Rating: 
Summary: Disapointing
Review: I love Mercedes Lackeys Valdemar and Piers Anthonys Xanth Series, but this book was not up to those standards. It started out all right in an interesting new setting, but even ideas that could have been breath taking suffered from the lack of personal involvement of me the reader of the book. Personally in retrorespect I think that those two authors are incompatible.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of a letdown
Review: I'm not a big fan of collaborations - they never seem to be as good as what either author can do by him/herself. And this book is no exception. I've seen much better from both Lackey and Anthony. OK, I agree, I have read much worse fantasy than this, but I expected better from authors of their caliber. I also found Anthony's Author's Note particularly obnoxious - he describes how he basically had Lackey write a book on his idea, then finished it off by adding a beginning and ending and polishing it to his usual standards. But it's NOT up to his usual standards. Stick with either author by him/herself, you'll enjoy the reading a lot more.
Rating: 
Summary: Such an excellant book... great reading!
Review: I'm not an avid reader, I must be very interested in the book I'm reading... and this book is a winner. I'm a fan of Mercedes Lackey and Piers Anthony... and this book is so great considering it's a collaberation of the two. I hope to find more books like this in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont judge a book by its structure
Review: If I Pay Thee Not In Gold by dynamic authors Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey is a wonderful read with many well formed characters and a storyline that will keep you reading. I have read some other reviews and have not found as much support as this book merits. Although this book is just shy of the normal structure of the average fantasy book, it makes up for it by taking the reader through a spectrum of emotions with the help of rounded characters and inspired wording. I have read and re-read this book many times and have not found it to be lacking in storyline or enjoyability. For any fans of the authors this book is a must read. You wont regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Looks like I'm in the minority here
Review: Okay, I'll admit it. I enjoyed this book. Of course, I was seventeen when I read it, but I enjoyed it. Having read both Anthony and Lackey and not really enjoying either author consistently, this book came as a surprise. I could easily recognize both Anthony's "punny" sense of humor and Lackey's tendency towards either big/dumb/brawny or gifted/gay/enslaved male characters. That the demon Ware was really neither charmed me. Although there were some plot discrepancies, and the ending left much to be desired, I enjoyed this book. But be warned: there isn't much character development here. Xylina goes from being the original Gabrielle to Xena right back to the original Gabrielle at the end of the book. Ware in essence doesn't change, and Faro stays the same obedience-of-a-well-trained-dog slave. Like I said, it was an enjoyable read-when I was seventeen and less discerning.
Rating:
Summary: Kill or be killed..
Review: Since this is my "maiden voyage" with the Anthony-Lackey collaboration, I will not bash the authors. I will say that I have read better. That's why I did not give it 5 stars. I really got turned off by Xylina's "poor pitiful me" attitude both before her woman-trial and afterwards, I mean her constant whining about how life dealt her a terrible blow was sickening to say the least. Ware never faced any true consequences for playing both sides of the fence, first as the Queen's agent at court then as Xylina's advisor-lover. She could have destroyed him by kissing the Prince in the cave, but his advice was invaluable to her. Even her slave, Faro seemed to have more horse sense than Xylina. Queen Adria grossly overplayed her hand as queen by breaking the rules she set aside for her people by mercilessly attacking Xylina burning her home and sending those thugs after Faro. She realized after Xylina's woman-trial, that she had some serious competition for the throne. By sending Xylina off to retrieve the shard and guaranteeing her debt, the queen thought the girl would either die trying to attain her goal or naively turn over the shard. This is where I have to give Ware and Faro credit for having the horse sense that they had. Queen Adria was already a tyrant in search of more power. Having the shard would make all those guarantees null and void, costing Xylina her life anyway. Like I said, kill or be killed. Also, the queen underestimated how battle-hardened Xylina would get on this quest. Again my hat goes off to Ware, Faro, and Xantippe for their forsight. One thing that bothered me was that, of the thirty men that Xylina took on this quest for the shard, only one man and a dog perished before they had to fight the spiders in the fourth realm and face the sorcerists storm, which gave Xylina and Pattee a severe headache. I'm sorry to say this, but that was an obvious plot-hole to me. After the challenge was over, I had expected Faro to want his freedom at least. Xylina did have enough sense to realize that the shard would eventually corrupt her as Queen Adria had been. By returning to her home, and resuming the role as queen, the shard would be too close to the main part of the crystal jeopardizing her life and those of her people. If it were joined, changes would occur in all magic realms. I was looking for something different and that's what I got. Even though I expected a lot more out of these two authors in plot and development, I am not deterred from exploring more from these authors seperately.
