Chthon

Rating:
Summary: Love is Hate, but the Flower Knows
Review: Anthony arrived on the science fiction scene with quite a bang with this novel. So much of a bang that it was nominated for the 1968 Hugo award, losing out on the award itself only to another truly brilliant work, Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light.

Anthony introduces a multitude of ideas in this work: a flower that shows whether or not your significant other truly loves you, a galaxy-spanning 'message' that kills humans in its path by hypothermia, a naturally formed inorganic based consciousness, a type of grub that quite literally eats absolutely everything. But the most significant idea is a genetically modified type of human, the minionettes, all physically identical and the very picture of absolute female perfection, who have their emotional circuits inverted, where the kindest thing you can do to them is hate, abuse, deride, and punish them.

Anton Five, knowing nothing of her true nature, has the misfortune to fall in love with one of these minionettes, a love that is an obsession, a mixture of real love and conflicted hate, as the object of his emotions, after only three brief encounters, goes to space. It becomes his mission in life to track her down, even at the expense of his farm and a rejection of freely offered true love by a daughter of the family of Four. And due to this obsession, he eventually is sent to the prison planet Chthon, where the prison is the naturally formed caves and tubes formed by ancient volcanic action and that no one has ever escaped from. Within this prison are real monsters, truly horrifying and very unique, many of which are seen only from offstage or half-seen, and the very indistinctness this lends to these creatures adds to their effect. Some of the images of this section gave me nightmares for years after the first time I read this book.

Anton is a fully delineated character, not very likeable - in fact he's amoral, selfish, a loner, single-minded, and at least something of a psychotic. But there are occasional glimpses of a different man hiding inside, one capable of giving and receiving love, who knows pity and can empathize with other's misfortunes. The story, outside of all the fantastic ideas so casually tossed around, is really about his development into a fully rational human who can allow his emotions full sway when appropriate.

The story construction is rather unique, using both flash-backs and flash-forwards from his time in prison. This is deliberately done, as there are a set of parallels/contrasts between the actions in the prison and the actions at other times in Anton's life, which help illustrate the man and his changes. This construction has the disadvantage of lessening the suspense, but the added meaning given by this structure more than compensates for this. At least part of this book can be viewed as an allegory for the travels of a man through the stages of life, and Anthony buries quite a bit of symbolism inside his creations.

The power of this book resides in the changes Anton goes through and its tremendous imagery coupled with some truly different and unique ideas. Be prepared to put as much effort into reading and comprehending this book as it would take for a classic 'literary' novel - this book is a far cry from the grade-B space-operas of yesteryear.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: If you're looking for just another book by Anthony, that's the wrong address! Anthony`s books usually are light read, without any comlexities of caracters or plot. This one is nothing like this! It's really a mature book (altough first one?). Just great read! I highly reccomend it...

Rating:
Summary: Chthon-Another great Book!!
Review: Piers Anthony was one of my first fantasy reads. I read his Robot Adept and had to have all the books on the series, plus a lot of others from other series! It stole me away from romance and mystery, being far more interesting! From his novels, I crossed the threshold into fantasy and sci-fi, reading many good writers' works. Chthon is a cut above the rest, despite it being a first work and I applaud an already celebrated author for yet another great work of fiction!

Rating:
Summary: Chthon-Another great Book!!
Review: Piers Anthony was one of my first fantasy reads. I read his Robot Adept and had to have all the books on the series, plus a lot of others from other series! It stole me away from romance and mystery, being far more interesting! From his novels, I crossed the threshold into fantasy and sci-fi, reading many good writers' works. Chthon is a cut above the rest, despite it being a first work and I applaud an already celebrated author for yet another great work of fiction!

Rating:
Summary: This is a very good book by a very good author.
Review: The science was very intriguing, and I have to say that this was a very good read. It is not something you can understand on your first try, though. For me, it two readings to understand it. You only understand it once you are done reading it, and then you want to read it again with understanding. This book is hard to explain. Just read it, You'll like it.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing book-the best of his that I've read
Review: This is an amazing book, yet I recommend it for mature readers. The complex character emotions and the intricate ties between characters make this a great book, despite the fact that it takes place in a haphazard order. It takes a couple of readings to truly understand, but that just makes it better. Read it, you'll understand later.

Rating:
Summary: Almost as great as the entire Xanth series!
Review: Though the Xanth series was (im almost certain) one of the first series that any one ever read on this author, i found that the immense amount of sheer brain capacity needed to assertain every little metaphorical and ever single sub-based plot screwing in this book was alot more "mature" then from his previous more childesh books. Though they are not childesh in content literature, only really in characters. I have found that in most books he has incredible amount of beutifully puzzling puns and writing that i wish to assertain one day, al in all i definetly rate this book up there. If anyone else is interested , check out Barry B. Longyear, He wirtes an incredible fiction called the Godbox although it is quite rare and difficult to get ahold of , i suppose you can start at your local library. Anywho , thanks and hopefuly Piers pulls through with a few more good books.

Rating:
Summary: Piers Anthony's First...and Best Book
Review: Wow. Incredible. For his first book, this is his best by far. Having first read only the Xanth books, and then the entire Bio of a Space Tyrant series, I was expecting another kind of kiddish book with adult overtones. But no, this very adult oriented book was way beyond my expecatations, the plot twists and turns are amazing. Always gripping, Piers Anthony at his best.