Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Books read in 2023: No. 39 -- On a Pale Horse

by Piers Anthony

Started: Dec. 8
Finished: Dec. 12

Notes: Just last year I read my first Piers Anthony novel, and I didn't care much for it. But that had been a book in the Xanth series and was full of puns, and I'm not much of a pun guy. So, I thought I'd give this author another try but with a different series.

Mini review: A young man tries to commit suicide but in the process accidentally kills the Incarnation of Death, and that means the young man has to take Death's place and job, traveling around the world and retrieving souls as they die. Meanwhile, the other Incarnations (Time, War, Nature, etc.) are working behind the scenes to thwart the plans of Satan himself. I have to say, I enjoyed this one more than I did the one Xanth novel I read, so I wouldn't be opposed to returning to this series of books at some point in the future. The writing is pretty solid, though it is borderline silly, not unlike a number of fantasy novels from the 1980s, reminding me somewhat of the works of Robert Aspirin and even some of Heinlein's later works.

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