The Source of Magic, by Piers Anthony

We come back to the magic land of Xanth one year after the first adventure. The land is at peace, Trent has been a good solid king, and Bink and Chameleon are married and expecting a child. But even though life seems to be better than ever, Bink cannot get comfortable. He starts to long for the ‘good old days’ when he was free to adventure and roam (conveniently forgetting that it was not really all that fun when it first happened). King Trent orders him to resume his search for the source of magic, a task they had discussed doing, but had never put into effect. For companions Bink takes along Chester the Centaur and Crombie the palace guard who has been conveniently transformed into a griffin. But as is the norm for the land of Xanth, all is not as it seems, for someone appears to be trying to kill Bink, and where are all these moles coming from?

Okay, this wasn’t my best synopsis ever, but it’s hard to describe these books in short. The plot just likes to twist around a bit. The Source of Magic is definitely better, in my opinion, than A Spell for Chameleon. The writing was better, the ideas were just as good, and the adventure satisfyingly fun. We see more of the Good Magician Humphrey, who condescends to come on the quest with his crazy arsenal of magical bottles. We travel all around and under Xanth seeing strange sights, and meeting strange people. The puns are just as bad as ever, but in their own way they really make the story interesting and different.

My favorite new characters are definitely Grundy the Golem, and Crunch the Ogre. Somehow the idea of a vegetarian ogre is just really funny to me. The story is witty and decently well written: Anthony seems to be coming into his talent a bit more. The interplay of strange magic and interesting characters is just so refreshingly fun and simple, compared to all the complicated stories out there. Sometimes it’s just necessary to relax and read a simple story. On this merit, I would definitely recommend The Source of Magic.