16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not up to standard for Xanth, Dec 31 2006
By mark sutter - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stork Naked (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, Dec 25 2007
By Birgit Arentsen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stork Naked (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, Mar 25 2010
By Sarah Buck "S. Buck" - Published on Amazon.com
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.