The New York Times-bestselling series continues with this pun-tastic epic quest and far-flung fantasy adventure. Lydell, a shy, naive man of twenty-one, and world-weary grandmother Grania could not be more different. But when their paths cross on the way to beseech the Good Magician to add some excitement to their extraordinarily dull lives, the one thing they have in common is about to get … common is about to get them more than they bargained for . . .
Lydell and Grania’s exceptional integrity makes them valuable to the Good Magician. He promises to fulfill their hearts’ desires on the condition they pilot a fireboat to its new proprietors, whoever–and wherever–they may be.
Along with an obnoxious bird and a robot dogfish as shipmates, they unfurl their sail of flame and cruise through the skies of Xanth, guided by cryptic clues. Picking up a crew of future children along the way, Lydell and Grania must plan a royal wedding, detonate an F-Bomb, evade illusion dragons, rescue Jack and Jill, find a princess for a werewolf prince, and face their greatest fears–all while remaining true to their compulsively honest selves.
Fire Sail is the 42nd book in the Xanth series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
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Read for old times sake, I think my tolerance for punnish novels has waned. It was a fun read but not gripping.
I had never read anything by Piers Anthony. Because I enjoy fantasy and he is such a prolific and popular author, I decided to give one of his books a try.
I must say that this author has an impressive mastery of the pun. Everything in this story was centered on a unique pun of some kind. Each chapter was a new adventure as the group of main characters steered a magical ship through the air on the way to find its new owners.
I found the second half to be better than the first half – maybe I just had a little trouble buying in to the story at first. However, once I did get into it, I enjoyed the characters. Unfortunately, I found the puns got a little tiresome and I had the ending basically figured out way too early. So, for me, this book was just okay.
the “usual”- a glorious romp through an alternate version of Florida, complete with the weird characters and constant puns. The adventure is fun, the characters intriguing, and the ending quite satisfactory.
I have loved every Xanth book I have read, and that’s a lot of them. This one is no exception. The author outdid himself — again — with this one. Two people meet up at the Good Magician’s castle and get sent on a quest together. They are an old grandmother, age 60, and a young naive man, age 21. They are asked to be co-captains of a magic boat, one with a sail made of fire, and to take it to the new people it belongs to. Only they aren’t told who those new owners are or where to find them. They are expected to sail around following cryptic clues to find them. Along the way, they both face challenges. Obviously, the young man faces more challenges than the grandmother does, but they each learn lessons along the way and learn to rely on each other. They are joined by children, some of whom are characters in the previous book. One learns to share her body presence with a future child to the benefit of all. The challenges in this book are the kind we can relate to easily, because we have all faced our own challenges and, hopefully, have learned from them. I highly recommend this book!
I have been a fan of Piers Anthony’s work for decades. I started off reading the Xanth Novels from the first book. I love the fact that I can now read them on my Kindle. Mr. Anthony is the premier punster of the world and created a world the absolute flip side of our Mundane World…making it a fun, funny, intriguing and totally absorbing place to go visit. Thank you, Mr. Anthony for still writing such wonderful books. I would love to sit and have a few cups of coffee with you just to see how that marvelous mind of yours works.
really pathetic for a Xanth novel. It has the great puns, and some imaginative adventures, but the story is really about this shy 20 year old idiot named Lyell. throughout the story, he hooks up with no fewer than 12 different woman, lusts after them, gropes them, and then decides it would never work out and doesn’t consumate things, presumably because he is so high-minded. So the book is basically about sex. To make matters worse, the author uses a bunch of childish phrases like “she flashed her panties and that freaked [men] out”. Give this one a pass.
I enjoyed returning to the world of Xanth. Another original tale from Piers.