Stork Naked (Xanth Novels) [Hardcover]

Piers Anthony (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006 | Series: Xanth Novels

In his 30th rollicking chronicle of the enchanted land of Xanth, Piers Anthony reveals unexplored new dimensions of his magical realm. Stork Naked tells the tale of Surprise Golem, an expectant mother who has just lost her brand-new baby!

For in Xanth, little ones are actually delivered by storks! And the Stork assigned to deliver Surprise's eagerly awaited Bundle of Joy has inexplicably refused to surrender it, flying off instead through a hole in the fabric of reality.

Now, to track down her offspring, Surprise must lead an ill-assorted assemblage of confederates on a desperate quest through dozens of different Xanths. But sinister, unseen forces are determined to stop her. And in order to find her child, Surprise may have to lose her heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Anthony's routine 30th Xanth novel, Stymy Stork refuses to deliver Surprise Golem's baby, because Surprise is too young, per the dictates of the Adult Conspiracy. After the stork flies off with his bundle, Surprise, the two bratty children she's babysitting and the pet peeve (the obnoxious bird of 2005's Pet Peeve) resolve to bring the baby back. Their meandering quest takes them through various alternate Xanths, including Lion Mountain, complete with Mountain Lion, and the Punderground. Hardcore Xanth fans will enjoy the pun-filled journey, but other readers may raise their eyebrows at how often the Adult Conspiracy fails to protect teenage girls from sexual activity. In the end, Surprise and her baby reach home—but is this the home and husband they left? At least the book closes with a tantalizing question to set up the sequel. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In the thirtieth absurd, pun-laden tale of Xanth, Surprise Golem is expecting. But Stymy Stork refuses to deliver and flies off through a hole in the fabric of reality. To track down her baby, Surprise embarks, with the brats she babysits and the obnoxious pet peeve in tow, on a quest through several alternate Xanths. While seeking the baby, the odd lot has trouble keeping track of each other. Eventually, mom finds babe and returns to . . . Is this the home she left? Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765304090
• ISBN-13: 978-0765304094
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,295,080 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

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to standard for Xanth, December 31, 2006

By 

mark sutter (Peoria, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stork Naked (Xanth Novels) (Hardcover)

I've got all of the Xanth books. Since, there are around 30 Xanth books, you can see that I'm a fairly serious fan of the series. This is similar to most of the Xanth books: lots of puns, Demon-ly manipulation, discoveries of potential mates, hints of sex, etc.

I liked the occasionally leading role that the children (Ted, Monica, and Woe Betide) and the Peeve had in the story. However, the adults (Surprise, Stymy, Pyra, and Che) tended to be charactors that you couldn't really care about.

The biggest problem that I had was the number of plot holes and disconnected events. I frequently found myself paging back and forth, trying to figure out how a person joined or left the company. Sometimes, I couldn't figure it out. One partial explanation for confusion might be that this book is structured differently from most of the books, in that there are many more break-aways from the central charactor (Surprise) to first-person naratives of the other charactors.

Also, while Demon bets are the basis for the events that drive the story, the resolution of those bets isn't completely clear, nor do we meet the Demons. Additionally, there is another whole plot element involving the Simurgh which is hardly explored or resolved at all.

In general this feels like a first draft of a book, that still needs a lot of editing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars My Stork Naked Truth, December 25, 2007

By 

Birgit Arentsen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stork Naked (Xanth, No. 30) (Mass Market Paperback)

It has been years since I've read one of the Xanth novels and it was my fond memories of what it was like to discover the magical land of Xanth rather than the description on the back that made me buy the book. Babies are just so not my thing: having them, not having them, losing them, finding them, dealing with them. I'll leave that to others and I should have left this book to others, too.
Enter Surprise Golem who must go on a quest to find her baby whom the stork refused to deliver to her. I had hoped that the puns and other Xanthian perks and quirks would let me enjoy the book even though I could care less about the story line but it wasn't so. Were all the puns explained in such detail in the old books or was the reader's mind more called on to work things out on their own?

I was unable to finish the book because I had things to do that were fun. So sorry, Piers Anthony, but thank you for all the wonderful hours I was allowed to spend in Xanth years ago.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Good - An exception to the series, March 25, 2010

By 

Sarah Buck "S. Buck" (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stork Naked (Kindle Edition)

I found this book to drag on and on and rely heavily on the two main characters wanting to sleep with each other. That's a pretty weak story line. I mean, what happened to Surprise's ability to reverse the love spring's effects? I felt fairly lost in this book and at the end, when they (poorly) decide which home to go back to, I'd definitely had more than enough. I love the Xanth series and have read (at least) the first 25 books twice, and everything since, once. Hopefully this is the only strong exception to a great series. The last books have unfortunately gotten a bit weak and the story lines have become quite a stretch.