Mode series

The Mode series is a quartet of novels by Piers Anthony. Like many of Anthony’s other fictional works, it explores themes of violence, the abuse of power, sexism and male dominance, gender roles, the environment, integrity and personal honor, sapient animal life, parallel and alternative evolution, space travel, alternate dimensions, paradox, obscure concepts in physics and mathematics, sexual assault and abuse, child and adolescent sexuality, and suicide.
Though initially marketed as fantasy, the Mode series is similar to the Incarnations of Immortality and the Apprentice Adept series, blending fantasy and science fiction

Mode theory
Mode, in the series, is another word for "reality" or "universe." The Virtual Mode is like a three-dimensional plane that cuts across many realities. It requires five points, represented both by anchor modes and anchor persons, to hold it in place. When someone hears the call of the Virtual Mode, he may reach out with his mind and set his anchor point, thereby becoming an anchor person. When two or more persons act in tandem to attach the Virtual Mode, both will become anchors. Only anchor persons may travel freely on the Virtual Mode; other travelers must remain in contact with the anchors lest they become lost in one of the non-anchor modes. In addition, only objects from anchor modes may be transported on the Virtual Mode; any other materials will remain in their mode of origin. Once the anchor point is fixed, mode travelers may step in and out of the Virtual Mode at that point, thereby being able to interact fully in the anchor reality. Anchor persons may only travel ten feet across non-anchor modes before crossing the border into the next reality. Though each mode is only ten feet deep, it is infinitely wide; anchor persons may travel as far as they like to the side as long as they don’t cross the border. Each reality is like an individual sheet of mica, and when each individual plane is placed next to others, together they form the whole Virtual Mode. Each mode has its own rules which determine which aspects of science and magic will work there.
Only the death or purposeful release of an anchor person can free an anchor point. When that happens, the Virtual Mode is unstable until another person invokes their anchor. Few people are able to sense the Virtual Mode; only those who can may become anchor persons. In the series, those who invoke the Virtual Mode are typically individuals who have some great need for change in, or escape from, their current situation that only access to the Virtual Mode will provide. In addition, the Chip that invokes the Virtual Mode has different settings which determine the realities that will be included in any given Virtual Mode. Though it can be set to include only modes populated by human beings, the Virtual Mode in the novels is set instead to include sapience of any type, including non-living beings such as machines.

Novels
Virtual Mode
Author
Piers Anthony
Cover artist
Daniel R. Horne
Country
U.S.A.
Language
English
Series
Mode
Genre(s)
Fantasy
Publisher
Ace-Putnam
Publication date
February 1991
Media type
Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages
323 (paperback edition)
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-441-86503-1 (paperback edition)
OCLC Number
24895560
Followed by
Fractal Mode

Virtual Mode
Colene, a teenage girl on the brink of suicide, must travel the Virtual Mode to reunite with the man of her dreams.
Colene, who appears to be bright and popular at school, secretly flirts with suicide and cutting herself for emotional release. Her deathwish prompts her to approach a strange man that she finds in a ditch on her way home from school, and her relationship with Darius begins.
Darius and Colene rapidly fall in love, but he regretfully leaves her when she cannot bring herself to accept that he is from a magical reality. After his departure, Colene realizes he was telling the truth, and, in despair, she prepares to commit suicide. Back in his own mode, Darius realizes that he loves Colene too much to give her up. He therefore uses a magical device called the Chip to create a Virtual Mode so he can travel back to Colene.
Colene quickly seizes the opportunity to become an anchor person and sets out along her side of the Virtual Mode. On her way, she befriends Seqiro, a telepathic stallion and, to Colene's joy and surprise, another anchor. As Sequiro joins her in traveling the Virtual Mode, she opens up to him and reveals the source of her depressive and suicidal nature; she had been raped at a party by several older boys, but did not report the incident out of fear of humiliation and because she had become drunk during the party. The two make rapid progress towards Darius’ mode until they are unexpectedly trapped in DoOon, home mode of the emperor Ddwng, who is the anchor for his world. Forced to suffer captivity thinly veiled as hospitality, Colene and Seqiro must wait for Darius to arrive.
Meanwhile, Darius has encountered another anchor—Provos, a strange older woman, while traveling toward Colene. Able to remember the future, she is able to help him avoid or defeat many hazards on the Virtual Mode. Eventually, they reach a series of beacons, which they follow to DoOon.
Darius and Colene reunite, but are almost immediately separated. Ddwng, who wants to coerce Darius into giving him the Chip, assesses his personality by sending him on a mission to another planet. Though Darius is reluctant to accede to the emperor’s request, Ddwng threatens Colene and Darius finally agrees.
