Piers Anthony's Night Mare, rev. jimroberts

Go Review That Book!, in particular Jenson_AKA_DL, has been waiting a long time for my review of Night Mare, but I think it's nearly ready now. It's still rather long, although I've cut out some of what I first wanted and shortened other parts. Does it still hang together OK?

If you are new to the Xanth series, Night Mare is not the place you want to start (and if you dislike puns, don't start at all). My advice is to try the first book, A Spell for Chameleon, or the third, Castle Roogna. Not that Night Mare is bad; it's just not by any means the best — if you liked the earlier Xanth books, you will probably like Night Mare too: the story lines of previously introduced characters are continued, new complexities of Xanth appear, and ingenious tricks are needed to solve current problems.

The Xanth books are set at a time corresponding to ours and Xanth occupies the same position as the state of Florida, but the border of Xanth, normally impervious from the non-magical side, can become pervious also at other times and places. This permitted the original human settlement and various waves of Mundane incursion into Xanth. Night Mare is about a purely violent incursion, Carthaginians who were expecting to reach northern Italy, and how the Xanthians overcome it with the help of Mare (pun!) Imbrium, Imbri for short.

In the previous Xanth volume, Ogre, Ogre, Imbri acquired half(!) a soul. Anthony's souls are magical entities whose properties and purpose tend to vary from story to story, depending on what the plot needs: in this book, the effect of the half soul on the normally soulless night mare is to render her more empathic, so she no longer takes her previous delight in inflicting unpleasant dreams on sleepers. As a result, she is no longer carrying out her job effectively and the Night Stallion sacks her from dream duty. Instead, he assigns her as liaison between the dream world and the King of Xanth during the emergency, and to facilitate this she will be solid in bright light but insubstantial in the dark. Her immediate task is to take the message "Beware the Horseman" to Chameleon (see first book), who will pass it on to King Trent. Being unused to solidity, she bumps her head and forgets her mission. She befriends a mundane stallion which has entered Xanth with the invaders, then meets the evil Horseman himself, a highly skilled rider who is one of the leaders of the Mundanes, and remembers her mission. She has repeated encounters with both of them throughout the book. The stallion makes itself useful to the Xanthians by carrying people around, and the Horseman keeps popping up unexpectedly.

No Xanth book would be complete without someone overcoming three challenges to enter Humphrey's castle and consult him for advice, which Imbri and Chameleon do when they get together, but he merely adds "Break the chain" to the message "Beware the Horseman".

When they get back to King Trent, they find that he is alive, but completely mindless, so Xanth needs a new King. There is a designated successor, Dor (hero of the 3rd and 4th books), but after some initial successes, he too becomes mindless. By law and tradition, Xanth must be ruled by a king who must be a Magician, that is, have an exceptionally powerful magic talent. Three more are available, Jonathan, Humphrey and Bink: they too make some progress against the invasion before being afflicted by the mysterious effect. It is necessary to reinterpret the rules so that more kings are available. Must the king be human? Must the king be male? How powerful a talent is powerful enough?

Imbri solves the problem of what has happened to the kings' minds and it is established the the Horseman is operating a magical device to cause the effect. Eventually, in a confrontation between the Horseman, the mundane stallion and Imbri the Horseman is killed. It is then necessary to release the kings, which Imbri accomplishes by an act of self-sacrificing heroism.

Good review! I started this book as my first Xanth book a few years ago and dropped it; I found the style annoying and I think you're right, it isn't the best place to start (though I'll confess I haven't read any others in the series since).

I think your review is a little heavy on plot details though. And I feel the end needs something to tie it back to the beginning, something about your opinion as a reader and reviewer, that will help me, a prospective reader, decide whether or not the book would interest me. Bring it back to you: "I enjoyed this book because..."

It is a nicely detailed review and actually covers a lot that I don't remember, even though I read the book at least three or four times in my teens. I do have to agree that the review might be a little too heavy on the spoilers, if you are to leave the story as it is you may want to give a spoiler warning at the beginning. I also agree that you might want to put a little more regarding how you felt about the book.

One other minor thing is that I think you might want to use the word "empathetic" rather than "empathic". Other than that I think this particular paragraph is very well put together and I like the background you've given from the past books.

I like the review, but think it covers too much of the plot. Without reading the book, I pretty much know what happens cover to cover (enough to fake a book report anyway).

I think I would stop the plot summary after The stallion makes itself useful to the Xanthians by carrying people around, and the Horseman keeps popping up unexpectedly though you could end it sooner. Maybe after Being unused to solidity, she bumps her head and forgets her mission with a few questions to whet the potential readers appetite and then perhaps some closing thoughts on the book from you.

A couple of niggles to point out: since you are explaining Xanth to possibly new readers, I would explain that the non-magical world is referred to as Mundania. Otherwise it doesn't make sense when you start talking about various waves of Mundane a few sentences later. Just adding Mundania in parenthesis like this: normally impervious from the non-magical side (AKA Mundania), can become...

Oh, and I would take 'also' out of the sentence normally impervious from the non-magical side, can become pervious also at other times and places.

