Bearing an Hourglass

[Alice Moonflowyr]

 

Bearing an Hourglass is the second book of Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony, featuring Chronos, the Incarnation of Time. Norton, a hiker, is approached by a ghost of a man named Gawain with a request. (No, not the Knights-of-the-round-table Gawain.) That request is to inseminate his wife, as he was unable to before death, so his family will have an Heir. Norton refuses at first, and as the ghost becomes more and more insistent over the weeks, he finally agrees to meet the woman, named Orlene. After living with Orlene for a month, Norton finally caves, and comes to find that he loves Orlene.

 

Unfortunately, the baby is born with a dread illness, and it dies within the year. This causes Orlene to commit suicide, and Norton, having nothing left to live for, returns to hiking. Gawain approaches him again with the same proposition, and is rejected vehemently.

He then returns with a different message, telling Norton to be at a specific place to recive something.

 

Norton recieves the Hourglass, the symbol of Chronos' office. He then lives as Chronos, and has to foil Satan in his own special way.

 

A few very cool things about this book was the way Chronos lives, and how Piers Anthony inserted a lot of (legitimate) science into it. Chronos lives backwards, so our future is his past, and our past is his future. He can align himself with the normal rate for short periods of time to talk with people.

 

The plot, while you have to force yourself to read some of it, is exquisite. The characters are amazing, and the intense descriptions of some of the ways Chronos works are extremely interesting.

 

This gets a 5/5. A must-read for anyone who read On a Pale Horse or even just likes fantasy. All of the Incarnations of Immortality books are standalones.