Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York: Ballantine Books, 1986 (1986), Edition: Book Club Edition, 276 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. Thriller. HTML:Here in a fourth complete-in-itself novel of the Incarnations of Immortality, Piers Anthony again combines fascinating magic with a gripping, complex struggle between good and evil. Mym was a dutiful son, but his father the Rajah interfered in his love life once too often. Rather than wed without love, he took up the Red Sword, symbol of office of the Incarnation of War. At first he thought his efforts could ameliorate some of the suffering caused by Earth's constant petty wars. But he found that behind all his involvement were the clever traps of Satan. When seeming mischance placed him in Hell, Mym organized a great rebellion among the Damned. And Satan seemed to capitulate. But free again, Mym learned that Satan had been busy stirring up riots and war. Now it seemed things had gone too far and Satan must surely win. There was only one desperate chance. . . .… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member JechtShot
Wielding a Red Sword is the fifth book in the Incarnations of Immortality series. In this story, we follow Mim, the stuttering prince of India who is destined to become Mars the incarnation of War. Mim seeks to leave his royal life behind and joins a band of performers and encounters the love of
This book really takes the series in a giant nose dive towards terrible land for a few reasons. Reason one: the formula is growing stale and the books have gone away from explaining the nuances of the "office" and have become more a fantasy love story. Reason two: Piers Anthony sucks at writing female characters. The women are all portrayed as flat, generic, gender stereotyped automatons that do not strike me as interesting in any way, shape or form. It is going to be a real struggle to finish the series after this train wreck.
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his life, Orb Kaftan. Circumstances drive him to back to the royal palace where he encounters the second love of his life, Rapture. Eventually, much later in the book, Mim is finally bestowed with the red sword marking him as Mars, bringer of War. Mim spends a while acclimating to his new role and then the Piers Anthony formula kicks in. That is, Satan intervenes and Mim is forced to battle the Prince of Lies. Hopefully this does not qualify as a spoiler, but big surprise here, Satan is thwarted once again.This book really takes the series in a giant nose dive towards terrible land for a few reasons. Reason one: the formula is growing stale and the books have gone away from explaining the nuances of the "office" and have become more a fantasy love story. Reason two: Piers Anthony sucks at writing female characters. The women are all portrayed as flat, generic, gender stereotyped automatons that do not strike me as interesting in any way, shape or form. It is going to be a real struggle to finish the series after this train wreck.
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LibraryThing member surreality
Plot: Predictable, which is quite an achievement in this setting. It's surprisingly straightforward, with known elements from the previous books, and feels quite uninspired.
Characters: If there was anyone I was supposed to be interested in, I failed to notice. There's very little characterization
Style: Average prose. Nothing to get excited about, nothing to be irritated by. The usual awkward dialogue, and too much description.
Plus: The story touches some tricky matters of ethics and morality.
Minus: Show, don't tell. That saying exists for a reason. All Anthony does is tell.
Summary: The low point for the series. So much potential, and all of it wasted.
Characters: If there was anyone I was supposed to be interested in, I failed to notice. There's very little characterization
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and no character development at all. Interactions feel stilted and forced, which makes interpersonal relationships very hard to believe. Style: Average prose. Nothing to get excited about, nothing to be irritated by. The usual awkward dialogue, and too much description.
Plus: The story touches some tricky matters of ethics and morality.
Minus: Show, don't tell. That saying exists for a reason. All Anthony does is tell.
Summary: The low point for the series. So much potential, and all of it wasted.
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LibraryThing member Omrythea
My least favorite in the series... maybe I just don't like war that much.
LibraryThing member Gkarlives
Here is where the series fell down for me. Some of it may come from my not being comfortable with the Indian lifestyle of the main character. I just could not connect with him so the book was ultimately unsatisfactory for me. Also, the playfulness with the world and the office did not seem to be
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there. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
At first this one was less irritating to me than the others; it was more straightforward and less romantic. But in the end, the stupidity of the characters just made me crazy. The preachy tone was back and the bad dialogue. I wish Satan would win every once in a while, but of course he didn’t.
