There are a lot of wonderful, enjoyable, and whimsical things about the setting of Xanth. Unfortunately, the book is held back by a wide variety of factors which range from mild annoyances to severe sources of discomfort, which seriously get in the way of me enjoying the book as much as I otherwise might have. First of all, the plotline is very bland and arbitrarily contrived, in addition to being fueled by a very uncomfortable system of natural talent which I don't like reading about. More pressingly though is the books blatantly sexual and uncomfortable portrayal of women, which sounds like it comes from a deranged self-declared feminist who's idea of progressivism is to be nice to women even though they are sort of inferior beings. If you can get by all of that, you will probably be able to enjoy the Xanth series, but as it stands I don't feel comfortable recommending it.