Rating: 
Summary: Thank God for Piers Anthony!!!!!!
Review: I started reading books by Piers Anthony at the age of 13 after I read "Dragon on A Pedestal". That was three years ago and I'm still facinated by the fun and mythical world of Xanth. Heck, if I where up to me I'd live there. A facinating book that should be read again and again. Long live Piers Anthony!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Xanth Series Running on Fumes
Review: I very much enjoyed the first few Xanth novels. In those early novels, Anthony combined a well thought-out world, engaging characters, and a humourous tone to make eminently readable books. He lost the spark somewhere along the way, however. The later books, like this one, are simply going through the motions. Take Princess Ivy, for example. Early characters -- like Bink in A Spell for Chameleon -- had unique characteristics and abilities that they had to learn to use to resolve the challenges facing them. With Ivy, Anthony cops out. Her "special power" basically boils down to an ability to cause anything to happen that she desires. Not surprisingly, having given himself this incredible crutch, Anthony feels no need to put much thought into the plot of the book or to devise creative ways for his characters to resolve problems. What, there's a giant chasm blocking the characters' passage? That's ok, Ivy has decided that someone has the ability to sprout wings and fly them across....
Rating:
Summary: Xanth Series Running on Fumes
Review: I very much enjoyed the first few Xanth novels. In those early novels, Anthony combined a well thought-out world, engaging characters, and a humourous tone to make eminently readable books. He lost the spark somewhere along the way, however. The later books, like this one, are simply going through the motions. Take Princess Ivy, for example. Early characters -- like Bink in A Spell for Chameleon -- had unique characteristics and abilities that they had to learn to use to resolve the challenges facing them. With Ivy, Anthony cops out. Her "special power" basically boils down to an ability to cause anything to happen that she desires. Not surprisingly, having given himself this incredible crutch, Anthony feels no need to put much thought into the plot of the book or to devise creative ways for his characters to resolve problems. What, there's a giant chasm blocking the characters' passage? That's ok, Ivy has decided that someone has the ability to sprout wings and fly them across....
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Zanth Series
Review: If you're going to read any of the Zanth series, this is the one to read.While really serious readers would be best adviced to avoid this book-and all others in the Zanth series-like the plague, if you want a light, humorous, cute, and up-lifting story, then it's hard to find one that comes off as well as this. Just the mention of "Stanley Steamer" brings a little smile to my face. If you like this Zanth story, then there are others in the series that are others nearly as good. (Although I'd never ever recommend reading the whole series, unless you're about 13 and extremely bored over the summer.) The first one, A Spell for Chameleon is probably the most serious of the series, and rather good. Castle Roogna is also good, as is Ogre, Ogre, and Night Mare. Reading more than 5 (maybe even fewer) though would expose the enormous flaw in the series-repitition.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book.
Review: Like the Maryland reader, this, to me, is Peirs Anthony's best! A cute little princess, lost in the hilarious jungles of Xanth, an evil forgeting whirlwind buzzing around, and a youthed dragon, this is a must read. Silly problems arise and are solved in buzzare ways. With a wedding, a 8-year-old knight and a couple other things.... Ug! Just read the book and E-mail me if you disagree.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining but problematic
Review: Much as I enjoyed this entry in the Xanth series, in retrospect, it seems as if it marked that point when the series began to turn to pure comedy, then to flat-out farce---which was unfortunate. The most recent entries in the series have been so plotless as to be nearly unreadable. "Dragon on a Pedestal", though, is a charming book about a little girl who gets lost in a terrifically dangerous wilderness, surviving only by her innate good nature---coupled with a Sorceress-level magical talent, of course. Co-starring the Gap Dragon, a.k.a. Stanley Steamer. Very cute.
Rating:
Summary: GRRRREAT!!!!
Review: Piers Anthony caught my attention a long time ago with Crewel Lye and I have loved it ever since. This book like all the others is essential to the history of Xanth and manages to be humorous while telling a great story.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining but problematic
Review: Simply put, this book was terrible. I couldn't read another Xanth novel after this. Did none of the other reviewers tear their hair out while screaming things like "A 3 year old could not possibly think like that!" The first 3 Xanth novels established Xanth as a wonderous and dangerous place where people were afraid to leave their own villages unless they possessed strong magic. Now some little 3 year old tyke can venture into the wilderness almost with impugnity. Do yourself a favor. Read the first 4 Xanth novels. They are great. The few after that are merely OK until you read this one. After that, I do not know.
Rating: 
Summary: This book ended my desire to read Xanth novels
Review: Simply put, this book was terrible. I couldn't read another Xanth novel after this. Did none of the other reviewers tear their hair out while screaming things like "A 3 year old could not possibly think like that!" The first 3 Xanth novels established Xanth as a wonderous and dangerous place where people were afraid to leave their own villages unless they possessed strong magic. Now some little 3 year old tyke can venture into the wilderness almost with impugnity. Do yourself a favor. Read the first 4 Xanth novels. They are great. The few after that are merely OK until you read this one. After that, I do not know.
Rating:
Summary: My Last Trip to Xanth
Review: This book isn't that bad, if it were the first Xanth book you read. However, this was my sixth Xanth book. Alot of the original things, the magic, the irony, the stories, which I loved in the other books are just repeated here. Worse, in Dragon on a Pedestal, some of the great horrors and monsters of the past books, like the moat dragon, are turned into cute little creatures. Boo! Xanth novels were light hearted, but they had a serious edge too. Here everything is warm and fuzzy and harmless. There is no tension in this story because we all know that everyone will be okay in the end and, in addition, will be great friends who share milk and cookies. Boo again! I remember Castle Roogna where Dor takes Goblins, transformed into rocks, and shots them at approaching Harpys. Where the Zombie King raise the dead, whose limbs fall off them while they fight. Here Xanth is too nice and too sweet and too boring for anyone who likes good fantasy to really enjoy. I would avoid this book if I could. I already read it though so the best I can do, to warn you about it. For myself, if this is the direction Xanth is going, I think this will probably be my last trip to Xanth. Maybe it is time I bought other books.
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