Castle Roogna

Piers Anthony

Mar 2002 · Xanth Book 3 · Sold by Del Rey

About this eBook

Once upon a past. . . .

Millie had been a ghost for 800 years. But now, restored by the magic of Xanth, she was again a maddeningly desirable woman. She could have had any man she wanted . . . except the one she did want, Jonathan the zombie. To grant Millie her desire, and to prove his right to rule Xanth in the future, young Magician Dor embarked on a quest for the elixir which would restore Jonathan to full life. 

But the potion could be found only in the past . . . so, through a magic tapestry, to the past he went, taking over the body of a barbarian warrior. The first person he encountered there was Jumper, a giant spider—a nightmare monster, but a staunch friend and much-needed ally in peril-haunted, ancient Xanth. 

Then Dor met Millie—800 years younger, but just as lovely. And he realized that, in his new body, he was no longer twelve years old . . .

Ratings and reviews

Reading this again after all these years is refreshing and very enjoyable. Pier Anthony does write a good tale with lessons in life embedded into the tale. He can be rather caustic and demeaning of women at times but no more than most male writers (and certainly a lot less than other male authors). The tale of how Dor growing up and eventually finding love with Irene is just classic. Another great Xanth tale.

A pleasant, easy to read, juvenile Xanth book by Pies Anthony. Not your average coming of age story since the main character starts as a young boy, becomes a young man through a magical, historical transformation for a knowledge and item quest, and returns back to the present day to his young boy form. As usual, the puns and play on words are plentiful and woven into the story. There are a lot of books in this series and I don't think I could read more than a couple back-to-back.

I read this for the first time when I was a young teen. Some years later, the book is still as mystical and thrilling to me as it was then.

About the author

Piers Anthony, sometimes called Pier Xanthony, is the pseudonym of a Mundane character who was born in England in 1934, came to America in 1940, was naturalized in 1958, and moved to Xanth in 1977. His first story was published in 1963, and his first novel, Chthon, in 1967. His first Xanth novel, A Spell for Chameleon, won the August Derleth Fantasy Award as the best novel for 1977, and his fantasy novels began placing on the New York Times bestseller list with Ogre, Ogre. He shifted from writing in pencil to writing on the computer, and Golem in the Gears was his first novel created on the machine; naturally, the computer found its way into Xanth.