Off: Re: HW:Damnation Alley film on BBC tonight

[M Holmes]

Andrew Apold writes:

On Zelazny...

> If you read only one book, it must be "Lord of Light".  For starters,
> it also has a Hawkwind connection.  It is also one of the finest
> works, of any genre, that I have ever read.  A working knowledge of
> hinduism and buddhism is useful but not essential.

> If you think you might want to read several and get a full effect, it
> is in some ways better to start with his short stories (in particular:
> Doors of His Face, Rose for Ecclesiastes, Graveyard Heart, a couple
> others of that time period) and then take his early novels in order,
> "This Immortal" (vt "And Call Me Conrad") followed by "The Dream
> Master" (vt "He Who Shapes") and then go to "Lord of Light".  Because
> Lord of Light is so good it gets expectations so high it's hard for
> anything else to live up to it after that.  Something which plagued
> Zelazny throughout the rest of his career.

> Aside from all that are his fantasy "Amber" novels, starting with
> "Nine Princes in Amber" and going on for another nine books (two
> groups of 5).  All are classic works of fantasy, amongst the most
> loved in the field.

> But again, I cannot iterate it enough, Zelazny's SF was the ultimate.
> It is hard for me to be objective at all about Lord of Light.

> Others of note, all good but not quite up there with the others are:

> Doorways in the Sand Roadmarks Frost and Fire (short story col, esp
> "24 views of Mt Fuji, by Hokusai") Creatures of Light and Darkness
> Jack of Shadows (another Hawkwind tie) Damnation Alley Eye of Cat Isle
> of the Dead

> I'm probably omitting a bunch of worthy titles...

read "This Immortal" before Isle of the Dead IIRC because it introduces
the Francis Sandow character (surely the most likeable god in SF?). The
other great novel that's missing here is "Today We Choose Faces" which
is a very clever story based on a guy who has been using tech over the
years to erase parts of his identity. A crisis means that he has to
start restoring parts from backup until he has the knowledge to solve it...

I'd put more emphasis on his short stories too. On a good day he's up
there with Arthur C. Clarke, A.E.Van Vogt and John Wyndham (most of
whose shorts went under John Benyon and another name that escapes me for
the moment).

Ah, the pleasures of throwing over the school syllabus and reading
shorts by those authors to use them for my exams. My teacher truly
didn't understand, but fortunately her prediction of failure didn't pan
out.

FoFP