On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony follows Zane, a desperate man who kills the incarnation of Death and is forced to assume his supernatural office. Now riding the shape-shifting pale horse Mortis, he navigates a modern world threaded with magic, demons, gods, and paranormal bureaucracy, weighing the moral balance of each soul he collects. As Zane learns the rules and limits of his new power, he becomes entangled in a cosmic conflict when Satan targets Luna, the woman he loves. The novel blends fantasy and light science fiction elements with romance and philosophical questions about good, evil, and the cost of intervention.
When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past.
The other seemingly all-powerful Incarnations of Immortality—Death, Fate, War, and Nature—made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps and he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good.
In the end, armed only with the Hourglass, Norton was forced to confront the immense power of Satan directly. And though Satan banished him to Hell, he was resolved to fight on.
When the man Niobe loved was shot, she learned that she had been the target, in a devious plot of the Devil's.
Hoping for revenge, Niobe accepted a position as one of the three Aspects of Fate, only to find that Satan's plots were tangled into the very Tapestry of Fate. Now the Evil One was laying a trap to ruin Niobe's granddaughter Luna, who threatened his plans—and he had tricked her son into Hell.
Niobe's only chance to save her son and Luna was to accept a challenge by the Prince of Deceit—a challenge to be decided in Hell and in a maze of Satan's devising.
Mym falls in love with Orb, then Princess Rapture in Honeymoon Castle, but father wants to force another marriage. In berserker rage, he takes office of War. He tries to ease suffering caused by human conflicts, When demoness Lila says pretty Princess Ligeia is trapped by Satan, he has to organize a rebellion in Hell to set everyone free. Author Note 24-pg bio 1-pg.
Orb plays magic in her harp, but seeks Llano, the song that controls Life. Natasha is handsome, charming, teaches her more spell tunes, but is he Satan? Her mother Niobe, Fate, warns of a prophecy she will marry Satan, and offers her the job of Nature.
