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A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, Book 1) Mass Market Paperback – March 12, 1987

by Piers Anthony (Author)

454 customer reviews

Book 1 of 35 in the Xanth Series

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Xanth was the enchanted land where magic ruled--where every citizen had a special spell only he could cast. That is, except for Bink of North Village. He was sure he possessed no magic, and knew that if he didn't find some soon, he would be exiled. According to the Good Magician Humpfrey, the charts said that Bink was as powerful as the King or even the Evil Magician Trent. Unfortunately, no one could determine its form. Meanwhile, Bink was in despair. If he didn't find his magic soon, he would be forced to leave....

A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, Book 1)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though already developing a successful career in SF with such heady novels as Chthon and Omnivore, Piers Anthony did not reach brand-name status until he cooked up some fantasy in 1977. And it was cheerful, humorous fantasy at that, as in his first Xanth series novel, A Spell for Chameleon. The book's young hero, Bink, is without magical powers in a world ruled entirely by magic. Worse still, if he doesn't discover his own magical talent soon, he will be forever banished from his homeland. Naturally, it takes an epic quest for Bink to learn what his unique talent truly is--and perhaps to win the girl of his dreams as well. A Spell for Chameleon was the very first of Anthony's bestselling (and still ongoing) humorous fantasy series. Noteworthy for their outrageous word puns and bizarre characters, the Xanth books are a light yet often satisfying brew, especially when compared with the author's sometimes nihilistic and ultraviolent hard SF. --Stanley Wiater --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Del Rey; Reprint edition (March 12, 1987)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345347536
ISBN-13: 978-0345347534
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 5.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (454 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #203 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Humorous
- #1200 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Fantasy
- #1965 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction

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Customer reviews

454

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		70%
4 star		19%
3 star		5%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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This Book Will Put a Spell on You.

ByJediKnight26on July 19, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A Spell for Chameleon is a very interesting book with an awesome premise. In the land of Xanth, every person has some type of magical power, be it a major power or minor. Bink, the main character, does not believe that it has any magical power, so he begins a journey to determine if he has any power or not. On this journey, Bink will encounter a couple of friends and numerous formidable foes. He will learn much about himself and Xanth. In the grand scheme of things for Xanth, Bink may be the most important person in the history of Xanth, but Bink does not know his importance, and only one other person understands just how important Bink may be. It's a grand adventure, that neatly concludes with a love story that you may not have realized that you were reading, and it does an excellent job of setting the stage for sequel in this series. Highly recommended

0Comment 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

One of my favorite series growing up, recommended.

ByJoel Daltonon June 8, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I think this is a very good book, as well as series. It's an intriguing world where all of your traditional tropes are twisted in the best ways. I know a lot of people think it can be kind of goofy, but you have to have fun with it. There is a reason they make comedy movies as well as drama movies. Not everything has to be 'Game of Thrones'.

I started reading this series when I was younger and I'm now doing a reread of it since I've fallen behind on them. I do look at it with different eyes as I get older and now that I have better writing to compare it to, I can see flaws, but many of the flaws I see people attribute to the writer seem to me, to be flaws in the characters personalities that he worked through. Not every character has a revelation, but you usually see them grow significantly compared to their first appearance. Something else I like about the series is that with the exception of the first two books, each successive book in the series is about a different character. There is usually an important mission that a group of main characters goes on and the following book will be about one of them or another character that was introduced. The cast keeps growing and the world keeps getting more complex, counter to what some will say.

I've highly enjoyed the series over the years and encourage anyone to pick it up and start reading them.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Good story with some frustrating flaws

ByReveiwYOUon June 7, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This of course, depends on your definition of "flaw". The story itself is, in many senses, a page turner. The world of xanth is portrayed with great creativity and attention to detail. The story is similarly detailed, with wonderful execution of mystery suspense foreshadowing and plot twists which drive the desire to read more. However, I found the portrayal of gender roles to be hard to stomach at times. This is written from the viewpoint of a man, so I can understand why there is some appraisal of the female gender (is the girl pretty? Ugly? Smart? Lustworthy?) All people appraise others for attraction. But this was so frequent, and often so shallow and exaggerated that it quickly became distasteful. Similarly, men were often portrayed with a machoism or idealized manliness. It made for some flat predictable characters. Despite this, I still quite enjoyed the story and would like to read more, though I think there are many who would have a hard time looking past some of the writing choices.

