Ghost

Piers Anthony is one of those authors who made me fall in love with science fiction and fantasy as a teenager, and his strange blends of genre and character are something I absolutely adore about his writing. Yet, for me, this one didn't work so well as all those other works I've read from him, and

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came across as not just a bit dated, but somewhat messy and heavy. I'm inclined to think it might have been better if either shorter (and much less complicated) or quite a bit longer (and thus offered more depth), but as it was, I didn't enjoy it quite like I expected. Ghost offers a strange blend of hard sci-fi, metaphysical discussion, philosophy, and the paranormal... and altogether, that's quite a lot for this relatively slim work ('slim' in the world of sci-fi anyway).

It did bring me back to the wonder of reading Anthony and being fascinated by his worlds and characters, however, so I'm looking forward to revisiting works I loved when I was younger, and also some other works that I never got around to. I've never been one for hard sci-fi, so it may be that I just wasn't at all the right audience for this one, though I think it probably will feel somewhat dated (in terms of philosophy and gender and character, if nothing else) to many readers who encounter it.

All told, though, an interesting look at space-time travel, and probably worth the read simply for the way it blended that discussion against the paranormal, sci-fi, and philosophy.

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