ChroMagic Books In Order

Publication Order of ChroMagic Books

ChroMagic is a series of fantasy novels written by Piers Anthony. The books follow the exploits of a young man who is thrust into a place of leadership on a world facing conflict.
+The Story
Piers Anthony has a reputation. His novels typically blend science fiction and fantasy. As a teenager, Piers looked to escapist novels to cope with the difficulties of life. And as an adult, the author learned to tell stories set on faraway worlds in which his readers could disappear in their efforts to escape.

The ChroMagic series definitely falls within that category of escapist novels for which the author has garnered a reputation.
This story takes place on a planet called Charm. Long ago, the Earth launched a ship into space with exploratory purposes. The ship encountered the planet of Charm and there set up a new colony.

A thousand years pass and humanity as it was once known undergoes a drastic transformation. All concepts of the science and technology of old have been lost. However, the humans of Charm are far from desperate.
In the place of science and technology, they now have Magic.

The Planet of Charm is littered with Volcanoes that erupt with various colors of magic. The volcanoes in question erupt so often and with such force that, over time, the colors of their magic have permeated all animal, plant, and insect life in their vicinity.
The humans in these areas eventually acclimated to the effects of the volcanoes, becoming infused with the magic of their volcanoes’ particular colors. They learned how to master this magic, building a society wholly different from the world their ancestors left a thousand years ago.
However, life on Charm isn’t without its problems. There are dangers lurking around every corner. Havoc is thrust into the thick of things in ‘Key of Havoc’, the first book in the series. As tends to happen with most of Piers’ protagonists, Havoc is just an ordinary farm boy living an average life free of significant pain and struggle.
With a girl that he loves—Gale—and duties that occupy his time in the simple community that he calls home, Havoc never had any realistic prospects of glory, honor, and power.

The fact that Havoc comes from a nonchroma Village, a place that has no magic, further cements Havoc’s belief that his future is anything but special.
However, it quickly becomes clear that Havoc has a secret. As a boy, the barbarian met a dragon. His efforts in rescuing it saw the dragon bless him with a special magic that allows him to sense danger. In the years that followed, Havoc never thought he would utilize the gift on any significant scale. Then he was drafted, taken to the capital and forced to become the new King of Charm, this at a time when those who wore the crown kept meeting fatal ends.
The ChroMagic series tells Havoc’s story. Piers Anthony’s previous series of novels spend a lot of time chronicling his hero’s rise to power. Havoc is immediately catapulted to the position to king.

The ChroMagic books follow his journey as he attempts to find a semblance of normalcy at the top.
Charm is a world saturated with magic, so running things is no easy task. Charm politics is a complicated business. Maneuvering the social, economic, and political structures takes a lot of finesse and focus.
And that is as one contends with all the traitors and assassins that would rather see Havoc dead. When the hero isn’t fighting internal politics and attempting to bring peace to a world that seems a little too determined to destroy itself, he must contend with threats from other planets.
A thousand years ago, the Earth sent ships into space to colonize new planets because of the impending threats they predicted would assault their home. In the centuries that have passed, the earth has achieved a sense of stability.
And where Charm has embraced Magic, the human population on earth has mastered their technological prowess. Eventually, they deem it necessary to assert their control over the rest of the human colonies.
That eventually comes to include Charm.

The ChroMagic books have been praised for their inventive magic system and intriguing character dynamics. However, like all Piers Anthony novels, the series is always fielding complaints about the incredible amounts of graphic sex the author throws at readers.
Piers loves to use sex as a tool to either break his characters or raise them up. Some of Piers’ loudest critics believe that the ChroMagic series could have been a much tighter and more attractive collection of novels if Piers had simply chosen to either cut back or even remove the pornographic levels of sexual content.

+The Author
Piers Anthony was born in 1934 in England. He left for Spain when he was four-years-old and eventually found a home in America. He never went back to England, at least not to live there on a permanent basis.

A student of Goddard College from where he graduated with a B.A., Piers spent more than a decade experimenting with a litany of professions before the writing bug bit him hard enough to drag him into a professional career as a full-time writer.
+Key to Havoc
A thousand years ago, humans left Earth and came to the Planet Charm. Over the centuries, they forgot their old ways, discarded technology and embraced magic.
The world of Charm has volcanoes that spew colors of magic which coats everything that lives in their vicinity, this including the humans. It is dangerous to cross from one’s home where their color is active to another region because they won’t be able to perform their color magic.
Havoc comes from a village without magic. Long ago, an act of bravery earned him a special gift from a dragon that allows him to sense pending danger. That gift begins to serve him when the barbarian is taken to the capital and forced to become King of the Planet.

+Key to Chroma Havoc is the King of a strange land saturated by color magic. And as king, he must contend with a group of powerful assassins who seem determined to claim his life.
But Havoc doesn’t have the time to worry about them. He has set his sights on a collection of ikons that could shed light on his origins. Havoc will need all the answers he can get if he is to lead his kingdom through the difficult times ahead.