Jeff Font returns to Earth to seek vengence against the planetary mogul who had framed and destroyed Jeff's family. But Jeff's plans backfired; he was captured, drugged, rammed through the computerized court system, convicted and ringed.

The "Ring" is a surgically implanted electronic monitor that automatically caused unendurable agony when a convict strayed. A ringer can do no evil, think no evil, see or hear evil without ratting to the robocops, nor can he defend himself or others from insult or injury.

In a corrupt world of licensed sin and satanic parties ringers are the ultimate victims. But the ring's data banks hadn't factored in Jeff's strength, courage, and his will to fight society, the world and the agony of the ring to unravel the plot that entrapped him and to see justice done.

Hard to put down. A Sci-Fi must read! Highly recommended.

In my opinion, This is the best work Piers Anthony ever did. He has a unique idea for keeping a handle on crime. The Ring does not allow its wearer do anything the wearer knows is wrong. It delivers an electrical shock which intensity is dependent on the severity of the crime. He delves into the way that people who are ringed are treated as well as their reactions. It is a great read.

Wounderful books filled with excitement and Adventure. You Have to love it's exiting characters and Plot. The dragons are wounderful and amazing to read about!

This book is very exiciting to read and you can hardly put it down once you have begun reading. I would recomend 'Serpent's Silver' for any avid reader

im not usually a book reader but when i got my hardback version of this story along with dragons gold and chimaeras copper, i could not put them down. recently i lost them all in a fire. i need to know if u have the books; orcs opal and mouvars magic, because they are from the same series.

Dragon's Gold is the first novel in the Kelvin of Rud series. John Knight was a Terran and a fugitive from the Queen's dungeon when he meet Charlain while trying to steal her horse. Charlain was a fortune-teller and knew that John was coming and that they would be married, so they were wed the next day and had two children, Kelvin and Jon.

In this novel, Kelvin and his sister Jon are dragon hunting with Mockery, the mule they have just bought. Jon finds a scale and then another and then more, following the dropped dragon scales up and over the nearby hill. On the other side is a dragon, which she first thinks is dead, but then only injured. To resolve the problem, she bounces a stone off the dragon's snout with her sling and gets his attention. Now she decides that she is in trouble and yells for Kelvin. Coming down the hill, she falls in a hole and can't get out. Kelvin goes to her rescue and falls into the same hole.

The dragon doesn't see Jon when he comes over the hill, but he does see Mockery. As he goes after Mockery, Jon pops up, yells that he can't eat their mule, and bounces another stone off him. Now the dragon is after Jon again. When the dragon grabs Jon with his tongue, Kelvin and Jon drop a boulder on it. The dragon reflexively lets go of Jon and tries to pull his tongue out with no success. Kelvin sends Jon after the tent pole to use as a weapon. Of course, she has to ask why he wants the pole and then checks out the injury on Mockery where the dragon has pulled out the mule's tail, but finally she brings back the tent pole. Kelvin sharpens the pole and stabs the dragon in the eye, which causes the dragon to jerk up his head, with pole and Kelvin attached thereto. The resulting fall knocks Kelvin unconscious.

When Kelvin comes to, he finds himself up a tree, the dragon dead, and Jon busy prying off scales. They remove as many scales as they can reach without moving the dragon and start home. However, a bandit acosts them, steals the scales, and heads off to sell Jon to the Boy Mart (he hasn't yet noticed that Jon is a girl). Kelvin tries to stop him, but is totally ineffective. The only thing left for him to do is to follow Jon and the bandit, but instead he goes home and reports the kidnapping. The guardsmen identify the bandit -- a former guardsman -- but kick Kelvin out for wasting their time. The youngest guardsman, however, refers Kelvin to his father, Mor Crumb.

This novel is about a prophecy of the Roundear that will unite the kingdoms of Rud. Kelvin has round ears from his Terran father and so is supposed to fulfill the prophecy. He has fought a dragon, but he has a long way to go before he is ready to lead armies. His sword play needs a lot of work. So does his aggressiveness; Jon has more than he does.

