Roger Zelazny

He wrote a few really brilliant stories, and quite a few good ones. He died much too young. Some of his best works are:

1. The Amber Series
There are an infinitude of alternate universes, but they aren't all equal. Amber is the real one, and all of the others, including our own, are some kind of minor side effect. Only a select few people have the power to move among them.

2. Lord of Light
When you start this book, at first it appears that you are in ancient India, except that the whole world is like ancient India, and the Gods of the Hindu pantheon are frighteningly demonstrable. You soon realize that it is set in the distant future on an interstellar colony that barely remembers that they came from Earth, and that a group of people are using technology to make themselves appear to be Gods.

3. Doorways in the Sand
Prior to the start of the story, mankind has met a federation of alien species in deep space. We have received two artifacts of great cultural value on an exchange program with the aliens. Now, one of them, a jewel, has been stolen, and a college student finds himself in the middle of some very strange interstellar political intrigue.

Has anyone read Zelazny? Share your thoughts.

I first came across Zelazny 40 years ago, through "A Rose for Ecclesates", a short story which appeared in one of the SF pulps. He followed that up with a novellette, "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth", a longer piece which was serialized. I don't remember which pulp it was, but I remember being impatient each month to see the next installment. "Lord of Light" kept me imterested too, but ... and I know this may strike the Zelazny fans as heresey ... the "Anber" series disappointed me and lost my interest. I pretty much agree his better work was his earlier stuff. I think he, as so many, changed from storyteller to Author; he became, to my mind, far more concerned with the craft than the art. Asimov, for instance, or Bradbury, always retained the wonder of the storyteller, I think. None of that is to say Zelazny was not a giant, and a shaper ... just that I think he peaked long before his untimely demise.

Sorta wish I'd kept all those old pulps ... the cover art was amazing, and some damned good stories; lots of "first efforts" from folks who went on to become icons of the genre, and other great stories that were unfortunately "one-offs" from folks who never went anywhere thereafter.

I think he, as so many, changed from storyteller to Author; he became, to my mind, far more concerned with the craft than the art. Asimov, for instance, or Bradbury, always retained the wonder of the storyteller, I think. None of that is to say Zelazny was not a giant, and a shaper ... just that I think he peaked long before his untimely demise.

Take "Creatures of Light and Darkness" for example. It was first published in 1969 which places it in a particular period of experimentation in American literature that produced works by Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut....

I am not sure whether you know this, but "Creatures of Light and Darkness" was never intended to be published. It was intended only as warm-up exercise for "Lord of Light," but Zelazny finally used the manuscript to appease a begging publisher.

Lord of Light is one of the great classics of science fiction that does not get the recognition it deserves.
Agreed that Amber was great in the beginning and then, well who cares what Dworkin's Great Aunt's Third Cousin's Ghost did to Brandon's reincarnated Goldfish while in an alternate reality to the alternate reality?
I actually enjoyed Creatures of Light and Darkness. A lot. More than most of the rest of his writings, none of which stayed with me the way that these three works did.