Customer Reviews

Source of Magic (Xanth Novels)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Imagine yourself in a world where everyone has a magic spell. Now, picture yourself as someone on a quest to find the source of the magic. Now, imagine yourself with a centaur, a griffin, a golem, and a strange wizard. This is what happens to Bink, while his wife is throwing him out. He searches through all of the world of Xanth, with the help of his friends. He runs into all sorts of dangerous traps, but his magic talent saves him. However, where he goes, even all of his magic might not be enough to save him! When I read this book, I at first was just interested in the plot. Through the plot twists, I couldn't put it down. Near the end, where there are even more surprises, I almost burned the book. However, the end more than made up for the part that made me want to scream. All in all, The Source of Magic was a very worthwhile book to read.

This is the second book in Anthony's Xanth series. The world of Xanth is build upon puns, all of the creatures and the landscape is puns taken from real life and used literally. The tone of Xanth is fairly light-hearted, and I've always considered this to be a light fantasy series (as opposed to the more serious and emotionally darker fantasy series).

Bink found his magical talent in A Spell for Chameleon , is now married, and works as a magic researcher for King Trent. With his wife nine months pregnant and very angry, Bink is sent off on a quest to discover the source of the magic in Xanth. Bink will be accompanied by his friend, Chester the Centaur, the Good Magician Humphrey, and Grundy the Golem. Being only the second Xanth novel, this one is has a decent story and is well written. Even though I have read this before (years back), I still cared what happened to these characters. The quest for the source of magic is interesting, and the payoff when Bink finds it (as if he wouldn't) is worth the price of admission. This is an excellent Xanth novel with more drama than later books. This is one of the best in the series.

As you are probably aware, "The Source of Magic" is the second book in the Xanth series. A co-worker turned me on to the series by lending me the sixth book ("Night Mare"), which led me pick up the first 16 books through an ebay auction.

I have heard that, after a while, the Xanth books get repetitive or dull, but "The Source of Magic" is near the beginning of the series, and everything is fresh and tight. What do I mean by tight? Well, the laws of magic in Xanth are well-formed and internally consistent. Lots of fantasy movies, in particular, do not adhere to internally consistent rules, and as a result, they get annoying. A prime example is Michael Crichton's "Timeline," where he babbles on about quantum theory in an effort to demonstrate that his book is not about time travel; yet, a major plot point could only work if in fact a person traveled back in time. That's annoying.

"The Source of Magic" (and "A Spell for Chameleon," the first Xanth book) are not like that. They follow the rules, and once you understand the secret about Bink (the main character), you marvel at how well everything fits together.

Anyway, this is a classic "quest" type of story: a group of adventurers -- Bink, a human with a special magical talent; Crombie, a human soldier transformed into a griffin (part-eagle, part-lion); Humfrey, a human Magician; Grundy, a golem; and Chester, a centaur -- go on a mission to find the source of magic in the land of Xanth. Along the way, they meet a dragon, an ogre, a village of women, a siren and a gorgon (kind of like Medusa), and all sorts of other creatures. Once they find the source of magic, Bink has to make an awfully difficult ethical and moral choice.

Later Xanth books get more and more pun-filled; you see some of them here, such as the desert known as "eye scream," made from the eyes of scream birds -- not to be confused with "eye smilk." But apart from the puns, this book is often quite funny, especially since the griffin and the centaur are constantly squabbling against each other.

The Source of Magic is a great sequel to A Spell for Chameleon. A non-stop adventure with wonder and humor. The first 4 Xanth books make great reading material for teens, and really make reading enjoyable.

After Centaur Aisle, the series degenerates. The stories and characters get poorer. Xanth loses all it's charm and cohesion after that point. The main characters are kids and kid like characters. Stick with A Spell for Chameon, The Source of Magic, Castle Roogna, and Centaur Aisle for the best of Xanth.

A Review by Max

Bink, the chief explorer for King Trent and Castile Rogan, lives in the magical world of Xanth. Cut off from any mundania "normal" people. Xanth relies on magic for means of survival. Everyone in Xanth has their own special magic talent. While attending a party, King Trent decides to give Bink the very difficult quest of finding the source of Xanths magic. Aided by a mighty centaur named Chester, a great warrior transformed into a griffin, Cromby, a powerful magician, Humfrey and a golem that can translate any language, called Grundy. They set off on this great adventure knowing not what lies ahead.

I thought this book had a very good plot line and almost every detail in it related somehow with the climax. In the end everything comes together and the author reveals everything. This book has every aspect I enjoy in a novel; comedy, action, mystery, and romance. The fighting scenes become very intense and with the detail Mr. Anthony gives you are put right into the middle of it. The only problem I see with the book is that it gets a little dull and confusing at times.

I would recommend "The Source Of Magic" to anyone who remotely likes fantasy novels and/or action adventure novels. But if anyone thinks they would like to read this book then I suggest that they read "A Spell For Chameleon" first, which is the first in the series of Xanth novels, while "The Source Of Magic" is the second.

