On a Pale Horse

March 2, 2009
Many readers pick up Anthony, the author of approximately one zillion books, without realizing he is a series hound (notably, the Xanth books). Horse is the first in the enjoyable "Incarnations of Immortality" stories in which our hero Zane manages to kill Death just moments before his own suicide. Little does he know, however, that in doing so he must assume the "office" himself, becoming Death Incarnate. (Dude factors: it's a pretty boss job; one perk is his horse, which can change into a muscle car.) As such, his job is to collect and weigh souls and help them reach heaven or hell. While this is interesting in and of itself, Death also interacts with other "Incarnates" (e.g., Time, War, Fate), gets to know his powers and place in the cosmic scheme, and just happens to fall in love and save the world. Each series entry centers on one Incarnate, and the various plots follow the cosmic destabilizations created by new "people" in the different offices and their shifted allegiances. In Horse, for example, they band together to ruin careful arrangements Satan has made to gain overall dominion, while in the sixth book, For Love of Evil, Satan is the hero saving the day. The fifth book, Being a Green Mother, is comparatively weak, but on the whole Anthony restrains his tendencies toward wordplay and uses logic to strengthen rather than dull the plots.

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