Life had become mundane for Bink and his friends. It has been almost a year since their adventures that led to the Evil Magician becoming the Good King Trent, Bink married Chameleon and is now expecting their first child, Chester and Cherie have their own little colt, and Crombie is in the king's service and engaged to Sabrina. However, all of them suffer from women troubles and are getting rather agitated.

As it happens, Queen Iris decides to have a masquerade ball in honor of Trent's accession to the throne one year before and you have to play by Iris's rules because, well, because she is one of the three most powerful magicians in Xanth and is the Queen besides. During the course of the ball, Bink is getting attacked by some unseen enemy. So, to protect him, and get him away from Chameleon, King Trent sends him on a new quest - find out the source of the magic of Xanth. To help him, King Trent sends along the gang including Chester the Centaur, Crombie the soldier in the guise of a Griffin, and even the magician Humfrey comes along with the demon Beauregard and Grundy as a translator.

The happy band is glad to leave the castle and their various problems behind and eagerly tackle the quest. However, things quickly turn nasty as the land of Xanth is no place for the timid. It does not help that Bink has a tendency to get into lots of trouble since he lets his conscience guide him and his honor rule him. So, the group has to deal with Gorgons, Dragons, Ogres and other wierd and wonderful creatures before they can accomplish their task.

However, there is one more factor at play: The source of magic is guarded and that guardian wants no one to find it. Not only that, when Bink and company get close, they are warned to leave as accomplishing the mission will mean the destruction of Xanth's magic. What to do?

Well, the story ends happily with Xanth's magic in place, but not before many adventures are undertaken and obstacles overcome. The source of magic is found, it tries to destroy Xanth, but eventually things are restored - almost - to the way they were. Not only that, but Bink, Chester, Crombie, and King Trent all find ways to deal with their women problems and solve them in ways that bode well for their futures.

Now, what is the next adventure that these guys will have in Xanth? How many more plays on words can Piers Anthony come up with? What will be the next creature in the wiggle, squiggle, diggle line? Inquiring minds want to know!

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is full of puns and light-hearted humor. "The Source of Magic" is the follow up to "A Spell for Chamelion." In the first book, Bink found his mangical talent. Now Bink is married and works as a magic researcher for King Trent. With his wife very pregnant and very angry, Bink is sent off on a quest to discover the source of the magic in Xanth.

The adventurers with Bink are Crombie (a human soldier transformed into a griffin), Humfrey (a human Magician like Bink), Grundy (a golem), and Chester (a centaur). An their adventures, they encounter all sorts of creatures including a dragon, an ogre, a siren and a gorgon. Finding the source of magic forces Bink to make a difficult choice.

It's getting a tad boring in the life of Bink of North Village. The feeling of great accomplishment he gained from trying to find his talent, and ending up saving Xanth from total anarchy has decayed about as much as the zombies of castle Roogna. Bink is left wanting, by a deteriorating home life with Chameleon and a lack of action. With all of this in mind, and the return of all of his friends from around Xanth to remind him of his previous adventure, he believes that it is finally time that he take on his task given to him by King Trent at the beginning of his reign to discover the source of magic in Xanth. So with all of his friends, a centaur named Chester, a human transformed into a Griffin, Crombie, and a Gnome that goes by the name of Good Magician Humfrey by his side, he undertakes his quest which fills him with enough action and adventure for any normal person's whole lifetime, luckily Bink is not just a normal person.
This book is really amazing in the way that it is written, through the point of view of a guy, a real one, not one of those lovey dovey guys that you read about in the romance novels which makes it extremely identifiable. There are pages and pages of action in this book, and it is all so perfectly detailed so that you can actually see in you mind where the swords clash, and how the fights take place. If you enjoy fantasy, this is defenitly the book for you. I strongly recommend this book or any book by Piers Anthony in this case.