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Incarnations of Immortality #6
For Love of Evil
The Man Who Would Be Satan
Parry was a gifted musician and an apprentice in the arts of White Magic. But his life of sweet promise went disastrously awry following the sudden, violent death of his beloved Jolie.
Led down the twisted path of wickedness and depravity by Lilah the harlot demoness, Parry thrived--first as a sorcerer, then as a monk, and finally as a feared inquisitor.
But it wasn't until his mortal flame was extinguished that Parry found his true calling--as the Incarnation of Evil. And, at the gates of Hell, he prepared to wage war on the master himself--Lucifer, the dark lord - with dominion over the infernal realms the ultimate prize!
Parry was a gifted musician and an apprentice in the arts of White Magic. But his life of sweet promise went disastrously awry following the sudden, violent death of his beloved Jolie.
Led down the twisted path of wickedness and depravity by Lilah the harlot demoness, Parry thrived--first as a sorcerer, then as a monk, and finally as a feared inquisitor.
But it wasn't until his mortal flame was extinguished that Parry found his true calling--as the Incarnation of Evil. And, at the gates of Hell, he prepared to wage war on the master himself--Lucifer, the dark lord - with dominion over the infernal realms the ultimate prize!
330 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Piers Anthony
363 books4,114 followersThough he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 263 reviews
October 4, 2007
This was the best book in the Incarnations of Immortality Series. Though I am generally put off by books that try to humanize God and the Devil, Piers Anthony did it so well it can be forgiven. The paradox that a soul should be condemned for a sin that was only committed because the soul was condemned draws attention to the one of the most excruciating theologic issues in Christianity. That is: How can a person commit a sin if the commission of that sin is part of God's plan and an expression of His will?
There is a tendency to overcritizie on the appearant disconnection of God from His creation, but again, that is forgivable in the context in which theologic questions are raised. At the time I read this book, I was a lot less forgiving of these points and less capable (wise) of understanding that the point was not to bash Christianity, but to cause the reader to analyze their own veiws. Any book that makes a person think on that level is deserving of high marks. Since it was also well written and entertaining, it earned the max.
There is a tendency to overcritizie on the appearant disconnection of God from His creation, but again, that is forgivable in the context in which theologic questions are raised. At the time I read this book, I was a lot less forgiving of these points and less capable (wise) of understanding that the point was not to bash Christianity, but to cause the reader to analyze their own veiws. Any book that makes a person think on that level is deserving of high marks. Since it was also well written and entertaining, it earned the max.
December 28, 2022
This is my favorite book of the entire series. It is actually dangerous because it actually makes a lot of sense and will most likely make the reader see Satan in a different light. Personally, I like this angle very much. A good wizard, becomes a priest, rises in the clergy, is seduced by a succubus, and in his doting age assumes the role of the Lord of Evil and turns it into a rehabilitation center. In other words, a good man doing a necessary function to maintain the balance.[return][return]In For Love of Evil, the human who becomes the incarnation of evil, Satan, is troubled by the nature of good versus evil and decides to end it all in a death duel with God.
May 12, 2017
I might be a minority here. I bought this book without prior knowledge of other Incarnations of Immortality series. After reading the reviews and other info, I understand more.
This book is not suitable to be read as a first book. I didn't understand the plot of the book until the end of the story. Thanks to other reviews, I finally get the general idea.
This book is not suitable to be read as a first book. I didn't understand the plot of the book until the end of the story. Thanks to other reviews, I finally get the general idea.
May 1, 2015
Into Satan's mind
14 January 2012
This is the sixth book of the series and the main character of this book is the incarnation of evil, or Satan. The book follows the same lines as the previous books in the series in that the first part of the book deals with the mortal life of the main character before he becomes the incarnation, and it also looks at the events of the other books from the eyes of this particular incarnation. However Satan, being the antagonist of all the other books, obviously has a significant role in the series.
The idea behind this book is something that we have seen developing for quite some time, and in away goes back to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It is the idea that while there is evil in the world, Satan is not strictly evil, but rather the incarnation that holds sway over evil. In this story, while he is treated as being evil by most of the other incarnations, he is more like the Greek god Hades, whose domain is the underworld and everything that eventually comes down there. In the same way Satan is the lord of Hell and has dominion over all of the people in Hell.
However, it appears that Anthony is trying to have us sympathise with Satan, thus sanitising what he really is like. He begins by having Perry, the protagonist of the book, live a very harsh life where his family and friends are all killed by Christian crusaders. He then joins a monastery to enact his revenge, and in turn creates the inquisition. He is then tempted to break his vow of celibacy by the demon Lilith, and on his death bed is given the opportunity to take the role of Satan.
In the other books Satan is always the antagonist, however as we come to this book we are taken into his mind and into his heart and begin to see that he is not really all that bad. He is not interested in sending everybody to hell, but only those who deserve it. As such he is more like a gaol warden doing a job that nobody else likes. He is also like the police officer who has a role to perform, but is hated by many because his role tends to bring him into conflict with others.
I'm still not really sure how to take this book, but in a sense I find that while Piers Anthony has a good ability to write teenage fiction, his writing style does not seem to support an intellectual adult readership. This is the feeling that I have got from most of the books that I have read of his, particularly when we come to the issue of sex. He tries to be adult, but unfortunately his writing style seems to let him down somewhat.
14 January 2012
This is the sixth book of the series and the main character of this book is the incarnation of evil, or Satan. The book follows the same lines as the previous books in the series in that the first part of the book deals with the mortal life of the main character before he becomes the incarnation, and it also looks at the events of the other books from the eyes of this particular incarnation. However Satan, being the antagonist of all the other books, obviously has a significant role in the series.
The idea behind this book is something that we have seen developing for quite some time, and in away goes back to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It is the idea that while there is evil in the world, Satan is not strictly evil, but rather the incarnation that holds sway over evil. In this story, while he is treated as being evil by most of the other incarnations, he is more like the Greek god Hades, whose domain is the underworld and everything that eventually comes down there. In the same way Satan is the lord of Hell and has dominion over all of the people in Hell.
However, it appears that Anthony is trying to have us sympathise with Satan, thus sanitising what he really is like. He begins by having Perry, the protagonist of the book, live a very harsh life where his family and friends are all killed by Christian crusaders. He then joins a monastery to enact his revenge, and in turn creates the inquisition. He is then tempted to break his vow of celibacy by the demon Lilith, and on his death bed is given the opportunity to take the role of Satan.
In the other books Satan is always the antagonist, however as we come to this book we are taken into his mind and into his heart and begin to see that he is not really all that bad. He is not interested in sending everybody to hell, but only those who deserve it. As such he is more like a gaol warden doing a job that nobody else likes. He is also like the police officer who has a role to perform, but is hated by many because his role tends to bring him into conflict with others.
I'm still not really sure how to take this book, but in a sense I find that while Piers Anthony has a good ability to write teenage fiction, his writing style does not seem to support an intellectual adult readership. This is the feeling that I have got from most of the books that I have read of his, particularly when we come to the issue of sex. He tries to be adult, but unfortunately his writing style seems to let him down somewhat.
June 28, 2013
I start this by saying that I'm still impressed with Anthony's imagination and ability to hold many character threads together.
However, this is not at all a strong entry in the Incarnations series. The main character, Parry, is a sorcerer-in-training in the Middle Ages--already I'm a little wary, being a medievalist. And rightly so (Franciscans in France, what?), because Anthony unfortunately twists history just enough to fit the addition of magic but not enough to make it look purposeful. Alternate histories need to be blatantly alternate, but a lot of this just felt like he was reading Dan Brown for fact-checking.
Also, for all his wit and grace with language, this volume has the unfortunate tendency to lapse into telling at the moments of critical importance. "And then his plan was about to come to fruition, and he was so close...! And here's how other people reacted and it went according to plan and things were fine. The end." What? There were just a lot of solid build-ups and completely anticlimactic letdowns in the adventures of Parry/Satan (which, by the by, felt rather long about 2/3 of the way through).