Though Darius considers his promise binding, Colene prompts Seqiro to use his telepathy to trick Ddwng into freeing his anchor. He does, and Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Provos slide through the modes to the new anchor, Oria.
Fractal Mode
Author
Piers Anthony
Cover artist
Daniel R. Horne
Country
U.S.A.
Language
English
Series
Mode
Genre(s)
Fantasy
Publisher
Ace/Putnam
Publication date
January 1992
Media type
Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages
344 (paperback edition)
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-441-25126-1 (paperback edition)
Preceded by
Virtual Mode
Followed by
Chaos Mode
[edit] Fractal Mode
Colene and her companions must help Nona, a beautiful woman forced to hide her magical ability, to end the oppression binding her world.
Nona is the woman ordained to bring the anima, the force of female magic, to her home planet of Oria, which is part of a fractal universe. In order to summon the Megaplayers, a group of musical giants, to help her, she dances by a sea cliff and unwittingly becomes the new anchor person.
After Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Provos arrive in Julia Mode, Nona and her friend Stave prompt them to report to the nearest despot castle. Though the despots attempt to discredit Darius, rape Colene, and steal Seqiro, the four companions escape captivity and rejoin Nona and Stave. They help Nona travel to Jupiter, where she again seeks the Megaplayers. Angus, a native of Jupiter, advises Nona on how to bring the anima and ferries the party back to Oria.
Nona, who must stand on a specific rad to summon the magic of the anima, has no idea how find the correct one. Colene and Provos travel back to Earth in order to learn enough nomenclature to allow Colene to help Nona number the rads. While in the Earth mode, Colene rescues an abused girl, Esta, and her uncle, Slick, from a life of crime and despair. Though Slick and Esta plan to flee the country together, a police pursuit forces them to seek refuge on the Virtual Mode.
Meanwhile, Darius, Seqiro, Nona, and Stave have been forced to hide from the despots in the underwater caves of the rabble, a community of quasi-humans who are able to transform their bodies. Though the rabble initially plan to force all four companions to remain until they breed with one thousand rabble each, they agree to free Darius, Seqiro, and Nona if Stave will remain for four thousand breedings. Nona promises to allow four thousand rabble to live on the surface after she brings the anima, whereupon they will release Stave.
Colene and her companions return to Oria and reunite with the rest of the anchor persons. Colene helps Nona find the correct rad while the others distract the despots, and Nona successfully invokes the anima, shifting the magic of Oria to favor women. Nona joins the party on the Virtual Mode, and they return to Provos’ anchor, where Provos plans to adopt Slick and Esta as son and granddaughter. Provos releases her anchor, and Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Nona slide through the Virtual Mode to the newest anchor, Shale.
Chaos Mode
Author
Piers Anthony
Cover artist
Daniel R. Horne
Country
U.S.A.
Language
English
Series
Mode
Genre(s)
Science Fiction
Publisher
Ace/Putnam
Publication date
1993
Media type
Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages
358 (paperback edition)
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-441-00132-3 (paperback edition)
Preceded by
Fractal Mode
Followed by
DoOon Mode
[edit] Chaos Mode
Colene, pursued by the relentless mind predator, must travel through the anchor modes with her companions in an attempt to escape its grasp.
Burgess, a hiver, acted as a diplomat to other hives. After he contacted a hive which suffered from the mental disease of bigotry, his own hive cast him out and forced him to flee across the plains. Bereft of his community, he eagerly becomes an anchor person and joins the companions of the Virtual Mode. Colene, Darius, Seqiro, and Nona are initially concerned that the new anchor person may be an alien monster, but Seqiro soon helps Nona to establish mental contact, and their fears are allayed. Colene soon realizes that this reality is the product of Earth’s alternative evolution, and she names the mode Shale and the new anchor Burgess.
Though the party plans to continue traveling the Virtual Mode, Colene is soon pursued by the mind predator which once attacked Provos. The anchor persons, attacked by the hivers near the anchor point, are forced to spend several days in Shale. While there, each of the humans learns to relate to Burgess, and Burgess declares the strange group to be his new hive. Though the companions encounter many hostile native creatures, they are eventually able to reach the anchor point and return to the Virtual Mode.
As the companions approach the Julia mode, the mind predator returns and attacks Colene. Only Burgess seems able to mitigate the effect, so he carries Colene while the pursuit continues. The party, once again forced to wait in an anchor mode, soon discovers that Oria is in a martial state due to the lack of strong magical leadership. Because Nona doesn’t want to remain and become queen, she enlists Angus’ help to recruit Amazons from a slightly larger anima world to become regents on Oria. Afterwards, Nona feels free to return to the Virtual Mode with the others.
