Incarnations of Immortality

On the technological, decadent world of Proton, someone was trying to destroy Stile, serf and master Gamesman. His only escape lay in Phaze, a world totally ruled by magic. Soon he learned that his alternate self had already been murdered, and that he was next. On Proton, his fate depended on winning the great Games. On Phaze, he must master magic to survive. And if he used any magic at all, his friends were determined to kill him at once!

Chthon was Piers Anthony’s first published novel in 1967, written over the course of seven years. He started it when he was in the US Army, so it has a long prison sequence that is reminiscent of that experience, being dark and grim. It features Aton Five, a space man who commits the crime of falling in love with the dangerous alluring Minionette and is therefore condemned to death in the subterranean prison of Chthon. It uses flashbacks to show how he came to know the Minionette, and flashforwards to show how he dealt with her after his escape from prison. The author regards this as perhaps the most intricately structured novel the science fantasy genre has seen. It was a contender for awards, but not a winner.

Five special people are the anchor points to a path across parallel universes. There is Darius, of the sympathetic magic…Nona, the ninth child of a ninth child…Seqiro, the telepathic horse…Provos, who remembers only the future…and Colene, the girl from Earth who learned that all dreams are possible.

Held captive in Nona's home universe, Colene and her friends must help fulfill a dangerous prophecy—that one day women will take the power of magic away from the cruel men who control it. But first, Nona must cross the barrier to another universe…to that strange and unpredictable place called Earth.