I return to this series after about three or so years hiatus, I think, so I'd forgotten a lot of what had happened in the first five volumes. Fortunately, Anthony has a lot of catch-up going on in this narrative. Unfortunately, he does it in such a way that it's very much And Here's What You Need To Know To Understand This Reference, which just kicked me out of the story.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Hell is Dante's model. Straight up.
I'll track down volume 7 because I hate to leave a series unfinished, but I do hope it's better than this one. This just felt flat, the whole way 'round, which is really bad when you're dealing with something as volatile as Evil.
However, this is not at all a strong entry in the Incarnations series. The main character, Parry, is a sorcerer-in-training in the Middle Ages--already I'm a little wary, being a medievalist. And rightly so (Franciscans in France, what?), because Anthony unfortunately twists history just enough to fit the addition of magic but not enough to make it look purposeful. Alternate histories need to be blatantly alternate, but a lot of this just felt like he was reading Dan Brown for fact-checking.
Also, for all his wit and grace with language, this volume has the unfortunate tendency to lapse into telling at the moments of critical importance. "And then his plan was about to come to fruition, and he was so close...! And here's how other people reacted and it went according to plan and things were fine. The end." What? There were just a lot of solid build-ups and completely anticlimactic letdowns in the adventures of Parry/Satan (which, by the by, felt rather long about 2/3 of the way through).
I return to this series after about three or so years hiatus, I think, so I'd forgotten a lot of what had happened in the first five volumes. Fortunately, Anthony has a lot of catch-up going on in this narrative. Unfortunately, he does it in such a way that it's very much And Here's What You Need To Know To Understand This Reference, which just kicked me out of the story.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Hell is Dante's model. Straight up.
I'll track down volume 7 because I hate to leave a series unfinished, but I do hope it's better than this one. This just felt flat, the whole way 'round, which is really bad when you're dealing with something as volatile as Evil.
February 9, 2016
*Book source ~ Home library
Parry was the adopted son to a very competent sorcerer. Even though he was not the sorcerer’s biological offspring he proved to have an aptitude for magic as well as having an uncommonly gifted singing voice. When his beloved wife Jolie and his father die in the Albigensian Crusade (precipitated by the mischief of Lucifer) he joins the Brotherhood to hide and plot his revenge against the Horned One. After thwarting a major plot of Lucifer’s a demoness is sent to corrupt Parry and corrupt him she does. In 1250, just as Parry’s ailing body was ready to give up, Lucifer appeared to claim his soul in person. However, Parry countered the spell Lucifer threw at him and with his dying breath he claimed the Office of Evil taking the name Satan.
After reading the first five books in this series, much of the middle part of this story is recapped from the other books, but from Parry’s POV. Where Parry came from and how he obtained the Office of Evil and became an Incarnation is an interesting pathway that is new though. And what happened to him at the end of Being a Green Mother is revealed. The setup is now complete for the final book in the series and I can’t wait to get to it!
Now, a few words on the story itself. There are a few inconsistencies and at times the writing is a bit simple, but the overall storyline is just as enthralling to me now as it was when I read it two decades ago. I love, love, love this series and I most especially love Parry/Satan. I mean, who doesn’t love a bad boy who isn’t all bad?
Parry was the adopted son to a very competent sorcerer. Even though he was not the sorcerer’s biological offspring he proved to have an aptitude for magic as well as having an uncommonly gifted singing voice. When his beloved wife Jolie and his father die in the Albigensian Crusade (precipitated by the mischief of Lucifer) he joins the Brotherhood to hide and plot his revenge against the Horned One. After thwarting a major plot of Lucifer’s a demoness is sent to corrupt Parry and corrupt him she does. In 1250, just as Parry’s ailing body was ready to give up, Lucifer appeared to claim his soul in person. However, Parry countered the spell Lucifer threw at him and with his dying breath he claimed the Office of Evil taking the name Satan.
After reading the first five books in this series, much of the middle part of this story is recapped from the other books, but from Parry’s POV. Where Parry came from and how he obtained the Office of Evil and became an Incarnation is an interesting pathway that is new though. And what happened to him at the end of Being a Green Mother is revealed. The setup is now complete for the final book in the series and I can’t wait to get to it!
Now, a few words on the story itself. There are a few inconsistencies and at times the writing is a bit simple, but the overall storyline is just as enthralling to me now as it was when I read it two decades ago. I love, love, love this series and I most especially love Parry/Satan. I mean, who doesn’t love a bad boy who isn’t all bad?
November 22, 2007
The concept is so cool, and the way he writes it so painful and juvenile...but this one really was the greatest one in the series. I mean, it's about replacing the devil, how could it not be? So I give it extra points.
February 7, 2017
I've read this book a few times over the years, and I'll state the same thing at the beginning of reviewing all the I of I books: this is a re-read, and the first time reviewing the books. I'm reviewing all of the books after I finished re-reading the entire series, which I don't normally do & didn't do deliberately this time, either...
(this book was actually read over the summer, 2016, but I'm counting it as a 2017 book because that's why I'm finally getting around to writing the review)
So, I still have to say, this is one of my favorite Piers Anthony books, ever, of all time - and that's saying something. It wasn't always one of my favorites, but once I hit adulthood it quickly became a favorite & it still is (though I wouldn't rate it in even a top 20 all time, overall favorite book list). It's genius to think of Satan as a human being, and it's fascinating to see how that human being changes, over the course of hundreds of years, in his role as Satan. The Incarnation of Immortality is heavily featured in all the books in this series, of course, but he's the star in this one, and he does shine. I really, really like him as a human, like him throughout most of the book, really. He does a few things here and there that I wish he hadn't done, but it makes him so, so human and really, it just adds SO much to the book to see even an Incarnation make a mistake. His story continues in the next book in the series (and as far as I'm concerned, the last book in the series because book #8 is horrible, horrible, horrible and I don't consider it part of the series & I pretend it doesn't exist)
That being said, my standard comment applies - Piers Anthony is a pig, so much so that sometimes I'm ashamed of reading his books (as a woman) and I will never, ever actually pay money on one of his books because I just can't support an author who devalues women as much as he does. (at least these books aren't quite as bad as the Xanth books are).
(this book was actually read over the summer, 2016, but I'm counting it as a 2017 book because that's why I'm finally getting around to writing the review)
So, I still have to say, this is one of my favorite Piers Anthony books, ever, of all time - and that's saying something. It wasn't always one of my favorites, but once I hit adulthood it quickly became a favorite & it still is (though I wouldn't rate it in even a top 20 all time, overall favorite book list). It's genius to think of Satan as a human being, and it's fascinating to see how that human being changes, over the course of hundreds of years, in his role as Satan. The Incarnation of Immortality is heavily featured in all the books in this series, of course, but he's the star in this one, and he does shine. I really, really like him as a human, like him throughout most of the book, really. He does a few things here and there that I wish he hadn't done, but it makes him so, so human and really, it just adds SO much to the book to see even an Incarnation make a mistake. His story continues in the next book in the series (and as far as I'm concerned, the last book in the series because book #8 is horrible, horrible, horrible and I don't consider it part of the series & I pretend it doesn't exist)
That being said, my standard comment applies - Piers Anthony is a pig, so much so that sometimes I'm ashamed of reading his books (as a woman) and I will never, ever actually pay money on one of his books because I just can't support an author who devalues women as much as he does. (at least these books aren't quite as bad as the Xanth books are).
November 25, 2017
Mr. Anthony always did a great job with the preceding Incarnations as the philosophical questions, suggestions, and revelations of Death, Time, Fate, War, and Nature. A few books were better than others, but ALL of the books were at least 4 stars, and were all excellent reads.
I was blown away by this sixth volume of Incarnations of Immortality and the development of Satan's character. It's a fantstic read, exploring good and evil and tackling some hard questions. The revelation that God simply wasn't listening anymore certainly makes a lot of sense when you think about how the world is today. Just like its five predecessors, this book is entertaining and thought-provoking. You just might get a few new views or ideas on things you believe in, these books are that good.
