On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality, Bk. 1)
2 journalers for this copy...
A very well-imagined novel. Death is actually an office inhabited by a mortal (i.e. human being), along with the other "Incarnations", which include Fate, Time, War, and Nature. To gain the office of Death, one must murder the current holder of the office, and almost always this is done inadvertently. Zane is the mortal who stumbles into this predicament, and we get to follow along as he learns the ropes of the Office of Death and begins to understand how "life" operates in the immortal domains of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.
The only thing I didn't really like about this novel was the presence of magic in the mortal world. While magic in the IMMORTAL world is obviously more "believable", it would've been nice to see the novel written from more of an "urban fantasy" perspective, where things in the mortal world are exactly as they are in our own reality, and fantasy, when it is encountered in the mortal world, is a shock to that world. I'm thinking along the lines of something from a Neil Gaiman or a Charles de Lint novel. Even the Harry Potter world handles this more cleverly than does Piers Anthony: while magic exists in the mortal world, it is hidden to mortals who are unable to practice magic(i.e. muggles), so the world is much more plausible.
The only thing I didn't really like about this novel was the presence of magic in the mortal world. While magic in the IMMORTAL world is obviously more "believable", it would've been nice to see the novel written from more of an "urban fantasy" perspective, where things in the mortal world are exactly as they are in our own reality, and fantasy, when it is encountered in the mortal world, is a shock to that world. I'm thinking along the lines of something from a Neil Gaiman or a Charles de Lint novel. Even the Harry Potter world handles this more cleverly than does Piers Anthony: while magic exists in the mortal world, it is hidden to mortals who are unable to practice magic(i.e. muggles), so the world is much more plausible.
Journal Entry 2 by pghenigma at Tuscany Cafe, 1501 E. Carson St. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, May 13, 2005
Released 18 yrs ago (5/13/2005 UTC) at Tuscany Cafe, 1501 E. Carson St. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
I tried very hard to like this book, but I just couldn't.
The writing style was better suited for a juvenile or YA book than a serious adult reader. The prose was flat and didn't draw me in to the story at all. I had a hard time slogging my way through the book, although I made it in the end.
The protagonist (and to some extent, the author) had a hormonal teenage boy's attitude towards women, even towards the main female character, which left me with a vaguely icky feeling. The other characters were not fully fleshed-out, and I really couldn't get myself to care about any of them, even the protagonist.
The premise was clever, however - I liked the way magic worked and the idea of supernatural beings as offices held by mortals. Other than that, though, reading this book was like eating a mountain of dry toast. :(
CAUGHT IN PITTSBURGH PA UNITED STATES
The writing style was better suited for a juvenile or YA book than a serious adult reader. The prose was flat and didn't draw me in to the story at all. I had a hard time slogging my way through the book, although I made it in the end.
The protagonist (and to some extent, the author) had a hormonal teenage boy's attitude towards women, even towards the main female character, which left me with a vaguely icky feeling. The other characters were not fully fleshed-out, and I really couldn't get myself to care about any of them, even the protagonist.
The premise was clever, however - I liked the way magic worked and the idea of supernatural beings as offices held by mortals. Other than that, though, reading this book was like eating a mountain of dry toast. :(
CAUGHT IN PITTSBURGH PA UNITED STATES
