A Spell for Chameleon

Everybody in Xanth has magic except for Bink. He is disabled. Bink’s quest to find his magic reminds me of my own search for thicker and thicker glasses and more and more powerful hearing aids. Like Bink, I struggled to maintain my worth in a world where worth was determined by something I didn’t have.

I also loved the way Anthony creates character complexity and raises the question about what is a bad guy by forcing Bink to partner with the one man everyone is afraid of.

All this Anthony does in a fantastical world full of fantastical characters.

When I was around ten years old, I read everything I could get my hands on. This book fell into my mental lap and, though it was intended for an older audience, the puns and wit taught me how funny a fantastical world could be. I mean it has everything: a chameleon (who is actually three people), ghosts, zombies, witch battles, and more puns than you can shake a wand at. The protagonist, Bink, is born without an obvious magical talent, which is illegal in Xanth so he is exiled to Mundania where he is captured by an outcast wizard… show more.

I’m cheating a little here and mentioning a series. It was the first real novel-length books that I picked up in middle school. And different novels in this pun-packed project show how the magical land of Xanth is partially populated by people purloined from our plane. OK, these books are just fun, but have a more serious theme hidden deep inside. I also loved how the author continued the books through the descendants of the original characters. It’s like getting a brand new story, but still having familiar things in the books.

A tree is just a tree. But the trees in Santh have a humanesque will to survive. They’ve evolved magic properties that keep predators from cutting them down—a peace spell that causes would-be lumberjacks to fall asleep and never wake up or a ignore spell that causes predators to ignore them. The magical plants of Santh understand what drives their enemies and use that knowledge against them.

This is the first book in the Xanth magical series which began in the 70s so it has some legs for sure. Is it necessarily politically correct? Probably not but this was my first introduction to humorous fantasy, before dabbling in Discworld, and it has a fond place in my heart. It’s mischievous and zany and utterly mental in places. Everything you want in a humorous fantasy tale. 

This one’s an oldie, but a goodie. This fantasy tale follows Bink, an average plain-Joe hero. Without any magical powers, he’s exiled from his magical homeland of Xanth to the realm of Mundania, a land without magic. While trying to get back to his home, he meets a powerful exiled sorcerer named Trent, declared by all of Xanth to be a villain hellbent on taking the Xanthian throne. Trent is a character that’s stuck with me for a decade since reading this book. In spite of his flaws and debatably delusional dreams of grandeur, he’s perhaps the most admirable character… show more.