Roc and a Hard Place

(Xanth 19)
by
Piers Anthony

Tor, October 1995, 337 pp.
ISBN: 0-812-53486-7

Genre: Fantasy

World: Xanth
Reviewed: 1/18/1999

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

A Spell for Takeout Pizza

”Piece of what?” Metria asked.

Dug laughed. “You’ll like this. She’s going to do some Mundane magic.”

Kim did. She picked up a banana-shaped item with a curly-tailed line attached, punched some buttons in its belly, and spoke into it. “Falling Block Pizza! Two jumbos giant cheesers to this address.” She seemed to be requesting something. Then she put the banana back on its stand.

Not long thereafter a vehicle charged up to the house so rapidly it looked as if it were about to crash. But it squealed to a stop just in time, and a young man scrambled out with two wide, flat boxes. Dug gave him some folding green paper, and in a moment he zoomed away.

Dug brought the boxes inside and opened them. There were two huge flat pies, with surfaces like that of the moon in heavy sunlight: blistering cheese. The five mortals took pie-wedges and began eating. “Now, this is what I call responsive mozzarella,” Dug remarked, dangling his slice by a stretching string of cheese and bouncing it like a yo-yo.

”Oh, Monster Ella,” Metria said, finally recognizing the type. It came from the ella monster, famous for casting long sticky strings of gunk over its prey and smothering it to death. She wondered how the Mundanes had managed to slay the ella; it was a formidable creature. But it tasted wonderful.

Synopsis

Metria, the demoness who is married to a human, wishes to summon a stork. So, since they cannot seem to do it on their own, she travels to see the Good Magician Humfrey whose talent is to answer any question. But before she can get an answer, Humfrey sends her to see the Simurgh. The Simurgh requires her to summon all of the participants in the trial of Roxanne Roc, which includes the trial personnel, witnesses and jury. She must make sure that they are all present at the Nameless Castle in a fortnight. All the names of the beings that she must collect are on 30 black beryl tokens, except one that was blank. So, 27 of the beings live in Xanth. That should be no problem for a demoness who can instantly transport to any place in this land of magic. The blank one she figures is a mistake, so ignores it. But two of the names are Mundanes, living in the world of technology, not magic. If she goes there, she will turn into a dust devil and blow away into non-existence. That could be a problem…

Roc in a Hard Place is the 19th Xanth book by Piers Anthony. It is not really necessary to have read all of the other books, but most of the characters that appear in this book have appeared in other books.

Review

It is not really necessary to have read all of the other books in the Xanth series before reading Roc in a Hard Place, but most of the characters that appear in this book have appeared in other books. Like most of the latter books in the series, this one seems oriented to the younger audience. If you are looking for a serious fantasy novel, don’t pick this one up.

I would almost recommend this for kids, except that Metria has to keep going back to her castle throughout the book to “please” her husband. It is never really mentioned what they do, but it is implied. I would either rather have Mr. Anthony not mention it, or if he is going to mention, actually talk about it. I have grown very tired of all this hinting at sex and the Adult Conspiracy stuff. It is getting old.

If you are looking to pick up a Xanth novel and you were considering this to be the first . . . STOP! Read the first one, it is awesome. It is called A Spell for Chameleon. Start from there. The first five or six books are great. Then if you want to continue with the series, go for it.

Roc in a Hard Place is not bad, its just not all that great.

I rated this book a 6 out of 10.