Castle Roogna (Xanth Novels)

Customer Reviews

• You'll never look at spiders the same way again  Jan 23, 2003 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  "Castle Roogna" is the third in the "Xanth" series by Piers Anthony. Unlike the first two, which focused on Bink, this one focuses on Bink's son, Dor. Dor is a twelve year old Magician with the power to speak to inanimate objects or the dead -- which is quite useful as a means of gathering information. When Queen Iris tries to scare him with illusions of dragons or other horrible monsters, Dor is able to ask the floor if the creature is real, and when he's told it's not, he can walk through the illusion without fear.

  Dor gets sent on a mission to find a way to bring zombie Jonathan back to life as a favor to Millie the maid. It's tough because Dor has a severe crush on Millie, due partially to the fact that her magic talent is sex appeal(?). But Millie loves Jonathan. To find the means to bring Jonathan back to life, Dor has to travel 800 years in the past through a magic tapestry.

  Along on the ride is a giant spider named Jumper. Well, he was normal size in Xanth, but he got transformed into a six foot tall spider in the past. Disgusting? Maybe. But Jumper is incredibly loyal, mature, powerful, and genuine decent.

  One of the really neat things about "Castle Roogna" is how well its plot fits in with the previous two novels ("A Spell for Chameleon" and "The Source of Magic") -- oddities like the Forget spell around the Gap (no one remembers the Gap) are explained by the end of this book in a satisfying way.

• Great book for teen or pre-teen  Dec 4, 2000 (8 of 9 found this helpful)

  I first got into the Xanth novels when I was 16 maybe. I loved them, and I loved this one most of all. I probably read it 4 or 5 times during my teen years and as a young adult.

  This is a great book to encourage kids to read for pleasure. In my opinion, it is the best of the Xanth novels, but it should be read after A Spell for Chamelon and The Source of Magic, so readers will have a firm grasp of Xanth and who is who.

  In this book Xanth is still a wonderous and dangerous place! Later books in the series turn Xanth into an environment suitable for toddlers. Ugh.

• One of the last decent Xanth books  Mar 17, 2005 (7 of 8 found this helpful)

  Castle Roogna, the third in the Xanth books, is one of the last of the readable Xanth books in the series. From this point out, the series decays into a mudge of eeping nymphs with luscious flesh and awful puns.
  
  I remember as a pre-teenager being captivated by a Spell for Chameleon and becoming an addicted Xanth reader. It was interesting to pick this book up again as an adult and realize that while my opinion of Anthony eventually declined, the first three books in the series are still pretty readable.
  
  Xanth in the first three books is a really edgy place. People are often quite cold and their motivations obscure. Dor feels very real as a character, bearing his burdens of expectations and confusion as he struggles his way into the adult world.
  
  The silly puns themselves are at a minimum in this book, with the exception of a couple of real groaners. (Gerrymander, oy!) The nice thing is that since the puns are not omnipresent they are almost funny when they do appear and do not spoil the read as a whole.
  
  The first three books are still recommended for pre-teenagers. I am sure that they will enjoy them-- be a little aware that Anthony indulges in some fairly dubious gender stereotyping, so if you are very sensitive to that sort of thing you might want to read them first before you give these books as a present.

• a very good Xanth novel  Apr 4, 2003 (3 of 3 found this helpful)

  This is the third book in Piers Anthony's Xanth series. The book takes place 12 years after the events in The Source of Magic. Bink's son is twelve years old, and has a Magician Class talent. Dor can talk to inanimate objects (they audibly speak to him). Dor is the heir apparent to the throne of Xanth, but he still has to deal with the same issues that any 12 year old might have to deal with. In his case, loneliness. King Trent, in hopes to help mature Dor, sends him on a quest to The Good Magician Humphrey to discover a way to reanimate the Zombie Jonathon. Millie the Ghost, no longer a ghost loves Jonathon, but Jonathon is still a zombie. Humphrey knows of a way to get an elixir to heal Jonathon, but it can only be acquired from the Zombie Master, a Magician who lived 800 years earlier.

  The Good Magician gives Dor a spell to put him into a tapestry that shows the events of that time period. In this way, Dor occupies the body of a Mundane warrior during the 4th Wave of Mundane Invasion. The King at the time is the legendary King Roogna. In Dor's quest for the elixir he encounters the Magicians of the time and gets involved in the very civil conflict between King Roogna and the Magician Murphy.

  This book is one of the better Xanth novels (i.e. one of the first Xanth novels) and while it gives part of the history of the land (always important), it also introduces characters who will later become important players in the series (Dor, Iris, Murphy, Vadne).

• I have read my book to tatters  Apr 8, 1998 (3 of 3 found this helpful)

  I loved the plot of Dor going into the past, to help Millie the Maid in the present, in getting the one thing she most desired,true love, once again Mr Anthony has done it he has given us a romantic story with a twist. We see what war can do as well as the unpredictable talents can cause,he shows what jealousy can do and the heartache it can bring. I loved the way the hero handles the problems that are presented. I thought it real cool at how he got the harpies their prince, and the suprise when he got home when Grundy told him what happend to his body by the visiter and the joy he brought back to Millie was the highlight of the whole story I actually cried and its not very easy to get me to do that.