LibraryThing member AnnieHidalgo
I loved the Incarnations of Immortality. Have we ever really gotten beyond personifying the great forces in life? Death, war, fate, etc. Obviously there's something innate to humanity that makes it seem natural.
LibraryThing member reading_fox
This series was one I massively enjoyed growing up, and coming across a cheap copy, I was interested to see how it holds up. I could still remember the basic premises so starting mid series was not a significant problem. So did it hold up? Well just about.
The basic universe premise is a somewhat
Although most of the series is set in the West, this one bizarrely is Indian in origin. Mym is a dutiful son of a Rajah, and then denied the women he loves, turns into a berserker rage which triggers his ascension to Mars. Here however Satan arranges for a new love, to also be denied to him. Mars's quest for revenge might allow Satan the space he needs.
The whole western ethos set in India doesn't really work, and his portrayals of many of the women, can be offensive to modern ears - lots of servitude and being unable to cope on their own. This is an issue with some parts of the Indian caste system today, but it isn't made obvious enough that it's inappropriate. I also didn't lie the very protracted beginning and set-up along with the tedious introductions to each Incarnation, leaving the final resolution with Satan exceptionally rushed.
That said it's a fast fun read, a clever world still just about hanging together - the first in the series is probably the best though. As usual Satan gets all the best lines, and it is worth thinking about what he says - knowing it to fundamentally true, but also distortingly false. Not as good as I remembered it, but enjoyable flick through read.
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If you wish to comment on this review, please leave a note on my profile or on the Thread in the Review Discussion Group
The basic universe premise is a somewhat
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technologically current world much like ours, but where magic also functions. God and Satan are also real physical entities as are the other major powers of Western canon - Fate, Nature, Death War and Time. They are mortals temporarily granted those powers and attributes. The narrative hook running through the series is that Satan's grand plans hinge on a mortal vote sometime in the near future. Each of the established incarnations actively thwarts Satan, but in turn each is replaced by a new incumbent, whom Satan challenges to try and wring advantage in the future vote. This one features Mars, the power of War, wielding a Red Sword.Although most of the series is set in the West, this one bizarrely is Indian in origin. Mym is a dutiful son of a Rajah, and then denied the women he loves, turns into a berserker rage which triggers his ascension to Mars. Here however Satan arranges for a new love, to also be denied to him. Mars's quest for revenge might allow Satan the space he needs.
The whole western ethos set in India doesn't really work, and his portrayals of many of the women, can be offensive to modern ears - lots of servitude and being unable to cope on their own. This is an issue with some parts of the Indian caste system today, but it isn't made obvious enough that it's inappropriate. I also didn't lie the very protracted beginning and set-up along with the tedious introductions to each Incarnation, leaving the final resolution with Satan exceptionally rushed.
That said it's a fast fun read, a clever world still just about hanging together - the first in the series is probably the best though. As usual Satan gets all the best lines, and it is worth thinking about what he says - knowing it to fundamentally true, but also distortingly false. Not as good as I remembered it, but enjoyable flick through read.
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If you wish to comment on this review, please leave a note on my profile or on the Thread in the Review Discussion Group
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LibraryThing member Scoshie
#4 of the Incarnations of Immortality-- let's just say it Piers Anthony ROCKS!!
Mym, an Indian prince, defies his father's plans for an arranged marriage, instead joining a traveling circus. He meets Orb, who teaches him to overcome his own handicap of a terrible stutter through song. He is soon
Mym, an Indian prince, defies his father's plans for an arranged marriage, instead joining a traveling circus. He meets Orb, who teaches him to overcome his own handicap of a terrible stutter through song. He is soon
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discovered, and his father arranges for him to marry a princess by the name of Rapture. After fighting against this for days on end, he finally realizes that Rapture is worth loving, and so concedes to the marriage. However, a plot to separate him from her results in his decision to become the Incarnation of War, and then the problems start Show Less
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
I only have a couple of the Incarnations of Immortality series, because it is a wildly uneven series as a whole (Anthony, predictably, can't write female protagonists worth a damn, and the one about Time is straight out of pulp space opera for no obvious reason) and this was #3 on my list of the
It's kind of awful. But first, the good bits:
1. This book was totally the reason I bought a translation of The Book of Five Rings at age 12, and that is a profound and fascinating work that I still deeply value.
