A Spell for Chameleon

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?)