Anthony, Piers. Split Infinity. 1980. E-book ed., Del Rey, 2012. Apprentice Adept 1.
Piers Anthony is a clever tongue-in-cheek fantasist who delights in building unusual worlds. In Split Infinity, he gives us two for the price of one. We begin with a domed city on the planet Proton, a high-tech dystopia replete with humanoid robots and ray guns. Our hero, Stiles, is an indentured serf hoping to earn his citizenship by winning at the national games that include everything from ping pong and chess to fencing and horse racing. He is good with horses and has the classic jockey stature. Unknown citizens want to end his racing career. Another unknown citizen provides him with a sexy humanoid robot bodyguard. Then it is magic portal time, and we are off to a pastoral world replete with unicorns and werewolves. Stiles discovers he has innate magic powers.
A word about sex: clothes are illegal in the domed city, and all the women and fem robots are well-endowed. Anthony riffs on the later novels of Robert Heinlein, and such eighties pulpiness is not for everyone:--four stars, just barely. ( )

I think I read the first couple chapters and was wondering where it was going and why there was so much random nudity and apparent misogyny and when or if I'd get subverted. At a certain point I never got around to continuing to read it and now looking at the reviews here, it doesn't look like it actually goes anywhere. ( )

I enjoy Piers Anthony;s writing style and characters. This is not my favorite book or series of his but I do still quite enjoy it and I would recommend it. ( )

A touch of mystery, fantasy, AND science fiction. Seems to consider the question: what is the line between science fiction and fantasy? Not a deep book, but the main character does a great job of drawing you into the story. ( )

Piers Anthony claims to never had "writer's block"...he powers through in his formulaic way (write xx chapters today, proof xx chapters of galleys later, etc.) I like to read his stuff, but my read on his formula is this: imaginative and engaging first book in a series; lots of fillers with his rarely subtle misogyny thrown in; and eventually, deterioration of what showed promise. I liked this the first time around, though never made it through his entire series, but still grabbed it for a quick nostalgic read as part of my Year of Nostalgic Rereads. I did and do think it imaginative, fun, and engaging. Fortunately, the writing is as most of his other works so simple (and the humor as always, juvenile)that it is a very quick read. ( )