History Creator / PiersAnthony

* StarfishAlien: Whenever aliens are encountered (as opposed to alternate-universe humans), they're almost guaranteed to be this trope.

* BestHerToBedHer: In ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'', in order to form an alliance with Space Pirates, Hope Hubris, the Navy Commander, must wed Rue, the daughter of the Pirate leader. However, being pirates, the "marriage ceremony" consists of the "groom" kidnapping and "having [his] way with" the perspective bride. While this is usually done in a "ceremonious" manner (since the marriage partners are the ones often wanting the union), the daughter in this case had already killed three earlier suitors. She took it literally. Luckily, Hope wins in the end.

** In ''Split Infinity'' of the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, the hero, Stile, forces a robot to show him a printout of her program, and they both agree afterwards that it was a form of rape.

* SapientCetaceans: In his stories about a human dentist abducted by aliens to serve as their on-ship oral hygeine practitioner (Prosthro Plus), the intrepid orthodontist is called upon to do some filings for a life-form on a wholly aquatic planet, who turns out to be the son of a whale-like species who are planetary rulers and who can therefore pay the fabulous costs of tons of gold used to restore the cavity-laden rotten teeth. After several days of work with JCB's to excavate the rot and a portable blast furnace to melt the gold for the fillings - all done inside the creature's mouth as it really is that large - the dentist asks what caused catastrophic rot in the first place, learning that over-indulgent parents had allowed too many sweeties and not imposed a good enough teeth-cleaning regime...

* ImAManICantHelpIt: All over the place. He likes to hammer this point home by having a woman become a man briefly -- upon returning to normal she will be full of surprised gratitude to her male companions for restraining their beastly urges.this.

* AuthorFilibuster: A variant: Anthony concludes most of his novels with a chapter-long "Author's Note" in which he writes about the novel itself, what happened in his life while writing the novel, and whatever else he feels like.

* ParentalBonus: Quite a bit, actually. Lots of the puns in Xanth are likely to go over the primary audiences' head. Some of the somewhat [[FetishFuel adult]] situations (characters losing clothing etc.) are shrugged off by the characters, since they're too young to realize the connotations. Having said that, there's a huge amount of [[InvertedTrope Childhood Bonus]] -- lots of these books are much more of a GuiltyPleasure than they appear at first glance. Mr. Anthony definitely knows his target audience.

One of the most prolific fantasy writers ever. He has a pattern of starting a new series with a fresh innovative idea, and then [[{{sequelitis}} never stopping it unless the publisher begs him to]]. Thus, he is one of the most prolific fantasy writers ''without'' writing many {{Doorstopper}}s.

* DisposableWoman: Women in ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'' seem to exist solely to be [[StuffedIntoTheFridge brutally raped and murdered]].

* RapeAsDrama:

* The ''Literature/{{Mode}}'' series, which is about characters traveling across dimensions--each of which has fundamentally different rules--on foot. (Literally, every ten meters they are in a new dimension they could not see before, stepping across the boundary is very dangerous, and they'd have to do this for hundreds or thousands of dimensions before reaching an (hopefully) stable "anchor" dimension).

* The ''Literature/{{Mode}'' series, which is about characters traveling across dimensions--each of which has fundamentally different rules--on foot. (Literally, every ten meters they are in a new dimension they could not see before, stepping across the boundary is very dangerous, and they'd have to do this for hundreds or thousands of dimensions before reaching an (hopefully) stable "anchor" dimension).

* The ''Literature/{(Cluster}}'' series, where all FasterThanLightTravel is done through possessing aliens.

* ''Xanth'', mostly set in a world of magic and puns about the size and shape of Florida (both the world and the puns).
* ''Incarnations of Immortality'', where being an AnthropomorphicPersonification is just a job.
* The ''Apprentice Adept'' series, about two mirror worlds; one hi-tech, one magical.

* The ''Cluster'' series, where all FasterThanLightTravel is done through possessing aliens.
* The ''Mode'' series, which is about characters traveling across dimensions--each of which has fundamentally different rules--on foot. (Literally, every ten meters they are in a new dimension they could not see before, stepping across the boundary is very dangerous, and they'd have to do this for hundreds or thousands of dimensions before reaching an (hopefully) stable "anchor" dimension).

* AuthorAppeal: Nudism / InnocentFanserviceGirl, in spades. He also tends to use RapeAsDrama and LawfulStupid a lot.

* BeQuietNudge: Happens a few times in a form of a kick.

* DirtyOldMan: Self-professed even. Not really a surprise to anyone who has read anything he's written.
* DisposableWoman: Nearly all of his books have these; very often as [[DistressedDamsel Distressed Damsels]]. Women in ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'' seem to exist solely to be [[StuffedIntoTheFridge brutally raped and murdered]].

* HonorBeforeReason: A common trait of most of his protagonists. Mr. Anthony has repeatedly said that he believes heroes should be LawfulStupid. In the ''Battle Circle'' trilogy, the entire Nomad culture is based on this.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: All over the place. He likes to hammer this point home by having a woman become a man briefly -- upon returning to normal she will be full of surprised gratitude to her male companions for restraining their beastly urges.