I was blown away by this sixth volume of Incarnations of Immortality and the development of Satan's character. It's a fantstic read, exploring good and evil and tackling some hard questions. The revelation that God simply wasn't listening anymore certainly makes a lot of sense when you think about how the world is today. Just like its five predecessors, this book is entertaining and thought-provoking. You just might get a few new views or ideas on things you believe in, these books are that good.
July 24, 2007
I sure read a lot of crap fantasy in high school.
October 27, 2010
Maybe my adult mind would think otherwise, but this anti-hero's journey was pretty badass to my teenage mind.
February 5, 2017
I've mentioned before that Piers Anthony suffers from what I like to call "second book syndrome," where the second books he writes in a series suffers greatly in comparison to the first, either because the first book raised expectations unreasonably high, or because after successfully publishing the first book in the a series, the author doesn't feel the need to try as hard for the second. (I know I'm supposed to be reviewing the sixth book in this particular series, but I have a point, bear with me.) So far, none of the books in the Incarnations of Immortality series have quite reached the level of the first book, On a Pale Horse, which achieved a near-perfect balance of idea, character, and plot. For Love of Evil, however, the sixth book in the series, comes the closest.
It's easy enough to see why that is. The original series was only supposed to be five books long, there was a fairly long gap between books five and six, and Piers Anthony switched publishers, going from Del Rey, where he established his three best-known series (Xanth, Apprentice Adept, and Incarnations of Immortality) to Ace, where all three of those series got something of a facelift. Xanth started a new "magical trilogy" following the first nine books with a new storyline; Apprentice Adept followed up the original trilogy with a new story following the next generation of characters; and Incarnations took its story beyond the original five Incarnations and published two more novels, looking at the two major Incarnations in the story: Evil and Good.
In many ways, For Love of Evil, which as its name implies follows the Incarnation of Evil, or Satan, reads like a first book in a series. Anthony stated in the author's note of this book that he was attempting to write this book for those who had read the first five books of the series and those who hadn't. But more to the point, I think he also needed to write a book that his new publishers would actually publish. There would be no coasting allowed here.
Satan is a character who we have met as the main antagonist in the previous five books of the series--well, four and a half anyway--and it would seem that his character is fairly straightforward: he's evil. But in the previous novel, we saw that Satan, though the Incarnation of Evil, is capable of love, as he fell in love with Orb, the Incarnation of Nature, and proved his love by effectively destroying himself and leaving his office. And this novel takes us back farther than any of the books in the series so far have, to medieval times where we meet a young sorcerer's apprentice named Parry, and his young wife, Jolie. The first chapters of the novel follow Parry through his life, through a number of tragedies, and finally, we watch Parry slowly become corrupted by evil, culminating in him becoming the Incarnation of Evil himself, the character of Satan.
But "evil" is a very subjective thing, and one of thing this novel does quite well is explore the very nature of not only what evil is, but what the role of the Prince of Evil would be. The character of Satan has two very conflicting roles in our mythology. On the one hand, he's supposed to be the antithesis of God, the very essence of everything evil in the world. But on the other hand, he also punishes evil, overseeing Hell where evil souls go. Parry himself struggles with this, and eventually concludes that Satan and God should really be in cooperation with each other, working together to sort out the good from the evil in the world.
And this is also the first novel in which we actually get to see God, the Incarnation of Good. In the previous novels, God never appears, and there's some question as to whether God is simply honoring a covenant not to interfere in the lives of mortals, or whether he's even paying attention. This novel confirms the latter, which is a common enough feeling among many. If there really is a great power of Good watching over the world, why is there so much evil in the world? This will be explored more in the seventh installment of the series of course, but a great deal of exploration happens here as well.
The character of Parry is also a fascinating one. This is another book, like With a Tangled Skein, that covers a long period of time, and follows the whole life of a person. The first chapters showing Parry's corruption were very interesting to me, as different definitions of evil were explored, and we saw that Parry always had the seeds of corruption within him, because as a sorcerer, he very often dealt in deception, so it was easy enough for him to assume the office of the Prince of Lies. We also see, very often, that Parry is doing things that are technically evil, but doing them for a good cause, both as the mortal Parry, and also as Satan. Indeed, Satan is painted as the only one of the two major powers who is actually doing anything. Parry sees it as his role to find evil or try to bring innate evil out in people so it becomes obvious, not to actually create evil itself. In a manner of speaking, he is fulfilling the roles of both God and Satan in trying to sort out who is truly good and who is truly evil. Indeed, he forms a friendship with JHVH, the minor Incarnation of Good for the Jews. (This book assumes that each faith denomination has its own Incarnation, and that God is merely the most prominent one, which helps some with some of the problems I had with Wielding a Red Sword.)
So idea and character are both done quite well in this book, and these are arguably my two most important criteria for enjoying a novel. The place where the book suffers, however, is plot, which is why I stopped short of giving this book a full five stars. As I said, Anthony tried to address both the readers who were familiar with his previous books and those who weren't, and in doing so, I think he compromised the plot a little too much. Because we're following the life of a character who we've seen in all five of the previous Incarnations novels, we necessarily have to revisit the plots of these five novels, at times repeating entire scenes. That I don't mind so much, but I feel like Anthony rushed this part of the novel a little too much. I think he was afraid of being viewed as unoriginal--in spite of his protestations to the contrary--and was afraid of boring his loyal readers with stuff they'd already read. It was interesting the view the scenes from a different perspective, but even that perspective seemed a little rushed and haphazard. I felt like the first two-thirds of the novel was done very well. There wasn't much of a plot, but it was the same sort of thing as we saw in On a Pale Horse, where the plot took a backseat to idea and character development, which I didn't mind at all. But the last third of the novel felt almost obligatory, and though it wasn't as much of a slog to get through as other things Anthony has written, I didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the book.
But it is worth pointing out that for the most part, the problems with that part of the plot are the same problems I had with the plot of the previous novels that this book was revisiting, particularly Being a Green Mother, which still felt overly contrived and not terribly clever. Overall, I very much enjoyed reading this book again. It was a nice change of pace from the somewhat "meh" offerings of the last two novels in the series, a solid bit of character writing, and a good look at the nature of evil and the role of Satan. A few flaws, but overall enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Worth Rating: Worth owning (used)
It's easy enough to see why that is. The original series was only supposed to be five books long, there was a fairly long gap between books five and six, and Piers Anthony switched publishers, going from Del Rey, where he established his three best-known series (Xanth, Apprentice Adept, and Incarnations of Immortality) to Ace, where all three of those series got something of a facelift. Xanth started a new "magical trilogy" following the first nine books with a new storyline; Apprentice Adept followed up the original trilogy with a new story following the next generation of characters; and Incarnations took its story beyond the original five Incarnations and published two more novels, looking at the two major Incarnations in the story: Evil and Good.
In many ways, For Love of Evil, which as its name implies follows the Incarnation of Evil, or Satan, reads like a first book in a series. Anthony stated in the author's note of this book that he was attempting to write this book for those who had read the first five books of the series and those who hadn't. But more to the point, I think he also needed to write a book that his new publishers would actually publish. There would be no coasting allowed here.
Satan is a character who we have met as the main antagonist in the previous five books of the series--well, four and a half anyway--and it would seem that his character is fairly straightforward: he's evil. But in the previous novel, we saw that Satan, though the Incarnation of Evil, is capable of love, as he fell in love with Orb, the Incarnation of Nature, and proved his love by effectively destroying himself and leaving his office. And this novel takes us back farther than any of the books in the series so far have, to medieval times where we meet a young sorcerer's apprentice named Parry, and his young wife, Jolie. The first chapters of the novel follow Parry through his life, through a number of tragedies, and finally, we watch Parry slowly become corrupted by evil, culminating in him becoming the Incarnation of Evil himself, the character of Satan.
But "evil" is a very subjective thing, and one of thing this novel does quite well is explore the very nature of not only what evil is, but what the role of the Prince of Evil would be. The character of Satan has two very conflicting roles in our mythology. On the one hand, he's supposed to be the antithesis of God, the very essence of everything evil in the world. But on the other hand, he also punishes evil, overseeing Hell where evil souls go. Parry himself struggles with this, and eventually concludes that Satan and God should really be in cooperation with each other, working together to sort out the good from the evil in the world.