It's getting a tad boring in the life of Bink of North Village. The feeling of great accomplishment he gained from trying to find his talent, and ending up saving Xanth from total anarchy has decayed about as much as the zombies of castle Roogna. Bink is left wanting, by a deteriorating home life with Chameleon and a lack of action. With all of this in mind, and the return of all of his friends from around Xanth to remind him of his previous adventure, he believes that it is finally time that he take on his task given to him by King Trent at the beginning of his reign to discover the source of magic in Xanth. So with all of his friends, a centaur named Chester, a human transformed into a Griffin, Crombie, and a Gnome that goes by the name of Good Magician Humfrey by his side, he undertakes his quest which fills him with enough action and adventure for any normal person's whole lifetime, luckily Bink is not just a normal person.
This book is really amazing in the way that it is written, through the point of view of a guy, a real one, not one of those lovey dovey guys that you read about in the romance novels which makes it extremely identifiable. There are pages and pages of action in this book, and it is all so perfectly detailed so that you can actually see in you mind where the swords clash, and how the fights take place. If you enjoy fantasy, this is defenitly the book for you. I strongly recommend this book or any book by Piers Anthony in this case.

Having completed the quest for his magic talent (told in "A Spell for Chameleon"), Bink embarks on another adventure. His mission: to find the source of all magic in the land of Xanth. Accompanied by his friend Chester Centaur, Grundy the universal translator and the wise Good Magician Humfrey, he sets off on this ambitious quest. But what he discovers in the course of his travels could extinguish magic and change the land of Xanth forever...

"The Source of Magic" is only the second volume in the Xanth series, and many of the more extensive magical ideas in the later books are still non-existent or undeveloped. Even so, Piers Anthony succeeds in creating a convincing story. The characters are amusing, if lacking somewhat in depth- this is most definitely light fantasy- and still face some halfway serious moral dilemmas as the story proceeds.

If you have read later Xanth novels, this book is a must-read: take a look at the origins of Xanth, and marvel at its evolution since then. For new readers, this is a good place to start: the world of Xanth is a more rounded and interesting place than it was in "A Spell for Chameleon", and it continues to develop over the course of the next several books.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is full of puns and light-hearted humor. "The Source of Magic" is the follow up to "A Spell for Chamelion." In the first book, Bink found his mangical talent. Now Bink is married and works as a magic researcher for King Trent. With his wife very pregnant and very angry, Bink is sent off on a quest to discover the source of the magic in Xanth.

The adventurers with Bink are Crombie (a human soldier transformed into a griffin), Humfrey (a human Magician like Bink), Grundy (a golem), and Chester (a centaur). An their adventures, they encounter all sorts of creatures including a dragon, an ogre, a siren and a gorgon. Finding the source of magic forces Bink to make a difficult choice.

There's about a 100 Xanth books out there, and they don't strictly require you to start at book one and move forward (although there are advantages to that), so where to start? In my opinion, the second book is the best entry into Anthony's odd world.

The first book, A Spell For Chameleon, is a bit dry and slow. It wasn't until the second that Anthony caught his stride. Here we've got a happy medium for Xanth, fun and whimsical but not unbearably punny and ridiculous like the later novels. Adding to that is a pretty decent story, where Bink, Humphrey and others must discover the source of power that enables magic in Xanth. The source is pretty interesting, as is what Bink does when they find it. The story actually has enough meat on it to stand up next to the more standard entries in the fantasy genre.

If you're familiar with Xanth but haven't read this one, what are you waiting for? It features the rarity of Humphrey going on a long quest, and features discovering what makes Xanth what it is. A must read for Xanth fans.

If you're a fantasy fan in general, be warned: Xanth is pretty ridiculous. It doesn't take itself seriously at all. But like I said, it's quite a bit tamer in these early books than in the later ones.

Life had become mundane for Bink and his friends. It has been almost a year since their adventures that led to the Evil Magician becoming the Good King Trent, Bink married Chameleon and is now expecting their first child, Chester and Cherie have their own little colt, and Crombie is in the king's service and engaged to Sabrina. However, all of them suffer from women troubles and are getting rather agitated.

As it happens, Queen Iris decides to have a masquerade ball in honor of Trent's accession to the throne one year before and you have to play by Iris's rules because, well, because she is one of the three most powerful magicians in Xanth and is the Queen besides. During the course of the ball, Bink is getting attacked by some unseen enemy. So, to protect him, and get him away from Chameleon, King Trent sends him on a new quest - find out the source of the magic of Xanth. To help him, King Trent sends along the gang including Chester the Centaur, Crombie the soldier in the guise of a Griffin, and even the magician Humfrey comes along with the demon Beauregard and Grundy as a translator.

The happy band is glad to leave the castle and their various problems behind and eagerly tackle the quest. However, things quickly turn nasty as the land of Xanth is no place for the timid. It does not help that Bink has a tendency to get into lots of trouble since he lets his conscience guide him and his honor rule him. So, the group has to deal with Gorgons, Dragons, Ogres and other wierd and wonderful creatures before they can accomplish their task.

However, there is one more factor at play: The source of magic is guarded and that guardian wants no one to find it. Not only that, when Bink and company get close, they are warned to leave as accomplishing the mission will mean the destruction of Xanth's magic. What to do?

Well, the story ends happily with Xanth's magic in place, but not before many adventures are undertaken and obstacles overcome. The source of magic is found, it tries to destroy Xanth, but eventually things are restored - almost - to the way they were. Not only that, but Bink, Chester, Crombie, and King Trent all find ways to deal with their women problems and solve them in ways that bode well for their futures.

Now, what is the next adventure that these guys will have in Xanth? How many more plays on words can Piers Anthony come up with? What will be the next creature in the wiggle, squiggle, diggle line? Inquiring minds want to know!