Jumper Cable of the Xanth series...I am so disappointed!

[Lainey1978]

I think something's gone quite wrong in the head with my (formerly) favorite author.

I just finished reading Jumper Cable, the most recent book in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, and all I can say is...wow, I am so disappointed.

This is the review I posted on WeRead on Facebook, because it says everything I feel about the direction the series has headed in:

Wow, what a disappointment. I've been reading this series since I was 13 years old (I'm now 31), and it's always been my favorite, up to this point. I never thought I'd say this, but I think it's time for Piers Anthony to pack it in.

Instead of feeling like I just took part in a rollicking adventure, I'm left with the impression that Piers Anthony has gone senile and it's manifesting as a desperate obsession with sex. I'm not a prude and wouldn't normally care, but it's not even well done. It's just completely pointless, gratuitous sex that detracts from the story instead adding to it. I noticed this same problem with Under a Velvet Cloak (of the Incarnations of Immortality series), but I thought Xanth was safe. It isn't.

In the Author's Note he lambasts irate mothers (which I am not) and tells those who don't like the series heading in a more "adult" direction basically to take a flying leap. I get that it's never really been a kid's series (although it might as well have been considering all the kids who love it), but I've always liked the more innocent naughtiness rather than this in-your-face, "They had sex, and then this guy had sex with that girl...and then this other girl, and then this one, and then these two had sex all over again, and then..." sex, sex, sex, ad nauseum. I never thought it would happen, but I think I've just been turned off of the series. If you must read it, get it from the library. Don't waste your money.

It's too late for me, having read it, but my advice to you is:

RUN! SAVE YOURSELVES!

Yeah...so that's how I feel.

What the hell happened? Anyone? I don't get it.

Anyone else like (or used to like) this series? I know there are some people who say the series should have ended a long time ago, but I always defended it. I can't do that anymore.

It makes me sad...