Chthon

Aton #1

by Piers Anthony

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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Collections

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Though 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.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an SF prison break adventure it's fine, but honestly, it's everything that's under the surface that makes this book pretty fantastic. It was nominated in '68 for the Hugo even though it was a first-time author who spent 7 years writing it. Interesting? Especially since he's a hugely recognized name now?

The fact is, beyond the prison break, it's a psychological horrorshow that spotlights its very own Oedipus tragedy, wold-spanning telepaths, commentary on the nature of love and hate, complete with a truly horrible inversion, and just a little more tragedy.

This is the novelized SF form of Freudian unconsciousness, travelling the labyrinth, and the eventual rise from the darkest spaces of our own souls to reach the light, as it seen in the title. Chthonic?

But don't worry about any of these themes being too deep to spot. Anthony keeps everything pretty much on the surface, putting his knowledge of myth and classic literature a direct service to *his* story, and not as a nod.

I'm honestly very impressed, but I can also see why people might not give this higher stars, too, because the deeper themes and even the general one of a SF prison break has been done many times. Still, this one is done extremely well, so I'm giving it full props. It's complex but very readable, disturbing in the sexual themes, the love themes, in all the ways that people hurt each other or are even programmed to hurt each other. It might be too rough for the casual reader. I'm honestly a bit shaken, myself, and I pride myself on knowing my dark side.

Very impressive. :)

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction author Piers Anthony wrote "Chthon" as a young man back in 1967. Indeed, the novel was his first published work, which earned him a nomination for the Hugo Award for that year.

To say that it's an odd little novel (almost more of a novelette: it runs to a mere 232 pages) is somewhat understating its weirdness. It is, however, strangely beautiful and seductively charming in a way that you don't find too often in science fiction.

Perhaps it's because it was written in a time when science fiction was a cutting-edge genre, when writers like Kurt Vonnegut and Harlan Ellison (just to name two prominent leaders in the genre) were bending the rules and breaking taboos. Anthony is clearly doing that in "Chthon".

The novel is about a young man named Aton Five who is sentenced to the harsh subterranean prison of planet Chthon for the crime of falling in love with a minionette. Minionettes are females from the planet Minion, and they are reviled and loathed throughout the galaxy. The problem is, Aton can't get a straight answer as to why this is so. In order to find out, he leads a prison break to get off Chthon.

It seems like a simple plot, doesn't it? Yet there is nothing that simple about this novel, from its twisty plot to its ambivalent morality to its narrative structure. Anthony deftly switches back and forth between past, present, and future for seemingly no reason, but it works.

"Chthon" is, admittedly, one of those sci-fi novels that I will probably go back and re-read, not necessarily for pleasure but because there are parts which left me wondering what the hell just happened. I love books like "Chthon" because they require some deeper thinking and analysis, but I realize not everyone is into that.

If you are looking for a quick, straightforward sci-fi novel to read in one sitting, this isn't for you. If, however, you are looking for a bit of challenge and a novel that makes you question the fine lines between love and hate, read "Chthon".

[Kusanar · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it was a memorable book, it has also traumatized me for life.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chthon, published as a paperback original Ballantine in July of 1967, was Anthony's first published novel. It's a complex and occasionally opaque far-future science fiction novel with a lot of symbolism and inspiration from Greek mythology, especially that involving Oedipus. In his afterward Anthony says he worked on the book for seven years, and the prose is very carefully crafted, seeming to shift into verse in places. It was more of a shocking book at that time, when the topic of sex had long been a taboo, especially the kind of sex he implied. Most of it went over my head the first time I read it, and I read it again a few years later and suspect that a lot still escaped me. It's definitely not the kind of thing one would expect from Anthony if you were only familiar with his Xanth novels. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards as best novel of the year, but Zelazny's Lord of Light won the former and Delany's The Einstein Intersection won the latter. I prefer Anthony's early science fiction to his fantasy for the most part, but this was never one of my favorites although I recognize it as good literature. I felt like I was being challenged rather than entertained.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthony’s first novel, and the result of many years efforts, Chthon is a fantasy classic and nominated for many awards back in the 60s. It has aged well, that is its science hasn’t gone jarringly out of date as so many science fiction tales do.

