Vale of the Vole by Piers Anthony

The Vale of the Vole by Piers Anthony is a science fiction novel, the tenth book in the Xanth series, and the start of a trilogy including two other Xanth novels- Heaven Cent and Man from Mundania. The magical land of Xanth resembles the state of Florida. Any citizen of Xanth can enter the normal world, Mundania, at any time, but Mundanes only rarely can enter Xanth, from random places and times, as Xanth is not in a fixed location or time. Each human in Xanth is born with a magical talent, and each one is unique. Also, there are many fictional beasts in Xanth, such as centaurs, winged centaurs, demons, dragons, goblins, golems, harpies and others, some of which discover that they have talents.
The Vale of the Vole follows Eskil “Esk” Ogre, the son of a nymph and half ogre. His talent is to protest, those he directs his talent at are forced to stop what they were going to do. He goes to see the Good Magician Humfrey, the Magician of Information, to ask how to rid himself of a pesky demon, but the magician is missing. On the way, he meets Chex, a winged centaur who wants to learn to fly, and Volney, a vole. Volney has a problem- the Kiss-Mee, an amicable river formerly inhabited by the voles, has been taken over by the demons, who have straightened it, turning it into the Kill-Mee River, which causes hatred in drinkers. The three begin a mission to save this vale of the voles, and it takes them across the land of Xanth to look for help and a solution.
The Xanth novels are quite interesting; I am an avid reader of them. The fantastic setting and magic can stump you for a while with their contortions of reality and complexities, but you feel really smart when you figure out what they are saying. Also, all of the Xanth books are pun-fests. Puns are abundant in all of the books, and are quite literal. Some of these are eye scream, a tasty treat shaped like eyeballs that scream, and the Lost Path, where everything lost is, and these things and people can only be saved by someone who finds the path. Also, another one in the book is when Esk asks Marrow Bones, a skeleton, why a blue violent (violet) is planted away from the rest. He responds by saying that they were planting violents on the median strips, but they rejected that one because they didn’t want any more violents (violence) on the media. These spice up the book, and can be complex sometimes. However, after you figure out the complex ones they’re even funnier. As a mentally stimulating and funny book, I would recommend it to anyone. Though a science fiction, it is also quite scientific, and explains quite a bit of the magic realistically, so even an anti-fantasy reader could like this book. Also, the books deal with a few moral issues, and produce interesting conclusions. But if you don’t want a deep read, just skim through the book and you’ll still find it funny and interesting. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a laugh, a book, or just trying to kill some time. Be careful though, thyme flies in Xanth.