Climate of Change

Geodyssey #5

by Piers Anthony

A remarkable epic of passion and courage, savagery and survival, Piers Anthony's "Geodyssey" is a saga unlike any ever written. It is nothing less than the story of humanity itself, told through the lives of a handful of extraordinary men and women reborn throughout history.Now, with Climate of Change, Anthony introduces us to a new cast of characters, including Keeper, who knows the ways of nature, Rebel, a headstrong girl as brave as any man, Craft, a cunning inventor, and Crenelle, who uses her seductive charms to defend her people.Through their eyes, we see how some of the most crucial moments in human history have been driven by natural forces, from the great ice ages of prehistory to the droughts and plagues that have destroyed history's proudest civilizations. And we witness a harsh but hopeful future in which humanity at last transcends the devastating effects of climate change.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Though he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.

Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked the other four Geodyssey books, you'll probably like this one too - but just as in the most recent time-delayed entry in the Incarnations series, the author is WAAAAY too obsessed with sex and shoves it into almost every page. I felt that the writing and stories suffered for that, as not a single chapter went by that sex and/or rape wasn't critical to the storyline (i.e. Man won't "rape" Woman so she won't marry him, Girl flees naked to distract bad guys, etc.). The settings weren't as interesting or as well-fleshed-out as in prior books, which is likely due to the author going from having a fulltime research assistant to using notes and Wikipedia to finish up this novel. While I can appreciate that he is feeling his age and wants to wrap up some unfinished projects, I feel that Piers needs to take a step back from his dirty fantasies and think about what he's writing and whether it is what he really wants to be remembered for when he's gone.

[Craig Leimkuehler]

Despite being in his 70's Mr.Anthony writes like a thirteen year old boy. Sadly a boy who is obsessed with sex. And yet he makes it dull and boring, This is a collection of stories about early man and one set in the future. He uses the same characters with names like Hero, Rebel, and Craft in each story. And in every story someone is going to have sex. Sometimes willingly, sometimes not. Frequently a d female character was forced into offering or withholding sex to get what she wanted.In his view of world history everything hinged around the need for sexual intercourse and related activities. The fact that we are here does proves that early man was sexually active I doubt that he was a obsessed as the characters in the book. I have greatly enjoyed his Xanth series with their various puns but the world could have survived without this book.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite some stiffness and pedantry in the writing, I enjoyed the first 3 books of this series; the fourth not so much, and the fifth (this one) not at all. As others have said, there is a lot of sex and rape--too much! A lot of the sex is gratuitous, and rape is way past that. In the first chapter, rape is mentioned over 30x. I understand the concept of the captive bride, but (as I understood it) simply doing the equivalent of flinging the girl over your saddlebow was often sufficient. Crenelle's insistence on actually being raped over the course of the first 5 chapters when she already wants to marry the guy made me sick. Add in the actual rape of Haven in ch 2 and her mental gymnastics in trying to justify it, keep her brother from attacking the man, and deciding whether to stay or not (he's from another tribe--she should just be able to leave, and I don't think that's just my 21st century opinion) actually turned my stomach.

There are other aspects of the story I didn't care for as well, but picking out the cultures he chose gave some interesting insight--assuming they're correct. In his afterword, he states he used Google and Wikipedia instead of a research assistant. However, I would never use Wiki as my primary source; I use it as a springboard and to give me a basic overview instead. After all, each entry is only as good and honest as the person who wrote/edited it. I suppose it's good he says so (how many authors don't/wouldn't?), but it does affect my opinion negatively.

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Without tools, where would people be?"

If you liked the first four Geodyssey books, then you'll enjoy this one. Same basic premise: A group of people are reborn again and again in different times and this is how time and circumstance affect their lives. This book is focused on primarily on climate changes and how that affects the progression of mankind.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bitter disappointment for what is apparently going to be the end of what was a compelling, informative, fun and unique series. This book followed the same group of people through time showing how time and evolution may have changed man but unlike the other books, the family structure of the book altered throughout. In one time, X and Y would be married while in the next time period, Y might be X's brother in law.

The biggest issue I had with this final volume is that it revolved almost entirely around sex. Not just sex, but the rape of women and young girls or the threat of as a means of securing marriage or enlarging a population. There is also scenarios where women are forced to become sexual partners of married men to secure the safety of one or more of the family. I am not saying that these things never happened in the past but this portrays women as a sex object more than any other addition to the force that moved forward mankind.

