Roger Zelazny Recommendations
I have notice more than one fan of mine (I have at least two, counting myself, and my mom) lauding elements in my stories which I shamelessly steal from better authors. As a public service, I would like to mention those authors, and lead you to the original of which I am but a shadow:
I suggest that if you like the family infighting, larger-than-life superhumans, and intrigue, you read yourself some Roger Zelazny’s deservedly famed Amber series. It is a delight: a film noir detective tale (starring my personal favorite character, an amnesiac), which morphs into a fantasy and a Jacobin-style revenge drama.
- 1970 Nine Princes in Amber
- 1972 The Guns of Avalon
- 1975 Sign of the Unicorn
- 1976 The Hand of Oberon
- 1978 The Courts of Chaos
The Merlin books take place in the same background, but they are terrible. Avoid.
Of his work, I recommend LORD OF LIGHT as his best.
Here he writes mythical themes into science fictional settings, a trick I also try. CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS does for Egyptian mythology.
JACK OF SHADOWS, ROADMARKS, and DOORWAYS IN THE SAND are also worth reading. I particularly liked NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER.
I also recommend TODAY WE CHOOSE FACES, but only if you read it in the order the author intended, not the clumsy order his editor (and mine) David Hartwell clumsily imposed: read part 2, then part 1, then the finale.
Of short stories, I recommend “The Last Defender of Camelot’, ‘”For a Breath I Tarry”, “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth”, “A Rose for Ecclesiastes”, “Home is the Hangman”.
A word of warning: Zelazny is like jazz. His style is fluid, quirky, slangy, allusive, and eccentric.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