2. ...ummm. Apparently there is no 2.
As usual, the book opens with a lengthy analysis of how attractive the protagonist is to women of all kids. Verdict: irresistible. Nevertheless, he is only attracted to the pure and virginal woman, who promptly spreads her legs for him because he's so awesome. However, she turns out to be nothing more than a minor plot device and promptly disappears offscreen so she can be the longed-for Lost Love for a chapter or two, until...
Mym gets shipped off to the Honeymoon Castle at the behest of his father (who murders women callously to prove a point, namely, that women are worthless interchangeable tokens and the fact that Mym feels bad about this is Weak and Unmanly.) Now, the Honeymoon Castle is actually an interesting device - it's set up so that a) people residing there can hear each other's thoughts and b) they are forced to interact to eat, sleep, or bathe, presumably so proximity will make them fall in love. This of course leads to numerous descriptions of Mym's arranged bride's physical assets, and the various scary things that chase her into his arms whenever they try to rebel firmly establish that while she is intelligent, she is entirely spineless. This is held up as an ideal - in fact, it's why she's a better match than the Blessed Virgin in the opening sequence, because independence is a negative trait in a woman.
Look, it only goes downhill from there, and frankly I'm tired of responding to this appalling crap. On a Pale Horse at least had the redeeming aspect of some relatively serious thoughts about the nature of end-of-life care - this has some lukewarm apologia for War that it's clear the author himself doesn't even really believe. So there's no moral core, and the book is entirely about Mars finding a suitably tractable (and royal, don't forget for a second that he's a prince) mate AND concubine, because obviously his royal prerogative requires both. I'm not even going to get into the confusingly terrible characterization of modern-day India as Generic Fantasy Kingdom #248, Where Everyone Has Long Descriptors Instead of Names.
Skip it. Just... skip it.
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three that I can stand.It's kind of awful. But first, the good bits:
1. This book was totally the reason I bought a translation of The Book of Five Rings at age 12, and that is a profound and fascinating work that I still deeply value.
2. ...ummm. Apparently there is no 2.
As usual, the book opens with a lengthy analysis of how attractive the protagonist is to women of all kids. Verdict: irresistible. Nevertheless, he is only attracted to the pure and virginal woman, who promptly spreads her legs for him because he's so awesome. However, she turns out to be nothing more than a minor plot device and promptly disappears offscreen so she can be the longed-for Lost Love for a chapter or two, until...
Mym gets shipped off to the Honeymoon Castle at the behest of his father (who murders women callously to prove a point, namely, that women are worthless interchangeable tokens and the fact that Mym feels bad about this is Weak and Unmanly.) Now, the Honeymoon Castle is actually an interesting device - it's set up so that a) people residing there can hear each other's thoughts and b) they are forced to interact to eat, sleep, or bathe, presumably so proximity will make them fall in love. This of course leads to numerous descriptions of Mym's arranged bride's physical assets, and the various scary things that chase her into his arms whenever they try to rebel firmly establish that while she is intelligent, she is entirely spineless. This is held up as an ideal - in fact, it's why she's a better match than the Blessed Virgin in the opening sequence, because independence is a negative trait in a woman.
Look, it only goes downhill from there, and frankly I'm tired of responding to this appalling crap. On a Pale Horse at least had the redeeming aspect of some relatively serious thoughts about the nature of end-of-life care - this has some lukewarm apologia for War that it's clear the author himself doesn't even really believe. So there's no moral core, and the book is entirely about Mars finding a suitably tractable (and royal, don't forget for a second that he's a prince) mate AND concubine, because obviously his royal prerogative requires both. I'm not even going to get into the confusingly terrible characterization of modern-day India as Generic Fantasy Kingdom #248, Where Everyone Has Long Descriptors Instead of Names.
