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Apprentice Adept #4
Out of Phaze
Two worlds--the scientific Proton, and the magical Phaze--exist side-by-side. Now, Mach has crossed from Proton to Phaze, switching places with his counterpart Bane. And both must learn to survive in environments alien to their own nature.
309 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
17 people are currently reading
1542 people want to read
About the author
Piers Anthony
441 books4,214 followersThough 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.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
November 6, 2015
Piers Anthony is the man who just can't let a good finished series lie. Initially a trilogy, the Apprentice Adept series ends with Phaze and Proton separated forever, with no possibility of renewed contact. Five years after finishing the first three books, Anthony returns to the series with another trilogy and a final stand-alone novel. I read the initial trilogy back in the early 90s, and re-read them in 2011 in preparation for finishing off the series with these later books. Although nearly two years since I finished Juxtaposition it has been 20 years within the story. Stile and Lady Blue have raised Bane; Citizen Blue and Sheen have produced and raised their robot child, Mach.
The first chapter of the novel is almost entirely exposition, and not particularly well done exposition at that. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the ending of the previous trilogy and where everybody was, but reading the exposition in Out of Phaze made me doubt what I remembered and managed to confuse me no end. Robots now have serf status on Proton and aliens are also an accepted class of serf. The catch-up is presented to us as the young robot Mach explaining his world and his family to a new alien, Agape, he finds himself having to entertain at the game. Obviously, with the worlds split apart forever, Anthony has to find a way around his ending. This time, instead of any ability to physically move from one frame to another, we find that Mach and Bane – if they both want it and happen to be in the exact same place at the same time – are able to swap places psychically. Yeah, that's a lot of ifs, buts, conditions and coincidences.
Initially, Mach is surprised to find himself in the Phaze frame, and the fact that he is almost unprepared to accept what has happened means that he comes close to dying a number of times almost immediately. Bane, however, we find out when we switch to his PoV was really the instigator for the switch. He had been using his magic and tracking a sort of psychic 'feeling' of Mach to home in on his location. Almost immediately, both Bane and Mach fall in love with their counterpart's female friends (strong flashbacks to the first trilogy here) – Bane with the alien Agape and Mach with the unicorn Fleta. As with seemingly all Piers Anthony, there's a strong undercurrent of sex in the story. Bane appears to have indulged in a reasonable amount of casual bestiality with both unicorns and vampires. Mach has to indulge in a fairly heavy bout of bestiality with Fleta while she is in heat, in order to stop her having to leave to find another herd to 'service' her. It's never quite clear whether all this sex is while she is in her unicorn or human shape, but I'm hoping it was the latter. Meanwhile Agape almost immediately expects Bane to 'teach her the ways of human love' and he doesn't waste a bunch of time.
While the novel felt strongly that it was an attempt to extend the series beyond his original plan and consequently repeated a lot of those ideas, tweaked slightly. Somehow in spite of all its flaws, I enjoyed it.
The first chapter of the novel is almost entirely exposition, and not particularly well done exposition at that. I thought I had a pretty good handle on the ending of the previous trilogy and where everybody was, but reading the exposition in Out of Phaze made me doubt what I remembered and managed to confuse me no end. Robots now have serf status on Proton and aliens are also an accepted class of serf. The catch-up is presented to us as the young robot Mach explaining his world and his family to a new alien, Agape, he finds himself having to entertain at the game. Obviously, with the worlds split apart forever, Anthony has to find a way around his ending. This time, instead of any ability to physically move from one frame to another, we find that Mach and Bane – if they both want it and happen to be in the exact same place at the same time – are able to swap places psychically. Yeah, that's a lot of ifs, buts, conditions and coincidences.
Initially, Mach is surprised to find himself in the Phaze frame, and the fact that he is almost unprepared to accept what has happened means that he comes close to dying a number of times almost immediately. Bane, however, we find out when we switch to his PoV was really the instigator for the switch. He had been using his magic and tracking a sort of psychic 'feeling' of Mach to home in on his location. Almost immediately, both Bane and Mach fall in love with their counterpart's female friends (strong flashbacks to the first trilogy here) – Bane with the alien Agape and Mach with the unicorn Fleta. As with seemingly all Piers Anthony, there's a strong undercurrent of sex in the story. Bane appears to have indulged in a reasonable amount of casual bestiality with both unicorns and vampires. Mach has to indulge in a fairly heavy bout of bestiality with Fleta while she is in heat, in order to stop her having to leave to find another herd to 'service' her. It's never quite clear whether all this sex is while she is in her unicorn or human shape, but I'm hoping it was the latter. Meanwhile Agape almost immediately expects Bane to 'teach her the ways of human love' and he doesn't waste a bunch of time.
