Books: Demons Dont Dream

[furtradertyler]

Well I recently starting reading this book called Demons Dont Dream and its pretty cool. EL reminds me of it. If you havent read it do so its awsome. Its about rpg game that is very diffrent from the rest. And seems to be another world. Pretty cool i think.

[Gohan]

You know of an online free version? :-P Not that I read books in English anyway since I live in belgium. :-P

[Shouja]

I THOUGHT I recognised the title. "Demons Don't Dream" is the sixteenth book in the Xanth chronicles, by Piers Anthony. Not an RPG world, but a fantasy one, yes. The Xanth series have been part of the fantasy genre for over 20 years now. But I can see why you thought it was an RPG world - the summary sounds like another Compewter-tries-to-take-over-Xanth- using-people-from-Mundania story again.

 

But the chronicles of Xanth are definitely great books to read, especially if you like punny humour. I would suggest trying to find and read the first six books of the first Xanth "trilogy". (Yeah, I know... originally only three books about Xanth were supposed to be written, but the series currently has hit the 30th book or so... The first "trilogy" ends at book 27, which is 3^3).

 

But seriously, go read from 'A Spell for Chameleon' all the way to 'Night Mare', at least. That would introduce you to the first generation of characters in Xanth that we all know and love. The second and third generations just aren't as interesting, IMHO. (And it gets kinda complicated, trying to keep track of all the characters after a while).

 

More info: The Compleat Piers Anthony

 

~Shouja~

Edited April 24, 2006 by Shouja

[Vanyel]

I've got like 19 parts of Xanth. Unfortunatelly, I have to say that they're getting worse and worse. While first 10 were really great later he just lack of ideas:(

Nevertheless - it's worth to read and to see how creative might be use of English

[furtradertyler]

Could some one post like the first 10 books for me so i know the names. Ill have to check for them at the book store next time i am by there.

[Dent]

1 A Spell for Chameleon

2 The Source of Magic

3 Castle Roogna

4 Centaur Aisle

5 Ogre, Ogre

6 Night Mare

7 Dragon on a Pedestal

8 Crewel Lye

9 Golem in the Gears

10 Vale of the Vole

11 Heaven Cent

12 Man from Mundania

13 Isle of View Morrow

14 Question Quest Morrow

15 The Color of Her Panties

16 Demons Don't Dream

17 Harpy Thyme

18 Geis of the Gargoyle

19 Roc and a Hard Place

20 Yon Ill Wind

21 Faun & Games

22 Zombie Lover

23 Xone of Contention

24 The Dastard

25 Swell Foop

26 Up in a Heaval

27 Cube Route

28 Currant Events

29 Pet Peeve

30 Stork Naked

31 Air Apparent

 

you should also be able to find it inside the cover of your book

 

What I would suggest in order to save you a ton of GC is to visit the used bookstores. This series is popular enough that you should be able to find a lot of these books for a fraction of the NPC prices

Edited April 25, 2006 by Dent

[Vanyel]

I still remember hunting parts 1 and 6 - took me about two years to get them, but it was worth. On the other hand for the books by J. V. Jones I was looking over 2 years (I had 1st and 3rd part - lack of 2nd though).

By the way:

J. V. Jones "Book of Words" trilogy

Robin Hobb "Assassin" series

I'm translating the titles from Polish - so might not be accurate.

Certainly worth reading.

[Dent]

J.V. Jones Very good author.

 

Robin Hobb One of my faves a few years back.

 

Her books:

 

The Farseer Trilogy

Assassin's Apprentice

Royal Assassin

Assassin's Quest

 

The Liveship Traders Trilogy

Ship of Magic

The Mad Ship

Ship of Destiny

 

The Tawny Man Trilogy

Fool's Errand

Golden Fool

Fool's Fate

[Regar1]

I have all the xanth books, up to the dastard, and i agree, they started going downhill...

 

anotherfairly good, pun-oreinted series is the Myth, Inc. collection...havent read any of the newer ones, but the first couple were pretty funny.

[Dent]

The Original MYTH Inc. series by Robert Aspirin:

 

Myth

1. Another Fine Myth (1978)

2. Myth Conceptions (1980)

3. Myth Directions (1982)

4. Hit or Myth (1983)

5. Myth-ing Persons (1984)

6. Little Myth Marker (1985)

7. M.Y.T.H. inc. Link (1986)

8. Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections (1987)

9. M.Y.T.H. inc. in Action (1990)

10. Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1993)

11. Myth-Ion Improbable (2001)

12. Something M. Y. T. H. Inc. (2002)

 

co-authorships:

 

Myth Adventures (with Jody Lynn Nye)

1. Myth-Alliances (2003)

2. Myth-Taken Identity (2004)

3. Class Dis-Mythed (2005)

4. Myth-Gotten Gains (2006)

 

and

 

Myth-Told Tales (2003) (with Jody Lynn Nye)

 

A great series for mid / late teens. I use it with some of the kids I mentor and they have all loved it.

[furtradertyler]

Thanks for the info on the book seris. Ill have to find them some time and read them. I am almost done with demons dont dream only 20 pages left.

[sparhawk]

Hmm, Ive only read Xone of Contention. I found it to be a nice light read. Are the other books as good? If the 23 is supposed to be crappy, then the first ones must be really good.

[Dent]

Not crappy, as such.

 

The first few books were bordering on incredibly good. As with most series, though, things get a bit hackneyed as it goes on.

 

I have not found one that is unreadable, but if you judge the whole series by the first few books, you are definately going to notice a slight decrease in quality.

[Shouja]

Well, it depends. If you just want a "nice light read", then I suppose anything above book 8 is fine. Most of them follow the same pattern. If you want a slightly more engaging adventure, back when Xanth was still "raw", so to speak, then the first 6 books are excellent. (I especially like Night Mare, because you get to see all the Magicians display their talents one after the other... but you won't understand it unless you've read all the others before).

 

The first six books dealt with the first and second generation of the royal family (and their closest companions), so they were relatively coherent and worked well together as a series. After that, it sort of devolved into individual tales about various people in Xanth, with the original characters making cameo appearances every now and then. I liked Bink, Trent, Crombie and Chester. Iris was deliciously fun, and so were Humfrey and Grundy. Smash, Tandy, Irene and the centaur twins were excellent too. Chameleon was okay. Dor was lovable when he was young, but sort of faded away when he got older.

 

But the third and fourth generation of Xanthians really got rather annoying. I didn't like Ivy, Dolph was adolescent, and I really couldn't connect to any of their children. Grey was kind of cool, though. And Electra was sweet. I think the most memorable and interesting character in all the books after Vale of the Vole was D. Metria. I really liked / respected / adored / enjoyed / loved / was amused by her.

 

So yeah, go pick up the first six and read them. Besides the used bookstores, check the libraries as well. They should be old enough and have received wide enough publication to be in some public, or even school, libraries.

 

EDIT: For those of you who've read the series, who do you think has the best talent? I liked Grey's one the best, though Bink came a close second. (Can't afford to reveal the nature, though, since it would constitute major spoilers for those who haven't read Spell for Chameleon and Man from Mundania).

 

~Shouja~

Edited April 26, 2006 by Shouja

[sparhawk]

Thanks, ill try to get them. I dont like the light reads as much as the better, more complex plots.