Ogre, Ogre, by Piers Anthony

Smash the ogre has gone to visit the Good Magician Humphrey to get an answer to his question. But his problem is that he doesn’t even know what his question is. But Humphrey still provides him with an answer: travel to the Ancestral Ogres to find what you seek. And in lieu of a year’s service Smash must travel with and protect Tandy, the daughter of the nymph Jewel and the soldier Crombie. Tandy had also asked a question of the Good Magician, and her answer is to travel with Smash to find what she is seeking. Neither Smash nor Tandy is particularly happy about this arrangement, but they set off to cross Xanth. Tandy has been raised in the caverns below Xanth her entire life, so she knows nothing of the dangers of aboveground Xanth. But Smash is ample protection for her: nothing wants to bother a full grown ogre. Along the way, Smash falls prey to an Eye Queue vine, and is cursed with smartness: the one thing an ogre cannot stand. But he is stuck with it until the vine comes off, and meanwhile Tandy keeps recruiting other females to join them. Not that Smash minds overmuch: they are all very nice. But soon Smash is traveling with seven females he cannot eat, and he is still cursed with an intelligence he cannot be rid of. And all for wanting the answer to a question!

Ogre, Ogre is truly a good book. Aside from the exciting adventures normal to Xanth novels, Ogre, Ogre has a wonderfully complex personal side. Smash is no ordinary ogre, and Tandy is a wonderfully spunky girl. At the risk of giving a lot away, I’m going to say that this book deals with love, real love (and not the ‘chase that nymph’ sort). Love that will do anything to keep the other from being hurt: love that will give anything up, even the love itself, if it will benefit the other. The kind of love that everyone needs, and few of us get. There is a maturity in this book that few other Xanth novels approach. The only other Xanth novel that compares is Castle Roogna. I do admit to enjoying the light/fun attitude of all the other books, but this is a very nice change in pace, and almost more enjoyable. Read this one, even if you feel like skipping the others. It’s worth it.