Two "Trilogies" That Went On

The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; and The Last Enchantment, by Mary Stewart. Began reading these in middle school with “The Crystal Cave”, when anything Merlin would attract me, and it was good. I remember using Merlin, Cerdic, and Keri as characters in swingings I had with John. Read “The Hollow Hills” and then in 1979 or so “The Last Enchantment” came out. And that was enough for me; Merlin had left the stories. “The Wicked Day” followed in Stewart’s Arthurian tales, and I bought a copy from SFBC, but later sold it. I own a Hildebrandt calendar that depicts scenes from the original trilogy. I have a warm spot in my heart for these Robert-Graves-like ‘historical recreations’. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Novels. Paperback.

A Spell for Chameleon; The Source of Magic; and Castle Roogna, by Piers Anthony. Boxed Set. “The Source of Magic” was one of the first books I ever bought with my own money. It was a good entertainment. I followed the series until “The Color of Her Panties”, then I stopped. It had become so formulaic and off-hand, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I sold all the others besides these three (Anthony originally intended for Xanth to be a trilogy). The series has now advanced to 42 books, with 4 more in the works. “Anthony has stated that he has kept the series going as long as he has because the Xanth novels are "just about all that publishers want" from him.” – Wikipedia. Ranking: Nostalgia. Expendable. File Code: Fantasy. Novels. Paperbacks.