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Roger Zelazny Discussion

"After reading the Amber series review, as well as This Immortal and Lord of Light, my conclusion is, you just dont really like Zelazny. which is fine... he isnt to your taste.. but the position of so many of his most popular works on the Internet top 100 shows that the reason isnt that he isn't good. :)

You dont really 'get' Zelazny's symbolism, and what's more damaging to your appreciation of his work, you don't like his characters. His characters are the soul of his works.... since you don't like them, its pretty inevitable you wont love his stuff the way those of us who like his characters do.

About Corwin. Violent? gee... he isnt any more violent than characters in Hyperion, Black Company, or 75% of the books you love if you look at it carefully... no more violent than the characters in Dune... no more violent than Gully Foyle....if you can't see the appeal in a character who goes to his own tomb to get drunk, who tells his great-niece to never trust her relatives while romancing her, who manages to convince a whole crowd of paranoids who fear and love him that he has his full faculties while being 90% amnesiac... then you just won't appreciate Zelazny. I suppose you could try Doorways in the Sand, but you'd probably find that shallow too.

Bloodthirsty and incautious? People that cautious don't exist in the real world practically. As for bloodthirsty... they're just very good at holding grudges. The Amber -world- is another thing you've overlooked... its very complex and wide open, but has useful rules.

Amber has the cool world building of a Dave Duncan, the infighting characters of a historical or political novel, the typical Zelazny characterization that appeals to many but not to you, and a very complex and satisfying plot too. hey, I read it book 2-5 then book 1. so what do I know?" - Dana 7/7/98

Not true! I think Lord of Light is a great book. I didn't think much of This Immortal and haven't decided yet about the Amber series - I've only read the first book so far. Steve

"Yes, but your review of Lord of Light wasnt as enthusiastic as somoene who really LIKES Zelazny. Its his best book, as is agreed by critics etc.... I think you rate it lower than most would, even though yes, you like it. I just think Zelazny doesnt do it for you the way he does for most readers.......Still think you ought to read Doorways in the Sand... its quirky and almost Bester-esque." Dana 7/98

True. Most people who read a book like it or they wouldn't make it through. I've been reading books because they won an award and push my way through even when I don't think much of it so I can make comparisons. Steve 7/98

>About Corwin. Violent? gee... he isnt any more violent than characters in Hyperion, Black Company ...

I actually had similar criticism for Black Company. And it's not so much the violence itself as the attitude toward violence. Hyperion has violence but not an uncaring, unfeeling attitude toward it. Compare Stephen Donaldson books - lots of violence but agonizing, soul-searching reactions to it. It's like the criticism of TV violence, that it changes our reference point and makes something horrible seem trivial and commonplace. Steve 7/9/98

"You know... I understand what you mean here... but in this case... I have to disagree. There's a reason that certain types of violence have minimal implications in the Amber milieu. Its to show the attitude that made these people what they are; the attitude of a deity (how much did Zeus care when a few Spartans died? etc) of this type; not a monotheistic one but the mythology type of gods - has always been one of caring only for a very few mortals. Think about the power over shadows and how that makes all the people in them seem almost like the creations of the Amberite. Just as there's a reason for Covenant's extreme angst, theres a reason for Corwin's lack of it." Dana 7/10/98

Why would a deity not care? It seems to me they would care more. - Steve

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