This story is a magical quest tale, searching for the magical artifacts of Mouvar the Magnificent. On the way, Kelvin learns to fight and to be an effective leader. He has plenty of help, starting with Jon and Mor Crumb.

Recommended for Anthony fans and anyone who enjoys light adventure tales with a touch of humor.

I first read this book six years ago when I was twelve. Recently I was going through some old boxes and I found this old dusty book. I read it and just like that I fell in love with reading all over again.I definetly recomend reading all of the books in this series.(Dragon's Gold, Serpent's Silver, Chimaera's Copper, Orc's Opal, and finally Mouvar's Magic.)

I absolutely loved it!It was a truely imaginitive piece of work. I'd like to see more work of this caliber. A sci-fi / fantasy ride from start to finish.

This series started out very good. The first book, especially, pulls you in and hooks you. But in each subsequent book, logic drifts further and further into the background, while plot convolutions and "surprises" (which usually counter "facts" laid out in previous books) take the fore. And do they all have to end with a deus ex machina? Please!

This was by far the worst, and fitting that being the worst and final book in the series, it has the worst and final ending of its own. The one star I am forced to give it, it does not deserve.

well there is not much to say it was just fantastic and i loved it

...ly bad! Wow! I am in awe. I had to give this book a 5-star rating simply because any aspiring author of Sciene-fiction or Fantasy should have access to a copy. It is a finely-crafted example of both what not to do when writing fiction, and how it is possible to achieve publication with no merit whatsoever! As mentioned elsewhere, the "deus ex machina" devices abound in this travesty, and lengthy descriptions detail the puppet-like nature of our "hero", and how he does not feel he deserves the appellation. Quite true, too. Who needs to be when you have boots and gauntlets that automatically react in the best possible fashion in the face of danger, and a gun that turns magic back at its nefarious caster? Oh, and all this "travelling to places you can see or remember just by thinking of it" guff...puh-lease! The preface mentions that the reader need not have perused the preceding books in the series. An accurate assertion, as refreshers are given ad nauseum...believe me - this was the first I had seen of the series, and I was well and truly sick of the constant reminders of things I had managed to grasp by the first or second time they were mentioned. It is hard to describe the nature of this book's plot woes...for one thing, the heroes are never really at risk. The only major casualties sustained by the Roundear and his cronies (ie. "goodies") are anonymous infantry and a distant non-allied city-state. We see a lot of Zady shouting "I'll get you!" and showing surprisingly good aim with avian excrement - surprising because she never hits any targets with anything more lethal. We see a lot of hints of incestuous admiration, and a wonderful piece of condescension so purulent that it singlehandedly made sense of the whole Political Correctness movement for me (it involves the warm fuzzy feeling one gets for a slightly retarded human child that is almost equal to the one we get for its normal counterpart). But maybe I was just in a bad mood by that stage and read too much into it. The ending, and especially Mouvar's explanation of the whys and wherefores of the struggle with Devale, was particularly rank in terms of plot and pseudo-philosophy. I was, quite seriously, putting down the book every page or so to stop for breath and clear my head. What more can I say - rush out and buy a copy now! Or better yet, borrow someone else's, because trust me - you DO NOT want to have paid to read this.

The Xanth series is on a downward spiral toward childishness. Kind of Sad, I loved Spell.

Some authors work on bulk. The problem is that once an author is established (s)he can write and write and no one seems to care if the writing turns to junk. Copper is a perfect example. The cliches are forced and painful. The writing isn't too bad, but there's nothing there to make a reader care. The characters have no depth, and the basis of the entire plot is unimaginative. The idea might have been interesting in book one (and I stess MIGHT HAVE) but by the third installment of the series, we really need something fresh and new. Not rehash. Anthony will continue to churn out 2-3 books per year. His name is firmly established and bookstores eat up big names. But until he sits down, thinks up a good idea and takes the time to pull it off, don't bother. Personally, I'd take my chances with a brand new author. You know a new author can't publish this kind of empty junk.

Piers Anthony is the best author ever! Only he could make his books in such an imaginative manner!