Of Man and Manta

About the Of Man and Manta series

A trio of human investigators — an omnivore, a herbivore, and a carnivore by temperament and diet alike, each representing a different survival strategy and worldview — travel to the alien planet Nacre to study its native life, most strikingly the shapeshifting, telepathic creatures known as mantas. What begins as a scientific expedition steadily reveals larger and stranger threats: Nacre's ecology, its relationship to human colonization efforts, and the true nature and intelligence of the alien life the team encounters turn out to be far more dangerous, and far more alien, than a straightforward first-contact story would suggest.

Written early in Piers Anthony's career (1968-1976), the loosely connected trilogy is closer to classic hard-SF problem-solving and xenobiology than to the fantasy comedy of Xanth, using its three very different human protagonists to interrogate how personality and survival instinct shape the way people interpret an alien environment they don't yet understand.

How to read this series

Publication order, starting with Omnivore. The three novels are loosely connected rather than a single continuous plot, each centering a different one of the original expedition's three human investigators and a different alien threat on Nacre, so they can largely be read as standalone adventures in the same setting — though starting with Omnivore, which introduces the planet and the team, is recommended.