And this is also the first novel in which we actually get to see God, the Incarnation of Good. In the previous novels, God never appears, and there's some question as to whether God is simply honoring a covenant not to interfere in the lives of mortals, or whether he's even paying attention. This novel confirms the latter, which is a common enough feeling among many. If there really is a great power of Good watching over the world, why is there so much evil in the world? This will be explored more in the seventh installment of the series of course, but a great deal of exploration happens here as well.
The character of Parry is also a fascinating one. This is another book, like With a Tangled Skein, that covers a long period of time, and follows the whole life of a person. The first chapters showing Parry's corruption were very interesting to me, as different definitions of evil were explored, and we saw that Parry always had the seeds of corruption within him, because as a sorcerer, he very often dealt in deception, so it was easy enough for him to assume the office of the Prince of Lies. We also see, very often, that Parry is doing things that are technically evil, but doing them for a good cause, both as the mortal Parry, and also as Satan. Indeed, Satan is painted as the only one of the two major powers who is actually doing anything. Parry sees it as his role to find evil or try to bring innate evil out in people so it becomes obvious, not to actually create evil itself. In a manner of speaking, he is fulfilling the roles of both God and Satan in trying to sort out who is truly good and who is truly evil. Indeed, he forms a friendship with JHVH, the minor Incarnation of Good for the Jews. (This book assumes that each faith denomination has its own Incarnation, and that God is merely the most prominent one, which helps some with some of the problems I had with Wielding a Red Sword.)
So idea and character are both done quite well in this book, and these are arguably my two most important criteria for enjoying a novel. The place where the book suffers, however, is plot, which is why I stopped short of giving this book a full five stars. As I said, Anthony tried to address both the readers who were familiar with his previous books and those who weren't, and in doing so, I think he compromised the plot a little too much. Because we're following the life of a character who we've seen in all five of the previous Incarnations novels, we necessarily have to revisit the plots of these five novels, at times repeating entire scenes. That I don't mind so much, but I feel like Anthony rushed this part of the novel a little too much. I think he was afraid of being viewed as unoriginal--in spite of his protestations to the contrary--and was afraid of boring his loyal readers with stuff they'd already read. It was interesting the view the scenes from a different perspective, but even that perspective seemed a little rushed and haphazard. I felt like the first two-thirds of the novel was done very well. There wasn't much of a plot, but it was the same sort of thing as we saw in On a Pale Horse, where the plot took a backseat to idea and character development, which I didn't mind at all. But the last third of the novel felt almost obligatory, and though it wasn't as much of a slog to get through as other things Anthony has written, I didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the book.
But it is worth pointing out that for the most part, the problems with that part of the plot are the same problems I had with the plot of the previous novels that this book was revisiting, particularly Being a Green Mother, which still felt overly contrived and not terribly clever. Overall, I very much enjoyed reading this book again. It was a nice change of pace from the somewhat "meh" offerings of the last two novels in the series, a solid bit of character writing, and a good look at the nature of evil and the role of Satan. A few flaws, but overall enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Worth Rating: Worth owning (used)
April 8, 2012
The Incarnations of Immortality series shows us a world were magic and technology have developed together and deities like Death, Time, Fates, War, Mother Earth, Evil, Good, and Night are supernatural "offices" held by humans for a length of time.
For Love of Evil is the 6th book of The Incarnations of Immortality series and in this book we are introduced to the aspect of Evil. Parry is the adopted son of a Wizard. Parry is a musician and adept sorcerer of white magic when his father instructs him to take a bride, Parry selects a village girl Jolie for his bride. Crusaders come and stab Jolie, escaping in the form of a horse with Jolie on his back, and without medicines to heal her Jolie dies. Parry decides to hide in plain sight by becoming a Franciscan monk then latter joining the Dominican monks Parry becomes a feared inquisitor. On one of his many trips to foil Lucifer's plans, Parry breaks his vow of celibacy with the ghost of his wife possessing the body of a young village girl. Using the toehold of Parry breaking his vow, Lucifer sends Lilith a demoness to corrupt Parry, which works and turns the inquisition into a force of evil. With Parry upon his death bed, Lucifer appears and attacks Lilith. Parry using his sorcery attack Lucifer killing him. Parry is instructed by Lilith in his dying moments to claim the office of evil, he does and becomes Satan. Parry plays out many plans in the name of evil but isn't wholly evil himself. I realize this review is long than the others I've written in this series but this one was my favorite...
For Love of Evil is the 6th book of The Incarnations of Immortality series and in this book we are introduced to the aspect of Evil. Parry is the adopted son of a Wizard. Parry is a musician and adept sorcerer of white magic when his father instructs him to take a bride, Parry selects a village girl Jolie for his bride. Crusaders come and stab Jolie, escaping in the form of a horse with Jolie on his back, and without medicines to heal her Jolie dies. Parry decides to hide in plain sight by becoming a Franciscan monk then latter joining the Dominican monks Parry becomes a feared inquisitor. On one of his many trips to foil Lucifer's plans, Parry breaks his vow of celibacy with the ghost of his wife possessing the body of a young village girl. Using the toehold of Parry breaking his vow, Lucifer sends Lilith a demoness to corrupt Parry, which works and turns the inquisition into a force of evil. With Parry upon his death bed, Lucifer appears and attacks Lilith. Parry using his sorcery attack Lucifer killing him. Parry is instructed by Lilith in his dying moments to claim the office of evil, he does and becomes Satan. Parry plays out many plans in the name of evil but isn't wholly evil himself. I realize this review is long than the others I've written in this series but this one was my favorite...
June 26, 2012
I was excited to pick up this book, to finally learn of how Satan--Incarnation of Evil--told his story (especially considering how Green Mother ended!). I am not sure I got what I expected, but I got an excellent tale.
Here is the tale of a man who had the love of his life taken from him by a powerful sorcerer working for the devil. This starts him on a new life in hiding--and he joins a church to eradicate evil. Seems an unlikely candidate for Evil, right? It was, until Lucifer sends a demoness to corrupt him...and he falls for it (for reasons best left to the book). Well, he tries to still do as much good as he can while doing evil the demoness demands of him, and it shortly turns out that when he is slated to die, he accidentally kills Lucifer instead. With the office open, and the guidance of the demoness, he takes over as Satan. (Every Incarnation of Evil chooses the name he be most known as.)
Much as he did on earth, he tries to restructure hell and organize it to make it more efficient (the bureaucracy is just as terrible in hell as in other places). But he doesn't seek to do undue harm, and in fact only acts ill to the other incarnations because of the way their predecessors treated him.
A very intriguing book that introduced concepts of religious natures and indeed of the concepts of Good and Evil.
I'm afraid that the next book, which I believe is about God will not be nearly as interesting or as intertwined with the rest of the series...we shall see!
Here is the tale of a man who had the love of his life taken from him by a powerful sorcerer working for the devil. This starts him on a new life in hiding--and he joins a church to eradicate evil. Seems an unlikely candidate for Evil, right? It was, until Lucifer sends a demoness to corrupt him...and he falls for it (for reasons best left to the book). Well, he tries to still do as much good as he can while doing evil the demoness demands of him, and it shortly turns out that when he is slated to die, he accidentally kills Lucifer instead. With the office open, and the guidance of the demoness, he takes over as Satan. (Every Incarnation of Evil chooses the name he be most known as.)
Much as he did on earth, he tries to restructure hell and organize it to make it more efficient (the bureaucracy is just as terrible in hell as in other places). But he doesn't seek to do undue harm, and in fact only acts ill to the other incarnations because of the way their predecessors treated him.
A very intriguing book that introduced concepts of religious natures and indeed of the concepts of Good and Evil.
I'm afraid that the next book, which I believe is about God will not be nearly as interesting or as intertwined with the rest of the series...we shall see!
June 1, 2014
This is Satan's story, and how he took over as the Incarnation of Evil after Lucifer (using the name Satan, instead). It implements the plots from ALL of the previous 5 novels.