While the novel felt strongly that it was an attempt to extend the series beyond his original plan and consequently repeated a lot of those ideas, tweaked slightly. Somehow in spite of all its flaws, I enjoyed it.
July 24, 2022
reread (7/24/22)
Reread as a comfort book, while coping with a COVID infection.
I read a lot of Piers Anthony as a 12(ish) year old, and my neighbor friend and I would race through them (he was the faster reader, and it made me so mad) - it was the theme of a couple of my young summers. So I read this while I needed a simple kind of pick-me-up.
This book is a generational shift (something Anthony did on the regular) - and we're focused on the children of the previous books' heroes. They have interesting origins, but once you get the mechanics of who they are - there isn't a lot of character. Turns out, my young self was likely kept reading by the Anthony formula of steady regular titillation.
If there is a boy and a girl in a scene, they love each other - and they are rarely not looking for an opportunity to hook up. To the point where any individual not meeting this criteria is suspect or breaking a key rule of life; that it is about hooking up. Somehow this is not off-putting. Probably because it turns sex into something that's uncomplicated and easy and natural, for a reader of an age where it seems scarier than that. The approach is certainly not porny (never explicit), and the characters are usually in love (and will marry and have another generation of kids who live to find a mate). I wouldn't really hesitate to let my kids read these. From a present-day perspective, there is one downside that I wonder whether or not Piers Anthony addresses in his later books - everything is entirely heteronormative. Where this becomes problematic, is when characters are addressing marriage equality among differing species and types (robots and humans, for instance), but these differences never approach the notion of the *existence* of LGBTQ+ characters - let alone the acceptability of not fitting in the molds he promotes. Youths reading these today would recognize this very quickly, and their opinion of Piers may be affected. The author may well be rejected for his large blind spot (by my kids, almost certainly). That may be unfortunate, because he may well be trying to address the subject in a roundabout way, to a YA audience. It was a different time - he may have been unpublished if he hadn't coded things.
The secondary characters here only exist as tools for the main characters, another strike against.
Out of Phaze is a little out of phase with the rest of the series. There is a lot of filler, and it builds to a non-ending that is pretty much unforgivable. Suicide is also handled in an irresponsibly blithe way - especially for the audience of these books (10-16yr olds, from the 80's).
I like Mach, Bane, Fleta and Agape. Young me was particularly taken with Agape. I was more of a Bane to my neighbor friend's Mach. These books were important and special to me as a kid.
As an adult, I see the holes in some of the magic.
(copy of my review posted on StoryGraph)
Reread as a comfort book, while coping with a COVID infection.
I read a lot of Piers Anthony as a 12(ish) year old, and my neighbor friend and I would race through them (he was the faster reader, and it made me so mad) - it was the theme of a couple of my young summers. So I read this while I needed a simple kind of pick-me-up.
This book is a generational shift (something Anthony did on the regular) - and we're focused on the children of the previous books' heroes. They have interesting origins, but once you get the mechanics of who they are - there isn't a lot of character. Turns out, my young self was likely kept reading by the Anthony formula of steady regular titillation.
If there is a boy and a girl in a scene, they love each other - and they are rarely not looking for an opportunity to hook up. To the point where any individual not meeting this criteria is suspect or breaking a key rule of life; that it is about hooking up. Somehow this is not off-putting. Probably because it turns sex into something that's uncomplicated and easy and natural, for a reader of an age where it seems scarier than that. The approach is certainly not porny (never explicit), and the characters are usually in love (and will marry and have another generation of kids who live to find a mate). I wouldn't really hesitate to let my kids read these. From a present-day perspective, there is one downside that I wonder whether or not Piers Anthony addresses in his later books - everything is entirely heteronormative. Where this becomes problematic, is when characters are addressing marriage equality among differing species and types (robots and humans, for instance), but these differences never approach the notion of the *existence* of LGBTQ+ characters - let alone the acceptability of not fitting in the molds he promotes. Youths reading these today would recognize this very quickly, and their opinion of Piers may be affected. The author may well be rejected for his large blind spot (by my kids, almost certainly). That may be unfortunate, because he may well be trying to address the subject in a roundabout way, to a YA audience. It was a different time - he may have been unpublished if he hadn't coded things.
The secondary characters here only exist as tools for the main characters, another strike against.
Out of Phaze is a little out of phase with the rest of the series. There is a lot of filler, and it builds to a non-ending that is pretty much unforgivable. Suicide is also handled in an irresponsibly blithe way - especially for the audience of these books (10-16yr olds, from the 80's).
I like Mach, Bane, Fleta and Agape. Young me was particularly taken with Agape. I was more of a Bane to my neighbor friend's Mach. These books were important and special to me as a kid.
