On a Pale Horse

So, my uncle gave me this and the rest of the series of books when I was younger. I devoured this book. I had never really been into any sort of sci-fi/fantasy genre before, at least not something like this book. The concept of having death be a person and the ability to accidentally kill death and you become him just blew my mind when I was younger. I love this book, it's funny, it keeps you intrigued, it expands the universe in which it is set by having you see purgatory. There is a slight romance in this book as well. It just has everything, and I recommend this to everyone. It's just such a great book. If you ever have the chance, read it.

I read these as a teenager and always liked them. They are a fun mix of fantasy and science fiction. I recently stumbled upon a copy of the audio book of this and gave it a listen. While the narration is great it sadly just shows how poorly written this book is. At its heart there is a fun idea and the interplay of the characters, each of whom has a their own novel. However, Anthony doesn't have the skills to capitalise on them. Worse he's just an pervy old man who can't write a woman without telling us how amazing she looks or how ugly she is. It is just so tiresome. I did try the second book but had to stop half way through as it's even worse. I did find that he had released an 8th book much more recently but from reading the descriptions it really shows how much of a creep Piers is with an underage protagonist having sex all the way through the book. This is creepy full stop but considering the book was published in in 2007 when the writer was 73 says it all.

I suppose you could be kind and say its just a pulp novel with hero men but strangely the male protagonists are all unlikeable and far from the sharpest tools in the box. So not sure what was going on there.