It wasn't the ending.. but it was AN ending..

[bhodi]

I read the phaze/adept series (the alternate magic/tech world switching thing with the blue adept) recently and I don't recall any underage sex in it but there was a lot of nudity, unicorn sex, and robot sex.

AS was stated before, exploring the subject once is one thing, shoehorning it into everything you write to one degree or another points to some inner sketchiness. I'd even read an inteview with him where the subject of "Hey, what's with all the old men fucking little girls in your books" came up. He went into some batshit crazy ramble about how he wet his bed into his teens or some shit.

I think that was the slashdot interview. I thought the question came out of left field, myself, though I do vaguely recall a section of the mode series referenced with the girl being 16-17 and not understanding what the big deal was with this arbitrary 'this is ok, this bad' magic 18. And ignoring it, of course.

I'm trying to remember if it was in the incarnations of imortality series.. I don't recall. Anyway, I think Xanth is trash and I never bothered.

[Murgos]

Eh, Recluse is as much of a dead end time waste of nothing happening as the WoT stuff is.

[Morat20]

But at least the Recluce books move *on*. 

They do? Every book I read in 4(?) different series all seemed to be "these Supermen are in charge because they give their lives if/when/or/mabye/never some invader will come to take over the poor slobs who wouldn't notice any difference on who's in charge".

But that's from reading books out of order perhaps.

Are we reading the same books?

Frankly, the Recluce books are cyclic for a reason -- the whole concept of Balance of Order and Chaos forces things to, well, balance. Each book starts with an imbalance of one side creating a focus on the other side, and how things get back into balance.

It varies a lot, though -- chronologically, the first pair deal with Cyador -- former high-tech colonists based on Chaos as they exhaust the last of their high-tech. The second pair  deal with the landing of the Angels (high-tech stuck in a low-tech world) and the establishment of the foundations of Order, and the destruction of Cyador. After that, you end up with competing Order/Chaos sets, until Lerrin comes along and gets rid of the bulk of Order and Chaos, freeing the place up for the development of technology.

As far as fantasy goes, I liked some for showing a high-tech culture trying to adapt to low-tech with strange 'magic'. Another set for showing the "hero" not to be a hero because of powerful wizardry, but application of knowledge and skill (engineering). I liked the Chaos-sided bookes because they got rid of the "Chaos = bad, Order = good" bit.

His Corean chronicles are pretty good, especially if you're found of cavalry battles. :)

[Riggswolfe]

though I do vaguely recall a section of the mode series referenced with the girl being 16-17 and not understanding what the big deal was with this arbitrary 'this is ok, this bad' magic 18. And ignoring it, of course.

I'm trying to remember if it was in the incarnations of imortality series.. I don't recall. Anyway, I think Xanth is trash and I never bothered.

She is 14. As for the Space Tyrant series I was literally in Jr High when I read it, maybe early high school so, it's been 2 decades. So, yeah, I probably just don't remember. In hindsight I do remember panty stuff in Xanth but since the whole series was silly I didn't think much of it.

[Polysorbate80]

Let's see, Bio of a Space Tyrant...I seem to recall volume 1 having pirates raping and killing the refugees, probable incest between Hope and his sister, and wasn't there a girl who was basically the property of some old pedophile, until she got too old for his tastes?

Yup, no twisted sex here :P

[kaid]

There was some native american book that he wrote that I have cleansed from my memory so I don't recall the title but there was a WHOLE lot of underaged sex in that one.  Bio of a space tyrant had underaged sex, underaged gang rape/torture and what not. I could not read past the halfway point into that book. It is the only book I have ever picked up that I refused to finish.

[lamaros]

Don't read David Wingrove then kids. Unless you want to read some mildly interesting SF with a whole lot of incest and snuff sadism...

[Rishathra]

Don't read David Wingrove then kids. Unless you want to read some mildly interesting SF with a whole lot of incest and snuff sadism...

Wow, I forgot about Wingrove.  I admit that I really enjoyed the Chung Kuo series, but now that you mention it, there was a lot of incest and snuff sadism in it.  It never came off, to me at least, that those elements were included because he had a Piers Anthony level fetish about the stuff.

My only real problem is that he ended the series real shittily.  There was no real conclusion to the story.  It was just seven books of this ongoing story that got me really interested in the possible outcomes, and then it just ends.  That's it.  No payoff.

[HaemishM]

I've read the first two Chung Kuo books, and I don't recall any of that kind of stuff.

[lamaros]

I've read the first two Chung Kuo books, and I don't recall any of that kind of stuff.

Merely proves that memory is more fallible for some people. It's there. Unmissably there.

[Triforcer]

Why is anyone surprised by any of this, when 90% of even the wildly successful science fiction writers don't even know anyone who has ever touched a woman? 

[Riggswolfe]

Let's see, Bio of a Space Tyrant...I seem to recall volume 1 having pirates raping and killing the refugees, probable incest between Hope and his sister, and wasn't there a girl who was basically the property of some old pedophile, until she got too old for his tastes?

Yup, no twisted sex here :P

Ahhhh....that's why I don't know about it. I had from book 2 or 3 on and never got around to picking up the first book or two.

[HaemishM]

I've read the first two Chung Kuo books, and I don't recall any of that kind of stuff.

Merely proves that memory is more fallible for some people. It's there. Unmissably there.

Most assuredly. I read the first two books, liked them but most of the stories have escaped me. I would think the incest was as strong as you suggest, I'd likely remember it.

[shiznitz]

I read Bio of a Space Tyrant in junior high and still remember the sex stuff, but at the time I found it cool, not shocking.  I guess it was the novelty of it.  As I got older, the sexual stuff in his books became less interesting and more creepy.  There was a period back then when I must have read 20 Piers Anthony books in a row, mostly Xanth-related.  Firefly was just fucked up...but I finished it.  It is extremely rare that I don't finish a book that I start, no matter how disappointing it becomes.

[Kitsune]

I just reread On A Pale Horse, my favorite of the Incarnations of Immortality, and after reading this thread it caught my eye when he made mention of how children were unfairly discriminated against by the law in not being able to summon succubi or incubi for some quick and easy sex ed.  Because letting your kid get humped by a demon is a really great idea, no way those wacky demons might get it in their minds to do some lasting harm to a kid!

[Reg]

Geeze, I haven't read that one in years but that little tidbit slid right by me. Ah well, I haven't been tempted to read anything by him in ages and don't see any reason to change.

[Chenghiz]

I've read the first two Chung Kuo books, and I don't recall any of that kind of stuff.

Merely proves that memory is more fallible for some people. It's there. Unmissably there.

Most assuredly. I read the first two books, liked them but most of the stories have escaped me. I would think the incest was as strong as you suggest, I'd likely remember it.

The incest isn't nearly as pronounced as the sadistic stuff but it's definitely there. A shame because the books were otherwise pretty interesting.

[lamaros]

I've read the first two Chung Kuo books, and I don't recall any of that kind of stuff.

Merely proves that memory is more fallible for some people. It's there. Unmissably there.

Most assuredly. I read the first two books, liked them but most of the stories have escaped me. I would think the incest was as strong as you suggest, I'd likely remember it.

To be fair I think the snuff sadism stuff got stronger the longer the series went on, but I'm pretty sure the incest was there from the start.

And yeah, as far as they went the books were interesting. I have nearly the whole series and read most of them at least twice in my youth. It started to go in circle in the end it seemed and my interest dropped quickly, but for a while there is was enjoyable. Plus it was my first introduction to 'Go', which is an awesome game.