Roger Zelazny

Noticing a theme here in my topics Any fellow fans or just readers of Roger Zelazny?

And as in my other topics, if you like scifi/fantasy haven't read any of his work, I would highly recommend it. He's not very well known, but has some of the greatest works in those genres. In particular, I'd recommend perhaps starting with The Chronicles of Amber (series). Not by any means necessarily his greatest work, but more accessible than some of his others (for example, in one book that was originally intended to be a personal study in perspective, he writes chapters in poetry, the last in the form of a play, and more). If you have read some and enjoyed it, or want to dive right in, Lord of Light is often thought to be his best novel (I would agree, though unfortunately I haven't read all his work yet), and to be one of the greatest works in the genre.

If you've heard of and/or read George R. R. Martin (author of A Song of Ice and Fire), Zelazny comes highly recommended. He said of him "He was a storyteller without peer." http://georgerrmartin.com/musings-roger.html

Of all of your posts that I have seen (this author, that Asian game, the pc game and so forth), I have not so much as heard of any of them.

[ADMIN] Kelly wrote:I have not heard of Zelazny, which is odd, usually pretty in key with writers. However, what would you recommend a first timer of his work to read first? You mentioned The Chronicles of Amber, but you said that you felt it wasn't necessarily his best work; thus, what would you personally recommend ?

That depends on whether you want to really dive in or approach more carefully The Amber series is written relatively normally... Mostly first person the whole time, and the perspective only switches once when one of the other characters is telling a story. On the other hand, Lord of Light starts in the present but then with the second chapter (and every chapter after that) changes time frame. It's harder to get into probably in general and in particular if you haven't read any of his works before.

By the way, one thing to mention is that many of his works use different mythologies; he's considered something of a specialist at that. So if you're rather religious (or rather not religious), please don't be put off: they're not religious books at all, they just make use of different cultures' and religions' myths.


And Gummy, then you're missing out