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Fun to Read!

ByJaimyon June 22, 2017

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love Piers Anthony books. This book is one of many in this set. He makes you use your imagination a lot through the whole book. He takes the simplest thing and turns it into something else. This book is so much fun to read. I read this book every chance I got. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. I would recommend to anyone whole loves to through themselves into the fantasy world.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Compared to other books, this is bleh (no spoilers)

ByJoe B.on January 18, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I recently got back into reading again, i've always loved fantasy novels and sci-fi novels and a friend recommended this after i finished the inheritance cycle and rereading the harry potter series. This book was lacking a certain something, i'm not sure if it's the way the author writes, but it was just lacking a certain aesthetic that make so many other books appealing.

The book had a fantastic storyline (to me at least) an interesting world with interesting properties of magic. He starts out incredibly strong and engaging for the first few chapters. He details everything and gives the main character an identity and the land it's own identity as well. But, if you notice, he doesn't go beyond that. He will define a lot of stuff about our main character, and what he thinks of what's going on, but little is given about anything else except for the main characters feelings towards that person and his rationale for his feelings (which is every time he meets someone, so if you don't like books with digressions, stay away from this).

Piers was extremely descriptive in the beginning, describing everything around the main character, But he just gave up after the first couple chapters, he would skip an enormus amount of time in between the characters traveling and dialogue, and I felt horribly left out. He could have done so much in the elapsed time, but instead he does nothing (i like long detailed books).

And I personally didn't care for the ending, though i understood it completely.

It seems also like his vocabulary underwent a right-click syndrome. There are some words that seem horribly out-of-place. if you were to remove, say about 200 or so of these aberrations, you would be left with the authors natural words, and his actual words would repeat and were incredibly simplistic. He just doesn't have the vocab to describe certain things, and it appears that he right clicks->synonym for current word->shoves it into the book. Oh and the antagonist's name was mispelled in the last 3 chapters as Treat instead of Trent. Don't know if anyone caught that.

Decent read, but was dissapointed overall.

44 comments 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A good read, unmarred by the passage of time.

ByFletcher Bumpuson May 13, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

It had been literally decades since the last time I read this book. I remembered snippets of the tale, but had forgotten how truly magical ( pun intended!) This story truly is. Mister Anthony seems to be rather enamoured with the female body, but otherwise the book is a fine read for fantasy fans, young and old.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

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Most recent customer reviews

Love Xanth

I've always enjoyed the Xanth series and it's nice to find the books all in one place. I will be collecting them all.

Published 12 days ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

i love this classic

Published 12 days ago by David Walker

Who knew the e in ebook stands for errors

this review is for the kindle ebook only - it is so full of errors - including multiple lines of missing text - as to be almost unreadable.

Published 13 days ago by YarnSquirrel

Amazing, I am "Spell bound" to Xanth

I love this book, I read it this year in sixth grade and loved it it is great for all ages(After parent or guardian gives you the okay)Between the well develoed characters and...Read more

Published 18 days ago by Justin

Five Stars

a classic

Published 20 days ago by laura childs

Chock full of sexist tropes

Fairly sexist portrayals of women. The protagonist relates to women on two levels:

1. Do I want to have sex with her?
2.Read more

Published 20 days ago by Danielle S.

Addictive Story

It's a little slow at first but it gets much more interesting further into the story. Has a great storyline with adventure, drama, and romance.Read more

Published 28 days ago by Peter and Katherine

One of my favorites

Published 1 month ago by Jay-Niki

On the Road in a Fantasy World

This the first book that I have read by Piers Anthony and it is the first in the Xanth series. Piers Anthony is a very successful fantasy author with a career that spans decades.Read more

Published 1 month ago by Constant Reader

Geeky goodness

If your into geek culture this book should be at the top of the reading list with Hitchhiker's and the Rings trilogy.Read more

Published 1 month ago by William Phillips

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