Customer Reviews

The Color Of Her Panties (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Xanth Novels)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In vintage Xanth style, this book has a major quest with the Good Magician Humfrey in the middle of it and lots and lots of puns. So, why did I give it only three stars in my review? Primarily because there was really no new ground being broken in this book - it is almost completely derivative of many of the other Xanth books that have appeared before. Let's talk about the similarities first:
* Young people decide to leave on a quest - happens in every book - in this one, the small plot twist is that there are two groups of young people who quests tend to interact with each other.
* The quests start with a visit to the Good Magician Humfrey who knows all the answers, but to get your question answered, you need to overcome three challenges and then become a servant of Humfrey's for a year.
* Once you have your answer, it makes little sense and you need to explore some part of Xanth to attempt to get it done
* The execution of the quest reveals much about the young people who are always good and get better.
* The young people are always on the verge of becoming adults and wonder about The Adult Conspiracy and what it means, and mostly they cross that threshold as part of this adventure - in this book, there are five young girls and one young Centaur who grow up.
* The color of the girls' panties is a huge secret and can cause problems to all kinds of males. In this book, we learn how some males freak out when they accidentally see the forbidden parts
* Puns galore - from hitmen (met who have unnaturally large hands because they hit you with them) to a Freudian Slip (a slip a woman wears which has a tendency to move around at awkward moments to display more than the woman wanted), this book is chock full of them.

About the only really new item in this book is that the author decided to have two intertwining parties go off on their own quests. Therefore the book is structured somewhat symmetrically with a chapter for party one, then a chapter for party two, and repeat. Each of the chapters is written from the point of view of the party involved, so they tend to bounce around in time a bit, but ultimately they come together to resolve the major portion of this book's storyline.

In terms of major Xanth characters and developments, this book is really bereft of them. We know from previous books that Che Centaur is supposed to change Xanth in some major way in the future, but that does not really happen in this book; Jenny Elf reappears but is in a completely supporting role; and the new characters that show up are minor beings for the most part. About the only new thing of any importance is that Gwendolyn has to become the first female chief of a Goblin tribe and this is actually her quest in this book. Does she succeed? Can she find the item that is between a Roc and a Hard Place? That is up to you to find out if you read this book.

Great book in a great series. This book was always one of my favorite Xanth titles. For some reason I always loved the pantry scene, I think b/c it had such great description in it.

This book is just a joy to read. What I enjoyed is that I could read this and know that all it was doing was alowing me to escape for a little while. You will not find this as the best book you will ever read. But I love it because it is fun.

I have been enthusiatic about the Xanth series for about five years now. I really enjoyed all the earlier books, but this one is just not good. The puns are front loaded into the book and not nearly as funny as usual and I don't care for the preteen girl characters much either. In one part he has them trying on panties forever. It's somewhere between boring, bizarre, and perverted.

This Xanth book is really not one of the best , but as a whole they are great. If you are a fan, read this one and keep going. It is as entertaining as some of the previous ones, even though you don't want anyone siting next to you on the plane to see the title of the book! Bad title ok story. When you write 30 plus books in a series, they won't all be great, but I intend to finish them all and this is only half way there!!!

Oh, Xanth, how I liked you when I was 10. Of course (not to show my age), that was early on in the series, as well. So why, you may ask, did I read this book? It's a long story, but I was told by someone in my book group that they'd read it and it was a novel about a skeevy old man and a young girl and that it had made them never want to read anything by the author again. I couldn't imagine it, so I went ahead and read it. And, okay, the title is a bit weird, but it's not that at all. It's classic over-punned Xanth at its wackiest.

And while there are some adult-oriented jokes and much talk of undergarments, there's nothing particularly shocking or horrible... except, perhaps, some of the puns. Those they could stand to lose. At least half of them. Three quarters, even. I realized they are the hallmarks of the Xanth universe, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Though without any it'd be another boring, run-of-the-mill wacky fantasy quest novel. So it's a balancing act, and it seems to, in this novel, have all the grace of a humpbacked whale on roller skates, competing in a roller derby.

Bottom line is it's fantasy quest fluff wrapped in far too much that tries far too hard to be clever and ends up being a bit of a slog. Unless you are 10, I'd seriously suggest his other series, the Incarnation of Immortality. Or chuck the whole lot in and read Pratchett's Discworld series.

I liked the way they all got ther problem solved at the end expecily Goldy's. It was a very exiting and enjoyable book. Like all of his book they keep you on your toes.

Any fantasy fan with half an ounce of sense has known to steer clear of Antony for a long time, but no book has made the reason why as blatently clear as this one.

Anthony's creepy panty fetish is very blatent to anyone who has ever read a Xanth book, but not until now has he made an ENTIRE masturbatory work dedicated to it.

Not even the most rabid pun will be able to derive the slightest enjoyment from this. It's a whumsical romp through Anthony's perverted mind that will disgust you at best and fill you with revulsion at worst.

Although, really, the title and cover could have told you everything I just told you. I don't even know why I picked this one up.

I have always be a lover of Sci-fi and Piers Anthony was the one writer who could satisfy my cravings for the ureal. Mela Mermaid was the most perfect person I have ever seen. The demon Metria is so much like myslef it is scary( In somewways not most)

Anyway... Mela Mermaid, Ida Human, and an Ogress are on their way to the good magician's castle and end up having to rescue Che, Jenny, and Gwenny from the Roc when they try to help Gwenny beat her little brother to be head of the goblins.