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Hero

The hero of the story is Stile, the jockey-turned-Adept-and-Citizen from Proton.

Plot Summary

There are 2 worlds existing beside each other, but the inhabitants of each world are unaware of the other world. Proton is the world of science and Phaze is the world of magic. Every person in Proton has a double in Phaze, the same in appearance, personality, and societal rank, but different because one is scientific, the other is magical. On Proton there are Citizens who rule and in Phaze there are the magical Adepts. On Proton there is a man named Stile who is a jockey. During a race, he is nearly killed, and his only way to escape is passing through the "curtain" into Phaze. Stile learns that his duplicate in Phaze, the Blue Adept, has been murdered, and as a result, he begins a journey that extends beyond Phaze, into Proton, and a journey on which his life and lives of his newly-found friends depend on.

Departure

Call to Adventure: When Stile gets lasered in the knee during a horse race. He has 2 choices--to have surgery and continue on as a law-abiding serf on Proton, or say no to the surgery and risk the anger of the Citizens. (Adventure)

Refusal of the Call: Stile considers having the surgery, thereby hesitating and refusing the Call to Adventure.

Supernatural Aid: Sheen, the female robot, helps Stile escape from the Citizens once Stile decides to say no to the surgery.

Crossing of the First Threshold: Stile refuses the Citizen's employment offer and does not heed his threats. Therefore, he is now on the run.

Belly of the Whale: Stile crosses the curtain into Phaze. He can't go back into Proton, at least for now.

Initiation

Road of Trials: First trial that Stile faces in Phaze is when the amulet-demon tries to strangle him. After much difficulty and near-suffocation, Stile manages to defeat the amulet-demon and free himself. The second trial Stile faces is getting a mount. He follows a trail of what he believes to be a herd of horses and instead discovers a little black unicorn. She is perfect and healthy, so he at first attempts to talk to her calmly. When that fails, he jumps on her back and hangs on for the wildest ride of his life. The black unicorn tries every trick she knows to throw Stile, but in the end, when she threatens to jump off a ledge instead of being tamed, he realizes he cannot and doesn't want to tame the unicorn. He lets her go, but the unicorn, touched by his concern and selfless action, acquiesces to being Stile's steed and even tells him her name: Neysa.

Meeting with the Goddess: Stile meets the Blue Lady wife of his other self, the Blue Adept (who has been murdered). She is in mourning and doesn't trust Stile at first. However, Stile feels powerful emotions, which he later realizes are love and devotion, towards her. The Blue Lady turns out to be his true love.

Woman as Temptress: Magic is something tempting to Stile, but because Neysa doesn't like it when he uses magic, initially at least, he has sworn an oath to her not to use his Adept magic. However, Stile finds himself in many situations (prisoner of the Black Adept, prisoner of the Yellow Adept, his friends and other animals trapped by the Yellow Adept) in which his use of magic would certainly solve his problems. However, he refuses to use magic until Neysa says so, though he is surely tempted.

Atonement with the Father: I think either Neysa or Lady Blue hold the most power, to Stile at least, in Phaze. He has won Neysa's loyal friendship and affection, and now he must win the Blue Lady's, for without either female, Stile would be worse off in the magical world.

Apotheosis: This occurs when Stile learns he is an Adept. Both Neysa and Kurrelgyre the werewolf initially react with distrust and even violence when they learn he is an Adept. Stile learns that Adepts are generally not kind people, or secretive at best. The first Adept he meets is the Black Adept, who is certainly not the warmest person, so Stile, too, believes if he's an Adept, he'd better not use his magic at all, lest he end up like the Black Adept. After his initial shock and fear, Stile accepts his Adept status and even embraces it towards the end.

Ultimate Boon: Stile is being pursued in Proton, but his other self in Phaze, the former Blue Adept, was killed by someone, probably another Adept. Stile's goal is to learn who killed his other self and avoid the same fate.

Return

Refusal of the Return: After Stile discovers Phaze, he likes it much better than Proton because it's a beautiful, natural world that he can explore and be free. He has befriended the unicorn Neysa, who he loves in a way. He could easily see himself remaining in Phaze forever. But he has obligations (Sheen, later the Tourney) in Proton, so he must return fairly regularly, even though he doesn't really want to. Realizing he would rather remain in Phaze than return to Proton is Stile's Refusal of the Return.

Magic Flight: When Stile uses magic the first time to defend himself and Neysa against the big ape-like demons. (He transforms one into a cube of food, making it harmless.)

Rescue from Without: After Stile is lasered in the knee and refuses the operation to fix it, he is released by his Citizen and is at risk of being deported from Proton. Sheen saves Stile's serfship by finding another Citizen for him, so now he has more time to find the person who lasered him and later tried to kill him. 

Crossing of the Return Threshold: The first time Stile returns to Proton from Phaze via the Curtain.

Master of Two Worlds: When Stile really becomes good at magic (once Neysa allows him to practice it), he becomes a master of both Phaze (adept-level magic) and Proton (extensive experience and talent in the Game). 

Freedom to Live: That isn't really a part of Split Infinity because Stile doesn't learn who's trying to kill him in Proton or who killed his alternate (original Blue Adept) in Phaze until the second book, The Blue Adept. He is still being hunted in both worlds.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this project immensely. Not only did I get to re-read one of the my favorite novels, I also got to analyze it, which is always lots of fun. Piers Anthony's Split Infinity follows Joseph Campbell's Hero Quest surprisingly well, but then again, I suppose it has all the required aspects: hero, magic, quests, mystery, love, 2 parallel worlds, etc. The Monomyth is present in some other works too, such as the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, the Acorna series by Anne McCaffrey, and John Varley's Titan series.