Rings of Ice [Paperback]

Piers Anthony (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Services; New edition edition (August 26, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006146155
• ISBN-13: 978-0006146155
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,920,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Piers Anthony is one of the world's most popular fantasy authors, and a New York Times bestseller twenty-one times over. His Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and he daily receives hundreds of letters from his devoted fans.In addition to the Xanth series, Anthony is the author of many other best-selling works. Piers Anthony lives in Inverness, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Idea...but not one of Anthony's best, May 31, 2005

By 

Bromptonboy "Bromptonboy" (Doylestown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rings of Ice (Paperback)

The idea behind this story is an interesting one, but you can tell this is his first novel. The idea is that a large comet(s) are exploded and diverted in such a way as to bring some additional rain to Earth. The ill conceived plan goes drastically wrong, and the earth is once again deluged with non-stop rain. Cilivization and the environment break down, and Anthony's band of misfits - being led by a man with a vision in a Winnebago - try to survive.

If you are a die hard Anthony fan, you should read this to help you understand his evolution as a writer. If not a die hard fan, you may want to avoid this one and try some of his other Sci-fi - like his Orn, Omnivore, and Ox trilogy, or Kirlian Quest Series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rainy Day Read, April 22, 2009

By 

Ana Mardoll (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rings of Ice (Paperback)

Rings of Ice / 0-380-00036-9

I'm a moderate Piers Anthony fan, although goodness knows he has his flaws from time to time. I do enjoy his stand-alone science fiction, though, and "Rings of Ice" definitely delivers a punch.

Though it is a valid criticism of the book that several of the characters are somewhat shallow and one-dimensional, I think it is important to note that the individual characters here are not meant to be the main focus of the story. When the world begins to disastrously flood in a standard "science gone wrong" scenario, these dysfunctional and one-dimensional people must come together as a group in order to survive.

In this light, the characters' dysfunctional personalities enhance the story because a new view of "survival of the fittest" is presented here: our characters survive not because they are individually "fit", but because they are "fit" as a group. The strengths of the combined whole must outweigh the weaknesses of the individuals. Each main character has a potentially fatal weakness, and the group must work to overcome those weaknesses. This in of itself is a fascinating departure from standard fare survival fiction, where He-Men heroes and She-Ra heroines survive because they are just such ruggedly awesome people.

I definitely recommend this book for a rainy day read.

~ Ana Mardoll

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure trash, April 12, 2004

By 

Nicole N. Pellegrini "sockii" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rings of Ice (Paperback)

I had a feeling going into this novel that it would be kind of trashy, but I am a sucker for apocalyptic/end-of-the-world stories, so I thought I'd read it anyway.

Bad, bad idea.

The writing is incredibly juvenille and amateurish (I cringed at how Anthony abuses the poor exclamation point), yet the content is often very adult and gruesome and not something I would recommend to young readers. The only remotely likeable characters are killed off and I just wanted to slap some sense into the rest of them. A rather nasty misogynistic thread runs through the entire piece as well. Parts of the story that could have been interesting are glossed over or rendered entirely unbelievable by the way they are presented. I honestly can't believe that crap like this could have gotten professionally published.

Don't waste your time or money on this one.