There is one writer of the fantastic whose work I’ve not read nearly enough of, and that writer is –
Who am I trying to kid? There are a lot of writers whose work I’ve not read enough of.
But today, April 13, I’m going to focus on one, Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) because it’s his birthday.
I’ve read some of his short fiction, but it’s been years. I read the first of the Amber books when I was in graduate school. We won’t dwell on how long ago that was except to say it was in a prior millenium.
I’ve liked all of the stories I’ve read. NESFA Press has published a nice set of colletions with covers whose illustrations on the spines combine to make a picture. If I come into a nice sum of moola, I’m going to get them. (Those of you wondering what to get me for Christmas…)
But it’s been a long time since I read any of Roger Zelasny’s work. The one exception is A Night in the Lonesome October. That’s the one told from the point of view of Jack the Ripper’s dog. I’ve read that one more than once. It’s great.
I never had the chance to meet him. And you don’t see his books in bookstores any more. Maybe an omniubs of the Amber novels, because those are classics.
But that’s it.
At least for print. I’m not sure what’s available in ebook.
Again, we have someone who made significant contributions to the fantasy and science fiction fields who is in danger of fading into obscurity.
I’m going to try to incorporate more Zelazny into my reading this year. What do you suggest?
Zelazny is somehow both a major SF writer and one on the verge of being forgotten. People would do better to read his stuff than a lot of what sales today. He was also a very good prose stylist, which should be mention more.
I’ve always found Zelazny’s work to be better written than much of what is published today.
Good afternoon, I’m from Ukraine and I remember as a child during my school years I read Zelazny’s book Chronicles of Amber before bed 🙂 And besides this, I remember well that he was published in one of the magazines for science fiction fans in USSR. He was famous in the USSR along with other writers from the USA like Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Edmond Hamilton, Isaac Isimov, Arthur Clarke….
Cool. It’s always interesting to me which english speaking writers make it into print in other languages.