Incarnations of Immortality
#3504.02 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 7 books Status Complete 1983–1990 Reading commitment High Piers Anthony Last reviewed 2026-08-30
Overview
Incarnations of Immortality is a seven-novel cycle by Piers Anthony in which ordinary mortals take up one of the great cosmic Offices, Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, and Good, becoming its Incarnation and wielding its power while navigating an eternal, often bureaucratic, struggle between Heaven, Hell, and the human world. Published between 1983 and 1990, each novel centers on a different Incarnation taking up their Office, with recurring characters crossing between volumes as the overall cosmology builds toward a final reckoning with Satan himself. The books mix contemporary American settings with overtly theological fantasy, using each Office's mundane, procedural side, timesheets for Death, budgeting for War, for a wry tone alongside larger cosmic stakes. The series became one of Anthony's best-known works outside his long-running Xanth novels, and an eighth, unwritten volume covering the Incarnation of Mind was long promised but never completed.
Epic fantasy, Comic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (7 works) counts toward ranking
Incarnations of Immortality Piers Anthony
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | On a Pale Horse | 1983 | 1 | core | 4.13 (41,931 ratings) |
 | Bearing an Hourglass | 1984 | 2 | core | 3.96 (24,016 ratings) |
 | With a Tangled Skein | 1985 | 3 | core | 4.01 (21,418 ratings) |
 | Wielding a Red Sword | 1986 | 4 | core | 3.96 (20,024 ratings) |
 | Being a Green Mother | 1987 | 5 | core | 3.98 (19,192 ratings) |
 | For Love of Evil | 1988 | 6 | core | 4.13 (14,912 ratings) |
 | And Eternity | 1990 | 7 | core | 3.87 (12,760 ratings) |
The original seven-book run, one novel per Incarnation (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good), published together as a complete cycle 1983-1990.
Library / Expanded (1 work)
Incarnations of Immortality (Expanded) Piers Anthony
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Under a Velvet Cloak | 2007 | 8 | N/A |
An eighth Incarnation (Night) added seventeen years after the original cycle concluded.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Incarnations of Immortality? Incarnations of Immortality's Core Canon is 7 books, plus 1 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Incarnations of Immortality? Publication order, starting with On a Pale Horse. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Incarnations of Immortality finished? Complete (1983–1990).
- How much reading does Incarnations of Immortality take? High reading commitment (estimated from 7 Core Canon books · ~2,491 pages).
- How is Incarnations of Immortality ranked? #350 in this site's official ranking, based on 154,253 reader ratings across 7 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #350?
Ranked #350 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.02 across 7 core books.
- Backed by 154k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #349, The Inheritance Cycle (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 7 books · Complete · 154k ratings · Ranks #350 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (7 Core Canon books)
- On a Pale Horse (1983)
- Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
- With a Tangled Skein (1985)
- Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
- Being a Green Mother (1987)
- For Love of Evil (1988)
- And Eternity (1990)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.02 across 154,253 ratings on 7 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: Incarnations of Immortality, Pendragon Cycle, Myth Adventures accepted 2026-08-30
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Incarnations of Immortality Tier 2
- bookseriesinorder.com: Incarnations of Immortality Tier 3
Last reviewed: 2026-08-30
Rule: Core Canon is the original seven-novel run (1983–1990), one book per founding Incarnation, published as a complete cycle. Under a Velvet Cloak (2007), an eighth Incarnation added seventeen years later, is Expanded.