As an adult, I see the holes in some of the magic.
(copy of my review posted on StoryGraph)
February 13, 2018
The narrator is exhaustingly perverted. He doesn't even bother to describe the facial features of any woman but immediately describes her breasts. The 2nd and 3rd book were a bit sexist but nothing compared to this one (never read the first one). I'm going to continue the series anyway because I'm a sucker for fantasy and I already have them on my shelf. Crossing my fingers..
November 10, 2012
Twenty years has passed since the events of the last book in this series. Blue has been living in Proton, endeavoring to bring serf status to the self-willed machines as well as other aliens from off planet. Stile resides in Phaze, but his progress towards unity of species has been much more slow-going. The two have borne sons: Mach, the robot son of Blue & Sheen and Bane, the human Adept son of Stile and Lady Blue. The two youngsters stumble upon a way to trade places within their forms and can therby exchange messages across the frames. Both Adverse Adepts and Contrary Citizens wish to harness this ability to gain power and, of course, Blue and Stile wish to use it to promote unity. Complicating matters, Mach and Bane form romantic relationships in each other’s frames.
It has been stated that this volume of the series is lacking, and not as fascinating as the previous. My opinion runs contrary. I find that revisiting a fictional setting some years later to learn the events that followed a ‘happily ever after’ can be illuminating. Some authors wish to revisit their creations so much that they manufacture some sort of ridiculous conflict to describe, but the reader can tell that the plot is more of a device for satisfying nostalgia than a legitimate further challenge in the characters’ lives. By making the second generation the protagonists, Anthony is able to revisit the characters, but still allow them their continued happy existence. Mach & Bane are both compelling characters, particularly Mach’s robot body and his first experiences in a human form with human emotions he cannot control by circuitry. Over on Bane’s side of things, I find him less engaging than his alien companion, Agape, an amoebic life form able to shape herself however she chooses from a very versatile blob of material. She is struggling with similar issues to Mach, in exploring humanity and the human process/experience of Love.
The transcendant theme of the piece is important and translates well to current society: differences between oneself and other sentient beings, whether it be race, ability, religion, alienness, machinery, or shape-changing unicorn/hummingbird/person-ness, need not be barriers to communication, and even love.
WARNING: Cliffhanger ending. Have the next book nearby, if possible.
It has been stated that this volume of the series is lacking, and not as fascinating as the previous. My opinion runs contrary. I find that revisiting a fictional setting some years later to learn the events that followed a ‘happily ever after’ can be illuminating. Some authors wish to revisit their creations so much that they manufacture some sort of ridiculous conflict to describe, but the reader can tell that the plot is more of a device for satisfying nostalgia than a legitimate further challenge in the characters’ lives. By making the second generation the protagonists, Anthony is able to revisit the characters, but still allow them their continued happy existence. Mach & Bane are both compelling characters, particularly Mach’s robot body and his first experiences in a human form with human emotions he cannot control by circuitry. Over on Bane’s side of things, I find him less engaging than his alien companion, Agape, an amoebic life form able to shape herself however she chooses from a very versatile blob of material. She is struggling with similar issues to Mach, in exploring humanity and the human process/experience of Love.
The transcendant theme of the piece is important and translates well to current society: differences between oneself and other sentient beings, whether it be race, ability, religion, alienness, machinery, or shape-changing unicorn/hummingbird/person-ness, need not be barriers to communication, and even love.
WARNING: Cliffhanger ending. Have the next book nearby, if possible.
September 15, 2015
Start of the Second Series
14 November 2012
Well, now I worked out which is the first book of the second trilogy, not that it really means all that much because I am pretty much over Piers Anthony. Okay, I still have Bio of a Space Tyrant and Unicorn Point to review, but once I have done that I can simply say good bye to Piers Anthony and move on to some more impressive authors (such as Jim Butcher, though I will have to start reading the third book in the Dresden Files before I write anything about it).
Out of Phaze is set sometime after the first trilogy and introduces the children of the heroes from the previous books as the new protagonists. If done well this can be a very good literary technique, and Anthony has done this previously in the Xanth series, though I have noticed that he only jumped generations a couple of times. In this series the jump over the generation occurs between the two trilogies. It is interesting that my friend indicated that he could have written a lot more of this series but chose not to.
Things have changed since the events of the first book. Previously one could physically jump between the worlds of Proton and Phaze, but it is no longer possible to do so. Worlds are no longer connected and the only way to cross is through psychic powers and body swaps. This creates some rather interesting characters (such as the amoeba that is changed into a woman), though it also creates some rather disturbing scenes (such as the previously mentioned lady being toilet trained).
