SF & Fantasy short stories, several of which won awards. As always, he's a great read. His stories take fantasy into SF & vice versa in strange ways with a deft touch. He's one of the few authors that was a master of both the novel & short story. ( )

A collection of SF short stories, mainly from the 60's and 70's. A couple from the 80's.

Two of the best for me were My Lady of the Diodes and the triptych of Fire and/or Ice, Exeunt Omnes, A Very Good Year playing with the theme of the end of the world.

Also includes various stories about AI and others founded in mythology (from unicorns to dragons). In places I found the technical ideas hard to follow; but, to be fair to the author, I have been easily distracted. Funny in places; also some background into why these stories were written.

On the whole a good collection which makes me want to read more of Zelazny's work. ( )

Good read for passing time: This is a good book for the water closet or a trip in the car if you don't want to look out the window. The stories are funny, Zelany does a good job of communicating his stories in 10-20 pages, and his ideas are fairly original.

Two of my favorites are Unicorn Variations, mostly because I like chess and beer, and this story has both. The second favorite story is "Go Starless Into The Night", I won't ruin it for you, but I thought it was very intriquing.

Of course, there are a few stories along the way that could probably be considered "filler". Most notably his triple short short stories "fire and ice...a very good year". It's a nice idea, but it just left me feeling like he was trying to experiment with a new style and hadn't quite got the hang of it.

Overall, it's a very good shorts collection, worth the read, but just realize that there are a few stories that look like they were put in there to fill out the volume.

A collection largely composed of quite short work, barring the brilliant Home Is the Hangman novella. In fact, multiple short-shorts to be found here, including a triple that starts with Fire And/Or Ice. A couple of stories rescued from fanzine and other death it seems, too.

Several of these are of the amusing variety.

There is also a sequel to the Devil Car story some people may have come across.

Included also are a couple of essays, one on sf and criticism and related topics, for when he had to think about talking at unis, and another on writing. Some short intros to stories are included.

As such, a little under the mark at 3.45 story average overall.

Unicorn Variations : Unicorn Variation - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The Last of the Wild Ones - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Recital - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The Naked Matador - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Dismal Light - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Go Starless in the Night - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : But Not the Herald - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : A Hand Across the Galaxy - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The Force that Through the Circuit Drives the Current - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Home Is the Hangman - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Fire And/Or Ice - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Exeunt Omnes - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : A Very Good Year - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : My Lady of the Diodes - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The Horses of Lir - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The Night Has 999 Eyes - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Angel Dark Angel - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : Walpurgisnacht - Roger Zelanzy
Unicorn Variations : The George Business - Roger Zelanzy

Mythological species replacement with sasquatch chess master.

4 out of 5

Car herd cull history comeback duel failure.

4 out of 5

Singing character end.

3 out of 5

Killer coupling.

3.5 out of 5

Prison project main sequence remains.

3.5 out of 5

Corpsicle history lesson.

3.5 out of 5

Hoping to mug Hercules definitely too Hopeful.

3.5 out of 5

Interstellar foster kid letter.

3 out of 5

Telefactor operation autonomy observation.

3.5 out of 5

Telepresence party prank has terrible results, robot killer wrongly represented afterwards, but does his duty despite detective.

5 out of 5

Twilight of the Gods nookie.

3.5 out of 5

End of play.

3 out of 5

New Year's repeat.

3 out of 5

Crime spree jealous computer chess double cross teamup.

3 out of 5

Flying Dutchman ship change no improvement.

4 out of 5

Taking over the mythic keeping job from uncle.

4 out of 5

Sun maybe not scary.

2.5 out of 5

Agents of 'Death', chosen for exceptional physical abilities and then enhanced and given cool toys. They also get two coffee breaks a day.

4 out of 5

Talking tomb programs.

3.5 out of 5

Stage fight.

3.5 out of 5

4 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/11/unicorn-variations-roger-zelazny.html ( )

This Zelazy collection offers many strong stories, but none that really knocked my socks off. "Home Is the Hangman," a story about an early experiment in Artificial Intelligence that comes back to meet its makers, was the longest and probably my favorite of the bunch. Many of the stories were "short shorts," just a couple of pages long. They certainly demonstrate Zelazny's broad range of style, genre and subject matter. Several are humorous. "Recital" you would almost have to classify as experimental fiction. "The Naked Matador" is a dark little Hemingwayesque adventure story. The brief introductions to the stories were quite interesting, each offering a different variation on how a story comes into existence. ( )