Nitpicker's Guide to Piers Anthony's "A Spell for Chameleon"
- General comment: Piers Anthony uses the word 'balk' quite a bit, not only in this
book, but in several other Xanth novels as well.
- General comment: Chameleon's three names, Wynne, Dee, and Fanchon fit together to
form the proper name "Wendy Fanchon". This could be a reference to a
real person Piers Anthony knows.
- page 44: Cherie notes that "the Second Wave was an all-male army." On the
next page, however, she mentions the "Second Wave women". She probably
meant the First Wave women, who were taken by the Second Wave men as
wives.
- page 47: "Herman the Hermit" is probably a reference to Herman's Hermits, a
popular music group in the 60s or 70s.
- page 57: "the three girls shook their heads, no." It's somewhat surprising
that all the girls had the exact same answer without consulting with
each other. If one actually had been raped, you'd think she'd be more
likely to answer yes, or at least hesitate in shaking her head.
- page 114: "technicolor hailstorm" is a reference to something, but I can't
figure out what.
- page 127: Getting the manticora to stick its tail into the wooden door is a
neat trick... so neat, in fact, that something very similar is used in
Sierra's King's Quest VI (this isn't a nitpick, but this scene
reminded me of King's Quest VI a great deal).
- page 135: Humphrey says, "I had thought there were only three persons on
that rank [Magician-caliber] alive today", and lists himself, Iris and
Trent. However, he fails to mention the Storm King; all Kings must be
of Magician-caliber, and since this designation is lifelong, the Storm
King must still hold it.
- page 189: After being transformed into a cockatrice, Bink sees "another of
his kind. A female". However, on the next page, Bink and Fanchon
discuss how cockatrices are genderless; how could Bink recognize the
other cockatrice as female?
- page 251: "Snakes were emerging... whose bones showed through". Do snakes
have bones?
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