I really cannot remember much of the plot, and in a way I don't really want to either. It is clear that the quality of Anthony's work is beginning to decline, and despite him borrowing concepts from ancient literature, it is not really anything that actually stands out. In the end the book was quite disappointing and after a time so was the author.
14 November 2012
Well, now I worked out which is the first book of the second trilogy, not that it really means all that much because I am pretty much over Piers Anthony. Okay, I still have Bio of a Space Tyrant and Unicorn Point to review, but once I have done that I can simply say good bye to Piers Anthony and move on to some more impressive authors (such as Jim Butcher, though I will have to start reading the third book in the Dresden Files before I write anything about it).
Out of Phaze is set sometime after the first trilogy and introduces the children of the heroes from the previous books as the new protagonists. If done well this can be a very good literary technique, and Anthony has done this previously in the Xanth series, though I have noticed that he only jumped generations a couple of times. In this series the jump over the generation occurs between the two trilogies. It is interesting that my friend indicated that he could have written a lot more of this series but chose not to.
Things have changed since the events of the first book. Previously one could physically jump between the worlds of Proton and Phaze, but it is no longer possible to do so. Worlds are no longer connected and the only way to cross is through psychic powers and body swaps. This creates some rather interesting characters (such as the amoeba that is changed into a woman), though it also creates some rather disturbing scenes (such as the previously mentioned lady being toilet trained).
I really cannot remember much of the plot, and in a way I don't really want to either. It is clear that the quality of Anthony's work is beginning to decline, and despite him borrowing concepts from ancient literature, it is not really anything that actually stands out. In the end the book was quite disappointing and after a time so was the author.
May 29, 2012
Out of Phaze picks up 20 years after Juxtaposition, with the fantasy and scifi frames totally separated. The new main characters are Stile and Blue's sons (respectively) and their predictably subservient and socially-inferior love interests. Early in the book, they swap consciousnesses, leading to hilarious(?) fish-out-of-water sequences and encountering each other's platonic female friends, who they immediately fall for. Also, somehow the evil Adepts and Citizens immediately know about the switch and set out to capture them, even though it's entirely a psychic phenomenon and the boys have trouble convincing people they're standing in front of that it has happened.
It's not a bad book, exactly - it's just kind of flat. Neither boy is particularly engaging, the love--interests are only appealing in the depths of kink they hint at (one's a unicorn, and one's an amoeba - and yes, later books totally go there) and the sexism isn't any better - in fact, at one point it's explicitly stated that Bane is only interested in a female who will totally sacrifice herself for him. And Mach's love interest tries to, which convinces him to stick around. (Also, all female androids are amoral man-eating sex fiends. Just so you know.)
The only bit that was rather striking was that Blue, who was a character only in reminiscence in the original trilogy because he wasn't tough enough to save the world, is the flexible, dynamic, successful one, and Stile, he of the unshakeable honor, is a conservative old stick-in-the-mud who basically sabotages himself. It's actually a fairly plausible extension of the original character development.
It's not a bad book, exactly - it's just kind of flat. Neither boy is particularly engaging, the love--interests are only appealing in the depths of kink they hint at (one's a unicorn, and one's an amoeba - and yes, later books totally go there) and the sexism isn't any better - in fact, at one point it's explicitly stated that Bane is only interested in a female who will totally sacrifice herself for him. And Mach's love interest tries to, which convinces him to stick around. (Also, all female androids are amoral man-eating sex fiends. Just so you know.)
The only bit that was rather striking was that Blue, who was a character only in reminiscence in the original trilogy because he wasn't tough enough to save the world, is the flexible, dynamic, successful one, and Stile, he of the unshakeable honor, is a conservative old stick-in-the-mud who basically sabotages himself. It's actually a fairly plausible extension of the original character development.
July 4, 2018
Well, I wrote a really long review, but sadly didn't save a copy andddd goodreads ate it and I'm not rewriting the whole thing so I'll just sum it up. First though, I'd like to point out (having read some other reviews on this book) this book is 30 years, and was written by a man who was over 50 at the time. Yes his books tend to be sexist. Yes they tend to focus on a woman's physical attributes and in /some/ of his novels women are definately not protrayed in their best list that's what happens when you read older books.
I can say that I don't think the author is a sexist; he has a lot of respect for women and that's reflected in other series where women are the main characters. In /this/ series women are basically plot devices and the focus is on the men and from their point of view.
To sum up quickly:
The last book ended with the frames of Phaze and Proton seperated forever--they weren't.
