Piers Anthony is widely known in the science fiction and fantasy genres for his many popular series--including the ongoing "Magic of Xanth" novels--and his various novels and collections; he has published more than one hundred books since 1967. "I am an SF writer today," he told Cliff Biggers in a Science Fiction interview, "because without SF and writing I would be nothing at all today."

Within a childhood affected by illness and isolation, Anthony escaped by immersing himself in books. "From the time I was 13, I had been hooked on science fiction," Anthony recalled in an interview with the Science Fiction Radio Show (SFRS) published in The Sound of Wonder. "It's what I did for entertainment. It was a whole different world, multiple worlds, each one of them better than the one I knew. And so when I thought about writing [science fiction], I thought I could be original...