On a Pale Horse

By Piers Anthony,

Book cover of On a Pale Horse

Book description

In this first novel of the Incarnations of Immortality, Piers Anthony combines a gripping story of romance and conflicting loyalties with a deeply moving examination of the meaning of life and death. This is a novel that will long linger in the reader's mind. 

Shooting Death was a mistake, as…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked On a Pale Horse as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is the first book of the Incarnation series. What got me to read this book was the description. A man sees the incarnation of Death (the dark hooded grim reaper) and he shoots and kills him. Now that he has killed death, he must take Death’s place and become Death himself.

The second book in the series is about Chronos (time) and he lives his life backwards! The entire novel is written with time moving opposite of everyone else in the novel. I read these books in my early twenties and a lot of the series plot points still…

This is the first in his Incarnations of Immortality and I read this book when I was likely in middle school. While I was disappointed in later books in the series, On a Pale Horse still holds up pretty well. An ordinary guy shoots Death and then must take up his mantle. He has no idea how to do the job. While not laugh out loud funny, like Pratchett, Pale Horse has its moments of humor—the scene where Death collects the soul of an atheist comes to mind. It asks the questions about what life means, examines what might happen…

From Jeanette's list on with death in them.

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