#piers-anthony — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #piers-anthony, aggregated by home.social.
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@MichaelWhelan The book that got me into the joy that is #piersanthony and the #xanth series.
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In my teens I was profoundly affected by a small number of books that I read. As a result of reading them I became intensely interested in the politics of pacifism and the strategies of conflict resolution and resistance. My introduction to science fiction was a suitcase full of books given to me by my dad’s best friend. I was at that stage in a Reading Child’s life where I’d have read baked bean cans, so I plowed through an eclectic selection of books.
The first two to really affect me were Joe Haldeman’s All My Sins Remembered (1977) and Brian Stableford’s The Florians (1976). In the first—a fix-up—an intergalactic agent, selected precisely because he is conflict averse, begins to crumble as a consequence of the pressures between his childhood Buddhist upbringing and the violence he has experienced and perpetrated in his job. In the second, a man who has lost his son to a pacifist movement discovers while on a mission the power of saying “No” when faced with the threat of violence.
These books led me to the Quakers. I started attending when I was 15 and joined in my mid-20s. I pursued a master’s degree in peace studies and eventually a doctorate in peace history. At the same time I was looking out for alternatives to conflict in science fiction. Orson Scott Cards’ Speaker for the Dead (1986), with its argument that Truth is a very powerful weapon, blew me away. Judith Moffett’s anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist Pennterra (1987) and Joan Slonczewski’s Still Forms on Foxfield (1980), with its refuseniks and the calm seeking of consensus which is a feature of both novels (even if Moffett’s Quakers achieve it amazingly quickly) taught me to slow down in my own decision making. Piers Anthony’s Golem in the Gears (1986) introduced me to the concept of game play in decision making and thinking through decision trees. And Harry Harrison’s The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987) taught me about the potential for mass civil disobedience, in its depiction of a pacifist population concluding that the civil contract is so broken that it no longer needs to adhere to its side of the bargain.
Not all resistance is direct. Some is about creating a new paradigm and taking the world along with you. Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue (1984) argues that if you change the language, you change the way people think and you change the world. In the book the revolution fails, but considerable changes in our world have been brought about this way, which may be why language has become a primary target for the American presidential administration. Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) takes this even further; new language and a new mindset lead to a new religious order which remakes the world. Resistance can also be about living your life in an active mode of refusal; in Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Ti-Jeanne and Gross-Jeane fight day by day to resist the world they live in, and to help others survive. In Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors (2023), resistance focuses on the power of religion as those who are not the chosen, whose prophecies do not come true, seek to shape a new way of living. Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire (2019) is about resistance to cultural imperialism on an inter-galactic scale, and Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth (2021) operates at both a metaphysical and a local level.
A recent author to take on the topic of resistance is Naomi Kritzer in a trilogy of tales from 2023. The short story “Better Living Through Algorithms” exhorts workers to take control of their lives and collaborate in their leisure as an act of resistance to corporate wellness culture. “The Year Without Sunshine” is another story that emphasizes community resistance to external paradigms of sink-or-swim libertarianism, while Liberty’s Daughter sees the underclasses on a seastead—bonded laborers and the noncitizen children of citizens—use the disruption of a plague to raise their own value and force a redistribution of property. It is very utopian, but its core message is that our labor matters, solidarity is our strength, and that injustice is not inevitable; all important messages right now.
Farah MendlesohnFarah Mendlesohn is a con-runner, a retired history professor, a charity manager, co-editor of the Hugo Award-Winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, author of the Hugo-nominated The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, and is currently working on a short book about Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (preorder Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore). Farah has chaired three Eastercons, has served in various capacities in Worldcons and Eastercons, and is part of the World Fantasy 2025 team. (Farah/they/she)
https://seattlein2025.org/2025/07/04/fantastic-fiction-resistance-2/
#ArkadyMartine #BrianStableford #DarcieLittleBadger #HarryHarrison #JoanSlonczewski #JoeHaldeman #JudithMofett #NaloHopkinson #NaomiKritzer #OctaviaButler #OrsonScottCard #PiersAnthony #SuzetteHadenElgin #VajraChandrasekera
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I just discovered this morning that Florida had a drive-in movie theatre called Isle of View - https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/20290/ - and now I'm wondering if Piers Anthony used that name for the 13th Xanth book as a reference.
A LOT of the stuff that happens in Xanth references real-world Florida locations and events, like a giant chasm in Xanth paralleling an ultimately unfinished canal that was going to cut across Florida to allow barge travel to/from the Gulf of Mexico without going all the way around the Florida peninsula - https://floridahistoryblog.com/cross-florida-barge-canal-a-shortcut-that-never-was/
So, given that, I have to wonder if the drive-in planted the seed, for, if nothing else, the name of the book?
