This is my first one star review in quite some time. Years even. I don't like to rate one star, and I find that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I've been literally stalked and harassed on the internet and accused of "having an agenda" over one star reviews in the past, to the point that I quit writing them. If a book was so bad that it was going to rate one star I would just quit reading it and not leave a review. That opened the door to a new accusation. "You leave 4 and 5 star reviews for every book just because you got it for free."
In reality, I leave 4 or 5 (and sometimes 3) star reviews because if a book does not rate at least 3 stars it's not worth my time and I will move on to the next in the long line waiting to be read. 5 stars is pretty rare from me. I'm picky. I read a lot. 5 stars is the highest rating, it means it's one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. It's not something I give out willy nilly just because my cousin's friend's brother's wife self published a kindle book and needs help getting it to sell. I tell you all that, to tell you this..

This book is foul.

No I do not mean the subject matter, I am not easily offended, I don't think I have ever read a book that offended me. Disgusted me perhaps, tested my gag reflex even. This is just plain trash.

"The black hair opened his mouth and bit the tow's nose. It was no token effort; blood spurted as the black hair wrenched his face from side to side, ripping off the nose."

I purchased this book through a link in an internet newsletter, (where they get paid if you buy through their link.)
I bought it under the guise of it being one of the "top 10 true crime" under the heading of evil children. That is NOT what this is, though if you check out the 5 star reviews you will see one person who says it's frightening to think this is real, so apparently the false advertising did work, up to a point.

My only experience with Piers Anthony until now had been one single short story "IN THE SHADOW OF THE SONG" which appeared in an anthology I reviewed previously. Other than that I had not heard of this "New York Times–bestselling author"
**spoiler alert**
The story is weak. The plot is ridiculous, the writing is poor, there is nobody to root for, I could not have cared less who lived or died. The world is running out of souls, so children are being born without them. Having no souls these children have no conscience, no concept of right or wrong, and for some reason are also hyper sexualized. A man who has killed his daughter because she murdered his son over a candy bar, and then killed his wife as well seems to be the "hero" of the book. He is a "good" man who tries to curb his sexual interest in the 7 year old who keeps throwing herself at him. Meanwhile he has acquired a new family, replacing his dead children with other survivors of these sopaths and replacing his wife with a woman who has no where else to go.
Fear not because this can all be cured with a fungus, called Fungo. All the world needed was a fungus that acts as birth control while increasing your sex drive. This will slow the birth rate so that there are enough recycled souls from dead people available to be reborn to new babies. ( )

2.5 stars!

The Sopaths got my attention when I noted it on a list of books featuring evil children. What horror lover can pass up a story with evil children? Not this one! At some points, though? I wish I had.

The premise here is that the population has grown so much, there are no longer any souls left to go into newborns. Therefore, said newborns enter the world without any souls at all. The name Sopath is invented to describe these soul-less sociopaths. And let there be no doubt about it, these are truly evil children. It's a great premise, even though there are some tank-sized holes in it. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to its potential. Instead, it got...weird.

Every other review here at Goodreads already goes into how uncomfortable this book made them feel-mostly because of the heightened sexuality of the children. Sopaths often used sex to achieve their goals, even if some of them were only 5 or 6 years old. (Please be aware that no outright pedophilia takes place-however everything else but DOES, including graphic sexual discussions with children.) This was most certainly disgusting and gave me the heebie-jeebies, but it wasn't the main reason I didn't care for this book.

THAT was because the story just wasn't engaging. I might as well have been a sociopath for the lack of feeling that I had for any character in this book. I continued listening because it was kind of like a train wreck-I was disgusted but couldn't look away. The whole time I just kept thinking about how great a story this could have been.

The Sopaths would have been, could have been...great. Instead it exploded in a burst of exciting flames and then...slowly fizzled out. Even a seasoned lover of horror and evil children will most likely be skeeved out by this tale, due to its lean towards pedophilia, but on top of that-the story just wasn't good.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend it to anyone.

( )

Possibly the most retarded book ever written. ( )

I read a lot of piers anthony as a kid. I really like the incarnations of immortality series, especially for love of evil, on a pale horse and the one about time and death. I read some of the xanth stuff but don't remember it very well. At any rate, this bool is much draker than anything else I've read by anthony. If you aren't old enough to drive a car you have no business reading this book. And I'm super lenient-my five year old is hooked on the blade and underworld movies and I won't even discuss this book with my husband around him.
That being said I really enjoyed this book. I read some blog that talked about psychopaths in the workplace andthat got me rooting around the web for more info. I am convinced that I have worked with at least sociopath if not more. This book is more than it seems. One thing I've always liked about piers anthony is the rich complexity that underlies the deseptive simplicity of his writing. This book could be read by anybody with an eighth grade reading level but the issues that it addresses are far from being childish or one dimensional. It questions the nature of what makes us human and some ofthe problems facing society.
I would not read this book if you can't handle reading aboutreally messed up violent and sexua content, especially since most of those things involve little kids.l ( )