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Night Mare is one of Mr. Anthony's best early Xanth novels. It nicely ends the first chapter in the ever continuing Xanth trilogy. It brings all the main players from the first five novels together in one major story arc - a new wave of ferocious warriors from Mudania, led by a mysterious figure known only as The Horseman, is making its way through Xanth toward Castle Roogna. Somehow they have been able to incapacitate the King of Xanth, and then his heir, and then the next in line, and so forth, and so on. The Night Stallion sends an emissary from the Gourd, Mare Imbri, to work with Chameleon and stop the kings of Xanth from being taken out before there aren't any more sorcerers left to fill the position.

As many of the characters from the first four novels are in that line of succession, we get to revisit all our old friends. In particular, I was very happy to read about Bink again - the main character from the first two Xanth novels. And man - I forgot what a bad arse he could be! In this novel, he's like an older Arnold Schwarzenegger - single-handedly kicking people's butts until he too falls prey to the strange illness affecting one king after the other.

This story is excellent and well thought out. When you get to the end and all is revealed, many of the events that occurred earlier in the novel become much more meaningful - in fact, I think that this is one novel that deserves at least one re-read so that you can appreciate all the hidden setup work Mr. Anthony put into the story.

Also, Mr. Anthony brings one large inequality in Xanth society to an end. Let all the sorceresses in the land rejoice!

And yes, off course there are a great many puns for you to enjoy! I give the novel 4 out of 5 stars. Thanks for the novel Piers!