Bearing an Hourglass
Books | Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
3.8
(213)
Piers Anthony
Like On a Pale Horse, this second, complete-in-itself novel of the Incarnations of Immortality is a richly imagined and always fascinating story. And again, Piers Anthony adds to his gripping plot a serious, though-provoking study of good and evil. When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past. The other seemily all-powerful Incarnates of Immortality—Death, Fate, War, and Nature—made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps. While he had been distracted, he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good. In the end, armed with only the Hourglass, Norton was forced to confront the immense power of Satan directly. And though Satan banished him to Hell, he was resolved to fight on.
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Author
Piers Anthony
Pages
384
Publisher
Random House Worlds
Published Date
2012-02-14
ISBN
0307815625 9780307815620
Ratings
Google: 4.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It wasn't until I started this book that I realized that Piers Anthony is just a creepy old letch who treats female characters with little-to-no agency. If you read my last review of On a Pale Horse, I talk about how much I like Luna and how utterly damseled she is. Well, if I didn't like Luna being drugged up and sold off to Thanatos, I was *really* going to hate Orlene's fate in this book. She had a short, ****** life and while the author casts Gawain's really obvious sexism in a negative light, he undermines all of that by having these female characters who always just go along with being sold basically to men who have this ****** rubric of specifications for an "ideal woman". Not compatibility, but objectifying aspects that make it feel like the female characters are falling in love with someone who acts like they're picking out the right model of a Honda sedan and being totally inconvenienced that this sedan is owned by someone else. <br/>Anyway, aside from being mildly offensive, I found the book disjointed and having a variable flavor-- first a neo-victorian mashup, then a space western. It's kinda like when you start a meal at a chinese restaurant and then they bring you a slice of pizza-- sexist (and racist/genocidal?) fem-bem pizza. I ended up reading a synopsis to see if it got any better and figured given my POV and the prospect of more damseling that I should probably just put this one to rest. I don't often give up halfway through, but damn..."
Bridget Anne
"A little more science-y than On a Pale Horse, but still a very fun read. It does take a while to fully figure out what is really happening, but that is part of the fun."
Ricki Marking-Camuto
