Shame of man: a novel of human history

✍ Scribed by Piers Anthony

• Book ID: 101188072
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 300 KB
• Edition: 1st ed
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 0812550919

✦ Synopsis

From Publishers Weekly

That Anthony has attempted to write a multicultural work is laudable, if bemusing. Yet Anthony clearly cares about this book and, as in Isle of Women, the first volume in this series, imbues its serious, ambitious text with the frenetic action and joie de vivre for which he is known. Covering several thousand years, Anthony presents sets of similarly named characters in assorted situations and cultures. The always left-handed but never sinister Hugh and his wife Ann (and variant names thereon) are the good couple, while Bub and Sis do ill from Neanderthal times up through the near-future. Anthony can't quite manage to present any character who comes off as truly evil-Bub never rises above caricature, while Sis has several redemptive moments-but the effort here is honest, one whose spiritual antecedent appears to be Will Cuppy's The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. There are moments when the Anthony that many condemn comes through, mostly in the early sections (for example, when a woman whose baby is killed before her eyes immediately has sex with the killer), but, overall, this is an encouraging work. There's enough action to satisfy Anthony's Xanth readers, while those who stopped reading him around the time of Macroscope may be pleasantly surprised by what they will find here.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Spanning the ages from humanity's primate roots to the 21st century, a series of connected stories traces the development of civilization and its environmental repercussions in this companion volume to Isle of Women (Tor Bks., 1994). The use of similar names for the protagonists in each tale evokes the universality of the human experience, while the author's choices of locale-the Orkney Isles of 1500 B.C., the Levantine Coast of 1000 B.C., southern Japan of the third century A.D.-provide a refreshing smorgasbord of cultures. Filled with fascinating anthropological speculation, Anthony's latest novel showcases both his passionate convictions and his storytelling talent. This deserves a wide readership.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.