There is quite a lot of history here, as it spans from the 1200s to the 1900s. Parry was a sorcerer's apprentice in his mortal life. After the death of his wife, he turns to monkhood, where he learns that the perverse acts done in the name of God are actually the works of Lucifer.
The reader learns of why Satan has such a vendetta against all of the other Incarnations, even when the people in the positions change (those in power when he began humiliated him and still turned from him).
I enjoyed reading more of the chaos between Good and Evil, leading to other deities not of the Christian religion. I do feel as if Satan and the others in Hell are wrong about God's nonchalance; that their bias leads them to see something that is not there.
It was very awesome to have an alternate world where the Holocaust didn't happen.
There is quite a lot of history here, as it spans from the 1200s to the 1900s. Parry was a sorcerer's apprentice in his mortal life. After the death of his wife, he turns to monkhood, where he learns that the perverse acts done in the name of God are actually the works of Lucifer.
The reader learns of why Satan has such a vendetta against all of the other Incarnations, even when the people in the positions change (those in power when he began humiliated him and still turned from him).
I enjoyed reading more of the chaos between Good and Evil, leading to other deities not of the Christian religion. I do feel as if Satan and the others in Hell are wrong about God's nonchalance; that their bias leads them to see something that is not there.
It was very awesome to have an alternate world where the Holocaust didn't happen.
September 15, 2013
This is the Incarnation of Immortality series. Piers Anthony said there was going to be 5 books in the series. The series was supposed to deal with Death, Time, War, Fate, and Nature. Since Mr. Anthony has never limited himself to what he originally planned (his Xanth trilogy has 30+ books and is still going), he decided to add 2 more books to his pentology(a 5 book series). These last 2 were going to look at Evil(Satan) and Good(God).
Satan was the opponent to all the other Incarnations in their tales, but this time he gets to take over as the main character. Really interesting to turn the "bad guy" into the "good guy".
I also noticed there was an 8th book added to the series a few years after these two additions.
Satan was the opponent to all the other Incarnations in their tales, but this time he gets to take over as the main character. Really interesting to turn the "bad guy" into the "good guy".
I also noticed there was an 8th book added to the series a few years after these two additions.
April 2, 2009
Just the fact that Piers Anthony is able to make a fairly convincing argument for an incarnation of evil is pretty amazing. It is a difficult topic, but he does it surprisingly well. My major complaint is that the story line seems a bit awkward at times, which he seems to try to cover by blaming it on the fact that men are slaves to sex. Hmmm, not convinced. Having said that, there is a fair bit of sex in this one, so it probably is not a great choice for younger fantasy readers.
July 18, 2011
The first time I read this, my friend lent me his copy. The cover was torn, the pages were stained and falling out, and the book was nearly impossible to read. Even so, this book entranced me and pulled me deeper and deeper into Perry's transition from pure good to "conventional" evil. This is my absolute favorite of the Incarnations of Immortality, and now my once-new copy would probably evaporate in a half-strong breeze.
March 4, 2009
Strangely, this was the best book in the series. It did cover new events, but mostly it was a retelling of the first five books; this would seem like a disastrous idea, but it was really a stroke of genius. For Love of Evil> is told from the Devil's point of view, and Anthony did an amazing job. Of course, to really enjoy this book, you'll have to read the rest of the series.
May 5, 2019
Wow! I love the beginning! What a way to start a story! This is by far the best book in the series thus far and despite being the second to last volume in the series it's possible to easily recommend this book as a stand-alone novel.
Having read the previous books, I knew Parry would become Satan and eventually marry the incarnation of nature. But the how and why engaged me far more than knowing the outcome itself. Early on you see Parry and Jolie fall in love. The novel goes to great lengths to show their love for one another. It also shows how Parry eventually becomes a religious man after nearly escaping death. Credit to author Piers Anthony here because there's a solid moment where Parry's life is so far from both these things that I was almost convinced everything I knew about Parry going into this book was wrong.
But then we watch the demons tempt Parry, using his lustful nature against him... And wow... I was worried this book wasn't going to convince me, but it did. Everything from how the demons tempted Parry, but feared the name of Christ, Parry's walk in and fall from grace, all felt incredibly believable.
As Satan, I felt uneasy with how easily Parry seemed to move past Jolie. Sure her name was mentioned from time to time but with how well the book sold me on their love before, I found it difficult to understand how he moved past her. It's probably my biggest complaint with the story, but at the same time I wonder how intentional this all was.
Parry escaped to Hell and sought sex from demons to cleanse his mind from Jolie. He may have been running from the reality of things to avoid pain. But I could be looking too deeply into things too.
During the final part of the story, Parry came up with a plan to gain Orb's affection. It brings up a question of whether or not it's possible to fall in love/stay in love with someone after learning that everything they told you was a lie. This whole scene and Orb's appropriate reaction upon learning the truth was brilliant.
Having read the previous books, I knew Parry would become Satan and eventually marry the incarnation of nature. But the how and why engaged me far more than knowing the outcome itself. Early on you see Parry and Jolie fall in love. The novel goes to great lengths to show their love for one another. It also shows how Parry eventually becomes a religious man after nearly escaping death. Credit to author Piers Anthony here because there's a solid moment where Parry's life is so far from both these things that I was almost convinced everything I knew about Parry going into this book was wrong.
But then we watch the demons tempt Parry, using his lustful nature against him... And wow... I was worried this book wasn't going to convince me, but it did. Everything from how the demons tempted Parry, but feared the name of Christ, Parry's walk in and fall from grace, all felt incredibly believable.
As Satan, I felt uneasy with how easily Parry seemed to move past Jolie. Sure her name was mentioned from time to time but with how well the book sold me on their love before, I found it difficult to understand how he moved past her. It's probably my biggest complaint with the story, but at the same time I wonder how intentional this all was.
Parry escaped to Hell and sought sex from demons to cleanse his mind from Jolie. He may have been running from the reality of things to avoid pain. But I could be looking too deeply into things too.
During the final part of the story, Parry came up with a plan to gain Orb's affection. It brings up a question of whether or not it's possible to fall in love/stay in love with someone after learning that everything they told you was a lie. This whole scene and Orb's appropriate reaction upon learning the truth was brilliant.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2011
Originally, the Incarnations of Immortality series was meant to end at Being a Green Mother when Satan is finally defeated by his love for Orb. This was an ending that I found very dramatic, even if in a corny way. After reading that, I thought it was an excellent conclusion. But it wasn’t the end. Piers Anthony continued his series with two more books detailing the most important offices: Good and Evil. Thus, For Love of Evil and And Eternity were born.
For Love of Evil is one of the best books in Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, if not the best. Up until this one, the books have all been very engaging, though following a similar format. Every time, a new person takes up the Incarnation office and gets tricked by Satan somehow. However, this one is totally different, it is about Satan himself.
Sympathy for the Devil is often a difficult thing to achieve. It’s pretty controversial and the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, or whatever you want to call him has long been a landmark villain in the history of literature. Of course, he’s been the main antagonist of the series for quite a while, but every good villain deserves a good backstory. Nobody is just pure evil from the get go. The story of how Parry gets into the office of Satan is quite an intriguing one.
Like every other Incarnation, the story starts off of Parry’s mortality. He is a successful musician who, quite ironically, becomes a priest. He lives his life battling off the forces of evil. Through blessings, prayers and magic, he becomes the leading force in the crusade for good and is on a never-ending quest to stop evil. Ironic, huh?
Similar to other books in the series, a love interest is the main conflict here. Like I’ve said before, Piers Anthony’s love scenes aren’t exactly too convincing. But then again, neither is Romeo and Juliet or any other love scene from any form of media that I’ve come across. Parry’s love interest here is Jolie who is killed but still accompanies him as a ghost.
I won’t give the details of his full corruption, but it is quite an intriguing one indeed. For most incarnations, the transition from mortality to office wasn’t too shocking. However, a priest being turned to Satan is something to be surprised at. I believe that Piers Anthony does a pretty good job of his corruption. When putting myself in that situation, it seems very likely to fall for such temptation. I felt that overall; his transition was a lot more dramatic than the other Incarnations.
