I just finished off volumes 1-5 of this series; the sixth volume is not available to me and is quite different from the others.

While I am a fan of Piers Anthony, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed by these novels. It’s not so much that I prefer fantasy to sci-fi, it’s just that these seemed almost unimaginative and somewhat arrogant.

The books follow the career of Hope Hubris from refugee to Tyrant of Space. He accomplishes on a regular basis, the unthinkable and impossible. The early portions of his career are much more believable/enjoyable than the later ones - they are written at a depth that is not shown in later books.

What is unimaginative - is that the story centers around our very own Solar System with the premise that the system has been colonized by the various nations of the late twentieth century, each taking a different portion of the system (South Africa to Mercury, North America to North Jupiter, Russia to North Saturn, etc). While this may be a perfectly fine idea, Anthony simply transfers the events and personalities of these regions wholesale. The two world wars, the cold war, the Israel-Palestine issue, the governments, every single stereotype from that era is present - just on a solar scale.

What is arrogant - Hope Hubris solves all problems. Not by himself, of course. But he fixes everything. And it’s usually just a quick fix. Anthony seems to imply that a single leader could rise up and solve all the problems of the world. Hope is not perfect, but he’s too damn close for comfort - or for a reader being able to identify.

Elements of mysticism seem out of place within the sci-fi world; I could buy that Hope had a special ability to read people and thus was able to manage effectively - the basis of his power, but the visitations from dead spirits and other astral phenomenon seem to break the boundaries of the world, especially when they are framed by long technical explanations of how various technologies work.

In the end, I can’t give this a full recommendation. Perhaps worth reading once.