry Ivy unless he proves that he has a talent!
Then it is discovered that Grey is bound by a promise that was made centuries earlier by his parents to serve the evil Com-Puter. With only a month to find a way out of this vile plot that was so carefully set up, Grey must find the Good Magician and get the Answer he needs.
Wow, this turned into a very complicated novel for the Xanth series. The story takes place in both worlds and Anthony did a great job of making both seem real enough while maintaining the sense of fantasy. The complex story and never ending quest added to the joy of the read rather than detracting from it. The character Grey is fantastic in the way that he always has a ready explanation that disrupts any magic he wishes to disbelieve. While this novel has Ivy and Grey as the focus, most of the characters that we have come to know and love from the past three novels make appearances and some even stay on for a bit of the adventure. Anthony, known for his hair pin turns of the story line in his science fiction novels, brings that talent into play with this novel, giving a few surprises without getting the past of Xanth tangled at all. It almost seems as if he had planned this novel from the start.
This was a very well written and enjoyable read. I'm very happy that Anthony has gotten back the zest that Xanth held in the first six novels.
Recommended:
Yes
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BlackBear
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Member: Joseph Black Bear
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Reviews written: 783
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About Me:
Just a guy who loves reading, videos, RPGs and collects various toys.
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