For Love of Evil does what nearly every other book in the series did; it tried to intertwine its own story with the rest of the series. However, For Love of Evil probably does a better job of doing this than any other book in the series because it traces back the entire series. It begins far before any of the other characters (Zane, Niobe, Orb, etc.) have ever lived because Parry was alive during the Crusades while the other characters live in the distant future. It chronicles many of the major events from Parry’s point of view such as his taunting of Niobe, Lilith’s seduction of Mym and his love affair with Orb.
(minor spoilers ahead)
Ever thought “This person’s not really mean, he’s just misunderstood”? This book attends to that phrase better than any I’ve read. Imagine that just by holding the office of Satan; people would automatically assume you’re evil! (Well, of course it’d happen, but it’s never right to judge.) Of course, Parry wasn’t truly evil. He’d just kicked Lucifer out of the throne and unknowingly assumed the position. Unsure of how to find a spell that would dominate the demons; he approaches the other Incarnations in good faith. However, they assume he’s evil and proceed to ignore, insult and humiliate him. Geez, can you blame the guy for being evil?
Many of the evil things he does are mostly out of trying to get revenge on the other Incarnations. For example, the Black Plague was caused out of his desire to get revenge on Nature and Death. Even so, he did spare certain areas from the Plague out of sympathy for the people. I guess he’s not all that bad is he?
He even befriends JVHV a lesser Incarnation of a Jewish god. Yup that’s right. He befriends God. (Didn’t see that one coming eh?) He also tricks one of the Incarnations into stopping the Holocaust in order to please JVHV. His reason for being evil? There needs to be order in the world. Someone needs to tempt people in order to determine whether or not they are truly good or evil. That way, God and Satan and find out if they truly belong in Heaven or Hell.
The main flaw about Piers Anthony’s story is the same as the rest of the series. He does at times seem to be a bit sexist or juvenile. Yes, he does enjoy referencing female bosoms from time to time, which does get old. However, the sex scenes do, to an extent, play an important role in the story and are pretty important. Unlike previous books in the series, (Wielding a Red Sword) Anthony seems to keep a decent filter on how much sexual content is present in the book. Lilith’s corruption is very sexual, but for good reason of course.
The story of Parry’s journey from a mortal priest to becoming the Incarnation of Evil is a truly unique one full of drama and despair. It certainly sheds a different light on a character that we’d never expected to have compassion for. However, it’s always good to humanize the villain because villains in fiction should never be two-dimensional generic bad guys. Parry’s motives can be called evil but to do so may be unfair. The series has always had a knack for playing around with the definition of good and evil, but it’s done most prominently here. Whether or not Parry should truly be called evil or just merely someone doing his job is up to the discretion of the reader. The life of the Incarnation of Evil certainly isn’t an easy one, and Parry’s extensive tale of love, betrayal and loss is truly a fascinating one. So all in all, don’t be surprised if this book makes you consider sympathy for the Devil, I mean Parry.
For Love of Evil is one of the best books in Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, if not the best. Up until this one, the books have all been very engaging, though following a similar format. Every time, a new person takes up the Incarnation office and gets tricked by Satan somehow. However, this one is totally different, it is about Satan himself.
Sympathy for the Devil is often a difficult thing to achieve. It’s pretty controversial and the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, or whatever you want to call him has long been a landmark villain in the history of literature. Of course, he’s been the main antagonist of the series for quite a while, but every good villain deserves a good backstory. Nobody is just pure evil from the get go. The story of how Parry gets into the office of Satan is quite an intriguing one.
Like every other Incarnation, the story starts off of Parry’s mortality. He is a successful musician who, quite ironically, becomes a priest. He lives his life battling off the forces of evil. Through blessings, prayers and magic, he becomes the leading force in the crusade for good and is on a never-ending quest to stop evil. Ironic, huh?
Similar to other books in the series, a love interest is the main conflict here. Like I’ve said before, Piers Anthony’s love scenes aren’t exactly too convincing. But then again, neither is Romeo and Juliet or any other love scene from any form of media that I’ve come across. Parry’s love interest here is Jolie who is killed but still accompanies him as a ghost.
I won’t give the details of his full corruption, but it is quite an intriguing one indeed. For most incarnations, the transition from mortality to office wasn’t too shocking. However, a priest being turned to Satan is something to be surprised at. I believe that Piers Anthony does a pretty good job of his corruption. When putting myself in that situation, it seems very likely to fall for such temptation. I felt that overall; his transition was a lot more dramatic than the other Incarnations.
For Love of Evil does what nearly every other book in the series did; it tried to intertwine its own story with the rest of the series. However, For Love of Evil probably does a better job of doing this than any other book in the series because it traces back the entire series. It begins far before any of the other characters (Zane, Niobe, Orb, etc.) have ever lived because Parry was alive during the Crusades while the other characters live in the distant future. It chronicles many of the major events from Parry’s point of view such as his taunting of Niobe, Lilith’s seduction of Mym and his love affair with Orb.
(minor spoilers ahead)
Ever thought “This person’s not really mean, he’s just misunderstood”? This book attends to that phrase better than any I’ve read. Imagine that just by holding the office of Satan; people would automatically assume you’re evil! (Well, of course it’d happen, but it’s never right to judge.) Of course, Parry wasn’t truly evil. He’d just kicked Lucifer out of the throne and unknowingly assumed the position. Unsure of how to find a spell that would dominate the demons; he approaches the other Incarnations in good faith. However, they assume he’s evil and proceed to ignore, insult and humiliate him. Geez, can you blame the guy for being evil?
Many of the evil things he does are mostly out of trying to get revenge on the other Incarnations. For example, the Black Plague was caused out of his desire to get revenge on Nature and Death. Even so, he did spare certain areas from the Plague out of sympathy for the people. I guess he’s not all that bad is he?
He even befriends JVHV a lesser Incarnation of a Jewish god. Yup that’s right. He befriends God. (Didn’t see that one coming eh?) He also tricks one of the Incarnations into stopping the Holocaust in order to please JVHV. His reason for being evil? There needs to be order in the world. Someone needs to tempt people in order to determine whether or not they are truly good or evil. That way, God and Satan and find out if they truly belong in Heaven or Hell.
The main flaw about Piers Anthony’s story is the same as the rest of the series. He does at times seem to be a bit sexist or juvenile. Yes, he does enjoy referencing female bosoms from time to time, which does get old. However, the sex scenes do, to an extent, play an important role in the story and are pretty important. Unlike previous books in the series, (Wielding a Red Sword) Anthony seems to keep a decent filter on how much sexual content is present in the book. Lilith’s corruption is very sexual, but for good reason of course.
The story of Parry’s journey from a mortal priest to becoming the Incarnation of Evil is a truly unique one full of drama and despair. It certainly sheds a different light on a character that we’d never expected to have compassion for. However, it’s always good to humanize the villain because villains in fiction should never be two-dimensional generic bad guys. Parry’s motives can be called evil but to do so may be unfair. The series has always had a knack for playing around with the definition of good and evil, but it’s done most prominently here. Whether or not Parry should truly be called evil or just merely someone doing his job is up to the discretion of the reader. The life of the Incarnation of Evil certainly isn’t an easy one, and Parry’s extensive tale of love, betrayal and loss is truly a fascinating one. So all in all, don’t be surprised if this book makes you consider sympathy for the Devil, I mean Parry.
June 28, 2023
This book had a very creative exploration of evil and hell. It borrowed from Dante but also had a fascinating take on the reason why Satan has so many names. The story also wove nicely with the other books in the series. I think the overall story was pretty interesting, especially when he became the incarnation of evil. My main issue is that parts of the beginning aren’t directly related to the story as a whole and parts of the ending are a bit rushed which doesn’t give the redemptive aspects the kind of emphasis that it should. Otherwise, this is a really fun and interesting book.
August 28, 2022
I still find these silly and melodramatic and laughingly titillating, but I respect the craft of a multi-book story that has always been headed...somewhere. Gotta read the last one to find out!
The pert bottoms and sex temptations still bum me out. It seems like there could be a wider range of sins to explore, especially in Satan's book.