That said, the complex structure which attracted him and other readers left me cold. Talk about in medias res. The story starts in the middle and goes backward, then forward, then back. Whiplash. He called it a double helix, obviously referring to DNA, but to me it was just a big mess. The story would have lost little if told in order. Yeah, the Great Experts loved it. So?

Anthony borrowed several elements of Greek mythology as his springboard. Chthon is dark and literary. It’s not half bad, but not as much fun as his long-running Xanth series.

(corrected typos, 9/9/2016)

[A. Dawes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piers Anthony’s debut novel is nothing like the lighter Xanth series that he became so well renown for. The novel has the depth of another of his richer works, Macroscope (although I much preferred Macrosope). Chthon was published back in 1967 and was shortlisted for the Hugo Award at the time. I respected the work rather than truly enjoyed it. The complicated flashback and flashforward structure had me putting it away several times over the course of the read. I suppose the challenge of it kept luring me back.

In Anthony's futuristic dystopia, Aton Five, has committed a crime by falling for a Minionette. His sentence is life imprisonment in the subterranean prison of Chthon.

It's a novel of binary opposites. Of love and hatred, of the consciousness and the unconsciousness, of the dark imprisoned subterranean world and the world of light and liberty.

It's also rich in mythical allusion.

A novel to admire, but at the same time, one of the most difficult works around.

[Don Gerstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a longtime fan of Mr. Anthony, this early novel was one I had never found in hardcover or paperback. Seeing it as a Kindle release, I purchased it and am glad I did. It was refreshing to return to a writer that had previously delighted me with his novels. “Chthon” is now in that group.

The main character of Aton reminded me of Mr. Anthony’s Var the Stick in “Battle Circle,” a man trapped into doing what he believed was right even though it wasn’t the option he wanted or that he felt would make him happy. This moral quandary is missing from many stories I come across nowadays, and the combination of a fantastic plot and deep characterization is a talent a writer should strive to create. When this happens, an entertaining and engrossing book is the result, emphasized by nominations for both Hugo and Nebula Awards.

The author jumps back and forth through different time periods in Aton’s life, presenting questions that are answered later. The technique is effective, and kept me turning the pages until the end. There are poetic interludes (Prolog, Interlog, and Epilog) which some readers may be tempted to skim, but they add meaning to the novel and deserve careful reading. The Author’s Note after the story is part autobiography, part explanation of some of the nuanced sections of the book. There were some aspects I caught, others I missed, and it is enlightening to read this before placing the book on the shelf or removing it from the carousel.

Overall, a great book from an accomplished author. Five stars.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superior SF escape-from-nightmarish-prison novel. Chthon, the subterranean prison-world, is quite well realized.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's something for you if you find Gene Wolfe's works easy and simplistic.

[prcardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 3/5

This was an experience of polar opposites:

talented writing, great description | a clumsy integration of scenes and chapters;

multiple, fascinating worlds and worldbuilding | a complete disconnect between the worlds and no vision of the bigger picture;

a complicated tale with nested plots | no resolution of how the plots were connected or how it fits together;

careful, meticulous characterization | ham-handed handling of relationships and interactions.

