Customer Reviews

Omnivore

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

 

 

In December, 1968 Ballantine Books released the first printing of Omnivore. In the decades since, the novel has remained a cleverly written and innovative ecological adventure story peopled with interesting characters.

However, this is a massively inferior transcription to ebook format. Much of the punctuation, present in the original editions, has been dropped entirely. Paragraphing and dialogue exchange, clearly expressed in prior editons, are reduced to confusing run-on blocks. Rather than an being an enjoyable text, the reader is forced to pause to decipher conversations.

This novel deserved a much better transfer to electronic format. It is suggested that the reader await a better edition.

A cyborg is sent to investigate the activities of three scientists on the planet Nacre. As he questions them, he hopes to find out the secret of the Mantas, creatures brought back from Nacre. The alien world covered by fungoid live forms is a truly unique creation. An excellent Anthony foray into science fiction.

The beginning novel in an excellent trilogy. Well worth the read; it's a shame we lost these characters.

This book was disappointing compared to the only other Piers Anthony that I have read- the excellent "A Spell for Chameleon".

A great book (worth 5 stars easily) is totally ruined by the formatting mistakes (or rather, lack of formatting) and the amazing number of misspelled words in it (thus the one star rating). Apparently, it was done by someone who doesn't know how to read or how to format sentences or paragraphs. Extremely disappointing. I hope Piers lays into whoever did this.

Piers Anthhony was quite competent with science fiction, prior to his move away from the genre and primarily into fantasy. This one is imaginative, creative and reads quickly. It features biological and ecological themes, and the cast includes many varied plant and fungoid life forms. Plants were a main creation in many of Anthony's Xanth books, and the seeds (if you'll pardon the pun) were planted here. The story follows three human explorers who study mysterious life forms on the planet Nacre, then return to earth and become the unwitting participants in a race to save humanity from an ecological disaster. The mystery of the life on Nacre, and its connection to the explorers and to earth, is laid out well and paced right for suspense and intrigue. The writing is efficient, but falls noticeably short of what fans of later works would expect. The concept is the emphasis of the story, and it was hard for me to become attached to any of the characters. The outcome mattered little to me, but the story was entertaining anyway. This work of science fiction differed considerably in that regard from another Anthony book, "Bio Of A Space Tyrant". Anthony established there that he could develop empathetic characters, which were necessary for that story to work. This one works without it, thanks to Anthony's powerful imagination. I always wondered what kind of science fiction writer he could have become, had he chosen to remain in the genre. But his career success speaks for itself. A few space tales by him are more enjoyable than the assembly line of stories produced by many inferior writers.

I first read this novel in the 80's at my school library, but then I could never find it again. I was excited when I saw that it was available on Kindle and bought it immediately. However, the kindle text is disappointing. There are many misspellings and unecessary word breaks. I have yet to find a single paragraph without one of these errors. They are extremely distracting and detracting.

This book truly deserves a five star rating. Excellent read. The crazy part is that Orn is even better and Ox is even betterer ;)

A sound read about an alternate world if it specified the time of the setting.Nonetheless,the action and plot is just right.

I have read tens of thousands of books, but most especially science fiction. I can only attribute my love and fascination for sci-fi to this wondrous work by Piers Anthony! This was my first sci-fi book, but it has not been my last. Anthony's extraordinary ability to describe the incredible alien environment, the beauty of the background and it's entitled creatures was so amazing that I am forced to renew it's wonder regularly. I highly recommend this to all readers!