Thu 6 Nov 2025
SF Diary Review: PIERS ANTHONY – Sos the Rope.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[7] Comments
PIERS ANTHONY – Sos the Rope. Pyramid X-1890. Paperback original; 1st printing, October 1968. Cover art by Jack Gaughan. Serialized earlier in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-Aug-Sept 1968, Collected in Battle Circle (Avon, paperback, 1978).
A strange triangle formed between two men and a woman becomes the key to the future of a post-war semi-feudal society, There are the warriors whose problems are solved by the force of arms, by trial by combat. And there are the crazies, who supply the traditions of learning and the past.
Any form of unifying leadership is discouraged by the secret underground manufacturers of all supplies, and it is Sos’ friend Sol who threatens to provide that leadership, with the help of Sos, which would upset the balance of this precarious society. Sola is the wife of Sol, who bears the daughter of Sos. And it is Sos who is sent to end Sol’s leadership, and who then becomes the one who must be destroyed, What he has built, he must also destroy.
A dilemma, unresolved. To strive for the benefits of civilization again, or to maintain the present because with it civilization brings destruction? What to do with an empire that cannot withstand those who have the power and wish to keep it for themselves?
Much much more than for Lin Carter’s “swords and sorcery.”
Rating: *****
November 6th, 2025 at 10:44 pm
1969, when this review was written, was a heady year for me. It was the year my wife Judy and I moved to Connecticut to start my new teaching job. I never had another. It was also the year my daughter Sarah was born. It was a year I’ll never forget.
But I do not know why I rated this book so highly, and reading this review now, 56 years later, does not help all that much. I never was all that comfortable writing SF books and stories, and it shows.
November 7th, 2025 at 6:35 am
Not a fan. This was Anthony’s second novel and the winner of the Science Fiction Novel Award contest sponsored by Pyramid Books, F&SF, and Irwin Allen in 1967. F&SF editor Ed Ferman truthfully wrote, “Story contest have a spotty history…” and then he went on to bend the truth,: “…but this one has been successful in that it turned up a winner of superior quality…”
The book eventually became the first part of Anthony’s BATTLE CIRCUS trilogy.
For an un-nuanced negative look at the book, there’s this: https://sffremembrance.com/2023/05/27/serial-review-sos-the-rope-by-piers-anthony-part-1-3/
November 7th, 2025 at 11:23 am
Thanks for the link, Jerry. I have a strong feeling that if I were to read the book now, I’d hate it as much as the fellow who wrote that review does. I would add to this comment the note that I did not understand the book any more from that review than I did from my own. I would also add another note saying that there is no chance I would read the book again now. That took place in another time and place, and neither are ever going to happen again.
November 9th, 2025 at 1:07 am
By this one I had said goodbye to Anthony. Not fair to comment, but I found him difficult to read.
November 9th, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I read him through the first couple of Xanth books, but that’s as far as I went. He found his niche with those books, which were extremely popular. Good for him. I’m not positive, but I’m not sure I could read his earliest novels now, ones like this one.
November 9th, 2025 at 8:14 pm
Never cared for Anthony. I think this novel was the reason why.
November 9th, 2025 at 9:48 pm
Strangely enough, it was reprinted any number of times. It caught me at the right moment, and quite a few others must have liked it, too. Not that I’m disagreeing with you!