I admit it. I read Xanth for the fun of it. I started in about May and I'm up to book 15 now. By about book 2 it really dawned on me exactly how Piers portrays the female characters. I still read the books though, because they provide a good balance to "heavier" works.

I don't know how long I'll hold out. Right now Xanth is still in the mundane version of the middle ages. So I can accept the submissive role of the females; it just corresponds to how midevil Europe worked.

But I really don't understand exactly what Piers can be thinking when he casts EVERY SINGLE female as constantly thinking about personal appearances and how handsome or manly or whatever the closest male is. For goodness' sake, he had five year old Ivy thinking about how handsome a young man is. I doubt there is even one girl that young that really sits around contemplating guys' cuteness-factors. I remember when I was that young it didn't matter to any of the kids in my class which gender a kid was.

Another equally aggravating aspect that all the women are type-cast with is that of constantly scheming on how to bag a man. The men are constantly oblivious to what's going on and have to have the women's attentions pointed out to them by the women's friends. I just wonder if Piers really believes that all relationship are that one-sided, with the woman being the one moving everything along and the man being the hapless victim of the woman's attentions...

Lesi"so basically, I agree with Jezzica. Only took me forever to say it"Sputnik