Twenty years later the sons of Blue and Stiles have been able to cross over, but not physically, they've switched bodies. Each of them fall in love in the wrong frame, and the current Citizen Blue and his wife Lady Blue make some very bad decisions which put the Proton son, Mach, in the hands of the adverse Citizens and Adepts.
The book ends on a cliffhanger
I can say that I don't think the author is a sexist; he has a lot of respect for women and that's reflected in other series where women are the main characters. In /this/ series women are basically plot devices and the focus is on the men and from their point of view.
To sum up quickly:
The last book ended with the frames of Phaze and Proton seperated forever--they weren't.
Twenty years later the sons of Blue and Stiles have been able to cross over, but not physically, they've switched bodies. Each of them fall in love in the wrong frame, and the current Citizen Blue and his wife Lady Blue make some very bad decisions which put the Proton son, Mach, in the hands of the adverse Citizens and Adepts.
The book ends on a cliffhanger
January 1, 2018
"Out of Phase" was a good book but it wasn't as interesting as the rest of Piers Anthony's Blue Adept series. The flow of the story was a little awkward at the beginning but it did get better further on in the book. Mach, citizen Blue's robot son switches consciousnesses with his counterpart in Phaze and both of them discover the awkwardness of navigating a different body in a new world.
August 3, 2017
It was super good but I was left hanging. *insert crying emoticon*
June 10, 2018
I was shocked that the characters kinda switched up.. because I really loved the adventures of Stile.. so now the focus is on Stile and Blue’s kids. Generational story till the end.
June 1, 2020
I enjoy Piers Anthony's writing style and characters. This is not my favorite book or series of his but I do still quite enjoy it and I would recommend it.
June 20, 2017
I was a little surprised when the prior book in this series ended without anything really happening to the bad guys, especially since they had proven themselves to be quite bad, kidnapping, torturing, hiring assassins and starting a war just to get their way. But Piers Anthony generally doesn't go for that kind of violence and when the book ended with the good guy on top I just figured he'd see to it the bad guys were dealt with because, if he didn't THE BAD GUYS WOULD CLEARLY BE BACK. Besides, Piers Anthony is writing about an extremely violent couple of worlds where things like kidnapping, torture, assassinations and wars were all available to private citizens.
So, big surprise, the bad guys come back. It is now 20 years later and the sons of Citizen Blue and the Blue Adept figure out how to body swap so communication between Phaze and Proton is once again possible. Of course the bad guys want to control this for their own advantage so they kidnap, threaten, etc.
This books sucks largely because it changes the main character of the preceding books, Stile, from intelligent and competent to stupid and ineffective. Stiles really isn't even the same character from the earlier books. The earlier Stiles wouldn't have let a complete stranger commit suicide, let alone the daughter of his best friend and life long friend of his own son. Stile does that here and the then the book ends. The main conflict of the story isn't even resolved since control of the new connection between Proton and Phaze is still unclear.
The only reason this book got 2 stars instead of one is because the page to page writing is still pretty good be the characters and circumstances are essentially meaningless. (Too bad I already bought the next book in the series because after this I have no interest in reading further.)
So, big surprise, the bad guys come back. It is now 20 years later and the sons of Citizen Blue and the Blue Adept figure out how to body swap so communication between Phaze and Proton is once again possible. Of course the bad guys want to control this for their own advantage so they kidnap, threaten, etc.
This books sucks largely because it changes the main character of the preceding books, Stile, from intelligent and competent to stupid and ineffective. Stiles really isn't even the same character from the earlier books. The earlier Stiles wouldn't have let a complete stranger commit suicide, let alone the daughter of his best friend and life long friend of his own son. Stile does that here and the then the book ends. The main conflict of the story isn't even resolved since control of the new connection between Proton and Phaze is still unclear.
The only reason this book got 2 stars instead of one is because the page to page writing is still pretty good be the characters and circumstances are essentially meaningless. (Too bad I already bought the next book in the series because after this I have no interest in reading further.)
June 12, 2023
I feel like my earlier experiences reading the Xanth novels (or even The Babysitters Club) ruined me for being able to pick up a book at random and just enjoy it, because... I didn't like this one.
I read it, to be certain, and cover-to-cover vs. getting fed up midway and skipping to the end. I was hoping that somehow I would get past the fact there's a whole society where LOWER CLASS PEOPLE MUST ALWAYS BE NAKED. It's likely I skipped past stuff like that in Xanth, where most characters were part animal in the first place, so nudity was the norm, but especially after it became a Thing to hate on Piers Anthony for being a pervert, it's just... really hard to overlook that part.
The plot wasn't too hard to pick up, for what it's worth, but I also felt less invested in the characters' well-being as a result of the peculiarities of their world.
