Favourite Zelazny novels and short stories

[Snowdog]

Which are your favourite Zelazny novels?

I'm not a great fan of short stories as a rule. I've read a lot of Asimov's and a lot of John Wyndham's, some of which are truly memorable, but most authors' short stories don't do much for me. But with Zelazny it's different. He's a true master of the short story and I read them again and again.

Anyway, here's my list:

Novels

1. Lord Of Light
2. Today We Choose Faces
3. Creatures Of Light And Darkness
4. Isle Of The Dead
5. This Immortal

I don't think it's a coincidence that all except Today We Choose Faces were written during the late '60s, when I think he was at the height of his powers. I think some of his best writing came in The Dream Master, but I didn't like that book as much as the ones above.

Amber of course was his greatest creation, but arguably not his greatest writing. My favourite Amber book is Sign Of The Unicorn.

Short Stories

1. For A Breath I Tarry
2. This Moment Of The Storm
3. Home Is The Hangman
4. The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth
5. 24 Views Of Mt. Fuji, By Hokusai

A 1-5 list isn't nearly enough, there are so many great ones.

[GOLLUM]

From your list I'll nominate..

Novels

1. Lord Of Light
4. Isle Of The Dead

And of course Amber...

Short Stories

This one is the best....

4. The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth

[Giovanna Clairval]

Favourite novels:

1) Jack of Shadows
2) Isle of Dead
3) Lord of Light

I haven't read The Dream Master (ashes on my head)!

Short stories:
1) "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Yokusai".
2) "A Rose for Ecclesiastes".
3) "For a Breath I Tarry".

My favourite Amber novel remains Nine Princes in Amber
It has the perfect beginning--he was so good at beginnings. There is this amnesiac bloke that wakes up in hospital, and, after a while, we are off with him, transforming the surroundings while riding around in a car... and the forest of Arden, inspired by the real forest of the Ardennes... I must go there once in my life... and the revelation of the existence of Shadows, and this family, in which no one can trust anyone, and this splendid Corwin, so flawed and brilliant. Stop me!

[Connavar]

Zelazny and Delaney are my next to try out of the old school big guns of SF.


Lord of Light or This Immortal sounds a good place to try him. They seem to be his most famous works. Even if they arent his best, they will prolly show how good he is, otherwise they wouldnt be as hailed as they are

Lord of Light i have read about everytime i see SF Masterworks list.

[Anthony G Williams]

I did read quite a lot by Delaney, a long time ago, but have kept none of his work. OTOH, I still have a lot of Zelazny's books even though I haven't read most of them in decades. I much prefer his work.

[Who's Wee Dug]

Jack of Shadows
the Divlish the Dammed ones
Changeling
Madwand
and the trilogy he wrote with Robert Sheckly which started with Bring me the Head of Prince Charming

[j. d. worthington]

I would go for Lord of Light, This Immortal, the earlier Amber books for novels; for short stories, "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth", "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai", some of the Dilvish stories (S&S on the level of literacy of Leiber, with as liberal a spicing of in-context humor), "The Last Defender of Camelot", and one I don't see mentioned that often: "Auto-da-Fé", which was one of my earliest encounters with his work.

[Connavar]

S&S mean what i think it means ?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

S&S mean what i think it means ?

S&S = "Sword and Sorcery"... a la Robert E. Howard & Co....

[Giovanna Clairval]

Auto da Fé... I haven't read it. Is it in Manna From Heaven?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval

Auto da Fé... I haven't read it. Is it in Manna From Heaven?

Tried posting this about three times a while ago, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. On the fourth try, the Chrons went down, so perhaps it was the proposed change in server?

At any rate:

It's included in the collection The Last Defender of Camelot. However, I first came across it in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions (1967); which, if you've not read, I highly recommend, along with its later (1972) companion volume Again, Dangerous Visions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Visions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Again%2C_Dangerous_Visions

[Giovanna Clairval]

I have read The Last Defender. How can I not remember a title? Honte sur moi!

Are there two editions of The Last Defender? One edited by Him, and another that is more recent?

And J.D., how come there are 6 thread about RG, and we don't see any sub-forum appear?

Conspiracy? Decision at the top?

We are posting on them. The threads are alive.

[Connavar]

I need alittle help.

Other than This Immortal i decided to try, i want a collection of his specially a short story collection.

Must you read Changling books first to understand Divish, The Damned collection that i want ? It seems they have something in common according to wiki.

Frost & Fire collection i want too simply cause of the japanese myth story "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" Im very interested in myth stories.

Also The Last Defender of Camelot im thinking about getting. Are the other stories in that collection other the title one also fantasy or SF/Fantasy?

[Giovanna Clairval]

As I suspected, there are two editions of The Last Defender of Camelot, and I have read only the recent one, which has a different set of short stories. No "Auto da fé", no "Horseman", and the list goes on. Why do publishers do such silly things?

Concerning "Horseman!" Robert Silverberg quotes the incipito of this short story in his Introduction to The Last (the other, very different edition). This beginning is all metaphors and disrespect of syntax. I loved it. I never got around to reading it, but, if I can find this edition, I will.

One deep thought… Roger Zelazny is the only writer who can omit commas—and do this to his heart’s desire—without taking furious slashes from Rubescant, my sword.

He does it which style.

The 1980 edition of The Last Defender of Camelot includes the short stories:
1. "Passion Play"
2. "Horseman!"
3. "The Stainless Steel Leech"
4. "A Thing of Terrible Beauty"
5. "He Who Shapes"
6. "Come now the Power"
7. "Auto-Da-Fe"
8. "Damnation Alley"(a short version of the novel)
9. "For a Breath I Tarry"
10. "The Engine at Heartspring's Center"
11. "The Game of Blood and Dust"
12. "No Award"
13. "Is there a Demon Lover in the House?"
14. "The Last Defender of Camelot"
15. "Stand Pat, Ruby Stone"
16. "Half Jack"

[Giovanna Clairval]

Re-reading my post... I have found a sentence that is less than clear. Sorry.

What I loved was the short quotation (the opening sentence) of "Horseman!", althought I never got around to reading the whole story...


Connavar, I cannot answer your other question because I haven't read Dilvish either. These books can't be easily found in Italy of in France, in English, I mean. Once upon a time, Amazon.com did not exist. I would order books from the States and it'd take them one to three months to get to Paris...
Now, of course, I'll read everything, now. I posted an almost complete bibliography (without the collections) in another Zelazny thread.


In the thread about "A Rose for Ecclesiaste", J.D. Worthington gives excellent advice to a Zelazny reader-to-be.