She’s a sorceress, a good one. She has powers you have not yet glimpsed. She requires a man she can respect—one who has stronger magic than she does.” —The Good Magician Humfrey on Iris.

Bink smiled. These conversions weren’t real. It had assumed the forms of obnoxious little monsters, but not their essence. It could not sting, stink, or burn. It was a chameleon, using its magic to mimic creatures of genuine threat. Not only does Bink manage to obtain healing elixir from Humfrey, but he also manages to find out that the Storm King has died. All the officials of Xanth, including the Council of Elders (which includes Bink's father Roland), arrive on the scene. The Council captures Trent, heals Chameleon, and offers Trent the kingship if he will marry Iris. The Storm King was allowed to remain King well past his prime because there was no suitable successor and by forcing Trent to marry (and presumably produce magician-caliber offspring) the council hopes to prevent that state of affairs from occurring again. Trent's first act as King is to deactivate the magical barrier between Xanth and Mundania and grant Bink (and non-magical folk in general including mundanes) amnesty. Trent's forces, who consisted of mundanes who wished to immigrate to Xanth begin to settle peacefully in various regions of the magical land. Bink then breaks up with Sabrina (who he had discovered was not right for him anyway) and marries Chameleon, as he has realised that he wants "variety" in a girl, and only Chameleon with her never-ending change in looks and intelligence will give him what his heart desires, and yet at the same time allow him to remain faithful to one person. Trent and Iris take up residence in Castle Roogna and set to work making it the new centre of government. Bink and Chameleon obtain a cottage just outside the Castle and Bink is given the title of Official Researcher of Xanth. King Trent gives Bink his first task: to discover the source of magic in Xanth, setting up the plot for the next book, The Source of Magic.

Open Library

The trio decides to declare a truce until they can safely make their way out of the wilderness. While travelling, the group discovers Castle Roogna, a castle built 800 years ago by one of the early Kings of Xanth but abandoned 400 years later. Here, Bink learns that Fanchon, Wynne, and Dee are all the same person named Chameleon. Castle Roogna is haunted by relatively benign ghosts and zombies and is an area of heightened magical power. The castle in fact seems to possess some form of awareness and had actually used its control of the surrounding area to herd the trio onto its grounds. It detected the presence of two magician-caliber talents in the group (Bink and Trent) and lured them there in the hopes that one of them could become king and restore the castle to its former glory. The group leaves Castle Roogna on their way to the see the King but are eventually forced to break their truce when Bink refuses to join Trent in taking over Xanth. While they are arguing, Iris of illusion shows up and offers to marry Trent and help him become King. Iris craves power, but as a woman she is barred from ruling Xanth so she has decided that the next best thing is to marry a King. Trent and Bink agree to a duel to the death or surrender: If Bink loses then he will stay out of Trent's way but If he wins then Trent will cease his efforts to gain the throne. In the course of this duel Trent deduces Bink's unknown talent, which is that he cannot be harmed by magic. Because Bink is still vulnerable to non-magical harm his talent has gone to great lengths to conceal itself over the years. In any case where Bink could have been harmed by magic he has always been saved by what appears to be a series of coincidences. Because of interference from Iris, Trent declares that the duel must be restarted, but now thanks to his knowledge of Bink's talent, Trent has the upper hand. He is about to kill Bink when Chameleon dives in front of the sword. Trent and Bink then call a truce so that they can obtain healing elixir to save her life. Bink eventually gets to the Good Magician's Castle in the form of a bird, having been transformed by Trent. I first read this book when I was in college, I think. I had read several other series by Piers Anthony which all started out well enough but somehow got needlessly bogged down in mathematical games or sophomore philosophy, none of which did anything for the later stories. Also the actions and motives of the characters in his sequels seemed to get more complex, while the characters themselves remained undeveloped. So I will admit starting this book with some hesitation. Bink looked at the girl beside him as she stepped through the slanting sunbeam. He was no plant, but he too had needs, and even the most casual inspection of her made him aware of this. Sabrina was absolutely beautiful--and her beauty was completely natural. Other girls managed to enhance their appearance by cosmetics or padding or specialized spells, but beside Sabrina all other females looked somewhat artificial. She was no enemy!" Oh, but then his father tells Bink that it's not what he wanted anyway, because he doesn't want a mindless sex toy. That's not enough of a challenge. But then goes on to dehumanize women in telling Bink how he'd be bored with a beautiful woman with no mind.

So, dear reader, if you enjoyed this book quite a bit, please do not read on, this is going to get nasty.I think someone has serious issues with women. I just don't understand how anyone can say Piers Anthony himself isn't sexist. Say all you want that he just isn't good at writing women (although that on its own is a sign...); the problem here is that he doesn't think women are people. He clearly has a fixation with rape and possession that's not healthy. I’ve been somewhat unfair to Wynne above because the beautiful dolt is only one aspect of an unfortunate woman named Chameleon (this is the spoiler referenced above, by the way). Chameleon does not have atalent so much as she is atalent: she cycles from beautiful to hideous over the span of amonth, and from phenomenally stupid to extremely bright at thesametime. I have to credit this book as being the book that really introduced me to reading as a fun pastime. I originally read this in my early preteen years and I loved the way it awakened my imagination. I was able to immerse myself in the land of Xanth. I found it to be a good easy read that had colorful characters and an extremely well put together world of magic that I have never seen duplicated. I'm not sure when I read this -- the 1995 date I've entered is just a guess. It was the first Piers Anthony novel I read. It was imaginative and somewhat fun, but I was put off by the casual sexism. I went on to read other Anthony works, and that never goes away. Whenever a female character walks on stage, Anthony dissects her physical attractiveness, in anatomical detail. He cannot apparently imagine a female character without discussing how sexually attractive she is. And for young guys to consider the themes here, even if they end up agreeing with som eof the author's rather wayward thinking, is a much healthier thing (at least they have the opportunity to disagree with him) than a young woman reading a sad 'one day my prince will come' piece of pseudo-erotica.