Chthon
From back cover Berkley paperback September 1984:

It was a new word for Hell.  An escape-proof prison mine, where the worst criminals in the Universe were condemned to perpetual suffering in the ruby darkness.

Aton had committed the unpardonable crime.  He was condemned to Chthon for loving the minionette, the sensuous siren-spirit no man was allowed to possess... or even desire.

And to find out who she was and why she was forbidden, Aton had to do what none before him had ever done.  Escape from Chthon!
American Science fiction, Science fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general, Fiction, general, Extraterrestrial beings
Piers Anthony
Piers Anthony was born in Oxford, England.  When he was four years old, his family immigrated to the United States.  He graduated from Goddard College in Vermont in 1956, the year he met and married his wife, Carol Marble.  After working at odd jobs, he joined the U.S. Army in 1957 for steady income and medical insurance.  In 1958, he became a U.S. citizen.  He became an editor and cartoonist for the Battalion newspaper.  He left the army in 1959 and briefly taught public school before becoming a full-time writer.  Anthony currently lives with his wife on a tree farm which he owns in Florida.