History Literature / CreaturesOfLightAndDarkness

''Creatures of Light and Darkness'' is a {{Fantasy}} novel filled with ScienceFiction tropes; almost the reverse of Zelazny's previous novel, ''Literature/LordOfLight'', which was more-or-less a ScienceFiction novel filled with {{Fantasy}} tropes. Though completely unrelated, the two works are often considered companion pieces. It is also one of Zelazny's most experimental and bizarre works, in terms of style. In fact, it actually started as a literal experiment. Zelazny intended it as a writing exercise where he could try out different techniques and approaches. His friend, fellow author Samuel R. "Chip" Delany, finally persuaded him to publish it, and the book is dedicated to Delany.

At opposite ends of the universe lie the House of Death, ruled by Anubis, and the House of Life, ruled by Osiris. Between, lie the Middle Worlds, where mankind flies between the stars in mighty spaceships, and colonizes countless worlds. All the Middle Worlds are subject to the tides of Life and Death, except the Three Hundred Immortals.

''Creatures of Light and Darkness'' is a {{Fantasy}} novel filled with ScienceFiction tropes; almost the reverse of Zelazny's previous novel, ''Literature/LordOfLight'', which was more-or-less a ScienceFiction novel filled with {{Fantasy}} tropes. Though completely unrelated, the two works are often considered companion pieces. It is also one of Zelazny's most experimental and bizarre works, in terms of style.

''Creatures of Light and Darkness'' is a ScienceFantasy novel by Creator/RogerZelazny. It combines [[EgyptianMythology Egyptian Gods]] with standard ScienceFiction themes to produce a truly unusual work.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: * Played with: Megra insists on fighting Wakim before she'll sleep with him--because she has genetic SuperStrength, and wants to make sure she doesn't break him accidentally.

* GodCouple: Although it's not revealed until later, [[spoiler:Thoth and Nephytha]]. Also, though the relationships are over at the time of the story, both Isis and Osiris, and Isis and Set.

-->"Now, some say her name is Mercy, and others say it's Lust. Her secret name is Isis. Her secret soul is Dust."

* DivineParentage: Set is both father and son to Thoth (and vice versa, of course), and Horus is the son of Osiris. The latter is canon in EgyptianMythology.

* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: The immortal Prince Who Was A Thousand tends towards this style of speech, especially when conversing with his bodiless love, Nephytha. Other immortals and gods speak normal modern English, for the most part.

* DivineParentage: Set is both father and son to Thoth (and vice versa, of course), and Horus is the son of Osiris. Both of those examples are directly from EgyptianMythology.

''Creatures of Light and Darkness'' is a {{Fantasy}} novel filled with ScienceFiction tropes; almost the reverse of Zelazny's previous novel, ''Literature/LordOfLight'', which was more-or-less a ScienceFiction novel filled with {{Fantasy}} tropes. Though completely unrelated, the two works are often considered companion pieces.

Anubis has spent a thousand years training a champion chosen from among those who dwell in the House of Death, and now this champion has mastered the arts of combat and Temporal Fugue. Anubis gives him a name, Wakim, and sends him forth to hunt down and destroy one of these immortals, The Prince Who Was A Thousand. At the other end of the universe, Osiris, learning of this, sends his own son, Horus, to help defend the Prince. But who is this mysterious Prince? And who is Anubis's nameless champion? And does the Prince really need help?

* TrickedOutGlove: The Glove of Set, which, once worn, expands to cover the entire body in an armored mesh.

* AndIMustScream: Osiris deals with his enemies in this fashion. His ex-girlfriend is a living skull that he uses as a paperweight; one enemy is threaded into his carpet but aware as he is walked upon; other enemies are awake and aware in forms like ashtrays and fireplace pokers.

* NoIAmBehindYou: One of the earliest examples of this Trope. The Steel General, Wakim, and several other characters practice a martial art known as "Temporal Fugue", which has the practitioner project himself through space and time behind his opponent to strike. Unfortunately, duels between two practioners invariably degenerate into recursive replications of hundreds of consecutive duplications, straining the time-space continuum.