* MagicAIsMagicA
* MermaidProblem: Piers Anthony goes out of his way to analyze mermaid physiology in several of his series.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny / NationalGeographicNudity: Piers has said on several occasions that he doesn't understand why people consider human nudity to be shocking/harmful/etc. He tends to mix it into his stories.
* OnlyInFlorida

* ProtectionFromEditors: [[invoked]] As he says in his Author's Notes, Piers Anthony does not like people making changes to his work, and after his books started selling, he became determined to never let an editor [[ExecutiveMeddling meddle]] with anything he wrote ever again.
* PungeonMaster
* RapeAsDrama: Nearly all of his books feature this prominently.

* SignatureStyle: Pretty much everyone in every Piers Anthony book speaks the same way, with the same dialect, and has an impressive command of old stories, mythology, and trivia. Basically, you know you're reading a Piers Anthony novel if a guy in a black cloak with a skull for a face walks around and people, no matter where they're from or what their level of education is, are just as likely to shout "Thanatos!" as "Death!"
* StarfishAlien: Whenever aliens are encountered (as opposed to alternate-universe humans), they're almost guaranteed to be this trope.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: "Alicorn" to refer to a Winged Unicorn.

* HurricaneOfPuns: Particularly in his ''Xanth'' series, almost every one of which are reader submitted (and credited).

** Mermaids in ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' are nudists, as are pretty much any {{Half Human Hybrid}}s as a rule. In one novel the heroine -- a Mermaid who turns human -- spends a significant amount of time in the book naked before she gets any clothing. The most intelligent race, Centaurs, go topless except for utility and mate in the open, on the grounds that natural functions are, well, natural.
** The ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series starts off on a colony world named Proton where only the members of the ruling class (called Citizens) are allowed the privilege of wearing clothing. The majority of the population consists of their indentured servants, called "serfs", who are required by law to go naked at all times.[[note]]There are exceptions for safety gear and such, to cover the corner cases.[[/note]]

* ParentalBonus: Quite a bit, actually. Lots of the puns in Xanth are likely to go over the primary audiences' head. Some of the somewhat [[FetishFuel adult]] situations (characters losing clothing etc.) are shrugged off by the characters, since they're too young to realize the connotations. Having said that, there's a huge amount of [[InvertedTrope Childhood Bonus]] -- lots of these books are much more of a GuiltyPleasure than they appear at first glance. Mr. Anthony definitely knows his target audience.

** Xanth tends to have a lot of near-rape moments in it, just not actually carrying through.
** Discussed in ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' when the Incarnation of Fate is in the clutches of a demon that means to rape her. Since she's incapable of being physically harmed, she speculates that rape would be just... interaction.
** In ''Split Infinity'' of the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, the hero, Stile, forces a robot to show him a printout of her program, and they both agree afterwards that it was a form of rape.

* StarfishAlien: Whenever aliens are encountered (as opposed to alternate-universe humans), they're almost guaranteed to be this trope. Piers Anthony may be unique in not only creating [[BizarreSexualDimorphism convincing and unique three-gendered-alien sex]] in the ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'' series, but also [[PowerPerversionPotential finding a way to create a rape scene]] with it.

* ''Literature/{{Xanth}},'' mostly set in a world of magic and puns about the size and shape of Florida (both the world and the puns).
* ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality,'' where being an AnthropomorphicPersonification is just a job.
* The ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, about two mirror worlds; one hi-tech, one magical.

* The ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'' series, where all FasterThanLightTravel is done through possessing aliens.

* The JasonStriker series, co-authored with Roberto Fuentes, which had a FairForItsDay depiction of martial arts as a mix between a highly technical sport and mystical mumbo-jumbo.
* ''OfManAndManta'', a trilogy of science fiction stories exploring the nature of sentience and human interaction with StarfishAliens, {{Energy Being}}s and intelligent animals across several worlds and [[AlternateUniverse parallel universes]].

!!His work includes examples of:

** Discussed in ''IncarnationsOfImmortality'' when the Incarnation of Fate is in the clutches of a demon that means to rape her. Since she's incapable of being physically harmed, she speculates that rape would be just... interaction.

* ProtectionFromEditors: [[invoked]] As he says in his Author's Notes, PiersAnthony does not like people making changes to his work, and after his books started selling, he became determined to never let an editor [[ExecutiveMeddling meddle]] with anything he wrote ever again.

** Mermaids in ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' are nudists, as are pretty much any {{Half Human Hybrid}}s as a rule. In one novel the heroine -- a Mermaid who turns human -- spends a significant amount of time in the book before she gets any clothing. The most intelligent race, Centaurs, go topless except for utility and mate in the open, on the grounds that natural functions are, well, natural.

** In ''Split Infinity'' of the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, the hero, Stile, forces a robot to show him a printout of her program, and they both agree afterwards that it was a form of rape. Later, in ''Blue Adept'', as part of a game, Stile [[spoiler:discovers that an opponent in the Game is a man-hater, pathologic about the idea of sex with a man, and he wins the competition by attempting to have sex with her in character within the performance, an act consired perfectly normal and acceptable in their society but which definitely would have been a coercive rape if she'd let him go through with it for the sake of winning the Game.]]

* ''OfManAndManta'', a trilogy of science fiction stories exploring the nature of sentience and human interaction with StarfishAliens, [[EnergyBeing Energy Beings]] and intelligent animals across several worlds and [[AlternateUniverse parallel universes]].

He's also written many stand alone novels and collaborations. His story "In the Barn" was included in HarlanEllison's anthology ''Literature/AgainDangerousVisions''.