Skip it. Just... skip it.
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LibraryThing member bookwormteri
Mym becomes the god of War (Mars) and must struggle with Satan as all who step into their roles as immortals must to prove that they cannot be corrupted by Satan. Not my favorite in the series.
LibraryThing member AVoraciousReader
*Book source ~ My home library
Mym is a Prince who stutters. Since he has an older brother who will inherit the throne he finally runs away to join a traveling circus. He starts out doing menial labor, but soon works up to being one of the main attractions as Mym the Mime. He and Orb Kaftan, the
Oh, boy. How utterly frustrating for Mym. First he deals with a severe stutter all his life and then he’s denied the woman he loves and a life he’s happy living. He’s forced into a marriage agreement he doesn’t want and then when the political winds change he’s forced on yet another woman. When the Red Sword comes to him giving him the option to become Mars, well, who can blame him for taking it? I wouldn’t. His dad should have just let him marry Orb. But in taking the sword his trials haven’t ended. Not by a long shot. Now, he has to stay a step ahead of Satan and as the newbie Incarnation he’s at a disadvantage as Satan is going to do what he can to get around Mym and fulfill his evil plans. Will Mym have what it takes to defeat the Father of Lies? All I’ll say is it’s an excellent journey and the final act is sheer brilliance.
Mym is a Prince who stutters. Since he has an older brother who will inherit the throne he finally runs away to join a traveling circus. He starts out doing menial labor, but soon works up to being one of the main attractions as Mym the Mime. He and Orb Kaftan, the
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musician main attraction, fall in love, but just as they are happily making plans for their life the royal guards show up. They inform Mym his brother is dead and he is to inherit the throne. He promises Orb he will get things settled with his father and come back for her. But the Rajah has other plans for his son. Mym is stuck between his duty to his country and his love for Orb. What will he do?Oh, boy. How utterly frustrating for Mym. First he deals with a severe stutter all his life and then he’s denied the woman he loves and a life he’s happy living. He’s forced into a marriage agreement he doesn’t want and then when the political winds change he’s forced on yet another woman. When the Red Sword comes to him giving him the option to become Mars, well, who can blame him for taking it? I wouldn’t. His dad should have just let him marry Orb. But in taking the sword his trials haven’t ended. Not by a long shot. Now, he has to stay a step ahead of Satan and as the newbie Incarnation he’s at a disadvantage as Satan is going to do what he can to get around Mym and fulfill his evil plans. Will Mym have what it takes to defeat the Father of Lies? All I’ll say is it’s an excellent journey and the final act is sheer brilliance.
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LibraryThing member csweder
A look into one of the more violent Incarnations: War, Mars, Aries. However you wish to describe him, this is his story. How Mym, an unlikely candidate for War, first escaped from his kingdom, joined a traveling circus because he fell in love with one of the performers only to be rushed back home
This is a truly fun story that is well worth the read. I think that my future readings will have to go on hold as there are four more books in this series...and I want to read them all!
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when his kingdom was in need of an heir. Back home, he falls in love again, and is about to marry this lovely princess when his father calls off the marriage to arrange something more profitable for the kingdom. This doesn't please Mym too much, and when he is then given the Red Sword, he is able to use his unique office to hinder war rather than encourage it (much to the dismay of his sidekick incarnations--Pestilence, Famine, Conquest and Slaughter)--and of course to battle the Incarnation of Evil himself, Satan. This is a truly fun story that is well worth the read. I think that my future readings will have to go on hold as there are four more books in this series...and I want to read them all!
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
This one just didn't work for me. Having Mars work in a somewhat modern society, with the limitations of the other Incarnations, just felt forced. It is also starting to be clear in this book where the series is going and I just wasn't that interested. All of these Incarnations, in their own way,
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are equally powerful, which presents a problem that Anthony does not solve. I loved this series when I read book 1 and book 2, but it really started to go downhill with this one. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Locus Award (Nominee — Fantasy Novel — 1987)
Language
Original publication date
1986-10
Physical description
276 p.; 8.2 inches