Isle of View

With this book, Anthony continues to inject a more grown-up feel into the world of Xanth. The main premise is the kidnapping of the centaur Che by goblins and the efforts of his friends to find him and work out a deal for his release. Throughout this story, the characters also deal with critical relationships with each other, one in particular being a matter of life or death. The reader will also notice Anthony's continued foray into sexuality, human and fantasy creature alike. The writing contains less puns than previous Xanth novels, but he seems to broach the more mature subjects with an adolescent oft-pun style. I still think this is very clever writing.

Perplexed Prince Dolph, Xanth's precocious shapeshifter, should be in love but isn't. Nonetheless, he must chose between two fiancées -- Nada the uninterested and Electra the uninteresting -- or all three of them will suffer the most dire consequences. Luckily a convenient catastrophe has popped up to distract Dolph form his dilemma -- the foal-napping of young Che Centaur by goblins. And the only one who knows where Che is is a nice but remarkably naive elflike gir named Jenny from the World of Two Moons. If anyone can save the missing centaur...she sure can't.

Good if you are a hard core Xanth fan, and if you've read up to this 13th volume, you must be! The puns are still good, but there isn't much in the plot that's new, and since Xanth is really only the size of Florida (since it is Florida) there isn't much new to be discovered in the world of Xanth. Funny, but getting old by this point.

The Xanth books by Piers Anthony were one of the first SciFi/Fantasy series I ever read. I love puns so I have always enjoyed them. Upon re-reading them I can see that they have some weaknesses but overall they stand the test of time. They are a fun and fast read that keeps me amused without any deep thinking required.

A long time ago when I was tweenish, I loved this series. I know it won't survive a re-read, so I'm noting it and letting it go.

Prince Dolph struggles to choose between fiancées Nada and Electra, as a crisis unfolds: young Che Centaur is kidnapped by goblins, leading to a quest involving Jenny Elf from another world, forcing difficult choices and dealing with Xanth's magical chaos, including the plight of Princess Gwendolyn.

This book introduces Jenny the Elf and as a fan of Elfquest and someone who loves tidbits of other books, bits of history and trivia in my books...this was terrific.