- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Spectra Books (Nov 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553354485
- ISBN-13: 978-0553354485
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 1.9 x 21.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,134,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A riotous new fantasy series that will challenge the funniest the field has to offer--from the creator of the bestselling Amber series and one of the genre's legendary humorists. Azzy Elbub, demon, has his sights set on the Millenial Evil Deeds Award, given to the being whose acts do the most toward reshaping the world. But his evil plans go far astray. . . .
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming starts out like gangbusters, starts to hit some slow patches midway through, and sort of just fizzles at the end, but it's still a very funny book by the writing duo of Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. The main character is Azzie Elbub, a demon who finally gets the chance to get out of the pits and go back up to earth, thanks to the Grim Reaper's slightly premature harvesting of a certain soul; even the devil wants nothing to do with lawsuits, so he sends Azzie along to make sure the not-dead guy makes an easy transition back into life. Azzie's luck is even better than he initially thinks, as his return to earth just so happens to fall in the days leading up to the year 1000. Every millennium, the forces of Good and Evil stage a contest to determine who will control the universe for the next ten centuries. Azzie just so happens to have a great idea to pitch to the Millennial Evil Deeds committee. He will recreate the whole Sleeping Beauty-Prince Charming story, but this time evil will rise up and destroy any chance of a happily ever after ending. Having gotten his idea approved and received an unlimited credit card for the purchase of necessary supplies, he sets to work. He needs a good assistant, of course, and a couple of castles, and an Enchanted Forest which simply must have flaming trees and such, and of course he will need a fitting Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. Here is where the magic of his plan really shines, as he takes parts from different bodies and brings them together in an act of magical creation that guarantees, he thinks, the success of his nefarious plan. Thus, his Prince Charming has the legs of one of mankind's biggest cowards, Sleeping Beauty gets such nifty features as a left arm born for stealing, etc.
Of course, Azzie faces obstacles along the way. His otherworldly suppliers are less than cooperative with his requisition requests, he has to deal with an angel of good overseeing his whole operation (no cheating, even for Evil), and his initial plans for micro-managing the activities of Prince Charming in particular have to be rethought several times over. He does have an old witch flame at his side, and the god Hermes can always be counted upon to give good advice, but Azzie keeps falling into little traps set by little girls wanting wishes, dwarves who don't take kindly to having their precious gems forcibly loaned out, and other magical snares.
Unfortunately, the novel's cohesion threatens to come apart at the seams as the novel progresses. There is never a sense of discontinuity between both authors; rather, it is as if another author failed to deliver his part of the whole story. Transitions become much more rapid and forced, certain minor characters seem to be forgotten along the way, and the climax comes and goes so fast you might miss it. The idea behind the story is brilliant, and the authors clearly start out with the power and will to make it work, but something goes wrong along the way, making the second half of the novel feel forced and unsatisfying. Still, though, there is a lot of fun and laughs to be found in these pages, and the reader's thoughts about what could have been do not necessarily destroy the entertainment value of this farcical fantasy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Zelazny always had a little bit of fun with his stories of various supernatural beings, and Sheckley was known for writing with a bit of tongue in cheek, so this novel portraying the exploits of one demon, Azzie Elbub, should have been a hand's down snap for them.
Indeed, the book starts smartly, as Azzie, through the fortuitous happening of someone in Hell grabbing a soul too early, and the higher ups not wanting to deal with the resulting lawsuit (obviously, lawyers are much worse than demons), gets to escort the poor soul back to the world of the living. Once there, finding it is the year 1000, and time for the millennial contest between Heaven and Hell for who will hold sway on Earth for the next 1000 years, Azzie conceives of a great plan for winning the contest. He will re-create the fairy tale of Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty, but with one small difference: the Prince will be so much of coward that his quest will fail miserably, proving that man's basest desires and emotions are not noble, but belong to the Dark Angel.
For much of the first half of the book, things cook along quite merrily, given Azzie's problems obtaining the necessary body parts, the infuriating blockages he runs into at the otherworldly supply depot (What? You only have one castle in stock? And it takes how long to set up an Enchanted Forest?), more problems preserving and assembling his body parts into appropriate wholes, etc. But once all these preliminaries are completed, a lot of the fun seems to go away, and the story seems to gallop off in too many different directions at once, with the appearance of a Heavenly Angel to oversee his project, Prince Charming not reacting well to instruction, kidnappings, witches, dragons, etc. The book staggers from one incident to the next, with little cohesiveness to the plot, and worse, an almost total disappearance of all the funny wry jokes.
