A Spell for Chameleon

I can see how this book is a landmark in fantasy history. It is one of those 101 on how to write a basic good adventure fantasy story. Every fantasy book should look up to this and at the very least be better.

The story is simple, the characters easy to like. Xanth is a small realm situated somewhat inside our own, but inaccessible by normal means. In this world, everyone has exactly one magical talent. Talents never repeat. And to keep living here, this talent must have manifested itself by the time you're ~22 years old, or else you're banished from Xanth. It doesn't matter how stupid and useless your magic is, as long as you have one. So you have a very small population with a wildly diversified array of magical talents, ranging from transmutation to changing the color of butterflies at will.

Bink is a citczen of Xanth, one who is near his 22 birthday and hasn't yet found his magical ability. Everyone else he knew got theirs when they were still a child. They used to tease and prank him merciless on account of this. Bink compensated the weakness in one aspect of his life to strentht the others. As a result he became strong, agile and intelligent. He needed to adapt in order to stand up to his bullies, and as a result, he turned out to a better man for it.

Banishment for Bink would mean to not only loose his homeland, the only place he ever knew, but also to be kept away from his parents and his girlfriend whom he loved. There is still a chance for him though. The good magician Godfrey, who is probably the strongest magician in Xanth, may have a way to help him to reveal his power. For a price of course, the good magician is expensive as hell.

So Bink sets up on his quest to find the good magician. The way is long and perilous. He finds himself in all sorts of dangerous situations, and meet a whole lot of wonderful characters. And along the way, the world of Xanth is revealed to us, together with the fantastic magic of its inhabitants.

Among the things I liked about the book is the logical explanation of things. Through an evolutive point of view, magic is explained to us. Plants have developed the magic most suitable to make them prosper in their environment. The flora of a forest can make the travelers passing through it to feel very comfortable, so much that they don't ever want to leave it. That way, its predators can feast on its flesh. A carnivorous tree might be able to make it rain so that unaware prey take shelter in its cover.

“May we stop for a drink?”
“Not here! Anyone who drinks from that water becomes a fish.”
“A fish? Why?”
“The river is trying to restock itself.”

Busted centaurs, mischievious sorcerers, gnomish magicians, evil ex-magicians turned general, dragons, mermaids, haunted castles, zombie crocodiles and a whole lot of other things awaits Bink on his adventure.

I read all of the Xanth books that were out at the time in junior high school and loved them, so I thought I'd be nostalgic and reread a couple... and discovered that the Suck Fairy had most definitely visited.

A “hmm” book. On the one hand, this is a very good effort of imagination; a world where everything is magical, from the animals to the rocks. On the other hand, it is spectacularly misogynist. Granted this was written at a time when attitudes were different, but it still seems incredible that every female character is largely defined by her appearance (and the rape “trial” beggers belief). At several points it is explicitly stated that women are not as capable as men. At times I was left wondering if this was meant to be satirical, but, no, it appears this is meant to be taken at face value.

There is a certain curiosity value to the book, which is the only thing that kept me reading until the end, but I wouldn't look down on anyone for jumping ship once they had felt they'd had enough.

I'm giving this 3 stars, since the basic story is good and, if it wasn't for the skincrawling sexism, would easily be a 4 star book. I can see this being popular with unenlighted 15 year old boys. If you have an academic interest how not to write female characters, give it a try, but don't feel guilty if you bail once you get the gist.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time. Piers Anthony has an uncanny talent for writing stories that I can never guess what the next twist is. Or if I can, I certainly don't anticipate the way that the twist happens.

The story is really about subverting assumptions. Many times something or someone would seem to be what they weren't. Whether it was a threat, ally, or even inanimate objects, things would change form or moral orientation at the drop of a hat.

The characters in Piers Anthony stories are always so memorable. They're colorful, fun to read, complex, and funny/hilarious. I'm looking forward to visiting Xanth many more times throughout the series.

DNF

So... I was getting very uneasy at the beginning, about how they talked about Samantha, and all the bullying (I mean... people getting physically hurt, even potentially killed, and no one does anything about it? ), so I went to find out what the book was about, and I read some 1-star reviews. Ew. No, thank you. Seems like this is one book I should have read when I was a kid. I really don't want to read it. Maybe I'll give it another chance in the future, but right now - no.

I gave this a new chance in 2023. I finished it. sigh It just isn't good.
Yes, everyone has heard of sexism. Every female character is described as being pretty or ugly. If they are pretty, their body is talked about and often repeated. Bink managed to put his hands on the centaur's breasts and noticed how the naked mermaids' breasts were supported by the water making them appear fuller.
Sure, Bink behaves like a perfect gentleman and doesn't have sex even when the opportunity comes (and it comes surprisingly often), but... it feels like virtue signaling. We are supposed to think Bink is a great, moral guy.
He really isn't.

For some reason, there can only be a king to rule the kingdom, even though he's in a way democratically elected - buy a handful of chancellors from the strong wizards of the kingdom. (There are practically just a couple of those at any given time.) In fact, the only reason Bink rejects a powerful sorcerer's aspiration to become the ruler is that she is a woman. The ruler can only be a man. The sorcerer has a plan - she can make Bink appear to have magic, strong magic, and so they'll make him the king, and she as his wife will become the queen. Bink says he doesn't want to be a king, and the sorcerer says that he doesn't need to do any of the ruling, she'd do that, but that goes against Bink's ideas of what a woman's place is, so no deal. The sorcerer mentions some things she'd do as the ruler, and there's nothing wrong with those things. Piers doesn't really give any reason why she would be a bad ruler, but, no, the council should choose the king, and that's it.
Well, hello, the council only chooses among the strong wizards, and there is only one right now in the country, and he doesn't want to be the king! So why not let someone be the king who wants to be the king, even though she is a woman and wants to be the king because she wants power? There is nothing to say she'd abuse the power.
The same thing with the “evil” wizard. Yeah, when he was young he did a lot of stupid things. But it turns out that half of those things were heavily exaggerated, even lies, and the guy is a stellar character, and never does anything bad. Or, at least after they get back to Xanth. He also is totally open and honest about his plans, explains them well, makes sense, but, no, he's “evil”, so Bink refuses to listen to him, even when it makes sense. It must be bad because he's “evil”. rolling eyes
Oh, the times I rolled my eyes reading this book!
Bink is f-ing whiny. He behaves and thinks like a teenager, but he's 25. Piers was over 40 when he wrote this book, and a father of two daughters, the first one he had when he was 22. She was over 21 when this book was published.
Bink constantly makes bad decisions based on really stupid logic and is saved all the time either due to the circumstances or because someone else saves him. Oh, and his magic talent. Yet everyone all the time tells him how smart, strong, and handsome he is. And his response is all the time “it doesn't matter, I don't have magic, so I'm worthless”.

Uh. I really dislike this book.

Sure, there are good things here too. Some of the puns were actually funny. I like the magical creatures and world-building, and the magic was kind of nice, too. But, Bink is an idiot and a marysue, and the sexism is really inexcusable. (Yeah, I know it was written in the 70s, but so were a lot of other books that manage to not be sexist, so what's Piers' excuse?)

Watched Deadpool 2 recently, and it having a character who has a power based on luck reminded me of this book. I realized I haven't read it since I was a teen so I got super excited about reading it again.

Some of the aspects of the book that I liked as a teen I still enjoyed, but its soo sexist. The amount of hate the author has towards women is barely veiled. At one point the author has the line “Cameleon, like most girls, had to answer the calls of nature often.” And that's just one of the ones I wrote down.

So yea, I gave it a couple stars cause it's a neat story still, but ugh.