Piers Anthony		The Adept series: Split Infinity - 1980 Blue Adept - 1981 Juxtaposition - 1982 Out of Phaze - 1987 Robot Adept - 1988 Unicorn Point - 1989 Phaze Doubt (geddit?) - 1990

Charles Daney's Being and Nakedness site provides information about Piers Anthony and his books. I have read a couple of the Adept series, and was unimpressed. The requirement for the servant class to be nude in this fantasy world could have been really interesting - instead I found that it was generally undeveloped, being picked up from time to time, either as a plot device or, more often, to provide some titillation to spice up the story. I agree wholeheartedly with Charles Daney that Piers Anthony is second-rate or lower, and suggest taking the time to read many of the other works listed on this site before dipping a toe into the Adept series. If you are unconvinced, have a look at the extracts from Split Infinity. The contents page in this book helpfully annotates chapters as "SF" or "F", indicating their primary setting as either the science-fiction world of Proton, or its magical fantasy alternate Phaze. The former features highly-advanced technology, including the humanoid robot on the centre illustration above, the latter the unicorns seen on the other covers.

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Rings of Ice

First published in the USA by Avon Books 1974. First published in Britain by Millington Ltd 1975. First UK paperback by Fontana, 1977.

Since there was already a Piers Anthony page, I've included details of this book. A small and disparate group of people escape to the mountains in a camper van when the Earth suffers a deluge of Biblical proportions. The rain becomes so intense that the group finally accept that "No raincoat or poncho sufficed in that downpour, and soon they changed tactics. Anyone going outside went naked. The rain was warm, not cold; the hothouse effect had heated it." There is no development of this near-forced acceptance of the pointlessness of clothing in some circumstances. Equally, no titillatory asides or implications.

Despite alleging a scientifically-sound basis for his drowning world (Isaac Vail's "Annular Theory"), this story contains many implausible and inconsistent pseudo-scientific novelties.

Last updated 2006 February 18.
 
Images Copyright © various authors, photographers, graphic artists, illustrators and publishers.
Other content Copyright © author Tim Forcer

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2006 January 22.
 
Images Copyright © various authors, photographers, graphic artists, illustrators and publishers
Other content Copyright © author Tim Forcer

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