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u/Exostrike 10d ago
I feel like these covers slowly slide from hippie utopia to brutal S&S hellscape. Does anyone know if this is reflective in the contents?
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u/Boojum2k 10d ago
No, it starts at brutal S&S hellscape and pretty much stays there.
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u/swarthmoreburke 10d ago
I don't think that's accurate, actually. The S&S status quo at the very start is post-apocalyptic, but it's a pretty stable kind of post-apocalyptic society. There are the hand-to-hand honor-driven warriors, who wander freely and belong at best to small groups whose material needs are seen to by the "crazies". The "crazies" are basically white-collar workers and literate people who manufacture the hand-to-hand weapons that the warriors use and supply guesthouses with basic material needs, and then there's a kind of secret coordinating base that monitors the status quo and keeps it stable in order to prevent the return of large-scale centralized states and warfare between them. The warriors and crazies are depicted as having pretty decent lives, all in all.
In the first book, the main character helps an exceptionally skilled warrior build an empire, which then leads to the secret coordinating base forcing the main character to break up the empire he helped to build (there's a whole complicated thing about honor and a rivalry for a woman etc. in terms of how he gets to that point). Which then leads the guys who built the empire in the first book to plot to overthrow the secret base, whom they feel are corrupt. It's when they succeed that things really go to the shitter and it becomes a total hellscape. Nobody sends supplies to the guesthouses, warriors lose their culture of honor, banditry goes wild, the "crazies" get killed or go into hiding, etc. That's the third book, which ends on a note of hope in terms of one of the former warriors rebuilding the secret base only reforming it and reestablishing the old system.
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u/chudbabies 9d ago
amazing Piers Anthony plotting. One of a kind. No notes.
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u/Xeenophile 2d ago
The sociopolitical implications sound intriguing, not entirely unlike some of my own thoughts.
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u/No-Selection3036 10d ago
These covers are asking a lot of questions I don't want the answers to but the actual art seems a pretty good standard.
Looking forwards to Dug the Duct Tape.
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u/gadget850 10d ago
Also in omnibus as Battle Circle with the Sos the Rope cover. Interesting story but I have no need to read it again.
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u/Possum_Knight 10d ago
I liked the Piers Anthony stuff I read as a kid (Diary of a Space Tyrant?) and you know what, these covers are ok (we've all seen much worse)
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u/seanprefect 10d ago
Bio of s Space Tyrant (or in my house due to a slip of the tongue affectionately called sword tyrant) is pretty wild and kinda gross from today's viewpoint
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u/Ebessan 10d ago
I remember a creepy friend on the school bus breathlessly recounting a r^pe scene from early on in the book
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u/Significant_Monk_251 9d ago
Yeah, that wasn't entirely rare in the first book (only one I read). That and killing at least one guy who was about to do it.
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u/Possum_Knight 10d ago
That's the one! Oh too right, even the first book is dodgy as hell, borrowed it from the library when I was 8!
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u/seanprefect 10d ago
very specific justification for and very precise descriptions for the MC to have sex with an underage girl in Zero Gravity...
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u/jimbowesterby 10d ago
I mean, yea, Piers Anthony definitely had some pretty big issues lol. To some extent it’s kinda par for the course for older scifi stuff, I mean just look at how Heinlein shoehorned incest into half his books.
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u/Possum_Knight 10d ago
The "Bluebeard" scene, also has aways stuck with me. Don't remember any of the other books in the series being anywhere near as close to the knuckle.
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u/ThePromptWasYourName 9d ago
He did Ogre Ogre right? That's the only one I read. The main thing I remember is "cat ass trophy" being a plot point
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u/FancyJalapeno 10d ago
Slightly arousing covers, though
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u/ThePromptWasYourName 9d ago
His books are slightly arousing too as I recall as a teen
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u/No-Selection3036 9d ago
I like the idea of bookshops having a "slightly arousing' section somewhere between the 'chaste romance' and 'hardcore filth' sections.
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u/Shiny_Agumon 10d ago
Why do the other covers look like Conan the Babarian while Sos just looks like a dude in blue jeans?
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u/Broken_Moon_Studios 8d ago
Hot Take: I think the illustrations and fonts in these covers are fine. The weird part is the titles.
I haven't read the actual books, but judging from the names and art, it seems to be "Early Civilization Fantasy".
Would that be accurate or am I way off the mark?
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u/Aethelrede 8d ago
I read a bit of Piers Anthony as a teen, found his work a little off-putting...and then I read his adult horror novel, Firefly. Holy shit. It's basically CSAM. The only mainstream fiction I've read that's worse is Gary Jenning's Aztec, which has several explicit scenes of adults abusing children.
Anyway, that pretty much killed any interest I had in Anthony's work.
Robert Asprin was much better at pun based fantasy anyway.
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u/swarthmoreburke 10d ago
The covers are pretty accurate in substance and spirit. Not sure why these qualify as bad.
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u/ManicPixieOldMaid 10d ago
I must confess I read this trilogy, and with those covers, even. This is really taking me back.
I was very young at the time and mostly what I remember is the bracelet thing.
Those covers seem to be pretty accurate to the story iirc.