Customer Reviews

Castle Roogna (The Magic of Xanth, No. 3)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Castle Roogna" is the third in the "Xanth" series by Piers Anthony. Unlike the first two, which focused on Bink, this one focuses on Bink's son, Dor. Dor is a twelve year old Magician with the power to speak to inanimate objects or the dead -- which is quite useful as a means of gathering information. When Queen Iris tries to scare him with illusions of dragons or other horrible monsters, Dor is able to ask the floor if the creature is real, and when he's told it's not, he can walk through the illusion without fear.

Dor gets sent on a mission to find a way to bring zombie Jonathan back to life as a favor to Millie the maid. It's tough because Dor has a severe crush on Millie, due partially to the fact that her magic talent is sex appeal(?). But Millie loves Jonathan. To find the means to bring Jonathan back to life, Dor has to travel 800 years in the past through a magic tapestry.

Along on the ride is a giant spider named Jumper. Well, he was normal size in Xanth, but he got transformed into a six foot tall spider in the past. Disgusting? Maybe. But Jumper is incredibly loyal, mature, powerful, and genuine decent.

One of the really neat things about "Castle Roogna" is how well its plot fits in with the previous two novels ("A Spell for Chameleon" and "The Source of Magic") -- oddities like the Forget spell around the Gap (no one remembers the Gap) are explained by the end of this book in a satisfying way.

I first got into the Xanth novels when I was 16 maybe. I loved them, and I loved this one most of all. I probably read it 4 or 5 times during my teen years and as a young adult.

This is a great book to encourage kids to read for pleasure. In my opinion, it is the best of the Xanth novels, but it should be read after A Spell for Chamelon and The Source of Magic, so readers will have a firm grasp of Xanth and who is who.

In this book Xanth is still a wonderous and dangerous place! Later books in the series turn Xanth into an environment suitable for toddlers. Ugh.

Castle Roogna, the third in the Xanth books, is one of the last of the readable Xanth books in the series. From this point out, the series decays into a mudge of eeping nymphs with luscious flesh and awful puns.

I remember as a pre-teenager being captivated by a Spell for Chameleon and becoming an addicted Xanth reader. It was interesting to pick this book up again as an adult and realize that while my opinion of Anthony eventually declined, the first three books in the series are still pretty readable.

Xanth in the first three books is a really edgy place. People are often quite cold and their motivations obscure. Dor feels very real as a character, bearing his burdens of expectations and confusion as he struggles his way into the adult world.

The silly puns themselves are at a minimum in this book, with the exception of a couple of real groaners. (Gerrymander, oy!) The nice thing is that since the puns are not omnipresent they are almost funny when they do appear and do not spoil the read as a whole.

The first three books are still recommended for pre-teenagers. I am sure that they will enjoy them-- be a little aware that Anthony indulges in some fairly dubious gender stereotyping, so if you are very sensitive to that sort of thing you might want to read them first before you give these books as a present.

This is the third book in Piers Anthony's Xanth series. The book takes place 12 years after the events in The Source of Magic. Bink's son is twelve years old, and has a Magician Class talent. Dor can talk to inanimate objects (they audibly speak to him). Dor is the heir apparent to the throne of Xanth, but he still has to deal with the same issues that any 12 year old might have to deal with. In his case, loneliness. King Trent, in hopes to help mature Dor, sends him on a quest to The Good Magician Humphrey to discover a way to reanimate the Zombie Jonathon. Millie the Ghost, no longer a ghost loves Jonathon, but Jonathon is still a zombie. Humphrey knows of a way to get an elixir to heal Jonathon, but it can only be acquired from the Zombie Master, a Magician who lived 800 years earlier.

The Good Magician gives Dor a spell to put him into a tapestry that shows the events of that time period. In this way, Dor occupies the body of a Mundane warrior during the 4th Wave of Mundane Invasion. The King at the time is the legendary King Roogna. In Dor's quest for the elixir he encounters the Magicians of the time and gets involved in the very civil conflict between King Roogna and the Magician Murphy.

This book is one of the better Xanth novels (i.e. one of the first Xanth novels) and while it gives part of the history of the land (always important), it also introduces characters who will later become important players in the series (Dor, Iris, Murphy, Vadne).

I loved the plot of Dor going into the past, to help Millie the Maid in the present, in getting the one thing she most desired,true love, once again Mr Anthony has done it he has given us a romantic story with a twist. We see what war can do as well as the unpredictable talents can cause,he shows what jealousy can do and the heartache it can bring. I loved the way the hero handles the problems that are presented. I thought it real cool at how he got the harpies their prince, and the suprise when he got home when Grundy told him what happend to his body by the visiter and the joy he brought back to Millie was the highlight of the whole story I actually cried and its not very easy to get me to do that.

