Wielding a Red Sword

an interesting take on the necessity of violence/war. also on compromise and consequences. ( )

I only have a couple of the Incarnations of Immortality series, because it is a wildly uneven series as a whole (Anthony, predictably, can't write female protagonists worth a damn, and the one about Time is straight out of pulp space opera for no obvious reason) and this was #3 on my list of the three that I can stand.

It's kind of awful. But first, the good bits:

1. This book was totally the reason I bought a translation of The Book of Five Rings at age 12, and that is a profound and fascinating work that I still deeply value.

2. ...ummm. Apparently there is no 2.

As usual, the book opens with a lengthy analysis of how attractive the protagonist is to women of all kids. Verdict: irresistible. Nevertheless, he is only attracted to the pure and virginal woman, who promptly spreads her legs for him because he's so awesome. However, she turns out to be nothing more than a minor plot device and promptly disappears offscreen so she can be the longed-for Lost Love for a chapter or two, until...

Mym gets shipped off to the Honeymoon Castle at the behest of his father (who murders women callously to prove a point, namely, that women are worthless interchangeable tokens and the fact that Mym feels bad about this is Weak and Unmanly.) Now, the Honeymoon Castle is actually an interesting device - it's set up so that a) people residing there can hear each other's thoughts and b) they are forced to interact to eat, sleep, or bathe, presumably so proximity will make them fall in love. This of course leads to numerous descriptions of Mym's arranged bride's physical assets, and the various scary things that chase her into his arms whenever they try to rebel firmly establish that while she is intelligent, she is entirely spineless. This is held up as an ideal - in fact, it's why she's a better match than the Blessed Virgin in the opening sequence, because independence is a negative trait in a woman.

Look, it only goes downhill from there, and frankly I'm tired of responding to this appalling crap. On a Pale Horse at least had the redeeming aspect of some relatively serious thoughts about the nature of end-of-life care - this has some lukewarm apologia for War that it's clear the author himself doesn't even really believe. So there's no moral core, and the book is entirely about Mars finding a suitably tractable (and royal, don't forget for a second that he's a prince) mate AND concubine, because obviously his royal prerogative requires both. I'm not even going to get into the confusingly terrible characterization of modern-day India as Generic Fantasy Kingdom #248, Where Everyone Has Long Descriptors Instead of Names.

Skip it. Just... skip it. ( )

INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY

#4 of the Incarnations of Immortality-- let's just say it Piers Anthony ROCKS!!

Mym, an Indian prince, defies his father's plans for an arranged marriage, instead joining a traveling circus. He meets Orb, who teaches him to overcome his own handicap of a terrible stutter through song. He is soon discovered, and his father arranges for him to marry a princess by the name of Rapture. After fighting against this for days on end, he finally realizes that Rapture is worth loving, and so concedes to the marriage. However, a plot to separate him from her results in his decision to become the Incarnation of War, and then the problems start ( )

Wielding a Red Sword is the fifth book in the Incarnations of Immortality series. In this story, we follow Mim, the stuttering prince of India who is destined to become Mars the incarnation of War. Mim seeks to leave his royal life behind and joins a band of performers and encounters the love of his life, Orb Kaftan. Circumstances drive him to back to the royal palace where he encounters the second love of his life, Rapture. Eventually, much later in the book, Mim is finally bestowed with the red sword marking him as Mars, bringer of War. Mim spends a while acclimating to his new role and then the Piers Anthony formula kicks in. That is, Satan intervenes and Mim is forced to battle the Prince of Lies. Hopefully this does not qualify as a spoiler, but big surprise here, Satan is thwarted once again.

This book really takes the series in a giant nose dive towards terrible land for a few reasons. Reason one: the formula is growing stale and the books have gone away from explaining the nuances of the "office" and have become more a fantasy love story. Reason two: Piers Anthony sucks at writing female characters. The women are all portrayed as flat, generic, gender stereotyped automatons that do not strike me as interesting in any way, shape or form. It is going to be a real struggle to finish the series after this train wreck. ( )