Customer Reviews

Roc and a Hard Place (Xanth, No. 19)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is almost the greatest book, being only second to isle of view. but if you love the demoness metria then you'll love this book. She embarks on a journey across the land of xanth and beyond to summon people and creatures for the trial of the century. full of puns, laughs, and reunions its the second best xanth book ever!!! if you don't love it, you haven't really read it. but you have to read the previous books in order to feel the nostalgia.

I wish Piers would have stopped writing in the Xanth series, even though I continue to read the newer ones. Then I would have been spared the pain of having each successive book being slightly less amusing. It becomes so old after this book that I don't know why I bother anymore...BUT the older books in the Xanth series are delightful. Invest your time and money in those.

Roc and a Hard Place is my first Xanth book(Sept 1998). It is excruciatingly punny. I loved it, loved it, loved it! All the others I have seen since then (Harpy Thyme, Valley of the Voles, Colour of Her Panties) are hilarious. This series is a must-read for all not-so-serious fans of fantasy who are sickened by the blood and gore that pervades most of this category of books. I only gave it five stars because they wouldn't let me give it ten!

Yes, he's quite the wit with puns and words and phrases, and yes it's fun.... but enough already. Let us have some interesting storyline too! I think I still like best the story A Spell For Chameleon. It was heartwarming. Roc and a Hard Place is just an exercise in wordiness. Does he get paid by the word? No character development, no plot development, just more and more and more of the same.

Now I like the Xanth novels. I've read virtually all of them and they're entertaining, but that doesn't stop me from noting its problems and downfalls. Piers Anthony has made some improvement in his Xanth novels. While he still hasn't been able to let go of the ever-present find-a-mate-get-married-have-babies-for-the-next-Xanth-novel plot, it has been pressed more or less into the background instead of being the one of main focuses of the book. No the main problem of the book is that there is no real conflict in the story. Everything is accomplished too easily and you can always find someone who has the answer or something to give you just what you need. This is my definition of 'abuse of magic'. There is never any doubt about the outcome. Problems are just passing clouds, without any real substence or lingering effects. That may be fine with younger readers, but who are these books written for anyway? You tend to think adults, because 'Roc and A Hard Place' is full of Sexual Innuendo and Situations. Which is downright absurd when the last three chapters of 'Roc and a Hard Place' are about a bird being put on trail for having violated the Adult Conspiracy by uttering the word 'Darn' in the presence of a juvenile... in this case, an egg.

I'm a great fan of Demoness Metria (the main reason I bought most of Anthony's books after he wrapped up his original "trilogy"; I even wrote a small homage to her in one of my books) but I was sorely disappointed after reading "Roc and a Hard Place". I was expecting something very unusual after my favorite Demoness got split up into two different identities (D.Metria and D.mentia) in "Gargoyle Geis", but all I got was a tale (which devolves in to a courtroom drama) that merely reduced her to a courier-boy role.
Piers Anthony's quality writing still endures, but the problem is that he has started to become more and more formulaic: character wants something, consults with Humphrey, gets a quest to do and attain what he/she wants. If you're a fan who doesn't want to spoil the memorable reads you've experienced in "Man from Mundania" and "Question Quest", I think you'd do yourself a big favor if you stopped reading any subsequent books in this long-lived series. I wish I did.

I admit, the big draw for me with this book was Demoness Metria: she's long been one of my favorite characters, and the "souled" version of her is even more appealing.

The basic premise of the story--that Roxanna Roc is to go on trial for an undisclosed reason, leads Metria to do a service to the Simurgh by delivering summons to everyone involved in the trial, from the judge all the way to the alternate jurors, which naturally leads to plenty of adventures, and even a trip into Mundania, where Metria becomes the first Demon ever to drive a truck. It brings back a lot of characters not seen in some time (such as Arnolde Centaur) and re-introduces more recent ones (Kim and Dug Mundane.) Though Metria has always been known for her naughty, sexy nature, it's surprisingly kept light in this book--unlike some of Anthony's later Xanth books there is little devotion to "summoning the stork" or attempts to get other people naked and when it happens, it's brief, not multi-chapter slogs that drag the book down.

Metria really proves herself as someone you root for, and there are some surprising revelations about her past that come out; we learn a lot more about this mischievous Demoness than we might have guessed. Best of all the secret of what Roxanne is accused of stays nicely hidden until near the end, as does the whole purpose of the trial. As always the story is chock-full of puns and humor and it was a sad moment when I reached the end (even as it was a happy one for Metria.) Definitely one of the best of the second series Xanth novels ever written.

I don't read a lot of fiction, but our kids were raised with Xanth in the background. Now my daughter is writing a book, and Piers Anthony read part of her first chapter, replying with some excellent encouraging suggestions! Xanth has provided multiple illustrations on dealing with life.

You've probably been reading Xanth already, so I won't describe it at length. I'll just say that it's like Narnia, Wonderland and the world of the Phantom Tollbooth combined, where the only thing that doesn't exist is impossibiliy itself.

Strange to say, this was the first Xanth novel I read. Instant love. I've since read some of the earlier books and they do indeed have a more moderate level of random wackiness. But Roc and a Hard place shares their subtle moral sensibilities and remarkable characters while outdoing any I've yet read with an endless cornicopia of wonderful wordplay and plot twists that only Piers Anthony could think up. If it's also your first one, I would advise reading at least some early ones because not much background information is given.

Yes, it's light. Not a thriller or timeless classic. And it shows Anthony's unfortunate weakness for suddenly springing neat endings from wretchedly twisted conflicts. But if you have a stressful life and long for sojourns in a world of infinite linguistical and zoological glories, you couldn't do much better than this.

I think if I had encountered the Xanth books as a teen they would have become some of my all time favorites. Back then I would have really loved the wordplay and the fertile imagination of the Xanth series. And it is still enjoyable. But the is a general lack of depth to Anthony's world and characters that makes these books much less appealing to me now. After reading a few Xanth novels, I really couldn't imagine going through the whole very lengthy series.

The specific plot for this story is that the demoness Metria, in order to attract the attention of the stork, agrees to summon various individuals from throughout Xanth, and in some cases beyond, to be trial personnel and jurors for a trial of Roxanne Roc. Metria needs her various talents, along with those of her alter egos De Mentia and Woebetide to manage the many obstacles to retrieving all these folks. Most of these characters have been introduced in prior tales, and there are references to the events of these earlier books, most of which I hadn't read, but I didn't find that to be a real obstruction to reading the novel.

It's a nicely built story with some good twists at the end. Loads of puns, frequently with each being an even worse groaner than the one before. As seems to be true in other Anthony books, there's a fair amount of slightly risque material without ever going to a level that would offend anyone other than the abnormally prudish. As I believe Lincoln first said, "For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like." But I like my fantasies with more fully realized worlds, issues, and conflicts.