Piers Anthony

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Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born August 6, 1934 in Oxford, England) is a writer in the science fiction and fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He has written many novels and short stories, but he is most famous for his book series, and particularly for the long-running series set in the fictional realm of Xanth. Many of his books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.

Born a British citizen, he emigrated to the United States during childhood to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. He went to a liberal arts college in Vermont, married his college sweetheart, and then joined the army after college. After serving in the army, he briefly taught public school before becoming a fulltime writer. Piers Anthony currently lives with his wife, whom he has been married to since college, on a tree farm which he owns in Florida. He is a vegetarian, an agnostic, a proud liberal, and dislikes travel (hence his rarity at conventions). After pregnancy miscarriages, his wife bore him two daughters. He also has one grandchild.

He believes he was blacklisted at one time, and thus that it's his duty to help aspiring writers circumvent traditional publishing houses and their stranglehold on the industry. On multiple occassions, he has moved from one publisher to another (taking a profitable hit series with him) when he felt the editors were unduly tampering with his work. He has even sued publishers for accounting malfeansce and won judgments in his favor.

He also maintains an Internet Publishers Survey, in the interest of helping aspiring writers. For this service, he has won the "Special Recognition for Service to Writers" award from Preditors and Editors.

At one time, he was also a venture capitalist who invested in an internet publishing house which has since been bought out by Random House. Other than his tree farm, he has also been a venture capitalist in vegetarian foodstuffs related technologies.

Many of his popular novels have been optioned for movies at various times, though none have carried through. One has however been made into a video game.

Contents 1 Biographical timeline 2 Partial bibliography 2.1 Aton series 2.2 Battle Circle series 2.3 Of Man and Manta series 2.4 Cluster series 2.5 Tarot series 2.6 Xanth series 2.7 Apprentice Adept series 2.8 Incarnations of Immortality series 2.9 Bio of a Space Tyrant series 2.10 Mode series 2.11 Geodyssey series 2.12 ChroMagic series 2.13 Non-series fiction 2.14 Autobiographical works 2.15 Collaborations 2.16 Related Works 3 See also 4 External links

Biographical timeline

• 6 August 1934 - born
• 1956 - married Carol Marble
• 1956 - received Bachelor of Arts degree from Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
• 1957--1959 - served in the United States Army
• 1958 - became a United States citizen

Partial bibliography

Aton series

• Chthon (1967, his first published novel, nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards)
• Phthor (1975)

Battle Circle series

1. Sos the Rope (1968)
2. Var the Stick (1972)
3. Neq the Sword (1975)

Of Man and Manta series

1. Omnivore (1968)
2. Orn (1970)
3. Ox (1976)

Cluster series

1. Cluster (1977, aka Vicinity Cluster in UK edition)
2. Chaining the Lady (1978)
3. Kirlian Quest (1978)
4. Thousandstar (1980)
5. Viscous Circle (1982)

Tarot series

1. God of Tarot (1977)
2. Vision of Tarot (1980)
3. Faith of Tarot (1980)

Xanth series

His most extensive series, with nearly 30 novels - see Xanth for list.

Apprentice Adept series

1. Split Infinity (1980)
2. Blue Adept (1981)
3. Juxtaposition (1982)
4. Out of Phaze (1987)
5. Robot Adept (1988)
6. Unicorn Point (1989)
7. Phaze Doubt (1990)

Incarnations of Immortality series

1. On a Pale Horse (1983)
2. Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
3. With a Tangled Skein (1985)
4. Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
5. Being a Green Mother (1987)
6. For Love of Evil (1988)
7. ...And Eternity (1990)
8. Under a Velvet Cloak (proposed)

see also: Incarnations of Immortality

Bio of a Space Tyrant series

1. Refugee (1983)
2. Mercenary (1984)
3. Politician (1985)
4. Executive (1985)
5. Statesman (1986)
6. The Iron Maiden (2001)

Mode series

1. Virtual Mode (1991)
2. Fractal Mode (1992)
3. Chaos Mode (1993)
4. DoOon Mode (2001)

Geodyssey series

1. Isle of Woman (1993)
2. Shame of Man (1994)
3. Hope of Earth (1997)
4. Muse of Art (1999)
5. Climate of Change (unfinished)

ChroMagic series

1. Key to Havoc (2002)
2. Key to Chroma (2003)
3. Key to Destiny (2004)
4. Key to Liberty (in progress)
5. Key to Survival (proposed)

Non-series fiction

• Macroscope (1969, nominated for a 1970 Hugo Award)
• Hasan (1969, 1977 revised)
• Prostho Plus (1971)
• Race Against Time (1973)
• Rings of Ice (1974)
• Triple Detente (1974)
• But What of Earth? (1976, 1989 revised)
• Steppe (1976)
• Mute (1981)
• Anthonology (1985, short story collection)
• Ghost (1986)
• Shade of the Tree (1986)
• Pornucopia (1989)
• Total Recall (1989, movie novelisation)
• Hard Sell (1990)
• Firefly (1990)
• Balook (1990)
• Tatham Mound (1991)
• MerCycle (1991)
• Alien Plot (1992, short story collection)
• Killobyte (1993)
• Volk (1996)
• Realty Check (1999)
• The Magic Fart (2003)

Autobiographical works

• Bio of an Ogre (1988, to age 50)
• How Precious was that While (2001, to age 65)

Collaborations

• The Ring (1968, with Robert E. Margroff)
• The ESP Worm (1970, with Robert E. Margroff)
• Pretender (1979, with Frances Hall)
• Through the Ice (1989, with Robert Kornwise, posthumously -- Kornwise was a high school student who died tragically. His parents sent his unfinished manuscript and a plea to Piers Anthony to help their deceased son get published. To make sure that the book was a fitting memorial tribute, Piers Anthony made sure it was printed on acid-free paper despite the expense.)
• Dead Morn (1990, with Roberto Fuentes)
• The Caterpillar's Question (1992, with Philip José Farmer)
• If I Pay Thee Not in Gold (1993, with Mercedes Lackey)
• The Willing Spirit (1996, with Alfred Tella)
• Spider Legs (1998, with Clifford A. Pickover)
• Quest for the Fallen Star (1998, with James Richey and Alan Riggs)
• Dream a Little Dream (1999, with Julie Brady)
• The Gutbucket Quest (2000, with Ron Leming)
• The Secret of Spring (2000, with Jo Anne Taeusch)

• Kelvin of Rud series (with Robert E. Margroff)

1. Dragon's Gold (1987)
2. Serpent's Silver (1988)
3. Chimaera's Copper (1990)
4. Orc's Opal (1990)
5. Mouvar's Magic (1992)

• Jason Striker series (with Roberto Fuentes)

1. Kiai! (1974)
2. Mistress of Death (1974)
3. Bamboo Bloodbath (1974)
4. Ninja's Revenge (1975)
5. Amazon Slaughter (1976)
6. Curse of the Ninja (1976)

Related Works

• Cut By Emerald (1987, by Dana Kramer) a Combat Command game book set in the Bio of a Space Tyrant universe.

See also

• Science fiction
• List of science fiction authors
• List of science fiction novels
• List of science fiction short stories
• List of science fiction television

External links

• Official web site
• Complete bibliography
• Piers Anthony at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• 1987 Audio Interview with Piers Anthony - RealAudio (47 min 42 s)