Review for Air Apparent, by Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony has always struck me as an author who employs rather simple characters, but with a winding and twisting plot. So I would say this book is for sci fi and fantasy readers who care more about what happens than who it happens to. The general style of his work is humor based with a relishing in word jokes and bad puns, especially those of a sexual nature. That makes the only reason the series is in the Adult Fiction section as opposed to the Young Adult Fiction section. However, they are just mere references, and there are no actual sex scenes involved in detail. There's a lot of romance, but these are no romance novels.

It starts out kind of posing as a mystery novel, a string of random events that turn out later to be not so random. While the plot is very compelling, the characters are less so, simply because there are so many of them, of various species and natures. Everything is personified, too, including plants and clouds. I found the characters a bit hard to keep track of, because while the names all start to feel familiar at one point, I forget what their abilities or Talents are. Setting is also hard to keep track of in this novel, because they keep moving, which makes for an action packed punning good time. Later on in the second half of the book, it went from mystery to action novel, where Random and Hugo kept flinging cherry bombs and pineapples and mushroom bombs at their enemies.

Meanwhile, love and sex are too often used as motivations for characters' actions, I thought, in this novel. Though power as a motivator came in too, at the end. I suppose that's because money is not an object in Xanth, when people can just use their natural surroundings for sustenance, and their jobs involve managing those surroundings and their Talents. Also, I suppose once a person reaches a certain age, doing things randomly for the fun of it isn't really a motivation anymore. That, or the characters and lives of Xanth are already random enough without having to add to them.

I also thought that children don't generally kiss one another, and they wouldn't understand a thing like love until they are at least teenagers, but maybe I'm being old fashioned. Apparently, young people start dating at the age of 12 or 13 nowadays. Marriage is also a very huge theme throughout many books of the Xanth series, and I attributed this to Piers Anthony getting old, because the Spell for Chameleon, at the very beginning, was not like that. That focused on the journey and the relationship, with feelings gradually appearing, with no thought to marriage. Whereas in this book, it seems that love at first sight exists because of curses and hot springs and such, and it just seems to be established as sudden fact, which I find to be less relatable, but maybe that's just me.

Also not that relatable to me - because I'm terrible at math - were the time space mathematical concepts near the end about alternate dimensions and the linking of worlds and how that worked. I just didn't understand it, but if everything seems to be in its place, and the characters determine that they are back home in original Xanth, then I believe them. It's just weird, that's all. I also think that most of this book is fantasy, and so that little part was semi scientific to explain the ending, and so it just kind of felt packed in, half explained and a little rushed. To some, that adds to the thrill of it, and to others with the solid need to know, it seems not too concrete to chew on.

I've always been a little discomfited by the gender relations in this series, as well. Women are seen to continuously manipulate men through their wiles and appearances. The feminist fruit bat Brunhilda was seen as an opportunistic dominatrix who tamed a dragon despite her tiny size in comparison. In Xanth, every man stares when a bra or a panty is revealed, they freak out, but apparently, everything is fine when bare torsos are exhibited, like with the nymphs and centaurs. The Demon Xanth is male, and Xanth is made from his mind and magic, so all of these things make sense. But I know the role of men as seducers have been limited, and females are less often seen freaked out than men, maybe because of the jokes about intelligence. I wonder what Piers Anthony really thinks of feminism, but I'm not sure I want to know.

The switching of bodies somewhere in the middle of the book justified the case that it's love and not just sex, it's the attraction between personalities, and not bodies. But the case with Brunhilda made it clear that while interspecies love was accepted in Xanth, size differences may sometimes be accounted for by switching bodies. With all the bra touching and awkwardness going on, it's a wonder that someone's not sitting somewhere reading this book and conjuring mental orgies. Anyhow, the distinction is slim, and I applaud Piers Anthony for trying to make it, even though his novels tend to be very sensationalist as well. I give this book 3 to 4 stars.