This author's books have been becoming riddled with more and more sexual overtones as the years go by. Some of them are more than just overtones and come across as cheap pulp fiction published only because of the author's prior best sellers. It is sad to see a talented author take this route.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read a Piers Anthony since Orn which I thought was the best science fiction I had ever read. I really like Anthony when he takes an unusual point of view. In Orn it was a bird. In Climate of Change it is 2 groups of siblings who mature in different ages of earth's history. They start out in prehistory--homo erectus, homo habulus, austrolopithacine, neanderthal--through Australian aboriginals, African tribes. the first Europeans, etc. The impetus for each changes in human history is the search for a new land because the climate of the old has changed. I think it is a book of our times and worth a read. I find his writing style easy and his characters believable. The development of society and how the group handles difference situations is intrresting.

[Ruth Soz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not the biggest fan of science fiction, but I really loved this series. Saying that, I found the conculsion a little lacking although I can't quite put my finger on why. I didn't think the stories in the chapters were as fleshed out as in previous books, and I really missed the maps at the beginning of every chapter. I'm no prude (by a longshot!), but the presence of rape in so many chapters was for lack of a better word, tedious (I hate using that word to describe it, but I can't think of a better one at the moment!). It would have been different had the book been focused around sexuality, but the theme was supposed to be climate.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this in the clearance section at the book store because I was looking for a book about people faced with climate change in a history. I love historical fiction and I thought his approach of pushing the same characters through time and giving different examples of how similar situations could play out.

The thing I didn't like about this book was the excessive, obsessive sex. I like to have some sex in a story and I even agree that sex is a huge driving force in our evolution but I just think he should have touched on s few other things as well.

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has an interesting and unique concept -- relate the tales of similar people in different places and in different times. Unfortunately, it did not work for me as a novel. The characters are uninteresting. The settings are poorly constructed and unbelievable. The most vivid descriptions are of the Neolithic main characters having mad evolved-monkey sex, and it doesn’t make for much of a plot. The novel became so painful to read that I skimmed the last half, but I doubt I missed much. It did not appear to improve.

[Barbara Loggia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this book. Author sets a group of characters in similar situations throughout history from our current thoughts of the beginnings of man to the near future. Not so much a story of the characters but more the repeated history of the human race fighting savagely for land, resources, power. Although the individuals show necessary courage and family unity, it's the repeated attackers who ultimately destroy cultures and people throughout time. A difficult truth to read but necessary to understand this view of humankind.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first 4 books in this series and was excited to find out there would be a fifth. Unfortunately, this book was absolutely terrible and Piers Anthony shouldn't have bothered. There is nothing unique about this book in the series, and I found it boring and hard to finish. Also, there is way too much sex and rape - as a previous commenter wrote, he throws it into every chapter and it only worsens the plot. I was highly disappointed.

[JoAnn J. A. Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent historical novel although the way it is told is a bit strange. The same characters appear in each story in different time periods and in slightly different relationships with each other.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an overview of history from pre-historic times to the near future.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The long awaited book 5 of the Geodessey Series. Very differnt than the others- no mpas or anchor sections. It also does a bunch of switchign up of the relationships between family members instead of keeping them the same between time periods.

The author's notes make the book make more sense. Not my favortie of the series but a good conclusion.

[Jennifer Kyrnin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but it started getting tiresome after a while. And the constant discussion of rape throughout the entire book was very very disturbing. It may be a historical fact, but it was very hard to read chapter after chapter. Especially as one of the characters "wants" to be raped. Which was an even bigger struggle for me. In some ways I'm surprised I finished it.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting as a collection of folk tales. Anthony drew the characters as archetypes, rather than as individuals, and so the stories presented a sort of blueprint for thought and action set against the possible cultural mores and environmental attributes of each epoch's setting. It was interesting, but I don't feel compelled to read the rest of the Geodyssey series.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of this series and was glad to see Anthony finished it. The previous volume was over a decade ago and Anthony is in his late 70's now, so I found this book to be a little less entertaining than the others in the series. However, I still enjoy it and its a good conclusion to the series.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh, what was I thinking? Sci-fi is not my interest. I thought perhaps, because it covers the subject of prehistoric humanity, that I would be engaged with the plot (I guess I was expecting something like 'Clan of the Cave Bear'). It was dreary and poorly written. I abandoned it early on.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting concept and the ancient history was compelling. The individual stories were repetitive and boring. I found my self skipping the stories and reading the beginning and end notes that explained the actual facts behind the stories.

[Andrew]

Wanted...

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

verrrry interesting book... many stories of pretty much the same people in different time, culture and surrandings

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible! Seemingly filled with the authors rape and sexual fantasies.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy handed, but still interesting overall.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the first three, but it was nice to finally have a new book in this series.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the other books in the Geodyssey series but this was dry and very hard to get through.

[Karen Bain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned much about world history.

And, that was better then the story line.