A final note and warning - There was a rotten depravity to this book. There are some very cold scenes of both rape and incest, and Anthony's treatment was to portray the scenes from the character's mindset of detached maliciousness. This was troubling, but perhaps could still have contained merit were there some later reflection from the character on the harm done or some social opprobrium from other characters in the book. Our rapist, however, is largely treated as someone who has been unfairly forced into these situations and one which we should pity. I kept thinking that there must be some deeper analogy or lesson at work. The book did have that New Wave vibe, and I scoured the text looking for a way to put out a positive spin. In my most generous depiction, I can say that the story is a tale of redemption. That said, the tale of redemption does not absolve Anthony of the brutality contained in the story. There may very well have been some layered narrative or meaning that I haven't put together yet, but it is too easy to read this as trivializing violence against women. I don't know how voters rationalized putting this up for a Hugo nomination in 1967. There are some lines you simply don't cross. I could have liked this a lot more and rated it a lot higher had I not found the content so objectionable.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it hard to rate this book - it was certainly interesting and I actually liked the way the book was structured. I was sufficiently engaged to read it in a day, which is also a positive sign. Having finished however, I am left with a feeling of unpleasantness, and there is much here that people would find distasteful, especially in the actions of the protagonist. I think it is certainly a book that will leave a lasting impression, and for this reason it stands apart in what is a crowded genre.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsated curiosity about Chthon lasted for nearly 50 years, until I recently bought a dozen old sci-fi novels from a start-up book business. All the novels I bought were ones I’d read, seen, or heard about when I was a teen in the late 60s and early 70s. Chthon’s title was so distinctive that each time I came across a copy in the late 60s, I would be drawn by its title, but at the same time held back for fear of getting in over my head...

Even after all this time, I knew nothing of the book or its author, Piers Anthony, so I read quite naively. The story of Aton Five is presented in chronological episodes that alternate with episodes from his year-long imprisonment on the planet Chthon. While using the language of science fiction, it appears to be a new myth, on the order of Eurydice and Orpheus, with elements of the fatedness of Oedipus in the protagonist’s obsessive pursuit of the woman/creature whom his father had married after his own mother’s death.

The story of Aton Five alternates from scenes on the sentient planet Chthon with chronologically arranged episodes that span his life before and after Chthon. The year-long period as a prisoner, however, is pivotal and occupies fully half the novel. The Chthon prison chapters fulfilled expectations as both a classical Greek sojourn in the underworld of the dead and as representation of psychological struggles in the labyrinthine byways of the unconscious.

The central dilemma facing Aton is not just the planet, which holds him captive, but also his compulsive, even perverse love for an elusive woman/creature, Malice, who only relishes his pain and anger. The second horn of the dilemma is the attraction he develops for another woman, Coquina, to whom he was betrothed by his father, but whom he rejected, sight unseen.

Intermixed in this myth is a recurring, spreading virus that infects planets every century, which ends the life of the woman who saves Aton’s life. Her sacrifice and his recognition of his love for her is the final impetus for his rejection of the siren call of the minionette who would have him twist his emotions, turning goodness into evil, love into hate. The daemon of Chthon attributes to Aton status as representative of all humanity, and his “recovery” signals Chthon’s acknowledgment that the riven nature of humanity is not without its blessings.

There’s much to admire in the structure of the novel and the underlying themes, but the protagonist was so naïvely blind—yet self-absorbed and bloody-minded—that it was difficult to credit Coquina’s forgiveness and sacrifice, much less give credence to the idea that Aton Five could—in the judgment of the eternal and pervasive spirit of Chthon—stand in/up for all of humanity.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a literary equivalent to a Giger or Albright painting. There is some ASTOUNDING world building and culture-creation. There is excellent writing. But the book hates you. And it hates it's characters even more.

I would put this firmly in Science Fantasy Horror. There are some great monsters. It really is too bad the sexual stuff is so off-putting. It would be a 4 or 5 star book if the rapist main character didn't make me so squeamish. But he does. That the story at times feels like some sort of Greek myth or play, where rape is often a plot point, doesn't makes it any easier to recommend.

If you are willing to wade in this shit, you may be impressed, seeing as there is some creative stuff here, but I feel kind of dirty.

[T.S.S. Fulk · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Wow, this was a tough one to read. Many complain about the non-linear plot line, but that's not a real problem. The plot was easy to follow. The main problem is that you don't like the anti-hero protagonist. At first you are just shocked at what Aton does, but later, as the double-helix plot pattern twists, you find out the reason why but not enough to forgive the guy.

There are tons of literary references, allegory and puns, and the premise is interesting and thought provoking, like good sci-fi should be. But in 2018 I have a very hard time with the attitudes and actions of the main characters.

