Hello everyone,
The last review for today will cover the book “Golem in the Gears” by Piers Anthony. He is best known for the fictional world of Xanth which is a realm of magic and fantasy creatures such as dragons, elves, and golems. According to the official web site, since the first release, “A Spell for Chameleon” in 1977, Anthony has written 49 books in the Xanth universe. The latest, “Knicklepe Knight,” released in late May 2026. I had no read any of Piers Anthony’s books before, but prior knowledge was not needed to understand the story. It is particularly impressive when one considers that Anthony was born in early August 1934 and is still writing books at the age of 91! May we all enjoy such longevity.
In addition to all those books, Xanth also provided the setting for an adventure game called “Companions of Xanth.” Legend Entertainment released that video game in November 1993. Companions of Xanth adapted the story “Demons Don’t Dream” which published in February 1993 and featured a naga (a mythical half-snake and half-human) woman named Nada Naga.
In early April 2017 Dave McNary reported in a Variety article that a Xanth TV series was in development. Given have much time has passed since then presumably that series will never air, but stranger things have happened in the world of entertainment. For instance, Saturday Night Live released the 1993 film “Coneheads” well over a decade after the Coneheads skits aired in the late 1970s. Nothing like striking while the iron is hot, eh? 😉
The geography of Xanth was based on the state of Florida, but it often puts a funny twist on place names. For example, the Everglades were re-imagined as the “Ever-Glades” a place that magically stretches on forever and thus a place where unwitting adventurers may be trapped for all time. The humor consisted of English puns and word play thus readers may want to avoid Xanth stories if such humor is not to their liking.
Golem in the Gears released on January 12, 1986, and was the ninth book in the Xanth series. The hero of this book is Grundy Golem. Initially, he was “… fashioned of wood and rag and string …” and was only as tall as a normal man’s “spread-fingered hand.” Several decades later he became a living human, but his size did not change. On Xanth humans are gifted with magic talents and Grundy’s was the ability to speak to any living thing. That was very useful in a world where animals, fish, mythical creatures, and even plants have their own language. Although, Grundy often employed his ability to insult others in an effort to conceal his deep feeling of inadequacy. This smart mouth landed him in trouble on occasion such as a scuffle with a number of toads in the first chapter.
Grundy felt unimportant and wanted to prove his worth. In order to earn the respect of others he embarked on a quest to find the dragon companion of a young lady called little Ivy. The dragon called Stanley Steamer disappeared due to a powerful monster-banish spell which inadvertently sent him far away.
Thus, Grundy set on an adventure with the aid of many interesting characters such as a centaur, a former King of Xanth, a monster under the bed, a powerful barbarian, a sea monster prone to rescuing damsels, etc. Along the way there was action and romance. Grundy rescued Rapunzel and she quickly became romantically interested in the tiny hero. Along with her magic hair, Rapunzel also had the ability to change size from tiny-sized like Grundy to human-sized up to giant-sized. She was of mixed elf and human stock. In the Xanth universe elves are significantly smaller than humans. Her great-to-the-nth-degree grandmother Bluebell Elf used magic to change size to have a physical relationship with a handsome human barbarian warrior. This size-changing ability was then inherited by Bluebell’s descendants, including Rapunzel.
The book told a complete story and provided a satisfactory ending. A reviewer could quibble that the narrative might have continued a bit longer in order to show the reunion of the dragon Stanley Steamer with his friend little Ivy, which ostensibly was the entire reason Grundy started the quest. Nonetheless, it was clear what the final outcome would be.
A more serious fault was an undercurrent of misogyny on the part of Grundy. He criticized women on the sole basis of their gender. For an example, see the following excerpt:
Grundy was the only character to express this sentiment and one might perceive his negative opinion as a result of his insecurity. Two married characters (a human male and a centaur male) accompanying the protagonist stayed conspicuously silent while Grundy complained about the opposite sex.
Personally, I was concerned that Rapunzel, a young woman with no experience of the world outside her tower, was going to be an example of the “Born Sexy Yesterday” trope. That trope is a literary device in which naive young women are paired with experienced older men. These women are physically mature, but intellectually or socially stunted. The men in those situations are normally their only love interest. Concern being that those men may take advantage of the women. Examples include Altaira in Forbidden Planet [1956], Leeloo from The Fifth Element [1997], and Weena from The Time Machine [1960].
Arguably, this situation was different because Grundy discouraged Rapunzel’s interest. He thought that since he was a golem she would be better off marrying an elf or a human. Furthermore, the impression was that Grundy had never dating anyone seeing as he was the only one of his kind. So one could say that while he had seen much of Xanth he had never been in a relationship and was romantically inexperienced.
Another criteria for people to consider before reading is their tolerance for puns. If you can tolerate a segment featuring flying stinging insects similar to bees but actually called B’s which live in a B-Have and consist of several types including, but not limited to, B-fores, B-hinds, and B-holds then you could enjoy this work.
Overall, I recommend Golem in the Gears. This was a book with a flawed protagonist and tons of puns not a book with explicit sex scenes. However, folks who enjoy adventure and humor might enjoy this tale of a pint-sized hero.
That is it for today folks. Until next time, keep growing!
This review was written by SolomonG and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.
All Rights Reserved.
There She Grows 