Suggestions for a review for someone who has NOT read the book. (I have)

The first two paragraph's read well to me, but, as suggested above, clarify Anthony's use of Mundania for our world.

paragraph 3
As you said this shouldn't be read without knowing the backstory. I actually like the reminder of how Imbri got into her predicament. I would suggest that Imbri's memory loss is used for a teaser along the lines of "...and memory is important to the story" {however you would best phrase it}. I like the introduction of the new characters: friend and foe.

The rest of the review does read more like a synopsis (but a very good one) I think that too much of the plot is revealed. Spoilers (my pet hate in reviews)

I read this as a borrowed book shortly after it was first published. This brought back lots of memories of Xanth (and why I eventually stopped reading the series!)

It does need something more. Otherwise you are ending it as a synopsis with no conclusion. I already know know how you feel about Xanth as a series and Nightmare as part of that series but that was back in the first paragraph. Maybe a rearrangement of the order.

1 -only read if familiar with the world
2-back story
3-what happens in this book (enough to tantalise someone into reading)
4- conclusion along the lines of the opening paragraph.

Hope this helps!

calm

Thanks for all the suggestions. There are definitely some things I need to change. I'll get back to it and offer you a new version later.

I don't think that giving away that there's a happy ending is a big deal. All Xanth books have happy endings, fans would be disappointed if one didn't. I will say less about the succession of kings and changes in the rules. I said "story lines of previously introduced characters are continued", that's an important part of the book as well as fighting the invaders, maybe I can stress that a bit more.

Actually, I'd move the first paragraph, because, frankly, when I read a paragraph like that, and I'm not familiar with the series, I don't read any further.

I'd start with something like "this is the Xth book in the Xanth series, which is set in a time . . ."

Move the first paragraph to the end. By now (maybe) you've gotten the reader interested in the series, and she'll want to go find the first book.

I didn't have much time for LT-related stuff in the last couple of days, but I've now written a new version of my review. This has more introduction to Xanth at the beginning, I've somewhat shortened and reworded parts of the rest, my opinion and the recommendation to start earlier in the series is now at the end.

Night Mare is the sixth book of the Xanth series. These books are intended as humorous fantasy, you can expect happy endings and, as a character in a later book points out, nothing really bad ever happens to a major character. They are set at a time corresponding to ours in the magical and pun-infested land of Xanth: every human born in Xanth has a magic talent of some kind. It occupies the same position as the state of Florida, but the border is normally impervious from the non-magical side, which is referred to as Mundania and its inhabitants as Mundanes. As well as from modern Alabama and Georgia, Mundanes can sometimes enter Xanth from other times and places. This has permitted various waves of peaceful or warlike incursion into Xanth.

The background of Night Mare is a purely violent incursion of Carthaginians who were expecting to reach northern Italy. The main story line is about how the Xanthians overcome the invasion with the help of the titular character, Mare (pun!) Imbrium, Imbri for short, but the book continues the stories and develops the characters of people from previous books and new complexities of Xanth appear.

In the previous volume, Ogre, Ogre, Imbri acquired half(!) a soul. Anthony's souls are magical entities whose properties and purpose tend to vary from story to story, depending on what the plot needs: in this book, the effect of the half soul on the normally soulless night mare is to diminish her previous delight in inflicting unpleasant dreams on sleepers. As a result, she is no longer carrying out her job effectively and the Night Stallion sacks her from dream duty. Instead, he assigns her as liaison between the dream world and the King of Xanth during the emergency, and to facilitate this she will be solid in bright light but insubstantial in the dark. Her immediate task is to take the message "Beware the Horseman" to Chameleon (see first book), who will pass it on to King Trent. Being unused to solidity, she bumps her head and forgets her mission. She meets a white stallion, which is surprising because there are normally no simple horses in Xanth, and befriends it, then meets the evil Horseman himself, a highly skilled rider who is one of the leaders of the Mundanes. When he refers to himself as Horseman, she remembers her mission. She has repeated encounters with both of them throughout the book: the stallion makes itself useful to the Xanthians by carrying people around, and the Horseman keeps popping up unexpectedly.

No Xanth book would be complete without someone overcoming three challenges to enter Humphrey's castle and consult him for advice, which Imbri and Chameleon do when they get together, but he merely adds "Break the chain" to the message "Beware the Horseman".

When they get back to King Trent, they find that he is alive, but completely mindless. There is a designated successor, Dor (hero of the third and fourth books), but after some initial successes, he too becomes mindless. By law and tradition, Xanth must be ruled by a King who must be a Magician, that is, have an exceptionally powerful magic talent, but Magicians are in short supply. As each makes some progress against the invasion before being incapacitated, it becomes necessary to reinterpret the rules more liberally so that more kings are available.

Imbri solves the problem of what has happened to the kings' minds and it is established the the Horseman is operating a magical device to cause the effect. Eventually the Horseman is killed in a confrontation between him, the stallion and Imbri. It is then necessary to release the kings, which Imbri accomplishes by an act of self-sacrificing heroism.

In my opinion Night Mare is weaker than the earlier books, but if you liked them, you will probably like Night Mare too. If you are new to the Xanth series, Night Mare is not the place you want to start (and if you dislike puns, don't start at all). Instead, try the first book, A Spell for Chameleon, or the third, Castle Roogna.

My review is now submitted, it's here.

Looks good, Jim! :-) I like your revisions.

your review made it into the Hot Reviews section on the home page.