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Einer der besten Romane der New Wave, die nur zur New Wave gerechnet wurden. Mit 15 Jahren wurde ich durch die Schilderung der Höhlen von Chton auf den ersten Seiten total angefixt. Aber da ich es gerade in einer Bibliothek einer anderen Stadt gelesen habe, hat es Jahre gedauert, bis ich mir die Taschenbuchausgabe besorgen und den ganzen Roman lesen konnte. Sehr atmosphärisch und psychologisch tiefgründig. Mythologie trifft auf Weltraum Science Fiction.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, after Anne McCaffrey, I continued to feel nostalgia for my teen reading, and picked up this first book by another childhood favorite Piers Anthony. You can totally see themes in this book that come out in all his later series - from the puns, to the space tyrant, etc.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey, the protagonist of this is a rapist, so maybe don't read this?

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially read this 30+ years ago while in college. I remember enjoying back then so I thought I'd give it a re-read. Somehow I didn't enjoy it as much.

Aton Five gets sentenced to the subterranean prison planet Chthon for forbidden love. The book goes back and forth in time, but it's not hard to figure out and the structure actually works. Unfortunately once the secrets and motivations start being revealed, the book turns into a confused mess. Someone else here on Goodreads stated that this was written during a more experimental time in science fiction and maybe that is so. Or maybe I just had less tolerance for a confused plot. Whatever. One thing is becoming clear, especially after reading the author's Pornucopia, Mr. Anthony clearly has issues with sex.

Not a horrible book, not great. For sci-fi fans only.

[Fred · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quotation from the book: "Aton saw that his entire adult life had been a destructive nightmare of chaos and pain, contaminating everything it touched." In my view, this tells you everything you need to know about the book. Oh, Oedipus! If only you didn't skip from now to then and back again. On the other hand, that would make the book even worse.

[Animus · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, a good book is a book that i think about when i am not actually reading it. I found myself eager to dive back in to this one after every break. I don't know why i like Anthony's writing style so much.. i just do. He makes me think.

[Kelley Stoneking · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for the first time in high school or college. It was the 80s. Now I cringe at the treatment of women in this book. Although I still like the story, it definitely does not stand the test of time. I remember loving it then. I have downgraded my rating from 5 to 3.....maybe 3.5.

[Selenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading since I was a small child and have read some strange stuff. But this was the weirdest book I have ever read

[David Leemon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure why this won the Hugo award. The plot is hopelessly muddled, and by the time I got through the first 60 pages, I wasn't sure I cared what happened to the main character any more.

[Sayre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3/5, average

TW: rape

This book is either brilliant or stupid and I’m not sure which one… possibly both.

I saw this as #1 on a list of Weirdest Science Fiction some years ago and tried to read it, but only got about 30% in because there’s a pretty brutal rape scene that seemed to come out of nowhere and I didn’t know what was happening in the story. I decided to pick it up again after reading sections of Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia. She discusses the idea of the chthonic (associated with the feminine, earthy, sexual, consumptive) and I thought it might make more sense to me now then it did back then. It did… kind of.

Chthon is about a young man named Aton who is sent to a prison (called Chthon) for a crime that is not revealed until the half-way point. A mysterious woman called Malice, a minionette (a kind of wood nymph), kissed Aton in his childhood, and now he’s obsessed with finding her. But Malice has a secret that isn’t revealed until the climax…

Aton meets a lot of other women on his travels and sees Malice reflected in them. This leads him to treat them… not well, because as much as he desires Malice he’s also afraid of her. Aton is pretty misogynistic but the women in this novel are admirable: Garnet holds social power in Chthon and Coquina is incredibly strong physically and mentally. I’m conflicted because both the protagonist and the narrative are very misogynistic but the female characters are actually really cool. It’s too bad they’re just used as plot devices to tell such a terrible main character’s story.

