Cautionary Tales by: Piers Anthony

Review by: Stacy Palm

This is a collection of short stories and essays that are absolutely unlike anything else I've ever read from Piers Anthony, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  First, these are Cautionary Tales and Mr. Anthony does a great job of identifying what the cautionary material is in each segment prior to the reader diving in head first to discover a very taboo subject matter.

This book is very graphic, and some stories are flat out disturbing, but unlike other erotica short stories there are some very thought provoking contexts surrounding each story.  It's my belief that this underlying context was what the author wanted the reader to start to contemplate because I don't really think alien sex was the main point.

An example of this would be the short story Serial in which (and I'm not spoiling anything here as the author warns you first what the story involves) a serial male rapist becomes the victim of a serial female rapist.  This story was very graphic with some very disturbing imagery, but the story did more to promote a discussion regarding different types of power that people have over one another.

Overall some of the stories were enjoyable and some just didn't sit right with me.  This is a book of cautionary tales so as adult readers you should be able to discern which stories you will enjoy and which stories you should skip.