Nitpicker's Guide to Piers Anthony's "Incarnations of
Immortality" Series
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Book Nitpicked:
On a Pale Horse (page numbers from Ballantine Paperback)
- page 41: The arrow on the pink stone points "northwest". Zane, however, "turned
north, then east, orienting as well as he could on the direction
shown." Either Zane's going the wrong way, or "northwest" was a typo.
- page 48: In Phoenix, Zane's deathwatch starts running, but he notes "[t]he
cat's eye was large; the location was close." However, about 3 pages
later, on his way to collect this soul, Zane "was proceeding east
across the ocean". That's certainly not close!
- page 60: Zane notes "half an hour now registered on the hours dial; he
would have to make up that time". How? When Zane arrives early to a
death site, he has to wait for the death to occur. He can't make up
time by collecting the soul early. In fact, there seems to be NO way
in which Zane can make up lost time.
- page 62: Why would a player with the initials "O.D." be called "Dose"? Is
it short for the pun on "overdose"?
- page 64: The Doe who dies is Number 69, possibly a reference to the sexual position.
- page 95: Not only do the soul tote-forms look and sound remarkably like
Earth's IRS forms, but the Magician also mentions "Line 69-F", a
possible sexual reference, and "Line, [square root symbol] 15". Even
the most confusing forms generally have integral line numbers. The
square root of 15 is an irrational, nonintegral number.
- page 98: Zane's butler mentions "[y]ou five are not [dead] technically.
The rest of us are". What about Famine, Pestilence, and the other
minor Incarnations? Are they also dead, or do they share Zane's
status?
- page 114: Zane's description of a flying carpet crash in Washington, DC is
a reference to a real-life plane crash with similar circumstances. (I
need more details about the real-life incident if anyone can provide
them)
- page 130: Zane starts "I didn't know", and War finishes "[t]hat I
existed?". Actually, Zane did know that War existed-- after all, his
staff told him about all seven Incarnations earlier!
- page 228: Zane reflects on the evolutionary history of the Smoker Dragon
("Both birds and dragons had evolved from the ancient reptiles,
..."). However, the Incarnations universe is strongly tied in to the
Christian concept of religion, in which God created the universe in
7 days, and there is no long-term evolution. Considering that Zane is
now part of this framework, doesn't he realize there is no long-term
evolution on his world?
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