The biggest weakness of this book is that the main character, Aton, is flat. The plot is intricate, but it gets lost because Aton isn’t interesting enough to fully anchor it. At no point did I have any idea why Aton did anything (even though the author often just tells us Aton’s thoughts, but a lot of the time they still don’t make sense…). I guess Piers Anthony was trying to hide it because the way Aton’s mind works is kind of a spoiler, but it makes the experience of reading the book for the first time like, “Okay, I guess Aton did that… and then he did that… why? What is he going to do next?” Eventually I just accepted that Aton wasn’t good guy and watched him from a distance while laughing at the crazier stuff he does. He’s very much an old-school scifi protagonist that’s stoic and passionate but those qualities together can be confusing at times… repressed emotion that can only find its expression in sex and violence, leaving the reader wondering what motivates him.

The chapters jump back and forth in time from Aton’s childhood, to his time in Chthon, to his time after Chthon. This narrative choice allows the author to keep the connecting events hidden, to be dropped as bombshells later. It’s really confusing at the beginning, but it slowly coheres as it goes. The timelines of before and during prison don’t intersect until half-way through, so it’s hard to see how they’re related in the first half. There are a lot of things in the first half that seem weird or dreamlike on a first read-through, but make a lot more sense on a second pass. I was actually expecting it to be a lot more surreal based on that “Weirdest Scifi” title, but it didn’t have that surreal feeling that I get from a lot of literary fiction (Coin Locker Babies, The Vegetarian, Oreo). Its weirdness is mostly sexual shock value, with a lot of smaller novel scifi ideas like a space pandemic and some cool monsters and aliens. There are plenty of crazy things that happened that made me laugh and want to go tell someone or show them the passage, but it didn’t reach that level of sublime surrealness that makes you feel like you’re in an altered state of consciousness which is what I really look for in “weird” fiction.

There a lot of cultural references, but I wasn’t sure what they meant. Aton is named after the Egyptian Sun god Aten. Aten was the first Egyptian god to be worshipped as a single god (Akhenaten banned worship of other gods during his reign). Aten is a nurturer and giver of life… I didn’t get that impression from Aton. Sigmund Freud wrote a book called Moses and Monotheism in which he speculated that Moses was Egyptian instead of a Hebrew and that he was a follower of Akhenaten. There’s a lot more Freudian stuff in this book so there could be a Freud connection. Akhenaten was depicted as androgynous in Egyptian art and it’s thought that this was because Aten was supposed to be both male and female as a monotheistic deity, though I didn’t notice much androgyny in Aton.

Chthon is clear enough—it’s a garnet mine/prison and Chthon in Greek myth is the underworld and gods of the underworld. When Camille Paglia talked about Chthon, she connected it to the feminine. I don’t know if Chthon is feminine in Piers Anthony’s novel… it is cavernous and swallowing, but Aton is trying to get to Malice who is outside of Chthon. However, I think in general Anthony could be tying Chthon to the feminine because that’s the title of the book and the book is largely about Aton’s relationships with women. Aton’s obsession with Malice is portrayed as Malice having dark, seductive female power and that thematically fits with Paglia’s idea of the Chthonian.

There are also references to a lot of poets. Aton carries around a book called Literature of Old Earth. Malice tells Aton to remember the poem “Intimations of Immortality” by William Wordsworth and that poem and Chthon share the theme of nostalgia for the wonder and beauty of childhood. Wordsworth’s poem is about a man who misses the wonder of childhood, but by remembering, he can find it again. The image of the sun seemed to be tied with God, so maybe this poem is where Aton’s name comes from. There’s more references to the poem scattered throughout the book as well. There are also references to “Stars of the Summer Night” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” by W.H. Auden, so if you know your poetry you may get more out of it.

Mixed with these high-brow literary references are some oddly comedic scenes, like the one with the Laza, who are succubi in Chthon who exhort travelers, “Make love to Laza!” and then attack if they’re denied, only to collapse and then try to seduce the next one. After this book, Piers Anthony went on to publish humorous books in the Xanth series (he’s up to 30 now, apparently). I think a lot of this book has a comedic undertone beneath the over-seriousness of some of it, so I think the decision to switch to humor makes sense. He’s a good writer and his style appeals to me, but it’s a little stiff and the characters, though cool, don’t have much depth to them.

