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Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn (Xanth)
by Piers Anthony
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Del Rey (1984-12-12)
ISBN: 0345313097
EAN: 9780345313096
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Release Date: 1984-12-12
SKU: 1143
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Jordan was a ghost in Castle Roogna now. Although once he had been the most valorus of knights--that is, until he was betrayed by two wily magicians and the woman he loves. Now, if he only can remember how he was killed, he'll be able to reassemble his body. And he is getting impatient....
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Customer Reviews
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A romance for the ages
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-04-22
Taking a slightly different path, Piers Anthony's Crewel Lye is the story of Jordan the Ghost. Those who read the series, will remember that Jordan plays a key role in "dragon on a pedestal" and this book is his personal story. In Xanth, ghosts are people or things that have unresolved issues at the time of their deaths. Several years after the events of Dragon, Jordan meets Ivy at the magic tapestry and she convinces him to tell her his story.
Four hundread years before, Jordan was a barbarian in search of adventure. For that he leaves his home and his girlfriend. While adventuring, his magical talent comes to bear and he uses it extensively. Jordan's talent is that he heals from every injury in a brief amount of time. That carries forward onto death even - and indeed, Jordan dies during this story! - multiple times!!
Jordan hears that Castle Roogna is where adventures can be found and makes his way there. When he arrives he is given a quest and some magical help, and he is off to the races. As it turns out, his quest is to retrieve the King's daughter and bring her back to the castle to wed one of the magicians. However, this being a Xanth book, there are many twists and turns and puns to get through. The King's daughter, it turns out, is not interested in coming back. Not only that, but the first time she meets Jordan, she poisons him and then throws his body into the Gap Chasm.
No suprise then, that Jordan falls in love with her, captures her, and takes her back to the castle. Many more interesting adventures are in store with lots of puns along the lines of quicksand (which makes you go fast - obviously), and slow sand (the reverse of quicksand). Since there are competing magicians for the King's daughter's favors, some of the magical help is actually a hindrance and lots of strange things happen. This is an opportunity for Anthony to explain his beliefs about how women differ from men and why their relative body shapes and sizes affect their behaviors and attitudes.
The title is Crewel Lye and it is a pun for the whole book. This special kind of Lye is needed to restore the clarity of what the tapestry shows. But, it is also the name of the whole story if spelled "cruel lie" as Jordan finds out - not once, but at least twice!
This was a different book than the other Xanth stories I've read. It was more serious in tone in many respects. Extreme violence and death was a constant theme in this one, whereas it is severely de-emphasized in others. Sex comes into play here in a variety of fashions and it is quite fascinating to see how the author manages to avoid explaining it directly, while giving everyone a very good idea of what is going on.
Overall I rated it a three star book as an OK read. It was not as much fun as Dragon on a Pedestal, but it was not a bad book either.
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Disappointing among the Xanth books
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-03-11
I've been rereading the entire Xanth series, and "Crewel Lye" is not up to par.
Piers Anthony rarely has a "light touch", but this time his laying it on too heavily even gets on my nerves... After about the second allusion, the reader already knows the ending, but Anthony keeps on hinting at it - with a sledgehammer (I won't write a spoiler here, though ;-)
The plot is rambling, and character development is nonexistent - for better books on these counts, go to books 1, 3, 4, 5 or 6 (not so much 2 and 7) in the series. The usual puns, which I as a non-native speaker really like (some new ones again!). The usual sexual under(?)tones, which you get used to. The book's not too bad on these counts.
But: I'm definitely not a prude or overly conservative, but the sheer goryness of the book turns me off. Jordan gets dismembered various times, and the descriptions are given in loving detail. This clashes horribly with the usual carefree and light tone of the Xanth series. In addition, the gory parts are not even well written, and if I want blood splattered, I will not turn to an Anthony book.
Overall: a disappointment. I'll keep it mainly to avoid an empty slot on my Xanth shelf.
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What were they thinking?
Rating  (1)
Date: 2005-01-19
0 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Seriously, I am quite the fantasy reader. However, this piece of dribble should not have ever been published. It is one of the WORST books I have ever read- in any genre. No plot or charecter development, nothing. If you want good fantasy, go read one of the DRAGONLANCE titles.
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Very impressive Xanth book
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-02-04
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
"Crewel Lye" is the eighth book in Piers Anthony's "Xanth" series, and in some ways, it is the most impressive of the first nine. Most of the Xanth books take place in a reasonably well-define timeline that we might call the "present." This actually spans quite a long time, since the main character in Xanth-1, Bink, is 25 years in that book, but around 60 in Xanth-9. But "Crewel Lye" takes place **400** years earlier, so it doesn't have the benefit of a lot of the usual Xanthian touches that prop up other books. (By Xanthian touches, I mean things like finding out how to get into Good Magician Humfrey's castle so as to get an Answer.)Anyway, in the "present" time, Jordan is a ghost, which means that he died with unresolved issues. When little Princess Ivy asks what happened, he tells her the story of his demise. Thus, most of the book is actually narrated in the first-person, which is different from the other Xanth books, and a nice change of pace. First-person narration forces a writer to be disciplined about observations, thoughts, etc., because only those of one person can be related to the reader. This is important for this book, because the "cruel lie" that does Jordan in actually has a different interpretation, one that Jordan doesn't realize, but the reader can figure out. It makes for a very clever ending, even if it becomes somewhat obvious. Jordan's story -- he is a barbarian who wants an adventure -- is full of action and violence, some intrigue, some romance (or just plain offscreen sex), and even though I was concerned that I wouldn't get to read about the usual Xanth characters, I was engrossed in it.
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A grand adventure
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-09-27
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
After devouring Mr. Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, this was the first Xanth book I tried and I enjoyed it immensely. Now a diehard Xanth fan, this remains among my favorites of the series. Jonathan, the hapless barbarian lured into an adventure more than he expected, is a great hero, and his outlook is fun and different than other heros. Lots of puns, even in the title, which is good for some, maybe not for others.
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