When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past. The other seemingly all-powerful incantations of Immortality--Death, Fate, War, and Nature--made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps and he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good....
Bearing an Hourglass
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By Greg
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not a strong follow-up to an exceptional series opener. Unlike On a Pale Horse, this book did not have a solid lead character or a witty interchange with the main antagonist. I had much higher expectations for this book, as the character of Chronos (Time) has so many possibilities for adventures through time, but the book only delivered a series of odd adventures through space.
The beginning is dull, with an overlong backstory for the lead that does nothing to get the reader on his side. It takes roughly 20% of the book just to get into character, and even that moment fizzled into a bare sentence of taking hold of the Hourglass. From that point, the book bounces equally between silly and confusing episodes. It appears Piers Anthony got caught up in the Star Wars / Star Trek hype of 1983, as he devotes whole chapters to Chronos taking trips to "other planets". Although this is slightly cleared up near the end of the book, at the time the readers can't help but shake their heads and wonder why this book is relevant.
By the end of the book, the final battle between Chonos and Satan is a yawner. There is no exciting exchange of ideas, no witty dialogue, and no grand release when the hero wins the day. It's more a relief that the story is over.
For a book with such promise, it's saddening that the most interesting character is the ring.
The beginning is dull, with an overlong backstory for the lead that does nothing to get the reader on his side. It takes roughly 20% of the book just to get into character, and even that moment fizzled into a bare sentence of taking hold of the Hourglass. From that point, the book bounces equally between silly and confusing episodes. It appears Piers Anthony got caught up in the Star Wars / Star Trek hype of 1983, as he devotes whole chapters to Chronos taking trips to "other planets". Although this is slightly cleared up near the end of the book, at the time the readers can't help but shake their heads and wonder why this book is relevant.
By the end of the book, the final battle between Chonos and Satan is a yawner. There is no exciting exchange of ideas, no witty dialogue, and no grand release when the hero wins the day. It's more a relief that the story is over.
For a book with such promise, it's saddening that the most interesting character is the ring.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After falling in love with the first book of this series, On a Pale Horse, I was very excited to pick up this book and continue in the adventures. Sorry to say, I was very disappointed by this book.
For one thing, it took a quarter of the book just to get the hero of this book, Norton, to assume the office of Time. At least half of this book was spent in what Norton believed to be another world having experiences that had very, very little to do with the story. It did show a little bit of Norton's character, but it was a bothersome distraction from the real story. This means that the real meat of the story was only told in 25% of the book which, to me, is just a waste of time.
This book was really confusing and I felt that Piers Anthony could have done a better job of explaining of the office of Chronos, the Incarnation of Time. I felt I understood Death's office very well from the first book but this book did not really show how Chronos worked in his office. The only power he demonstrated did not demonstrate the responsibilities of his office.
I will probably pick up the other books because other reviews here seem to indicate that this is the most confusing and disliked book of the series. I would recommend this book if you are going to read the entire series... but I wonder if the rest of this series could be told without this story.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I enjoyed the first "Incarnation" story "On a Pale Horse" very much, and hoped the rest of the books would hold up as well. The rest of the series follow pretty much the same format, but each tells the story of a different aspect of humanity and life: Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature and Evil. The stories vary in the way that the protagonists deal with adversity using the powers of their respective roles as these incarnations.
Bearing an Hourglass starts out in the usual story about the life of the protagonist, in this case a wanderer who doesn't think he'll ever settle down. The critical moment is when they are faced with the prospect of immortality in exchange for service to all of humanity, and in this case, the lead character is faced with saving his love from a sorrowful death in exchange for becoming the incarnation of time, Chronos.
The story takes many twists as Satan tries to take advantage of the new Chronos's lack of experience, as Satan tries deception after deception to prevent Chronos from foiling the doings of Evil.
I enjoyed the story very much, and would recommend the whole series to anyone familiar with Anthony's other work. It's also a good introduction to Anthony, though I would also recommend the 2 "Adept" series. Both "Incarnations" and "Adept" blend magic/fantasy and technology in interesting ways to create universes that stand out from typical sci-fi or fantasy.
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3.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Uninspired mess of pottage
I am not an Anthony reader but read his first book in this series with enough pleasure to give the second offering a try. Read more
Published on Aug 2 2003 by Phil Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Complex Of The Incarnations Series
This book is a talks of the Incarnation of Time, Chronos and his assumption of this office and his Battle with Satan. Read more
Published on Jun 20 2003 by movie_maniacs3000
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not A Great Follow Up
In the firstbook of this seires there is only one chapter is about the maine charicter's life wich gives you the a good understanding of the charicter before he becomes an... Read more
Published on Dec 30 2001
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite there
"Bearing an Hourglass" is the second volume of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, dealing with the Incarnation of Time. Read more
Published on Oct 27 2001 by "foxechick"
2.0 out of 5 stars
A tremendous comedown. . .
. . .from the first "Incarnations of Immortality" novel.
"Bearing an Hourglass" deals with the character of Time. Read more
Published on Oct 19 2001 by David Zampino
3.0 out of 5 stars
The silliest of the Incarnations of Immortality
The first book in the series was great, full of interesting ideas and ponderings about the nature of good, evil, and death. This book was rather devoid of that. Read more
Published on Mar 21 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mars sent this in for his good buddy, Cronos.
The story rocked. And as for the people who hate it, you couldn't identify a good si-fi if you were hit in the head with it. Read more
Published on Feb 1 2001
1.0 out of 5 stars
Silly, Immature Book For Young Boys
This book is a classic example of bad writing that has been well targeted to earn good money. The characters are completely one-dimensional, boring, and unrealistic. Read more
Published on Dec 16 2000 by "shaiitan"
5.0 out of 5 stars
great followup
Bearing an Hourglass was a good follow-up story to On a Pale Horse. It introduces new ideas about time. Norton is an interesting character who has quite a few problems. Read more
Published on July 17 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Piers Anthony has done it again!
I just recently started reading the Incarnations series, and 'Hourglass' is my favorite so far. (Of course, I've only read 'Hourglass' and 'Pale Horse'. Read more
Published on July 14 2000 by SD Ryukage
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