Piers Anthony

Anthony uses geographical references that tie back to the real world. In fact, in his first Xanth novel, A Spell for Chameleon, there is a re-labeled map of Florida inside the front cover. One way he makes science fiction believable is that in his Xanth series, the world of Xanth is based on Florida's geography. Xanth is the fantasy world created by Piers Anthony for his Xanth series. Modern Xanth resembles real-life Florida. Some of Xanth's geographical features are puns, such as: Lake Ogrechobee is Lake Okeechobee, The Kiss-Mee River is Kissimmee River, The With-A-Cookie River is Withlacoohee River.

In the fantasy world of Xanth, the characters, whether they're human or not, are given talents, abilities, flaws and weaknesses just like people in the real world.

Bink, the protagonist in the first book, is an ordinary 25 year-old, who thinks he has no special talent, then he finds out that his talent is that no one can use their magic against him. Bink's talent is confidence that no one can do him harm, and that is a real trait.

The Xanth series is more fantasy than science-fiction because the imagery contains elements of magic and the supernatural. In classic science-fiction, which Piers Anthony has written, the imagery is based on scientific principles, like physics. There are many scientific things in the Xanth world. For example, he still uses a sunrise and sunset, as well as a normal 24 hours, all of which make the setting believable. His characters are relatable and they act like real people, even if they're not human. They experience things real people do, such as, emotions, they have families, friends, enemies, all the things humans can relate to. A good example of this is the Justin Tree in A Spell For Chameleon, because he is a tree, but he has the ability to speak, which is the author's use of personification.

http://www.hipiers.com/

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/making-the-ordinary-meet-the-extraordinary-with-piers-anthony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Anthony

Piers Anthony makes science-fiction believable by making sure his settings, themes, and characters are relatable to the reader, even though he uses magic and supernatural phenomena.

Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob is a science fiction author who is most famous for his Xanth book series. He was born on August 6th, 1934 in Oxford, England. Anthony's family emigrated to the U.S from Britain in 1940. He has published over 140 works. His most popular series is the 38 Xanth novels. He published his first science fiction novel in 1956.

“The Rule of Thumb is to put an ordinary person into an extraordinary situation, or to put an extraordinary person into an ordinary situation. Both can work. The Xanth series features the first option." -Piers Anthony

Map of Xanth