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Review by Robert C. Jones
Shades of John Wyndham and Peter Benchley! Here, out of the deep and coming our way, is a giant pycnogonid, swimming with its eight, thin, spiderlike legs, searching with its five eyes, rising slowly in the frigid darkness, ravenous with hunger.The creation of fantasy writer Piers Anthony and popular science/art author Clifford Pickover, "Spider Legs" (more formally known as a member of the genus Colossendeis), is a real, if still largely unknown, deep sea denizen.
The setting of this science fiction thriller is spectacular: the iceberg-haunted sea off the coast of Newfoundland. The novel is fast moving, erudite, informative and rich in detail. Especially graphic are the scenes in which Spider Legs displays its near-psychotic hunting skills; and the final "shoot-out" in the frigid waters off the northern tip of Newfoundland, between the sea spider and a ferry full of vengeful officials and would-be sightseers.
Not all of the action is deadly. Love, hate, misunderstanding and empathy play major roles in the evolution of the hunt for the deadly sea spider of Trinity Bay. There is a revealing interchange about why some romantic stories appeal to readers and other stories -- seemingly just as romantic -- do not (perhaps the authorial voice intruding?). And, indeed, romance, as well as violent death, plays a prominent role in the novel's denouement.
Just how this complicated bouillabaisse comes to a boil is a problem which Anthony and Pickover solve with equal amounts of bloodshed and whimsy. Suffice it to say that the end of "Spider Legs" is not the end of the plot; and love, ecology, bureaucracy and science (not necessarily in that order) have the final words.
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If punster Piers Anthony were into Baroque, his latest novel "Faun & Games" might have, as a subtitle, "Bach to Xanth," because it displays a facility for counterpoint, fugue and invention that the venerable Cappelmeister himself would have admired.The adventures of Forrest Faun take place on a tiny planet called Ptero orbiting the head of Princess Ida of Castle Roogna. Although the setting seems a bit bizarre, it has the perfect ambiance for Faun's quest -- to find a suitable spirit to save a magical clog tree.
With the help of a dream-bringer, Imbri, and two remarkable young princesses, Dawn and Eve, Faun discovers that his quest is for something more than just a spirit for a tree; it is a quest for a dream-bringer of his own -- a companion who he "can love and be loved by."
If, as some would maintain, the major trend of present-day fantasy is toward epic battles between good and evil, then Piers Anthony, with his Xanthian novels of magic and good humor, is decidedly bucking that trend. Whether you approve, or disapprove, of trends, "Faun & Games" is an adventure worth taking.
Robert C. Jones is a writer in Warrensburg, Missouri.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