Probably I'm judging this more harshly in a retrospective review than if I'd reviewed after a fresh read. The fact is I barely remember the ending, just the weird sex-focused elements (which may be the point?), so clearly it hasn't interested me in the rest of the series. I could tell you more about, say, the Evil Librarians that Alcatraz fought in each book, and I read THOSE only once before, or the freaky gem-pooping bugs in The Bad Place, also after reading the book only once. The ending tends to be what sticks with me, because if a story doesn't properly end, what's the point?
(besides cliffhangers)
Anyway, probably a harsh judgement, but I haven't felt inclined to revisit my decision.
I read it, to be certain, and cover-to-cover vs. getting fed up midway and skipping to the end. I was hoping that somehow I would get past the fact there's a whole society where LOWER CLASS PEOPLE MUST ALWAYS BE NAKED. It's likely I skipped past stuff like that in Xanth, where most characters were part animal in the first place, so nudity was the norm, but especially after it became a Thing to hate on Piers Anthony for being a pervert, it's just... really hard to overlook that part.
The plot wasn't too hard to pick up, for what it's worth, but I also felt less invested in the characters' well-being as a result of the peculiarities of their world.
Probably I'm judging this more harshly in a retrospective review than if I'd reviewed after a fresh read. The fact is I barely remember the ending, just the weird sex-focused elements (which may be the point?), so clearly it hasn't interested me in the rest of the series. I could tell you more about, say, the Evil Librarians that Alcatraz fought in each book, and I read THOSE only once before, or the freaky gem-pooping bugs in The Bad Place, also after reading the book only once. The ending tends to be what sticks with me, because if a story doesn't properly end, what's the point?
(besides cliffhangers)
Anyway, probably a harsh judgement, but I haven't felt inclined to revisit my decision.
September 16, 2025
This book is basically about the main character living in a world where they have multiple species of humans and robots, who play these daily set games that they have to play everyday, and also about how the main character is trying to go back to his body in another world. I would give this book a 4/5, lots of twists and turns and many wonders that made me want to keep reading. It was definitely an interesting world inside of it, having many things in it that don’t exist in real life, and that is why it perfectly fits in the genre of fantasy. Out of Phaze also definitely showed the reader whose perspective it was, and I also like that it was in third person, effectively telling us about the main character, and the other character’s side of the story as well. One thing that I disliked is how the book started. At first it started slow and made me not want to read it, but as I kept reading, it definitely got more interesting and eventually I ended up liking it. In the end, anybody who likes a fantasy book that is unpredictable and adventurous, maybe this is the book for you!
The book also definitely was able to make the reader think that this world could be real, almost as if it is some parallel universe. It gives very fine details at the beginning to how their world is, and it shows that the world in the book could theoretically be very real! In my opinion, Piers Anthony did a great job at describing the cool world that the main character lived in. So in conclusion, the author did a wonderful job at creating the world where robots and humans co-exist, and I would 100% recommend this book to almost anyone.
The book also definitely was able to make the reader think that this world could be real, almost as if it is some parallel universe. It gives very fine details at the beginning to how their world is, and it shows that the world in the book could theoretically be very real! In my opinion, Piers Anthony did a great job at describing the cool world that the main character lived in. So in conclusion, the author did a wonderful job at creating the world where robots and humans co-exist, and I would 100% recommend this book to almost anyone.
March 7, 2023
I have read this a second time. I find that the series is beginning to bog down in details. Maybe the premise that machines can become sentient and can go on to cast magic spells will become more viable in the next number of this series. I'm getting that book from a library to explore the concept.
This is rather old as science fiction and fantasy go these days. Since I grew up reading reprints from the old pulps of the 1930s and 1940s that may not mean so much to me. The modern feminist critics have decried the author's male chauvanism but, on the other hand, the new material is more sophisticated and avoids the faults of this author. Time will tell how thing develop in the F & SI world. We are sure past the male and military model of much of the earlier stories in this genre.
This is rather old as science fiction and fantasy go these days. Since I grew up reading reprints from the old pulps of the 1930s and 1940s that may not mean so much to me. The modern feminist critics have decried the author's male chauvanism but, on the other hand, the new material is more sophisticated and avoids the faults of this author. Time will tell how thing develop in the F & SI world. We are sure past the male and military model of much of the earlier stories in this genre.
February 17, 2022
It was very challenging, trying to keep straight whose consciousness was in whose body on which side of the no-longer-existent curtain at any given moment. I was not happy with Bane’s fight with Agape over the concept of honor, but then I am frequently not happy with Anthony’s ideas about honor. I feel that if one of his characters had to choose between keeping to the letter of a promise and allowing hundreds of people to die, or saving the people at the expense of the promise, he would choose the first. I was also rather surprised at how completely up in the air we were left at the end, especially as the parallelism between frames suddenly fractures there.
