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.

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.