The last part is a review of all the other times Satan has appeared in the story. I'm glad it was short and fast, but it felt rushed (there's just no pleasing me). Some interesting revisions to what came before.
Part of a longer tradition of making a kinder, gentler Satan, one who's just doing his best.
The pert bottoms and sex temptations still bum me out. It seems like there could be a wider range of sins to explore, especially in Satan's book.
The last part is a review of all the other times Satan has appeared in the story. I'm glad it was short and fast, but it felt rushed (there's just no pleasing me). Some interesting revisions to what came before.
Part of a longer tradition of making a kinder, gentler Satan, one who's just doing his best.
December 21, 2016
I really enjoyed For Love of Evil, and am giving it five stars in spite of its imperfections. Let's get those out of the way first. Same problems as always, although Anthony definitely wants to mitigate them/thinks he isn't doing them/etc. Lilah the demoness (not sure how I feel that one of the most explicitly feminist/feminist-adjacent characters is a demoness, but oh well) explicitly states that she was Adam's first wife and that she was not going to let him think he was superior because he was male. Similarly, Satan/Parry is highly dependent on women to achieve his ends and the novel is up front about this and about the fact that if he mistreats those women, they will abandon him and that he will suffer consequences. As a result, the Weird Thing About Sex was at least trying to distance itself from misogyny, and while I'm not completely sure how well it worked, I approve of its attempts (unnecessary as I thought it was). I also thought this novel handled the Western-centric, Christian-centric-ness of the world a bit better than the earlier ones, mostly by virtue of giving us a little more information about what had been going on the entire time. A large portion of the plot was also a retread, especially in the latter part of the book--but it was nice to see the altercations of the earlier books from Satan's point of view.
Now for the good. I thought the exploration of evil and how things intended for good become evil was really clever and the corruption of Parry to be very interesting. I also liked the characters of Jolie and Lilah, both of whom were fleshed out in various ways (although they also both had large sections of the novel where they were either absent or present and flattened). I also bought the end of Being a Green Mother a lot more having re-lived it in For Love of Evil than I did when I first encountered it. I actually accepted Satan more than I did Mars under the scheme of Necessity, and I certainly liked him much more than the Incarnation of Evil has any right to be liked. That links in to the novel's interesting judgments on order and meaning--life as sorting mechanism, Satan's fight with God as a means of accelerating and refining said ordering, Christianity as a powerful frame but not the only one and powerful only in the degree to which it is believed. I thought this cleared up a lot of the positionality of the work as a whole, making it seem deeply agnostic and perhaps humanistic--a conclusion that may or may not be borne out when I read the seventh installment of the series. I thought that this was the most convincing argument for the need for Evil, actually, the idea that Satan is not the source of evil, but rather the one who tries to pull forward so that evil can be separated from good. I don't know that I strictly "agree"--since human beings can (even in this fictional world) affect the total good and evil by altering their lives (when it seems like the Void is much more mixed at its heart), but I found it to be a highly interesting framework.
Now for the good. I thought the exploration of evil and how things intended for good become evil was really clever and the corruption of Parry to be very interesting. I also liked the characters of Jolie and Lilah, both of whom were fleshed out in various ways (although they also both had large sections of the novel where they were either absent or present and flattened). I also bought the end of Being a Green Mother a lot more having re-lived it in For Love of Evil than I did when I first encountered it. I actually accepted Satan more than I did Mars under the scheme of Necessity, and I certainly liked him much more than the Incarnation of Evil has any right to be liked. That links in to the novel's interesting judgments on order and meaning--life as sorting mechanism, Satan's fight with God as a means of accelerating and refining said ordering, Christianity as a powerful frame but not the only one and powerful only in the degree to which it is believed. I thought this cleared up a lot of the positionality of the work as a whole, making it seem deeply agnostic and perhaps humanistic--a conclusion that may or may not be borne out when I read the seventh installment of the series. I thought that this was the most convincing argument for the need for Evil, actually, the idea that Satan is not the source of evil, but rather the one who tries to pull forward so that evil can be separated from good. I don't know that I strictly "agree"--since human beings can (even in this fictional world) affect the total good and evil by altering their lives (when it seems like the Void is much more mixed at its heart), but I found it to be a highly interesting framework.
June 28, 2012
There was a fashion in the late 80s for fantasy authors, especially those published by Lester Del Ray, to write novels that recapped the series up til that point from the perspective of a different character. These days I find it a cynically commercial practice at best, but I was a total sucker for them when I was a kid. Rereading For Love of Evil, I find... I kind of still am.
The first two thirds of the book is original material about Parry, a 13th century sorcerer who does the Pygmalion thing on a peasant girl to get himself a perfect wife and loses her to the Albigensian crusade (in a scene, incidentally, that puzzled me for years with its offhand description of rape-ready bondage. I still don't think it would work as described.) He then becomes a monk, founds the Inquisition, foils Lucifer a number of times, and then falls to temptation in the form of first his ghostly wife in a willing and nubile body, and then the demoness Lilith. And then he defeats Lucifer and in doing so becomes his successor, Satan.
So. That happens. It's actually the least appallingly sexist book of the three I've reread, despite the ridiculous amount of sex. Partly this is because the time period makes things like arranged marriages marginally more palatable, partly because to make Parry ultimately sympathetic, he has to be an extra-good guy, and partly because the foes are the medieval Catholic church and/or Inquisition, against whom almost everyone looks liberal.
The last third of the book is the aforementioned recap section, where Parry describes his conflicts with the other Incarnations from his point of view. This is handy because the ones he focuses on are Fate and Nature, which always saved me from reading Anthony's unbearable attempts to write female protagonists. This section is chock-full of male-gaze ick, but Parry remains a sympathetic character as he struggles to understand his role as the devil while still being a fundamentally good, compassionate person. (In a series of minor scenes, he befriends the god of the Jews and arranges for the Holocaust to unhappen.) He also approaches God (the prime Incarnation of Good, the Christian god, which is finally justified by explaining that He has the most followers) and discovers that he is locked in narcissistic contemplation and basically out of action. This sets up the final book in the series...
...Which I am not reading. It contains, as I recall, a new female protagonist, Parry's ghostly ex-wife, and an urban prostitute of color. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to.
Really, this is the only book in the series that holds up at all. I'm not sure why it does, to be honest. Despite my crack about Del Rey above, the last two books in the series were published by Avon - perhaps the new editor filtered out the worst of it. It's still not really worth keeping around, but I am somewhat relieved that my 12-year-old self wasn't a complete moron.
The first two thirds of the book is original material about Parry, a 13th century sorcerer who does the Pygmalion thing on a peasant girl to get himself a perfect wife and loses her to the Albigensian crusade (in a scene, incidentally, that puzzled me for years with its offhand description of rape-ready bondage. I still don't think it would work as described.) He then becomes a monk, founds the Inquisition, foils Lucifer a number of times, and then falls to temptation in the form of first his ghostly wife in a willing and nubile body, and then the demoness Lilith. And then he defeats Lucifer and in doing so becomes his successor, Satan.
So. That happens. It's actually the least appallingly sexist book of the three I've reread, despite the ridiculous amount of sex. Partly this is because the time period makes things like arranged marriages marginally more palatable, partly because to make Parry ultimately sympathetic, he has to be an extra-good guy, and partly because the foes are the medieval Catholic church and/or Inquisition, against whom almost everyone looks liberal.
The last third of the book is the aforementioned recap section, where Parry describes his conflicts with the other Incarnations from his point of view. This is handy because the ones he focuses on are Fate and Nature, which always saved me from reading Anthony's unbearable attempts to write female protagonists. This section is chock-full of male-gaze ick, but Parry remains a sympathetic character as he struggles to understand his role as the devil while still being a fundamentally good, compassionate person. (In a series of minor scenes, he befriends the god of the Jews and arranges for the Holocaust to unhappen.) He also approaches God (the prime Incarnation of Good, the Christian god, which is finally justified by explaining that He has the most followers) and discovers that he is locked in narcissistic contemplation and basically out of action. This sets up the final book in the series...
