A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony

(63 ratings) Submit Review / Comment More reviews by author A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Submitted by Jessica 
(Aug 20, 2001)

It was a good book. But I am repulsed by it. The story was great. It was fun to read, and kept me interested until the end. However, Mr. Anthony has shown too many hints of misogyny. His female characters are defined by how pretty they are. They are nearly all manipulative, while the men display honor and honesty. The main character is reluctant to hook up with Ranchon, even though she's brilliant, funny, and friendly. Why? Because she's too ugly. Then later, he learns her secret, that she shifts from ugly to beautiful, with her intelligence shifting inversely. He thinks, "I can't be with an ugly girl. I can't be with a stupid girl. I can't be with a girl of average looks and intelligence... she would be dull. I can't be with a woman who's both smart and beautiful, because I wouldn't trust her." If I were Chameleon, I would leave that pig under a tangletree. But no, she looooooves him. So Loser McJerkity gets his non-threatening girl. He decides that he can be friends with the smart, ugly phase of her, and just use the lovely, stupid phase for sex. I started to read the beginning of the second book, hoping the author would have changed his attitudes. No such luck. Now Chameleon is a shrewish, insecure woman, brow-beating her husband. There are several disgusting jokes that Chameleon proved to be Bink's downfall, because she married him, haw haw! Grr. Once again, all the female characters I saw before finally dumping the book were needy, weak women who cried when they didn't get their way. The main character says to his blatantly woman-hating friend, after a woman begs him for help, "I can relate to your viewpoint more now." Oh, wait, there is one woman who isn't a vixen or a shrew, and isn't childish. The main character's own dear mother. Typical. The author's insulting portrayal of women just soured me on the series. Yes, there are women who fit the stereotypes. We're not all like that! But in Xanth, they certainly are. I only tolerate misogyny in one author-- Dave Sim, who writes the Cerebus series. I like him because he knows he has a negative view of women, and he addresses it. He knows that those ridiculous prejudices are not healthy or acceptable, and he tries to work through them. Nobody's perfect. We all have prejudices. But we have to try to overcome them. Dave Sim makes that effort. Piers Anthony seems unaware there's even a problem.