by foreverlurk » Tue Feb 15, 2022 2:18 am
"Fractal Mode" by Piers Anthony
https://archive.org/details/fractalmode0000anth_i6n5/
I don't remember much about this book, I read it as a teenager (if you look at the cover, you can guess why) but never finished it. I just remember there was a nice SW scene (technically, it's Giantess to SW), here it is:
He played, and the sound spread out across the sea and made it shimmer, and across the land and made it quiver. It reached into the sky, and the clouds shivered and turned to haze. "I feel it!" Earle cried. "I can change the size of the one for whom I play. I will make me large, to match you."
"No, make me small to match you," Kara said. "We shall still both be large for this world, and we can remain here together in comfort."
Earle agreed. Since he now had the power, and could invoke it anywhere, they decided to get safely to the shore first. She quickly took him up and floated to the shore, where they sat side by side on the edge of the water, she towering over him as he dangled his feet in the water. To her, the bank was merely a rise, and the sea here barely covered her toes.
He played for her, and she began to shrink. It was working! Once started, the process continued by itself, so he put aside his dulcimer and reached up to hold her huge little finger.
It grew steadily smaller, until he was able to grasp her huge hand. The hand became smaller, along with her body, until at last she was his size. She got up and stepped out of the sea to stand before him. She had shrunk entirely out of her clothing and was naked.
Delighted, he embraced her and kissed her on the lips, physically, for the first time.
But she continued shrinking. Horrified, he tried to hold her, but she shrank in his arms. He took up his dulcimer and played, but the spell would not be reversed. It was running its course, heedless of his will. He had invoked a spell he did not properly understand, and now was paying the penalty.
Helpless, he watched her diminish. Her own mandolin, formerly a tiny thing in her huge hand, remained as it was, and now was far too large for her to play. It slid off the bank and partway into the sea. He was now too large to be her lover. She diminished to a quarter his height, to an eighth, a sixteenth. All he could do was shield her with his huge hand, preventing her from falling into the sea.
Then, less than a twentieth of his height, she stopped. She was now the same size as a native of this planet. Their problem of size remained; they had in effect changed places.
Suddenly he understood. "The magic makes a person fit the world!" he exclaimed. "It makes folk grow or shrink, depending on the world, so that thereafter they can reside there in comfort."
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"Fractal Mode" by Piers Anthony
https://archive.org/details/fractalmode0000anth_i6n5/
I don't remember much about this book, I read it as a teenager (if you look at the cover, you can guess why) but never finished it. I just remember there was a nice SW scene (technically, it's Giantess to SW), here it is:
[quote]He played, and the sound spread out across the sea and made it shimmer, and across the land and made it quiver. It reached into the sky, and the clouds shivered and turned to haze. "I feel it!" Earle cried. "I can change the size of the one for whom I play. I will make me large, to match you."
"No, make me small to match you," Kara said. "We shall still both be large for this world, and we can remain here together in comfort."
Earle agreed. Since he now had the power, and could invoke it anywhere, they decided to get safely to the shore first. She quickly took him up and floated to the shore, where they sat side by side on the edge of the water, she towering over him as he dangled his feet in the water. To her, the bank was merely a rise, and the sea here barely covered her toes.
He played for her, and she began to shrink. It was working! Once started, the process continued by itself, so he put aside his dulcimer and reached up to hold her huge little finger.
It grew steadily smaller, until he was able to grasp her huge hand. The hand became smaller, along with her body, until at last she was his size. She got up and stepped out of the sea to stand before him. She had shrunk entirely out of her clothing and was naked.
Delighted, he embraced her and kissed her on the lips, physically, for the first time.
But she continued shrinking. Horrified, he tried to hold her, but she shrank in his arms. He took up his dulcimer and played, but the spell would not be reversed. It was running its course, heedless of his will. He had invoked a spell he did not properly understand, and now was paying the penalty.
Helpless, he watched her diminish. Her own mandolin, formerly a tiny thing in her huge hand, remained as it was, and now was far too large for her to play. It slid off the bank and partway into the sea. He was now too large to be her lover. She diminished to a quarter his height, to an eighth, a sixteenth. All he could do was shield her with his huge hand, preventing her from falling into the sea.
Then, less than a twentieth of his height, she stopped. She was now the same size as a native of this planet. Their problem of size remained; they had in effect changed places.
Suddenly he understood. "The magic makes a person fit the world!" he exclaimed. "It makes folk grow or shrink, depending on the world, so that thereafter they can reside there in comfort."[/quote]