January 5, 2021
This is the fourth book in Apprentice Adept, and starts a new story arc. I think you could start reading this without the prior 3, but the setting would make more sense and characters would have more meaning if you'd read the whole series. I wouldn't recommend reading this without reading at least the next 2.
I found the first three a bit lackluster, but I had this book already, so I gave it a try. Though it added some interesting new ideas, I found the characters mostly shallow and frustrating.
I found the first three a bit lackluster, but I had this book already, so I gave it a try. Though it added some interesting new ideas, I found the characters mostly shallow and frustrating.
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March 1, 2025When I was at summer camp growing up, there was one single book in the common room: this one. I went to that summer camp for 5 years and always forgot a book. I read this single book approximately 17 times, rarely to the end, whenever I was awake before anyone else. With all that said: I have no plans to ever read any Piers Anthony ever again. He’s sexist and a bad writer. How is he still writing
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August 12, 2022I will admit I did struggle with this book. I will admit however I haven't read the prequel series I just went straight in and I did feel that you had to have read the books that came before to understand the universe this book was set in. I also found the story to be too many ideas all kind of shoved together into one story line, overall not on of my faves.
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October 23, 2025Out of print no longer: Book Four of the Apprentice Adept series--from the New York Times bestselling author. Two worlds--the scientific Proton, and the magical Phaze--exist side-by-side. Now, Mach has crossed from Proton to Phaze, switching places with his counterpart Bane. And both must learn to survive in environments alien to their own nature.
November 27, 2025
(Listened to audiobook)
With an incoherent story, badly to barely characterized protagonists, a ton of smut with some undisguised fetishes and an entire bag of sexism, this truly is a great successor to the worst parts of the original trilogy. Cursed be my compulsion to finish a series once I started it. The last hour or so was bearable, I guess.
With an incoherent story, badly to barely characterized protagonists, a ton of smut with some undisguised fetishes and an entire bag of sexism, this truly is a great successor to the worst parts of the original trilogy. Cursed be my compulsion to finish a series once I started it. The last hour or so was bearable, I guess.
November 26, 2021
Interesting 4th book in the Apprentice adept series. Although my favorites in the series are the first 3 this next 3 are pretty decent too if you have an open mind and are not uptight about some of the contents. Remember that this is fantasy not reality and you will enjoy them.
October 23, 2018
I probably should have read these in strict order.
March 14, 2021
For the most part this was fun and easy to read. It's a little too YA for my tastes and I didn't like some of the decisions made by Anthony.
April 19, 2024
I Love Piers Anthony! I have the entire Apprentice Adept series and love it! Have read it again and again! Will continue to buy them until he no longer writes them, may he live forever!!
December 6, 2025
book 3 was better. this feels like a fresh start for the series
September 4, 2023
Proton and Phaze are back!
This time around it is Mach and Bane we follow to action and adventure. To swap worlds they swap bodies. With Mach, the machine son of the original Blue Adept and Chine inhabiting his counterpart's body in Phaze and Bane inhabiting Mach's machine body in Proton citizens and adepts race to control the only two beings who can travel between the worlds.
Mach and Bane are more likeable than Stile, but their honor will lead them into trouble.
And I still don't understand the appeal of the "Game".
This time around it is Mach and Bane we follow to action and adventure. To swap worlds they swap bodies. With Mach, the machine son of the original Blue Adept and Chine inhabiting his counterpart's body in Phaze and Bane inhabiting Mach's machine body in Proton citizens and adepts race to control the only two beings who can travel between the worlds.
Mach and Bane are more likeable than Stile, but their honor will lead them into trouble.
And I still don't understand the appeal of the "Game".
November 16, 2015
Piers Anthony used to be one of my favorite authors in the 1980's and 1990's. I loved his Xanth series and found The Apprentice Adept series was to be a close second. So, I originally read this book way back when was I was in college, but that was so long ago that it was like reading this book for the first time. And let me say this, boy, oh boy, am I ever glad I did.
Piers Anthony is a wizard at writing highly entertaining stories. I love the idea of two worlds with the same landscape existing in two different dimensions with the same beings on both. Phaze is a world of magic with fantasy creatures with a luscious environment while Proton is a world of science where everyone lives under domes because the outside world has been devastated by mankind. On Proton, the Citizens have all the power while everyone else are naked serfs and on Phaze the Adepts rule the lands because they have the most powerful magic. What a totally cool idea!