The ending is almost anti-climactic, and quite a letdown from the expectations raised by the beginning of the book. Net result: still quite readable, but not anywhere near the class of his Jack of Shadows, and even falling shy of his A Night in Lonesome October.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Indeed, the book starts smartly, as Azzie, through the fortuitous happening of someone in Hell grabbing a soul too early, and the higher ups not wanting to deal with the resulting lawsuit (obviously, lawyers are much worse than demons), gets to escort the poor soul back to the world of the living. Once there, finding it is the year 1000, and time for the millennial contest between Heaven and Hell for who will hold sway on Earth for the next 1000 years, Azzie conceives of a great plan for winning the contest. He will re-create the fairy tale of Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty, but with one small difference: the Prince will be so much of coward that his quest will fail miserably, proving that man's basest desires and emotions are not noble, but belong to the Dark Angel.
For much of the first half of the book, things cook along quite merrily, given Azzie's problems obtaining the necessary body parts, the infuriating blockages he runs into at the otherworldly supply depot (What? You only have one castle in stock? And it takes how long to set up an Enchanted Forest?), more problems preserving and assembling his body parts into appropriate wholes, etc. But once all these preliminaries are completed, a lot of the fun seems to go away, and the story seems to gallop off in too many different directions at once, with the appearance of a Heavenly Angel to oversee his project, Prince Charming not reacting well to instruction, kidnappings, witches, dragons, etc. The book staggers from one incident to the next, with little cohesiveness to the plot, and worse, an almost total disappearance of all the funny wry jokes.
The ending is almost anti-climactic, and quite a letdown from the expectations raised by the beginning of the book. Net result: still quite readable, but not anywhere near the class of his Jack of Shadows, and even falling shy of his A Night in Lonesome October.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Format:Paperback
This is the first book in the 'Millennial Contests' series by Robert Sheckley & Roger Zelazny. Meet Azzie Elbub, a cocky, resourceful and ambitious young demon, who is condemned to supervising the chores of a bunch of Imps in the Pits of Hell, because of some gambling debts. When a human soul has been sent to the Basement prematurely (even the Grim Reaper slips up occasionally) Azzie gets a chance to return to Earth. He decides to enter the Millennial Contest, a game between the Powers of Good and Evil to celebrate the new millennium. Due to total lack of alternatives, he is chosen to be Evil's representative. He stages a play, largely based on the tale of 'Prince Charming and the Sleeping Beauty' but with an evil twist at the end. After a rather promising beginning, things start to go terribly wrong: personnel at Supply, Hell's Megastore where Azzie purchases most of his magical attributes, turn out to be not as cooperative as Azzie wishes, and his Prince Charming character, composed of body parts from several individuals (not all of them human), is more interested in designing dresses than in swordplay and kissing napping princesses. Azzie's getting more and more frustrated and then, on top of it all, the Powers of Good send an observer to make sure that Azzie doesn't cheat...
Roger Zelazny (he died in 1995) was one of the greatest SF/fantasy writers of the 20th century. I'm a big fan of his books and "Lord of Light" and the Amber series are definitely among my all time favourites. "Bring Me the Head of..." is a light-hearted, very imaginative and funny tale, written in a style that is not unlike Terry Pratchett's. Lots of puns and twists and a supernatural hero who, although he has a rather unsavoury taste for human body parts, is quite charming. Azzie's attempts to persuade Prince Charming to take up his sword and fight his way through an enchanted forest to the princess's castle, instead of drawing Greek patterns for a new dress, are hilarious. There are two more books featuring Azzie Elbub: If at Faust You Don't Succeed and A Farce to be Reckoned with.
Roger Zelazny (he died in 1995) was one of the greatest SF/fantasy writers of the 20th century. I'm a big fan of his books and "Lord of Light" and the Amber series are definitely among my all time favourites. "Bring Me the Head of..." is a light-hearted, very imaginative and funny tale, written in a style that is not unlike Terry Pratchett's. Lots of puns and twists and a supernatural hero who, although he has a rather unsavoury taste for human body parts, is quite charming. Azzie's attempts to persuade Prince Charming to take up his sword and fight his way through an enchanted forest to the princess's castle, instead of drawing Greek patterns for a new dress, are hilarious. There are two more books featuring Azzie Elbub: If at Faust You Don't Succeed and A Farce to be Reckoned with.
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