Totenkindly
@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
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‘Xanth’ Fantasy Movie, TV Series in Development With Steven Paul | Variety
Xanth is probably one of the first fantasy series I read as a kid, and one of the popular selections when I joined the scifi/fantasy book club back in the 70's, starting with "A Spell for Chameleon." They were light and airy, quick reads, with characters who mean well and are rather earnest (Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony are kind of similar there). The gist is that in Xanth (a kind of fantasy land), every denizen typically have a single magical power... and those who do not could be banned. It could simply be a dud power (such as the ability to change the colors of flowers or your own pee), but occasionally someone gets something that's rather powerful. The early books focus on Bink, who thinks he has no power at all but learns eventually that this isn't exactly correct.
The Xanth books do sometimes all seem to run together, due to the plotting and the writing tone, and the huge focus on "punny" language. (I still have a copy of Crewel Lye on my shelf at home, I found it when I unpacked recently.) Maybe folks don't want to read all the books, ha. (I think I have only read about ten of them over time.) But reading a few gets the point across.
As far as Piers Anthony goes (and he's been pretty prolific, like Brooks), I actually liked his Phaze/Photon series better, and my favorite was his seven-book incarnations of immortality, each written from the perspective of one of the powers of the universe -- which are actually more "offices" than static entities, each with its own forms of ascension and sphere of dominance. This was before Gaiman came up with his concept of the Endless. Anthony chose: Death, Time, War, Mother Nature, Fate, the Devil, and God. Some of his ideas are interesting, although probably most interesting is the central concept that each of the "offices" actually has an important role in the balance of things, even if some are naturally in opposition to the other. And also that human beings "take on the office" and become immortal within the confines of that office until the conditions for relinquishing the office come into play (and each office works differently.... for example, the new Death always murders his predecessor).
Makes me wonder if we'd see that some day, it seems a viable property.
Xanth is probably one of the first fantasy series I read as a kid, and one of the popular selections when I joined the scifi/fantasy book club back in the 70's, starting with "A Spell for Chameleon." They were light and airy, quick reads, with characters who mean well and are rather earnest (Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony are kind of similar there). The gist is that in Xanth (a kind of fantasy land), every denizen typically have a single magical power... and those who do not could be banned. It could simply be a dud power (such as the ability to change the colors of flowers or your own pee), but occasionally someone gets something that's rather powerful. The early books focus on Bink, who thinks he has no power at all but learns eventually that this isn't exactly correct.
The Xanth books do sometimes all seem to run together, due to the plotting and the writing tone, and the huge focus on "punny" language. (I still have a copy of Crewel Lye on my shelf at home, I found it when I unpacked recently.) Maybe folks don't want to read all the books, ha. (I think I have only read about ten of them over time.) But reading a few gets the point across.
As far as Piers Anthony goes (and he's been pretty prolific, like Brooks), I actually liked his Phaze/Photon series better, and my favorite was his seven-book incarnations of immortality, each written from the perspective of one of the powers of the universe -- which are actually more "offices" than static entities, each with its own forms of ascension and sphere of dominance. This was before Gaiman came up with his concept of the Endless. Anthony chose: Death, Time, War, Mother Nature, Fate, the Devil, and God. Some of his ideas are interesting, although probably most interesting is the central concept that each of the "offices" actually has an important role in the balance of things, even if some are naturally in opposition to the other. And also that human beings "take on the office" and become immortal within the confines of that office until the conditions for relinquishing the office come into play (and each office works differently.... for example, the new Death always murders his predecessor).
Makes me wonder if we'd see that some day, it seems a viable property.
