![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: The Last Defender of Camelot
Author: Roger Zelazny
Genre: Fantasy/SF short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Eleven of Zelazny's short stories.
Thoughts: Zelazny is one of the great acknowledged masters of fantasy, and a rather large gap in my coverage of the field. I thought a short story collection might make a good starting point. I have somewhat mixed feelings on these, I'm afraid. While I find Zelazny's prose to be quite poetic, I also frequently found it to be a little too purple, to the point of needlessly obscuring his plots. I also had trouble liking most of his characters, which is less of a problem in short stories, but still a problem.
In "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai", a mysterious woman goes on a pilgrimage to see the various viewpoints of a classic set of Japanese prints, while her initially confusing paranoia becomes increasingly justified. Here, the poetic refusal to give all the relevant details serves the story well, creating a minimalist mood while slowly increasing the tension to come to a surprisingly satisfying ending. But in "Home is the Hangman", where a space probe comes back to haunt its creators, the overabundance of unused worldbuilding makes the ending a confusing letdown--far more is hinted at than finally provided. "Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love" and "Permafrost" also promise more than they deliver.
"For a Breath I Tarry", a post-apocalyptic Paradise Lost, and "Mana from Heaven", about sorcerors from Atlantis, did not age well at all. I'm willing to grant that when written, they may have been ground-breaking. Now, there are far too many similar stories out there, and these are not clever enough to be particularly interesting.
I think it's the most simply written stories that I appreciated the most. "The Last Defender of Camelot" is a straightforward modern Arthurian legend. "LOKI 7281" is a puff humor piece, but still quite amusing. And "Comes Now the Power" is incredibly bleak, but far more moving that the more flowery "Hangman" or "Alice". None are particularly original, but each are remarkably well-executed.
Sometimes authors are far more experimental in their short fiction than in longer forms, so it's difficult to evaluate whether or not the novels will be enjoyable if you were not crazy about the short stories. Here, I am left impressed by Zelazny's pyrotechnics, but not quite sure if I want to spend a novel-length worth of time in one of his characters' heads.
Author: Roger Zelazny
Genre: Fantasy/SF short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Eleven of Zelazny's short stories.
Thoughts: Zelazny is one of the great acknowledged masters of fantasy, and a rather large gap in my coverage of the field. I thought a short story collection might make a good starting point. I have somewhat mixed feelings on these, I'm afraid. While I find Zelazny's prose to be quite poetic, I also frequently found it to be a little too purple, to the point of needlessly obscuring his plots. I also had trouble liking most of his characters, which is less of a problem in short stories, but still a problem.
In "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai", a mysterious woman goes on a pilgrimage to see the various viewpoints of a classic set of Japanese prints, while her initially confusing paranoia becomes increasingly justified. Here, the poetic refusal to give all the relevant details serves the story well, creating a minimalist mood while slowly increasing the tension to come to a surprisingly satisfying ending. But in "Home is the Hangman", where a space probe comes back to haunt its creators, the overabundance of unused worldbuilding makes the ending a confusing letdown--far more is hinted at than finally provided. "Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love" and "Permafrost" also promise more than they deliver.
"For a Breath I Tarry", a post-apocalyptic Paradise Lost, and "Mana from Heaven", about sorcerors from Atlantis, did not age well at all. I'm willing to grant that when written, they may have been ground-breaking. Now, there are far too many similar stories out there, and these are not clever enough to be particularly interesting.
I think it's the most simply written stories that I appreciated the most. "The Last Defender of Camelot" is a straightforward modern Arthurian legend. "LOKI 7281" is a puff humor piece, but still quite amusing. And "Comes Now the Power" is incredibly bleak, but far more moving that the more flowery "Hangman" or "Alice". None are particularly original, but each are remarkably well-executed.
Sometimes authors are far more experimental in their short fiction than in longer forms, so it's difficult to evaluate whether or not the novels will be enjoyable if you were not crazy about the short stories. Here, I am left impressed by Zelazny's pyrotechnics, but not quite sure if I want to spend a novel-length worth of time in one of his characters' heads.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-10-28 06:54 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 07:01 am (UTC)From:I'm not very familiar with his short stories, but I'm not sure that they are a better starting point. Gaiman and Martin have both expressed appreciation for his works, and my usual opinion is that if it's good enough for neilhimself, it's good enough for me.