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A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON (1978)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 30" x 20"Most readers will remember my work with Piers Anthony on the Incarnations of Immortality, but covers for a couple Xanth novels came first. 1/3
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ORB (1987)
Acrylic - 28" x 20"As on my other Piers Anthony covers, the focus is the protagonist of the story. But this character appears only briefly in the story as a mother with green hair—usually she is described as an attractive young adult. 1/7
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #piersanthony #incarnationsofimmortality
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NIOBE (1985)
Oil on Panel - 29" x 19"Since 1975, I have worked almost exclusively in acrylics, but I still love to paint in oils. Not long before doing this cover, I moved to a new studio that was larger and better organized than my old one. 1/4
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #incarnationsofimmortality #piersanthony
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Aktualności:
»90 urodziny Piersa Anthony’ego«6 sierpnia 1934 roku przyszedł na świat brytyjsko-amerykański pisarz science fiction i fantasy Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob.
https://www.fahrenheit.net.pl/aktualnosci/90-urodziny-piersa-anthonyego/ -
THANATOS (1983)
Acrylic - 24" x 36"Just before beginning this painting I broke my right hand—my painting hand!—and I found myself forced to function with my fingers, wrist, and arm immobilized in a cast. Determined not to let the injury stop me from painting, I employed several tricks to circumvent my temporary infirmity. 1/5
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #piersanthony #incarnationsofimmortality
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Never read the series but I set out to find the original seven books in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series via resale. Did it for $5 for the set. Took me a good year.
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#PiersAnthony -
CHRONOS (1984)
Acrylic - 18" x 25"Unlike most cover illustrations I've done, the artwork for the 'Incarnations of Immortality' series is set within a box without any type running over it. 1/
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #piersanthony #incarnationsofimmortality
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ORB (1987)
Acrylic - 28" x 20"As on my other Piers Anthony covers, the focus is the protagonist of the story. But this character appears only briefly in the story as a mother with green hair--usually she is described as an attractive young adult.
That is how I chose to depict her, though the former guise would probably have 'captured the title' better. 1/6
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #piersanthony #incarnationsofimmortality
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A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON (1978)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 30" x 20"Most readers will remember my work with Piers Anthony on the Incarnations of Immortality, but covers for a couple Xanth novels came first. 1/3
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #piersanthony #xanth
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@Mouseferatu E.g. #PiersAnthony's treatment of zombies--they're not the enemy.
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New #review today: "#AtonFive is a Russian band that shows a maturing sound with their new self-titled album. Named after the protagonist in #PiersAnthony’s 1967 #SciFi novel Chthon, Aton Five is a testament to the universality of music, not subject to oral language barriers. The five tracks are tightly orchestrated instrumentals with engaging melodies." #ExposeOnline #ProgRock http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/aton-five-aton-five-6.html
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The Man Who Invented Fantasy
#fantasy #publishing #swordandsorcery #LOTR #Xanth #WheelIfTime #TheSwordofShannara #ASpellforChameleon #LordFoulsBane #TerryBrooks #PiersAnthony #StephenDonaldson #DelRay #books #bookstodon
https://slate.com/culture/2023/10/lester-del-rey-invention-fantasy-book-publishing.html# -
Resale shop find...$1.
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#PiersAnthony -
@pandasarentbears @bookstodon I would say A Spell for Chameleon by #piersanthony or The Sword of Shannara by #TerryBrooks
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Resale shop find. $2. Never ready any of the Xanth books. I think I read Split Infinity and Blue Adept but didn't get too much farther.
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#PiersAnthony
#Xanth -
Who are 5-7 of your favorite authors? Add them as hashtags so we can find each other, boost this, share your own, etc. #Bookstodon. Some of mine:
#EdgarRiceBurroughs
#MichaelMoorcock
#JimButcher
#PiersAnthony
#RASalvatore
#BrandonSanderson
#TerryBrooks -
Hashtags for today. Some favourite #books and #authors
#bookstadon#stephenking
#terrypratchett
#neilgaiman
#jamesherbert
#angelacarter
#richardlaymon
#clivebarker
#lewiscarroll
#piersanthony
#dansimmons
#ianrankin
#iainbanks
#irvinewelsh
#agathachristie
#mrjames
#shaunhutson
#hgwells
#leechild
#arthurconandoyle
#shirleyjackson
#douglasadams
#raymondchandler
#richardayoade
#tomsharpe
#ramseycampbell
#peterstraub
#meddlingkids
#thehobbit and many more I look forward to discovering. -
Il Come Eravamo del Come Saremo – Fantasy 02
di Mauro Antonio MiglieruoloPropongo di riesumare un romanzo della venerabilissima DELTA Fantascienza, risalente agli ancor più venerabili anni Settanta, qu
https://www.labottegadelbarbieri.org/il-come-eravamo-del-come-saremo-fantasy-02/
#bottegadelbarbieri #labottegadelbarbieri
#Articoli #Difuturicen'ètanti #Architipografia #DeltaFantascienza #fantasy #IlComeEravamodelComeSaremo #IlGrandeCerchio #MauroAntonioMiglieruolo #PiersAnthony -
Did anyone else like #PiersAnthony when you were a teenager and now that you're older it all seems so icky?
Anyone else besides me, I think.