As they travel toward Earth, Burgess’ health begins to fail, and the anchor persons plan to spend some time in the Earth mode while he recuperates. Colene and Nona enlist the help of Amos Forell to cure Burgess’ malady, which turns out to be a magnesium deficiency. In order to repay Amos, Darius and Seqiro help a troubled boy by spreading his despair to his unsympathetic community. While in the bad part of town, they are also able to seek revenge on the group of delinquents who mugged Darius in the first novel, as well as the boys who raped Colene. Colene reconciles with her parents, who agree to allow her to marry Darius, but she misses her own wedding while tiding Burgess through a bad reaction. Nona, however, acts as Colene’s proxy, so Darius and Colene do become legally married on Earth.
While passing through the modes of the telepathic animals, Colene is once again attacked by the mind predator. The companions, forced to seek refuge in Seqiro’s mode, discover a mare who has been mind-blasted, telepathically attacked and stripped of her memories. Colene heals the mare by imprinting her with the character of her imaginary friend, Maresy Doats. After defeating his rival Koturo, Seqiro becomes herd stallion. Though he would prefer to remain on the Virtual Mode, Seqiro is forced to free his anchor to relieve Colene of the mind predator’s pursuit. Colene, Darius, Nona, and Burgess slide through the modes until they reach the newest anchor mode, DoOon.
DoOon Mode
Author
Piers Anthony
Cover artist
Daniel R. Horne
Country
U.S.A.
Language
English
Series
Mode
Genre(s)
Science Fiction
Publisher
Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Publication date
April 2001
Media type
Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages
377 (paperback edition)
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-8125-7542-2 (paperback edition)
Preceded by
Chaos Mode
[edit] DoOon Mode
Colene and her companions must remain trapped in the DoOon Mode until they agree to deliver the Chip to Ddwng.
Because the Feline trio of Tom, Cat, and Pussy are in disgrace, they enter a dangerous contest to regain their social status. After the Felines and their Caprine companions win the competition, a no-holds-barred game of capture the flag, they are educated about Colene and Darius and trained to become the next mode anchors. The six nulls, along with four unknown individuals, become co-anchors as soon as Seqiro frees his anchor, and Colene, Darius, Nona, and Burgess are immediately captured by Ddwng.
The companions are taken to the primitive planet Chains, where they are forced to remain until Darius agrees to give the Chip to Ddwng. While there, Burgess and the humans form close bonds with the Felines and with Doe, the Caprine female. Colene persuades the predatory dragons of the world to prey on rats instead of nulls, and Darius agrees to give Ddwng the Chip in return for the continued safety of Chains and its inhabitants.
Once on the Virtual Mode, the party attempts to evade the pursuit of the four unknown anchor persons. Colene regains mental contact with Seqiro, but the mind predator soon finds her, and the group must return to Earth. When Colene discovers her mother Morna is the victim of hallucinations brought on by improper medical treatment, she and her companions force the insurance representative to approve RTMS, an experimental treatment, to cure Colene’s and Morna’s depression. Nona, Burgess, and Tom repay Amos Forell for his financial help by giving him one of Tom’s alien germs to claim as a scientific discovery. Colene returns after one week of her two-week treatment, and the anchor persons return to the Virtual Mode.
Unfortunately, the mind predator soon finds Colene, and the companions attempt to wait it out by staying in Oria. Though one of the regents tries to persuade Nona to stay and become queen, she is unwilling to leave the Virtual Mode. The mind predator remains tenacious, however, and Nona is forced to free her anchor. Nona, who has been engaging in sexual intercourse with Tom, asks him to stay in Julia mode and marry her. Tom loves Nona and realizes his trio is facing destruction anyway, so he agrees.
As soon as Nona frees her anchor, Seqiro and Maresy become co-anchors. Colene, Darius, Burgess, Cat, and Pussy slide to the Horse Mode, where the horses join the party. After passing through several more modes, one of which resembles Xanth, the companions finally arrive at Darius’ home mode. Burgess and the horses settle comfortably on a pasture dais and Colene and Pussy join Darius’ household.
After obtaining the Chip, Cat returns to DoOon to discharge his commitment, and Darius shuts down the Virtual Mode. Though Cat is honest, Ddwng suspects treachery and plans to torture it. Cat uses its link to Seqiro and the Key it has secretly swallowed to rescue Doe from Chains, though her trio is destroyed. After transporting back to Darius’ mode, Cat and Doe recover, and the Felines adopt Doe as the third member of their new trio.
Though Colene and Darius are married and home at last, Colene remains unable to perform sexually. Pussy convinces Colene to face the mind predator in order to come to terms with her worst fears. After an intense psychological battle, Colene defeats the mind predator, and she is finally healed