Since I started re-reading Piers Anthony's original Phaze/Proton trilogy with Split Infinity, I thought I might as well continue. Stile has now discovered which Adept he is in Phaze (Blue), and has figured out that whoever attacked him in Proton and killed his alternate self in Phaze must be an Adept as well. He visits the various Adepts, narrowing in on his enemy (learning about the various modes of magic and making a friend or two along the way). One of the high points of this book is the final battle between the Red Adept and Stile. They are both curtain-crossers, clever Games players in one world and powerful magicians in the other. When Red discovers her magic (amulets) is no match for Stile's magic, she begins hopping across the curtain and using technological weapons, tricks, and stratagems against him. She's quite devious, and were it not for Stile's help from his friends, she might have succeeded in destroying him.
In between his search for and eventual battle against his enemy, Stile is also participating in the Tournament, playing very interesting and generally quite competitive Games matches. These are quite varied and interesting-- such as a football match where each man has a team of androids and must use their skill and tactics to make the difference, or a maze where each player leaves a colored trail and must try to make it to the other players entrance door first, or even a musical performance where Stile's ability to draw in the audience improves another man's technical skill with the result of the finest recorded harmonica duet, which gets archived in the Game computer's memory.
If you can get past the ridiculousness of the premise, this is a pretty good read with lots of action and interest. This book also includes a reference to the "split infinity" in the title of the first book; it comes up in a mathematical riddle game Stile plays with an alien. It seems a little strange that it comes up here instead of in the first game, almost as if there were a mistake in editing or planning.
| Title: | Blue Adept |
|---|---|
| Author: | Piers Anthony |
| Date published: | |
| Genre: | Science Fiction / Fantasy |
| Series: | Apprentice Adept |
| Number of pages: | |
| Notes: | repeat reading |
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