There is a series I read as a teenager, the Xanth series. The author, Piers Anthony, has been pumping out a book a year for the last 45 years, so there are a lot of them. I read the first 15ish for AR point in school back in the day. It’s not exactly the height of literature, but they’re pretty fun for children/teen fantasy books. The thing that really sets the series apart is that Piers fills his fantasy world of Xanth to the brim with magic plants and creatures based on puns. In one of the earlier books, there is a tree that grows fruits that look like babies. An Infantree. And when approached, the fruits drop and the babies start marching around and attacking the threat, like an infantry. It’s one of the most memorable puns to me.
Oh for sure. He often used puns that his fans gave him in fanmail too. He’d take their ideas and try to fit them somewhere into the story. He credited them in his books all the time.
That name rang a bell, I was not really sure why. I just went to my bookshelf, and one of my oldest books I actually started to collect was the novelization of the movie Total Recall (the Schwarzenegger one), written by - Piers Anthony!
I had no idea that he was pretty famous, I loved that book, but never cared about the author, time to change that! Xanth series, you say? I will definitely check that out. Thanks!
There is a series I read as a teenager, the Xanth series. The author, Piers Anthony, has been pumping out a book a year for the last 45 years, so there are a lot of them. I read the first 15ish for AR point in school back in the day. It’s not exactly the height of literature, but they’re pretty fun for children/teen fantasy books. The thing that really sets the series apart is that Piers fills his fantasy world of Xanth to the brim with magic plants and creatures based on puns. In one of the earlier books, there is a tree that grows fruits that look like babies. An Infantree. And when approached, the fruits drop and the babies start marching around and attacking the threat, like an infantry. It’s one of the most memorable puns to me.
That’s the type of pun that he probably came up with first and then wrote the plot around it, lol.
Oh for sure. He often used puns that his fans gave him in fanmail too. He’d take their ideas and try to fit them somewhere into the story. He credited them in his books all the time.
I take you haven’t read some of them as an adult. Or his novel Firefly.
No. Go on.
https://litreactor.com/columns/themes-of-pedophilia-in-the-works-of-piers-anthony
Oof.
Edit: Also, Avon Books… what the hell. How did you publish that as is?
Avon books in 1990: I discovered this thing called anime…
That name rang a bell, I was not really sure why. I just went to my bookshelf, and one of my oldest books I actually started to collect was the novelization of the movie Total Recall (the Schwarzenegger one), written by - Piers Anthony!
I had no idea that he was pretty famous, I loved that book, but never cared about the author, time to change that! Xanth series, you say? I will definitely check that out. Thanks!