Spider! He is our hero!

[vovat]

Now that I've finished with my test, I have a chance to catch up on all the library books I recently checked out. I just finished this one today:



In Piers Anthony's continuing quest to bring back characters from earlier in the Xanth series, Jumper Cable not only makes several callbacks to Ogre, Ogre, but also features the spider Jumper from Castle Roogna. Okay, not exactly, because this Jumper is a descendant of the original one, but it's the same basic idea. If you've read any other Xanth books, you probably know what's in store here. Lots of puns (some relevant to the plot and some not), a quest devised by the Good Magician Humfrey, some Demon bets, several weird but hot mythological babes flashing their panties, and lots of pairing up. That said, despite its somewhat generic plot, there were some fun new ideas. Olive Hue's talent of bringing imaginary friends to live was clever, and we finally get to see a Maenad as a protagonist. The gag of Maeve incorrectly interpreting Haughty Harpy's bleeped-out profanity was funny, and I kind of wish it had continued past the first few chapters. Since the cosmic Demons with the names of planets had been established some books ago, making Pluto's demotion to dwarf status relevant to the story was clever. The formulaic adventures in the dream world became a bit tiresome, but otherwise this was a pretty good read.

Comments

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

I tried to read a Piers Anthony book a few months ago and it sounded like such an interesting concept, but I have up after like a chapter and a half (and I never give up on books). It just seemed really cheesy to me--anything that literally says "heaving maidenly bosom" is just...no.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I can definitely understand that reaction. The first few books in the series weren't quite as heavy on the sexuality. It was there, but not as much in the spotlight.

Whoever decided that heaving was a good thing for bosoms to do, anyway?

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

Haha well my problem isn't sexuality (I, um, am very big on sexuality...) it was just that in this book (On a Pale Horse) the writing was so completely cliche and stupid--that was just the most glaring example.

Whoever decided that heaving was a good thing for bosoms to do, anyway?

Haha that's a good question.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've never tried reading that particular book. I've only read the Xanth series.

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

Yeh, it was actually a gift from my (stupid stupid) ex, and like I said the concept sounded interesting (it's about this guy who becomes the Grim Reaper, yay death!) but, yeh, stupid. Considering the person in question has read like 2 books in his life I suppose I shouldn't have put much stock in his taste.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

(I could never get into Piers Anthony either).

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

I tried reading some Xanth, but I couldn't get into it. I especially never liked how the love story is always so thoroughly logical. The "confession of love" scene at the end of the book always reads like the seance scene in a mystery novel "I could have loved you because of X and Y, but then Z happened so I couldn't..."

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the love stories can all be seen from a mile away, and love interests are introduced so systematically. There's still some appeal to the books (obviously, or I wouldn't have read thirty-three of them), but I've never been convinced by Xanthian romances.