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I found a copy of this book a long time ago in a desk drawer during an all-night phone security watch in 1985 or 86, while I was in the Navy. I was in my mid-20s at that time and I knew it was going to be a long, boring night, until I discovered "Night Mare" by Piers Anthony. I consumed the whole book in a couple of days and I remembered liking it enough to want to read the rest of the series. I eventually read the series up to "Man From Mundania" or "Isle of View", or perhaps one of the others shortly after that. I don't remember which, but I lost track of the Xanth series several years after getting out of the Nav. This time frame was in the early 1990s and I was starting to do more "adult" stuff. I put them in a box and stowed them away for some reason, not thinking much about them for many years (imagine my surprise to discover Piers Anthony was still writing this series well into the 2010s! He's got to be, what, at least a hundred and forty-two by now, right?)

Fast forward to 2021 and I rediscovered these books again after my oldest boy, who is now in his mid-20s, had discovered them himself and began reading them. I figured, what the hell, I remembered enjoying them all those years ago, but I couldn't remember the plot lines, so I took them in hand and started reading them again.

Then, I remembered why I lost interest in them in the 1990s. I mean, they are entertaining and all. But, gosh! They can be so damned annoyingly juvenile at times! Get off the panty kick, Piers! That's weird! And, many of the characters are absolutely moronic! I can remember being slightly annoyed at the stupidity and cartoonish naiveté of a lot of the characters way back when, and then I found myself being even more annoyed by it in 2021.

Take "Night Mare," for example. I remember absolutely LOVING this book way back in the dim 1980s. I could remember only bits of the story by the time I read it a second time in 2021 and I must say, given my more advanced age and greater world experience, I have to admit I have no idea why I thought I fell in love with the book back in the late 80s. I was stuck in a rut of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle predictable cliff-hanger endings during that time, and I guess I needed a change, so I jumped on the Xanth bandwagon after reading about Mare Imbrium and her misadventures with the dreaded Horseman. Unfortunately, rereading this book kind of ruined that fond memory of it for me. As Mr. B.B. King once so eloquently sang as he lovingly stroked Lucille, "The thrill is gone."

The protagonist in "Night Mare" is rather short-sighted and more than a little naive than should be expected, given her long experience with delivering horrible bad dreams to deserving people. She's seen some things, man! Any idiot with uncorrected 20/60 vision, or worse, could have seen from a mile off who the bad guy was in this story and how he was able to get into her good graces! Yes, she is a horse, but she should not have been a thick-headed mule who loses her good horse sense in the presence of a pretty face and tail! She's an immortal magical horse that has been around since Good Magician Humphrey was a twinkle in his daddy's eye, for crying out loud!

Road apples!!

The character of the antagonist, the Horseman, is never fully developed or explained. Is he an actual Mundane warrior who somehow figured out how to perform magic in Xanth, or is he a resident of Xanth who somehow found himself in Mundania and decided to tag along with Mundane warriors at war against a powerful empire in Mundania? How was it he ended up with the very group of mundane soldiers who happened to stumble into Xanth from their mundane peninsula? What's his name, even? Did he actually spend any time in Mundania at all or did he decide to "enlist" once the Mundanes were inside Xanth? Where did he get the magical object that helped him do what he did? I DON'T KNOW! IT'S NEVER EXPLAINED!

Plot holes? What plot holes? There are a lot of cheap shortcuts in the story which left me feeling more than a little disappointed, once I delved back into the book. It's like driving along on a brand new freeway, windows down and going 95 in the 65, with "Radar Love" blasting on the radio, and then you have to exit because the bridges for the overpasses aren't yet in place! (Heavy sigh)

Anyway, I finished it and then sadly stowed it away, probably never to read it again, being disillusioned after facing the hard reality of shoddy character development, massive plot holes, and low-watt protagonists unable to see beyond the ends of their lovely velvety equine noses.

Neigh, I say, neigh to "Night Mare." I'm afraid I'm gonna have to put you down, Dobbin.