Piers Anthony: Difference between revisions
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* The [[Jason Striker]] series, co-authored with Roberto Fuentes, which had a [[Fair for Its Day]] depiction of martial arts as a mix between a highly technical sport and mystical mumbo-jumbo.
He's also written many stand alone novels, and collaborations. His story "In the Barn" was included in [[Harlan Ellison]]'s anthology ''[[Again, Dangerous Visions]]''. Another stand-alone was ''But What of Earth?'', which he released more as a [[Take That]] than anything else; it's a rather tedious and by-the-book [[Twenty Minutes in The Future]] novel where people start abandoning Earth to colonize other planets, with all the accompanying [[Signature Style|Piers Anthony standards]], but he published it with the remarks of the various editors who hacked it apart, attempting to show them as idiots now that he'd achieved [[Protection From Editors]] status.
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=== His work includes examples of: ===
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* [[Rape as Drama]]: Nearly all of his books feature this prominently.
** In ''Fractal Mode'', the time spent with the rabble includes mental images of rape (provided by Darius, transmitted by Seqiro) during the duels with the rabble (in the form of ribbon bondage). This is in addition to Colene's memories of rape near the beginning of the book.
** Xanth tends to have a lot of near-rape moments in it, just not actually carrying through. The characters also only ever seem mildly perturbed by the possibility, as well, so it's almost more like "near-rape as mild annoyance".
** Discussed in ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' when the Incarnation of Fate is in the clutches of a demon that means to rape her. Since she's incapable of being physically harmed, she speculates that rape would be just... interaction. [[Completely Missing the Point|Because it's totally the violence that makes something rape, that whole "lack of consent" thing has nothing to do with it.]]
* [[Sapient Cetaceans]]: In his stories about a human dentist abducted by aliens to serve as their on-ship oral hygeine practitioner (Prosthro Plus), the intrepid orthodontist is called upon to do some filings for a life-form on a wholly aquatic planet, who turns out to be the son of a whale-like species who are planetary rulers and who can therefore pay the fabulous costs of tons of gold used to restore the cavity-laden rotten teeth. After several days of work with JCB's to excavate the rot and a portable blast furnace to melt the gold for the fillings - all done inside the creature's mouth as it really is that large - the dentist asks what caused catastrophic rot in the first place, learning that over-indulgent parents had allowed too many sweeties and not imposed a good enough teeth-cleaning regime...
* [[Signature Style]]: Pretty much everyone in every Piers Anthony book speaks the same way, with the same dialect, and has an impressive command of old stories, mythology, and trivia. Basically, you know you're reading a Piers Anthony novel if a guy in a black cloak with a skull for a face walks around and people, no matter where they're from or what their level of education is, are just as likely to shout "Thanatos!" as "Death!"
** There are also a number of plot elements that show up in almost everything he does (or at least the first outing of it), which include but are not limited to:
*** A beautiful woman that the protagonist loves deeply and earnestly but who ditches him for shallow reasons without a second thought.
*** A new love interest who's been thoroughly used (sexually) by other men but is ready for real love with the protagonist.
*** A big, tough-looking guy who turns out to be a [[Gentle Giant]] [[Genius Bruiser]] who becomes the protagonist's sidekick.
*** A sympathetic, noble older man who is in love with a ''much'' younger woman but dammit, society just won't let them be together. (May or may not be the main character.)
*** At least one scene of nattering on about something that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot or what's going on in the story, but that Piers Anthony read about recently and found interesting so the characters are going to talk about it for awhile.
* [[Starfish Alien]]: Whenever aliens are encountered (as opposed to alternate-universe humans), they're almost guaranteed to be this trope. Piers Anthony may be unique in not only creating [[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism|convincing and unique three-gendered-alien sex]] in the ''[[Cluster]]'' series, but also [[Power Perversion Potential|finding a way to create a rape scene]] with it.
* [[Wanting Is Better Than Having]]: The ''Battle Circle'' trilogy is made of this trope. No one ever seems to get what they (used to) want, except in the worst possible/least satisfying way. Overused to the point of a [[Broken Aesop]] ("Desire only leads to disappointment.")
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