Name: Balook
ISBN: 9780441003983

Piers Anthony

Balook

Michael Springer

So, the sheer number of Piers Anthony books on my shelf begs the question: if I didn't rate any of them higher than two stars, why did I read so many of them? Well, here's the thing about that. I was impressionable. All of my friends (both of them) were really into Piers Anthony when I was in late elementary school/middle school. They occasionally bequeathed volumes to me, and I usually read them. And, I wasn't especially experimental at that age when it came to my reading choices, so I kept picking up his books at the library because it was a familiar name. Perhaps this is why he's still quite successful: because of the sheer laziness of middleschoolers. 

Anyway, I found his books amusing enough because they were goofy and a little bit inventive, and usually had slightly naughty scenes in them. The characters all acted like they were my age, even though they were supposedly adults. But even back then, I had the sense that I was reading shite. 

Most of the time, I didn't finish his books. The plots were always meandering. I never felt the need to find out what was going to happen. I attribute this in large part to his lack of character development, although I wouldn't have articulated it that way at the time. 

Anyway, Balook is about a boy and his dinosaur. It's G-rated SF fluff, and the most appropriate reaction to the book is a shrug.