I would recommend Chthon to readers who like classic scifi, dark stuff, Freud, Greek mythology, poetry, and gothic fiction, but with the heavy caveat that it’s pretty sexist and most of its weirdness is just taboo sexuality.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly great. As a kid I loved Piers Anthony's stupid Xanth fantasy series so for many years I've been meaning to read some of his science fiction as fantasy does not agree with me anymore. This is Anthony's first novel, (1967, I believe) and it's a doozy. Complex, graphic, and unpredictable, only somewhat bogged down by occasional ridiculous, portentous prose.

[Joel Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is super-weird and surrealist, a great example of sixties scifi. But it's not long, and it's worth reading.

[Mike Billington · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author Piers Anthony caused something of a sensation when his first novel "Chthon" was published.
Billed as a novel of crime and punishment in the far future, it was hailed for its intricate plotting and was shortlisted for several awards in 1972.
I, however, found it pretentious with a protagonist that has almost no redeeming qualities and a rambling storyline that flashes from the present to the past to the future with little rhyme or reason.
The story revolves around Aton Five, a member of the power elite on his home planet, who falls in love with an alien woman who kisses him when he stumbles across her at the age of seven. He becomes obsessed with her at that point and spends a good share of the narrative trying to find her. His obsession causes him to abandon his ageing father, to reject the woman he is betrothed to without even meeting her, and leaving his home world in pursuit of the alien who kissed him as a child. Eventually he finds her and, because she is an alien, he is sentenced to life in the underground prison of Chthon. Much of the book deals with his life in the prison and his efforts to escape from it.
Pretty straightforward plot at that point but it gets weirder. In flashbacks we learn that he does, eventually, find the mysterious woman and... well, I hesitate to say more because that might spoil the experience for those who have not yet read this novel and who might enjoy it despite my assessment.
A few words about Aton Five: He is manipulative, a betrayer of friends, and completely selfish. I really found him to be a one-dimensional character, ruled by his obsession to the exclusion of all else: A man who is bestial in his motivations and incapable of true empathy or sympathy. He is, in my estimation, more antagonist that protagonist.
In all, not a very satisfying read.

[Mike C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. A key element of this book is a race of female characters that thrive when physically and mentally abused and die when truly loved. It feels like the reaction of a nice guy who wanted to date a woman but the woman went for a bad boy instead. Most women in this book were no more than objects to be conquered physically. There is an explanation for this plot-wise, but it's still pretty damn misogynistic.

I listened to the audio book. If I had any doubts that I was being too hard on the author, those doubts were quickly washed away when I got to hear a bonus section of the the follow up book "Phthor". A bit of the beginning was presented and within this short section was more physical violence towards a woman (a young girl asks to be hit and a young boy obliges, knocking her out) and borderline kiddy porn. This author is one sick bastard.

A Wiki description of the author indicates that he has been criticized for writing about sexual situations between underage characters and the book series which was cited as being problematic in this way isn't the one being reviewed here. So, apparently, child sexual content is a common theme for this author.

This is now the second very disappointing book in a row I've listened to that was up for, or won, a Nebula award (the other being "The Einstein Intersection") in the late 60's. Kinda wonder what the award committee was smoking back then.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony's first novel is a prurient and Freudian tale. A science fictional Oedipus Rex , and a visceral psychodrama full of pathos and catharsis. I can imagine it being in some niche of Frank Herbert's Dune universe, but it shares more (thematically) with books like Dhalgren . It's short, but it's dense.

[Ricky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cthon is a confounding novel. One the one hand it's a creative mash up of genres and ideas. It is very sharply written and has scenes of great poetic weirdness. On the other hand the novel is deeply stained with misogyny: forcible rape where the victim comes to love the rapist, a planet where the more women are abused the more they love you....get the idea? Scenes of cannibalism, murder, maternal incest and violent death are also told with great attention to detail. Too much detail, I think.

It's a testament to the author's writing skill that I didn't throw this book across the room. The ending is so misogynistic that I kinda wish I had.

Piers Anthony may have refined his views of women in subsequent novels, but I'm afraid I won't be reading them.