The Secret of Spring

Rating:
Summary: It isn't easy being green.
Review: An interesting and sometimes humorous novel. Herb Moss and Spring go through a series of adventures as they try to elude an evil magician. The story tends to sidetrack into various fairy tales, and wanders a bit getting to the climax. A kidnapped maiden, dragons, and various ETs all add to the plot. The story becomes a bit corny at points, and gives a plant's eye view of life - those flowers you pick may be someone's children. Overall, it is good light fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent plants, people, and hybrids
Review: An interesting and sometimes humorous novel. Herb Moss and Spring go through a series of adventures as they try to elude an evil magician. The story tends to sidetrack into various fairy tales, and wanders a bit getting to the climax. A kidnapped maiden, dragons, and various ETs all add to the plot. The story becomes a bit corny at points, and gives a plant's eye view of life - those flowers you pick may be someone's children. Overall, it is good light fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A Light and Fun Read
Review: I had fun reading this book. It had some clever ideas and you could tell that the authors had a good time with it. I thought the physiology of the plant people was particularly thought out; I like it when a fantasy world is that detailed. I didn't really get into any of the characters but the book kept me guessing until the end about what the villain's come-uppance was going to be. A complete surprise! All in all, this was an enjoyable book and I hope to see more collaborations between Anthony and Taeusch in the future.

Rating:
Summary: I Married a Plant From Outer Space
Review: If you're making up a best ten list this year, you'll need only nine more.

Rating:
Summary: A good, lightweight story.
Review: Spring is the daughter of Gabriel, a wizard who has discovered the secret of ultimate power, but he has an unscrupulous enemy named Zygote. To keep this secret from Zygote, he implants it in Spring and sends her away. To keep a step ahead of Zygote, Spring journeys to the home world of her pen pal Herb Moss, a part human/part plant man. However, even on Herb's world of Paradise #23, Zygote's henchmen aren't far behind.

This book is quite charming with a romantic (and at times racy) storyline. There is a good deal of humor of the punning sort for which Piers Anthony is famous, and the mixture of magic and science fiction is quite interesting. However, the story is lightweight, and is easy to pick up and put down. It's a good story, but far from a great one. I'm glad I read this book, but I really can't see rereading it.

Rating:
Summary: Unreadable bilge
Review: The Secret of Spring is very cleaverly written with puns peppered throughout the story. The characters are funny and imaginative. The unusual ending is quite a surprise. A fun book.

Rating:
Summary: It isn't easy being green.
Review: This book is mildly amusing with its odd cast of characters and plot mixtures. Among other things it contains humans, human/plant hybrids, ant people, good wizards, bad wizards, spaceships, magic castles, time warps, romance, etc. Spring (the human heroine) is a strong protagonist, but Herb is a bit wimpy as the half-human, half-plant hero. Read it just for fun, but don't expect too much. For a really intense read about green people, I recommend MISTWALKER by Denise Lopes Heald.

Rating:
Summary: Cute and irrespressable
Review: When I found this book in my local library, I didn't go for it at first because, frankly, the spine looked bad. Awfully shallow of me, I know, but I finally did pick it up and read the inside cover, and I slipped it into my pile of books, including louisa may allcott and tamora pierce. I was honest with myself, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't read it, but I ended up doing so, and I was just as cute and funny as I hoped it would be. I recommend this book, but not as a profound and heart-stirring read, but more as a late-night grooving in the bathtub thing.