In the later books, sexuality takes shape as an intense preoccupation with underwear: one of the Xanth novels is even titled "The Color of Her Panties" (X15). Nudity, because it is natural for nymphs, centaurs and the like, is nowhere near as exciting as underclothing, and no man gets to see a (humanoid) woman's panties unless the two are going to be sexually involved.

The Dastard (anti-hero of the 24th book), who traded his soul and conscience for the talent of "unhappening" events, is particularly aggressive in his desire to see feminine underwear; he asks nearly every woman he meets if she'll show him some, and his 14-year-old traveling companion only saves herself by turning into a dragon when he tries to look up her skirt. "You're trying to see underage panties --" she cries, "and you don't care at all!" "Certainly I care," he replies. "I'm frustrated because my effort was wasted. All I can see is your stupid feet." The Dastard's eyes repeatedly glaze over at the sight of cleavage, and in the climactic scene Princess Melody nearly stuns him into a state of total idiocy by showing him a pair of green, "princessly" panties. Indeed, panties and artfully packaged décolletage are often a useful weapon in Xanth; the well-endowed Nada Naga (in human form) stuns an attacking ogre into a stupor merely by inhaling suggestively in the novel "Isle of View" (X13).

One of the unsung delights of series fantasy is the way it can make you nostalgic for itself. Talking about C.S. Lewis' Narnia series recently, a friend of mine pointed out that in the later books, the central characters (Lucy, Edmund, etc.) had become the stuff of Narnia legend. They were historic figures: still present, but grown into their kingly and queenly roles, no longer the center of the action. The same is true for Xanth, and it's one reason the "Visual Guide" is such a kick. By the third and fourth books, the protagonists of "A Spell for Chameleon" (X1) -- Bink, Chameleon, Magician Trent -- have become part of a back story that lets readers of the earlier books savor the thrill of special knowledge. Anthony always checks in with these characters. Indeed, by the 24th book there are so many that parts of the novel feel like an obligatory roundup, but the books create a wonderful sense of history that lets readers muse fondly back on, say, the high jinks of Grundy the Golem in his early days, before he settled down and married Rapunzel.

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"