8. Heaven Cent by Piers Anthony

Heaven Cent by Piers Anthony
ISBN: 0812574982
Tom Doherty Associates, New York, 2000
340 pages

Teaser: Prince Xanth is off in a world of mystery to search for a magical coin, along with form shifters, sorcerers and illusionist island. Along the ways are dangers that could cost any of them their lives.

Summary: Xanth sets off through a land of lakes, hidden caves, mountains and Draco and Dolph struggle with their friendship, risking their lives, solving riddles and running from certain death. The trio shift change and try to keep ahead of the Centaurs and other evil creatures out to kill them. They have not yet even thought about the journey home. Xanth wants to grow, marry and have a family, but this may be an illusion too. The problem is Xanth is only nine years old and falls in love with two women along the way, one older, one his age. In the end he uses the test of the roses to determine his true love, which tells him he will marry two women, but not now. He has seven years to figure it out. With magic, anything can happen and usually does.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book. There were many aspects going at the same time. I also found that there was an almost never ending plague of problems along the way as new characters are introduced and love grows. I would like to read other books in the series and would find the many characters to be more familiar in the next books. The shift or maturity in the characters would be interesting. The book also brought values and family together in the end with, of course, good winning over evil.

Challenge issues and age recommendation: The book has lots of details of blood sucking vampires, goblins, Centaurs, deception, bloodshed, drinking and grotesque descriptions of the characters are a bit graphic, but not to extreme. There were also passages of body descriptions and suggestions of sex between characters. It was a bit of a challenge to keep the dozen or so characters and their morphed characters straight if you put the book down for long. I would recommend this for experienced readers in middle school or high school students.