Anyhow, I also enjoyed the one part in the beginning about the chameleon. Or wait- was is a lizard? I don't remember. I liked that little paragraph about the little reptile. That had absolutely (well almost) nothing to do with the story. They weren't sure, but were pretty sure they were a teenager. I then sent them that quote, and they basically had the same reaction I had. And then realized that oh, no, it wasn't the Xanth novels they were remembering. It was the Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin. All of this pain for nothing. Nothing. What did readers like, apparently? Endless lame puns, for one. There’s no obvious wordplay that is beneath Anthony: cherries explode because ​ “cherry bombs” and so on.

Ultimately, this is a series that you either "get" or you don't. And if you don't, then nothing I (or anyone else!) can say here will make any difference. She’s a sorceress, a good one. She has powers you have not yet glimpsed. She requires a man she can respect—one who has stronger magic than she does.” —The Good Magician Humfrey on Iris. Not only does Bink manage to get the healing elixir, but he also manages to find out that the Storm King has died. All the officials of Xanth, including the Council of Elders (which includes Bink's father Roland), arrive on the scene. The Council captures Trent, heals Chameleon, and offers Trent the kingship if he will marry Iris. The Storm King was allowed to remain King well past his prime because there was no suitable successor and by forcing Trent to marry (and presumably produce magician-caliber offspring) the council hopes to prevent that state of affairs from occurring again. Trent's first act as King is to get rid of the magical barrier between Xanth and Mundania and grant Bink (and non-magical folk in general including mundanes) the right to stay in Xanth. Trent's forces, who consisted of mundanes who wished to immigrate to Xanth, begin to settle in various regions of the magical land. Bink and Chameleon are then married and Trent and Iris take up residence in Castle Roogna. Bink and Chameleon obtain a cottage just outside the Castle and Bink is given the title of Official Researcher of Xanth. Monsters are not the most unsettling thing Bink gets aroused by in Spell. During his first meeting with Iris, the sorceress changes her appearance numerous times in an attempt to seduce Bink. First she appears as an older woman, then as a voluptuous woman, then as a 14-year-old girl: “very slender, lineless, and innocent.” Bink becomes overwhelmed by the smorgasbord of female flesh laid out before him; it’s a shame Xanth’s pervasive magic doesn’t include Internet porn. Then this happens:You can probably tell from this that a) the book is aimed at young men, and b) women might find the question, never mind the answer, to be offensive. Not too far into the book, Bink finds himself an accidental participant in a strange rape trial. The trial is meant to be private and anonymous so as to protect the identity of the victim and the accused, which is an interesting and somewhat commendable thing to try. Except you can't really get anywhere in a trial and still keep everyone truly anonymous, and sure enough, this trial goes nowhere. The way it's done is three men, only one of which is the true accused (and one is Bink), act in tandem as the accused, so nobody knows which one it really is. Same for the victim side. Three women act in tandem as the victim and only one is the true victim. Only the bailiff knows who is really whom, and he's not revealing it per the court's effort to keep things anonymous. And this is what happens: Everything's couched in such artless language, too, which just makes it worse. It's all "needs" "urges" "absolutely beautiful" "me tarzan, you jane." Even born mouth-breathers can write well (see: Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller), so what gives? Whenever I rate a book I try to bear in mind when it was written. That’s to say, what may have been relevant in 1977 (when A Spell For Chameleon was published), may not be relevant today, but should not by default disqualify the book. Or, for example, if the book was written for a younger audience, I should not be rating it down for being immature, because it may be exceptionally suited to its target audience. The book was well received, at any rate, and it won the August Derleth award. Due to the combined power of the sexist parts, especially THAT scene, I just could not say that I liked this book. I really would have liked this book. It had so much fun stuff to offer, and I thought the story was delivered really well. But this was not to be. I'm just glad I didn't pay money for this book.

Only a phenomenal series of coincidences had saved his skin. He knew that coincidence was an untrustworthy ally. Except it is very clearly stated that Bink loves her not just because he appreciates all her forms, but because HE WOULD GET BORED WITH JUST ONE TYPE OF WOMAN. He wants a beautiful woman sometimes, but he doesn't want a beautiful, smart woman because he distrusts beautiful, smart women (WHAT?). And he wants a smart woman, but again, she can't be beautiful, so he likes her smart but ugly phase. And of course, her average phase is just average, and he's fine with it coming around sometimes. Just...what? Really? The book starts with the main character, Bink, in his home village. He must discover his magical talent before he comes of age, or be exiled to Mundania. While on his way to see the Good Magician Humfrey about whether he has a magic talent, Bink runs into three different women, Wynne, Dee, and Iris, as well as Chester and Cherie Centaur, and Crombie the soldier. He finds out from Good Magician Humfrey that he has Magician-caliber magic but that it can't be identified.

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The ridiculousness of the book is its own reward. It’s (almost) impossible to take it seriously. This is particularly true for the first half of the story, but the tone changes somewhat in the second half. The latter sequences deal with themes like the nature of the magic of Xanth, its relation to the “real” (mundane) world and the Xanth gene pool. Also: redemption, haunted castles and zombie crocodiles. Perhaps it was that faith that had first attracted him to her. Certainly she was beautiful and intelligent and talented, a prize by any definition. But she could have been much less in all categories and still been his— Despite what people say about the author's sexism, his fondness for puns (a greater crime in some people's eyes) and the juvenile nature of some of the storytelling, this book has many good qualities, most of which reviewers haven't really talked about.

Through his story, I had an inkling that maybe I didn't need to be so "special" to grow up to be a decent human being. Like Bink, I could grow up to be perfectly ordinary and unheralded — just a normal guy, really — and still get the cool girl. It made me think that maybe we'll all turn out fine, even without our participation trophies. Yet as it shifted into the form of a basilisk it glared at him with such ferocity that Bink’s mirth abated. If its malice could strike him, he would be horribly dead.The title character of A Spell for Chameleon, Chameleon, is a woman whose magic (everyone in Xanth is magic) is that she waxes and wanes in intelligence and beauty over the course of a monthly cycle. Intelligence and beauty are out of phase, so that when she is highly intelligent she is ugly, and when she is beautiful she is so stupid as to be barely capable of coherent speech. Our hero Bink, when he figures this out, describes her as the Perfect Woman, combining in one person the best that a woman can be. He had not been punished. His mother, Bianca, believed he had learned his lesson—and he had, he had! Next time he played with a cleaver on the sly he would watch where his fingers were. His father seemed privately pleased that Bink had shown so much courage and tenacity in adversity, even in his wrongdoing, “The lad’s got nerve,” Roland had said. “Now if only he had magic—” The love interest's magical power? She has magical PMS. On her "lunar cycle" which is referred to as "the feminine cycle" in the same breath, she goes from being incredibly dumb but well, so pretty you can't help but rape her according to all this, to ordinary and average, to incredibly ugly and incredibly smart.