...Which I am not reading. It contains, as I recall, a new female protagonist, Parry's ghostly ex-wife, and an urban prostitute of color. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to.
Really, this is the only book in the series that holds up at all. I'm not sure why it does, to be honest. Despite my crack about Del Rey above, the last two books in the series were published by Avon - perhaps the new editor filtered out the worst of it. It's still not really worth keeping around, but I am somewhat relieved that my 12-year-old self wasn't a complete moron.
September 21, 2017
Parry was a sorcerer, in love with Jolie, in the 11th century... but Jolie was killed and became a ghost! Parry then became a priest, but then Lucifer, Incarnation of Evil, sent the demoness Lilah to corrupt him, and she did, through sex! Lucifer came to take him directly to hell, but didn't realize Jolie was there too, empowering Parry to reflect Lucifer's own attack back at him, killing him and making Parry the new Incarnation of evil, to be named... Satan! Still basically a good guy who happened to have been born with magic and liked having sex, he tried to figure out how best to do his job, and soon found out that Hell was set up in an archaic way, and he discovered that a lot of things that were labelled as sins weren't all that bad! However, there was little he could do about it directly, so he tried talking about it with the the other Incarnations... but was rebuffed and humiliated by each one in turn! (Except for Time, who he befriended, but was replaced by another one who hated him later on). Finally he went to the Incarnation of Good, God, and discovered that he was basically a vegetable... he had tuned out from the problems of life on earth long, long ago, and just sat around beholding his own magnificence. Plus, Heaven was super boring... good people would get there, but not be allowed to do anything natural or fun, specifically, lovers couldn't have sex. Now, he had fended off a bunch of angels to get there, but ended up talking with the angel Gabriel, who was in charge while God was indisposed. They made a deal for power: If Satan could corrupt a specific person, or one of that person's descendants out to the third generation down, Satan would win and could change the status quo, otherwise not. However, Gabriel got to choose, and it was a person who lived centuries later! Niobe! At that point, the book recounted the events of the first 5 books, from his perspective, now revealed to be somewhat reasonable considering his goal. However, he was overcome by love and destroyed himself by singing with Orb/Nature! However, that freed Jolie, who was able to explain some things to the other Incarnations, along with input from Lilah, Gabriel, and so on, (plus, the office of Evil had gone to the most evil person in the world, a serial killer, who was not secretly a good guy) and they set Parry free from his prison in hell. He fought with the new Evil, and defeated him! Then he got to hook up with his new love, Orb/Nature, and his old love, Ghost Jolie.
So, in covering the Incarnation of Evil, Piers Anthony revealed that there was a secret backstory to all the fights with Satan in the first series. The recap chapters at the end were boring, but it seemed worth it. However, now we knew that this alternate view contained a new goal (replace God, redefine sin according to modern sensibilities), and that goal wasn't achieved!
So, in covering the Incarnation of Evil, Piers Anthony revealed that there was a secret backstory to all the fights with Satan in the first series. The recap chapters at the end were boring, but it seemed worth it. However, now we knew that this alternate view contained a new goal (replace God, redefine sin according to modern sensibilities), and that goal wasn't achieved!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2023
Perhaps more of a 3.5 in a way, since a fair amount of the middle was repetition of the other titles, with the conflict from Parry's point of view. However, a large part of this was very interesting, with an argument being made that I've heard from historians, that the Black Death which ravaged Europe periodically for a few centuries and is estimated at wiping out perhaps 1/3 of Europe's population, was in the long run, a good thing for the common people, since wages had to increase due to lack of people to perform tasks. I don't think the victims or survivors would agree, but in the long run, it did help the common people. In this book, one sees the attitude of the incarnations beginning to change about Parry, the Lord of Evil. Also, the Jewish deity makes an appearance, does Parry a favor, and gets a huge repayment. If only that had happened in the real world! There also is speculation that God is not paying attention to the world. This will be explored more in the last book, And Eternity. Even though you could probably manage without reading the prior books, I do suggest reading them in order. Highly recommended! Addendum 12/2019 Anthony makes it clear that he had problem in presenting the story to both readers new to the series as well as old ones who were familiar with the series, since their had been a break in time and publisher. To deal with both, he felt he had to provide a summary of the series. He hoped to do it by presenting the material from a new POV, Parry’s. It works, but not exceptionally well. Especially with the pressure Jews are under at the moment with many Antisemitic attacks, I rather appreciated reading about the Jewish deity being presented so positively in this title. I still agree that this is more of a 3.5 star title, or maybe 3.8 star. It kept my attention and I was cheering Parry on. While not my favorite, it is still excellent. On to the last of the series!
March 15, 2015
Among the first six books, this was definitely the most entertaining. I hadn't read it when I read the original five (because there were only five then), though it makes a nice addition overall. It was one of those books that make you wish it wasn't over yet when you reach the end. Given the subject matter (not to mention Anthony's own tastes), this one was the lustiest of the bunch, particularly during the temptation and fall of the main character. Purists will hate Anthony's hashing of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Greco-Roman, and other religions, myths, etc., which becomes far more pronounced in this one than the previous five. While in On a Pale Horse, Anthony leaves a person's afterlife up to him/her, here the Christian view overrides all others, to include distinguishing between the Christian "Father" and the Jewish YHWH as separate entities. Usually when Anthony delves into a topic, he does his homework. He failed to understand medieval Christianity, though, evidenced, for instance, by his constantly mixing up "brother" for "father" and vice versa. Perhaps his own atheism made researching such a topic less palatable for him. His depiction of God and heaven are actually horrific; there is plenty of material in La Divina Commedia - Purgatorio to draw inspiration from, but Anthony's own view of God and religion is so dark as to make this depiction perhaps close to his own. I will be interested if he manages a more sympathetic view in #7 (much like he did for Satan in this work)...
Overall, I recommend it as light reading, but recommend reading the others first.
Overall, I recommend it as light reading, but recommend reading the others first.
November 10, 2010
This is yet another series I decided to revisit as it appears the author has added another installment to the Incarnations of Immortality. It seems I may have read parts of this novel, but not all of it. And I know I had not yet picked up the 7th installment, And Eternity. But, as I saw Mr. Anthony published an 8th installment, Under a Velvet Cloak, I felt I must reread from the 6th on so as to regain my bearings on this interesting world. The story was interesting and fun to read. This book is by no means a literary masterpiece, but I surely enjoy the author's spin on the topic. Also, I find a bond with the author in wanting to bring order to chaos. We work so very hard to bring order around us knowing that if we ever stop exerting energy, then the world will tend to chaos. Entropy...ah! Anyway, the book was certainly fun to read and only occasionally promoted headaches when discussing the Incarnation of Time. But, it was a good pain!
June 5, 2020
This book is my favorite book of the series!
Book 6 describes how Perry becomes Satan, the Incarnation of Evil. He starts out as a magician's apprentice, falls in love, and through a series of misfortunes, he becomes a religious leader who brings about the Inquisition. From there the path he follows a less than pure, until he takes over the position of the Incarnation of Evil. This books ties a number of loose ends, including why Niobe, the Magician, Luna, and Orb are so important to the entire chronicle.
The reason this book is my favorite is because of how you feel when you finish it. You actually like Perry, and though he is Satan, he actually trying to do some good. To hate a character for 5 books, (not to mention coming into the series with heavy preconceived notions), only to end up liking and rooting for the character is nothing short of amazing! The reader will not be disappointed!
Book 6 describes how Perry becomes Satan, the Incarnation of Evil. He starts out as a magician's apprentice, falls in love, and through a series of misfortunes, he becomes a religious leader who brings about the Inquisition. From there the path he follows a less than pure, until he takes over the position of the Incarnation of Evil. This books ties a number of loose ends, including why Niobe, the Magician, Luna, and Orb are so important to the entire chronicle.
The reason this book is my favorite is because of how you feel when you finish it. You actually like Perry, and though he is Satan, he actually trying to do some good. To hate a character for 5 books, (not to mention coming into the series with heavy preconceived notions), only to end up liking and rooting for the character is nothing short of amazing! The reader will not be disappointed!
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