I love his books so freaking much. I got into his writing 11 years ago, and I consider him one of the best writers I've ever encountered.
His protagonists are awesome. I've never liked the Action Survivor or similar archetypes, the kind who just kind of stumble through the story narrowly avoiding death until the story says they win; I had just slogged my way through a glut of novels with such characters (by authors who shall remain nameless) when I first encountered Zelazny's books, and it was such a breath of fresh air. A typical Zelazny protagonist is a witty, cultured immortal with powers beyond mortal ken and at least one lifetime of martial experience; yet the way he fleshes them out and the situations he throws them in keeps them from being Mary Sues or Boring Invincible Heroes.
The other thing I like about his books are how much Better Than It Sounds they are. The guy will take a premise that reads like it was thought up by a 14 year old on a sugar high, and turn out a masterpiece. "Roadmarks" was about the protagonist A dragon with type three Merlin Sickness and is stuck in human form traveling a road that allows travel through time and parallel universes looking for the timeline where he started a family and bumping into shaolin monks, Doc Savage villains, and the Marquis de Sade; the latter, at the climax of the novel, rides a mind-controlled T-rex into battle against another dragon. "A Night in The Lonesome October" is about Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, the Wolfman, and Dracula teaming up to stop Cthulhu from being summoned; and it's told from the perspective of Jack the Ripper's dog! And the Amber series. Jesus, the Amber series. No plot synopsis can do it justice. The guy's entire catalog is Crazy Awesome incarnate, and I can't even convince my friends to check it out because they can't imagine any literary virtuoso could make concepts so snakeshit insane work.
So yeah. Roger Zelazny. Greatest sci-fi/fantasy author of the last 50 years? His claim to the title is as good as anyone's.
I love his books so freaking much. I got into his writing 11 years ago, and I consider him one of the best writers I've ever encountered.
His protagonists are awesome. I've never liked the Action Survivor or similar archetypes, the kind who just kind of stumble through the story narrowly avoiding death until the story says they win; I had just slogged my way through a glut of novels with such characters (by authors who shall remain nameless) when I first encountered Zelazny's books, and it was such a breath of fresh air. A typical Zelazny protagonist is a witty, cultured immortal with powers beyond mortal ken and at least one lifetime of martial experience; yet the way he fleshes them out and the situations he throws them in keeps them from being Mary Sues or Boring Invincible Heroes.
The other thing I like about his books are how much Better Than It Sounds they are. The guy will take a premise that reads like it was thought up by a 14 year old on a sugar high, and turn out a masterpiece. "Roadmarks" was about the protagonist A dragon with type three Merlin Sickness and is stuck in human form traveling a road that allows travel through time and parallel universes looking for the timeline where he started a family and bumping into shaolin monks, Doc Savage villains, and the Marquis de Sade; the latter, at the climax of the novel, rides a mind-controlled T-rex into battle against another dragon. "A Night in The Lonesome October" is about Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, the Wolfman, and Dracula teaming up to stop Cthulhu from being summoned; and it's told from the perspective of Jack the Ripper's dog! And the Amber series. Jesus, the Amber series. No plot synopsis can do it justice. The guy's entire catalog is Crazy Awesome incarnate, and I can't even convince my friends to check it out because they can't imagine any literary virtuoso could make concepts so snakeshit insane work.
So yeah. Roger Zelazny. Greatest sci-fi/fantasy author of the last 50 years? His claim to the title is as good as anyone's.
Another TL:DR post.