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Loading... Creatures of Light and Darkness (1968)by Roger Zelazny
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Not a lot of authors could pull this off but I think Zelazny did. The setting is some distant future where about 300 individuals from a multiworld, multicivilization section of the universe have attained godlike powers over matter, time, space, life and death. There is a power struggle among about a half dozen of these beings. The story is told in "heightened" poetic language but the characters are ordinary joes. There is humor and the writing is beautiful. You have to give it a chance though as it is not a run of the mill adventure novel. It is short, about 200 pages. The chapters are short also. This helps with tolerating the eccentricities. I enjoyed it in the end. Of all the Zelazny books I have read - and they are quite a few - this one was probably my least favorite. I would qualify that by saying it is probably more my taste than anything else. Building perhaps on "Jack of Shadows" and perhaps also laying the groundwork for his Amber series, the concept is interesting as he combines some classical gods with a multiworld scenario as the representatives life and death battle across worlds and dimensions. It is imaginative and his characters are, as always, good. But note that I didn't say that I didn't like it - only that it was my least favorite of his. I think what bothered me about this one is that it didn't read as quickly as many of his do - I felt like the narrative got bogged down in spots. Still overall, it is a good story and has a lot to recommend it. If you are a Zelazny fan, and can find this, it is definitely worth the read. Where to start. OK. I liked this book. A lot. It's on my regular re-read list. It features a universe where death and life are controlled by two poles, the House of the Dead, run by Anubis, and the House of Life, run Osiris. Anubis and Osiris cooperate and compete at the same time. Anubis has gotten ready an emissary, who he has been training for a thousand years, to kill his greatest enemy. Without getting into spoilers, let's just say that things do not go as planned :) Roger Zelazny wrote this book with an amazing stylistic touch. Many of the concepts he included were later picked up by other writers, like the various prayers spoken by Madrak, one of the major characters, of which 'The Possibly Proper Death Litany' is a fantastic example: Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen. It can be argued that this is one of the most influential Science Fiction books ever written. It certainly is one of the most beautifully written. no reviews | add a review
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"To save his kingdom, Anubis, Lord of the Dead sends forth his servant on a mission of vengeance. At the same time, from The House of Life, Osiris sends forth his son, Horus, on the same mission to destroy utterly and forever The Prince Who Was a Thousand. But neither of these superhuman warriors is prepared for the strange and harrowing world of mortal life, and The Thing That Cries in the Night may well destroy not only their worlds, but all mankind"--Cover p. [4]. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I guess it goes with the territory because Zelazny was first and foremost a poet and this book is exactly that kind of weird poetry-become-prose fantasy story that will cause a lot of headaches for people who are more accustomed to standard structured approach to the story telling.
It will need concentration to go through it and figure it out - parts of it are almost movie-like, like first chapter where Lord of the Dead sends his henchman to kill the Immortals that are ruining the balance of dead-and-life-cycle or fight against the dragon (cobra? old man?) that destroys the entire continents, oceans and worlds. Parts of it just .... weird. Trippy.... did I say LSD-ish? You know with spirals and stuff.
Do note that Egyptian mythology given here is not exactly what you would expect - again, that poetic weirdness comes to surface, like copulation with the machine to gain knowledge (because machine works on sexual arousal and satisfaction - had me laughing there :)) or constant incestual father-son-who-is-father's-father relations (?? I know). I guess this comes with the territory (Jodorowsky is another creator that has this approach to art - do not just amaze, make the reader go what-the-.... and OMG and oh blimey because shock is the value - right? Well, not all the time in my opinion and to be honest Zelazny is much better writer and artist).
Story in it essence is pretty straight-forward fantasy story - our hero (who at times was like anything in the world that ever existed except maybe ball-pen) is fighting creature that threatens the very foundation of the world. Then he gets confronted by bunch of heroes on the quest to kill him because our hero is anomaly that is seen as threat to dead-life-cycle (because he is Immortal) but they'll finally decide to join the forces and fight the main danger.
All in all interesting story and I suggest you find the concentration to finish it. If you expect Lord of Light like story then you are looking at the wrong place - this is more like having several storytellers sitting around, taking drugs, re-telling known stories and going "Now it would be cool to have giant rooster attacking the shoe that can talk - because shoe, oh yeah, they are to be worshiped" :):) And yeah, shoes matter in this one, believe me :) ( )