Rating:
Summary: Kill or be killed..
Review: Since this is my "maiden voyage" with the Anthony-Lackey collaboration, I will not bash the authors. I will say that I have read better. That's why I did not give it 5 stars. I really got turned off by Xylina's "poor pitiful me" attitude both before her woman-trial and afterwards, I mean her constant whining about how life dealt her a terrible blow was sickening to say the least. Ware never faced any true consequences for playing both sides of the fence, first as the Queen's agent at court then as Xylina's advisor-lover. She could have destroyed him by kissing the Prince in the cave, but his advice was invaluable to her. Even her slave, Faro seemed to have more horse sense than Xylina. Queen Adria grossly overplayed her hand as queen by breaking the rules she set aside for her people by mercilessly attacking Xylina burning her home and sending those thugs after Faro. She realized after Xylina's woman-trial, that she had some serious competition for the throne. By sending Xylina off to retrieve the shard and guaranteeing her debt, the queen thought the girl would either die trying to attain her goal or naively turn over the shard. This is where I have to give Ware and Faro credit for having the horse sense that they had. Queen Adria was already a tyrant in search of more power. Having the shard would make all those guarantees null and void, costing Xylina her life anyway. Like I said, kill or be killed. Also, the queen underestimated how battle-hardened Xylina would get on this quest. Again my hat goes off to Ware, Faro, and Xantippe for their forsight. One thing that bothered me was that, of the thirty men that Xylina took on this quest for the shard, only one man and a dog perished before they had to fight the spiders in the fourth realm and face the sorcerists storm, which gave Xylina and Pattee a severe headache. I'm sorry to say this, but that was an obvious plot-hole to me. After the challenge was over, I had expected Faro to want his freedom at least. Xylina did have enough sense to realize that the shard would eventually corrupt her as Queen Adria had been. By returning to her home, and resuming the role as queen, the shard would be too close to the main part of the crystal jeopardizing her life and those of her people. If it were joined, changes would occur in all magic realms. I was looking for something different and that's what I got. Even though I expected a lot more out of these two authors in plot and development, I am not deterred from exploring more from these authors seperately.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, Convoluted and just plain irritating
Review: So, I read the back of a potentially good book co-written by an author I was fond of (Until I read Fractal Mode, anyway). Great! Then I read it. It started off so well. Descriptive and successful at portraying a different society, a different world. The Demon was even interesting to me as a part of the plot, until the relationships went into this odd three-way. Stupid plot twist, just irritating. Couldn't they make up their minds? What's it got to do with the story? But that's not why I didn't like the book. By the time it GOT to that plot point, I was already bored and completely unsympathetic with the characters. Don't waste your time, just go read Dune again, but if you have to have sex, Piers Anthony goes out of his way to have nubile pre-teens go after it with adult men. Guy's got problems.
Rating:
Summary: good, bad, semi
Review: That's a good way to discribe how the plot line and character developement went..this book held promise, especially after the reader has discovered Ware's true proposal, but unfortunately, his character begins to lag as soon as Xylina begins to pay attention to him..I was disappointed..he would have been a fun character to follow, with all of his humor and intruiging way of life but then, there's that whole sex thing..in fact, if you think about it, he is a creature who's existance is based entirely on sex, because he seases to exist as soon as someone with whom he's been with does the wild monkey dance with someone else..So, too bad. It could have been real fun.
Rating:
Summary: anthony sucks!
Review: the book was great but only what was diffenitly lackey. she rocks. she has the best books. this would have been one of them if not for piers input. I still dont like who she (the main charater) ends up falling for. that part sucked! she is supposed to be a warrior not a pushover!I like the book but next time piers should go jump off a pier instead of messing up lackey!
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