I started reading the Xanth series from Piers Anthony in seventh grade and frankly I hated reading but you know... if you want to pass you have to get major things done like BOOK REPORTS!!! yeah... I went to the library and this book caught my eye... i looked at the thing inside that tells what order the books go in but the first two books weren't there... so i got this one and i read till my eyes were about to burst. I STRONGLY recomend ANYTHING from this author especially the Xanth Series. great story lines and fun little puns. Ogre, Ogre was probably my favorite. After reading this book I read the first two... (A Spell For Chameleon and The Source Of Magic) and they seemed a little draggy... but still great books... YOU SHOULD DEFINATELY CHECK THESE BOOKS OUT!!!!!!!!!! they are the only books i'll read...(less i have to read something else for school). lol. Well... that's all i can say to convince you to check these books out... they are awesome.

This Book is third in the series The Magic of Xanth by Piers Anthony. It is about a magic land called Xanth, where everyone has a magic talent that no one else could do, which bears a striking resemblance to the state of Florida. It too is a peninsula. It borders a land called Mundania (for obvious reasons)It has land features like "Lake Ogre-Chobee" and "Ogre-Fen-Ogre Swamp." The first two books in the series deal with the adventures of Bink, the supposedly talent less young man. He really has a wizard-level talent: nothing magic can possibly hurt him. He goes on a quest to find his magic talent in the first book, and in the second book he discovers the source of Xanth's magic. Castle Roogna is the story of Bink's, and his wife, Chameleon's son. His name is Dor. His magician-caliber talent is the ability to talk to any, and all inanimate objects. King Trent, the Transformer (who was at one time the evil Magician Trent) sent Dor on a quest to find the Zombie-Master, a magician from eight-hundred years in the past. His task was to gain a zombie restorative potion to bring his nurse, Millie's, eight-hundred year dead zombie boyfriend, Jonathan. To do so, he must travel to the Good Magician Humphrey, a master of information. He needs to go there to learn how to make the huge time jump. Humphrey tells him that he needs to use a potion that will transport him through the magic tapestry in Castle Roogna. When Dor uses the potion, he appears in...Xanth! but not the Xanth he is used to, because he's now eight-hundred years in the past He is in the body of a huge Mundane warrior, and when he turns around he is face to face with a huge, furry, green, ugly, monstrous, and otherwise repulsive spider. He manages to communicate to the spider that he doesn't want to fight just in time to kill a band of attacking goblins. He makes friends with the jumping spider, who is for some very, veeery odd reason called "Jumper". They are captured by a gigantic bird, and meet Millie, eight-hundred-twelve years younger, but with her talent of sex-appeal still very much intact. Dor, who has a crush on Millie in his own time, is absolutley smitten with the teenage version of his childhood fantasy. They experience many adventures on the way to the Zombie-Master, including, but not limited to attempts by Harpies to mate with Dor to infuse their race with one of their alternating generations of human and vulture blood, an attack by a Mundane army, an encounter with a zombie ogre, ornery centaurs, obstinate goblins with warped senses of honor, sex-crazed nymphs and fauns having orgies in the middle of the woods, a huge brain-corral that steeped bodies in preservative fluid, a woodwife (find out for yourself), and a few (hah!) more. By the time Dor meets up with the Zombie-Master, he has another reason to seek him out. King Roogna's unfinished castle (Castle Roogna) is being built, but the huge war between the Harpie's and the goblins (it's complicated) is converging on the castle's sight. If it is allowed to happen, Castle Roogna will be destroyed, ending King Roogna's short reign. And we all know what will happen if that occurs...what you want me to tell you. Like I said, find out for yourself. Read it.

A wonderful introduction to the main characters of this and the following book. Fantastic in both writing and enjoyability. This is Piers Anthony at his best; meaning all the humor, fast pace, light romance, and action we all crave for. Thanks once again to this splendid author.

The main character of this book is Dor, Bink's son. He is very similar to his father, in that he has good moral sense and humility. His talent of communicating with inanimate objects is good but subtle like his father's immunity to magic, rather than blatantly awesome like King Trent's power of transformation. So, like his father, Dor has trouble with his identity. He goes back in time on a quest to un-zombie a zombie, and this action-packed adventure relates his learning process. He has to make some tough decisions for a twelve-year-old boy. This book is also humorous, thanks to Anthony's interesting personification of the inanimate objects that talk to Dor. He doesn't just talk to them; they can talk to others in his presence, and he can tell them what to do. This book is significant in the series; it makes the character transition without sacrificing the quality, and opens the floodgates for the rest of the series. You also learn a lot about how present Xanth was similar and different from Fourth Wave Xanth. This is one I was able to put myself in, and such an adventure would work wonders on my drear Mundane life. Never gets boring; this is one of the best Xanths.

The Xanth series is one of the most enjoyable bits of english literature ever to reach print. It is a real achievement to write something so nonsensical that yet rings so true.

This book may well be the best of the Xanth series. For my money it is a toss-up between this and the next in the series, "Centaur_Aisle". As I see it the first two volumes ("A_spell" and "The_Source") start out bravely but suffer from teething troubles. In "Castle_Roogna" Piers Anthony reaches the top of his form, holding on to it in "Centaur_Aisle" after which it slowly drops off. When the evil computer makes its entry the series is just about lost (must be a Microsoft Computer, spoiling everything its touches!).