In Review: On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Released: 10/12/83         325 pages

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9780345309242

What happens when you kill death? The first book in the Incarnation of Immortality series explores that and more. Zane, a desperate and lonely man decides to kill himself, but when he sees Death approach he panics and kills him instead, which opens his eyes to a world he never knew. One where humans take on the roles of deities such as Death, time and the Fates, and where it’s his job to gather up the souls and place them in Heaven, Hell or Purgatory. He finds that he was actually manipulated into killing Death so that as Death he could save the life of Luna, but Satan has other plans.

Piers Anthony is a master of creating worlds and filling them with characters that realistic, where they are just as petty and cruel and redeemable as they are in real life.  Zane’s journey is not only magical it’s logical. Being the first book in the series it does a very good job of introducing the world without making it feel like work. And the characters are well balanced with drives and needs. Satan isn’t inherently bad, he’s driven by prophecy, by fear, by needs instead of just jealousy and daddy issues.

But the book isn’t all serious philosophy, there’s a perfect balance of heart and hilarity. A well plotted, book with virtually no holes, and no lulls, plenty of adventure. It’s one of the best reads out there.