I really enjoyed the new characters that the author created for this book. Stile, who was the main character in the first three books in this series, appears in the book, but he is no longer the focal point. Both his son, and the Blue Citizen's son, are the main characters. I also found that I really enjoyed reading about Fleta and Agape. I thought it was neat to have an amoeba-like character that could take whatever form she wanted, as long as her mass stayed the same. Fleta, on the other hand, can only turn into a human or a hummingbird, while he natural form in a unicorn. Mass doesn't matter on her world because Phaze is a land of magic.
As in the previous books, most of the other Citizens on Proton are power-hungry will do anything to obtain more power, while on Phaze, most of the Adepts feel the same way. I guess what they say is true: power corrupts . . . but not everyone. I think that it depends upon your moral makeup. Stile, who is the Blue Adept, and both the Brown and Red Adepts, are good and do help out Mach with the Adverse Adepts. The same thing can be said for the Citizens on Proton. They crave more power.
I have always enjoyed the quick pace of books by Piers Anthony and appreciate his writing style. Piers writes so that dialog drives the story forward, not a ton of heavy description, which I feel bogs down a story. Nothing is worse that a heavily descriptive book. Snooze city. This book is not a snooze and moves along at a brisk pace.
Overall, I found Out of Phaze to be a great story that has both fantasy and science fiction, which is an unusual mix to have both in one book. I enjoyed the new characters and loved the trouble they find themselves in. I highly recommend this book to any lover of Fantasy, but also feel that you need to start on the first book in this series, Split Infinity. As for me, I cannot wait to see what happens next in Robot Adept, as something happens at the end of this book that made me sit up and say, "Wow!"
I rated this book an 8½ out of 10.
January 9, 2015
Found this again sitting on the shelf amongst my childhood books. My parents had bought the hardback for me for my 14th birthday. Looking at the date of publication, I guess I received it less than 2 months after it appeared in stores, lucky me! I remember it as a great book, and my parents were happy to see I wasn't playing Dungeons & Dragons or video games, so everything was all good. Glancing through it now and rereading a few pages after all these years, I probably wouldn't read it now, but it served its purpose back then in expanding my imagination and helped me look at things differently when the world was wide open with possibilities and dreams could still come true. Definitely good reading for a pre-teen to teenager or anybody else who wants to escape for a few hours from whatever reality you have made for yourself in life. This was the first and only book I read from this author, so I am blissfully ignorant of his previous books in the series, and from everyone's reviews, his better works. I'm okay with reading this inferior YA version, I turned out just fine and enjoyed the story. I thought it had a little of everything I liked at the time. I was reminded of this book for whatever reason after going through my old Dungeons & Dragons DVD cartoons that I was going to introduce to my son and after watching too much Sci-Fi channel, The Walking Dead and movies such as The Giver, Divergent, Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, Blade Runner, Elysium, etc. I guess after revisiting my old Fantasy Sci-Fi genre, I felt an urge to go find this book on the shelf and see what it was about all over again. I will pass it on to my son and then my daughter in a few years when they become older. I hope they find enjoyment in it as much as I did when I received it. Actually, I might have to tell them, this is called a book....we use to read these when we were your age. We didn't have a touch screen and Internet cloud with all the world's constantly evolving knowledge, imagination, and government thought control at our fingertips. I hope they see themselves in this book, and every book, and figure it all out.
January 25, 2016
So the story of Stile continues in the form of his son Bane. This story could have easily made a separate series, because it is so very different. Even the way Anthony writes has changed from the previous books. Our two heroes Mach (from Proton), and Bane (from Phaze) find themselves in the other's body in the other frame. The two men quickly form relationships with women they are forbidden to love by their culture. Agape, an alien, has fallen in love with Bane, but can they remain together with the Citizens constantly trying to capture her and use her against him? Fleta, a lovely unicorn girl, is in love with Mach, but in Phaze man is not allowed to love animal. Their stars are crossed but they know that one cannot live without the other. I really loved this book because the characters are so imperfect and so relatable. It was hard for me to really get into Stile's books because he is literally a superman of the two frames; he has three women, and he is a powerful mage in one frame and a perfect gamesman in the other. In this new story, both Bane and Mach are imperfect creatures struggling to find a purpose in life. And I love the story of the two heroines! Agape is the odd one out in Proton society, she has no friends and feels like no one can ever love her for who she really is. But because of her alien nature she becomes the perfect companion for Bane in his conquest against the Citizens, and they fall in love along the way. She is inexperienced in the ways of love and Bane teaches her all he knows. Fleta has always loved Bane, but he never took her seriously because their love was forbidden, but Mach is a different story. He loves her for who she is and what she is, and she gives up her breeding cycle to him as the ultimate sacrifice. I could go on and on about this book, but I really think that you all should read it for yourselves. Five out of five stars for Out of Phaze!
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