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Product Description
About the Author
Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) studied Elizabethan and Jacobean drama at Columbia University before bursting on to the science fiction scene while still in his mid-twenties. Among his many books are Four for Tomorrow, The Dream Master, A Rose for Ecclesiastes and the many titles in the Chronicle of Amber.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Zelazny seemed to enjoy taking a religion and turning it into a fantasy setting. In this book it's the turn of the Egyptian pantheon with Osiris, Anubis and the like.
The book opens in The House of the Dead overseen by Anubis, he of the jackal-head. The nameless hero has entered his thousand year eve and Anubis is sending him out on an assassination mission. A truly gruesome sequence follows where Anubis 'remodels' our hero.
I can't summarise the plot easily, there's blind alien artificers, The Steel General, a kind of Eternal Soldier whose human body has been completely replaced over the millennia. A shadow of a horse. The Creature That Will Not Die. The Hammer that Smashes Suns. Characters that are weird mixes of flesh and electronics. An electronic oracle that only functions as long as you (sexually) pleasure it. The list goes on....
But it isn't a hopeless mishmash, Zelazny was a master plotter and the story is compelling, though you'll be well through the book before you get on top of all the wrinkles. Don't miss the epitaph given by Mandrake the Magician which is a prayer suitable for all religions, any gods or none of the above. Absolutely hilarious.
This is vintage Zelazny at his crazily inventive best. It's outside-the-box fantasy. Read it, you'll love it.
The book opens in The House of the Dead overseen by Anubis, he of the jackal-head. The nameless hero has entered his thousand year eve and Anubis is sending him out on an assassination mission. A truly gruesome sequence follows where Anubis 'remodels' our hero.
I can't summarise the plot easily, there's blind alien artificers, The Steel General, a kind of Eternal Soldier whose human body has been completely replaced over the millennia. A shadow of a horse. The Creature That Will Not Die. The Hammer that Smashes Suns. Characters that are weird mixes of flesh and electronics. An electronic oracle that only functions as long as you (sexually) pleasure it. The list goes on....
But it isn't a hopeless mishmash, Zelazny was a master plotter and the story is compelling, though you'll be well through the book before you get on top of all the wrinkles. Don't miss the epitaph given by Mandrake the Magician which is a prayer suitable for all religions, any gods or none of the above. Absolutely hilarious.
This is vintage Zelazny at his crazily inventive best. It's outside-the-box fantasy. Read it, you'll love it.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
One of Zelazny's shorter (and least linear) stand-alone novels, "The Creatures of Light and Darkness" sparkles with gems: The Thing that Cries in the Night; the Steel General; temporal fugue; Madrak's non-theistic, non-sectarian last rites speech; the recurring leitmotif of the the dog worrying the glove; and many more.
Zelazny re-invents the Egyptian pantheon in a post-technological future. In this respect, "The Creatures of Light and Darkness" resembles Zelazny's classic "Lord of Light", which borrows from Hindu mythology. Unlike "Lord of Light", which occasionally hinted at the underlying technology, the source of the powers of the god-like protagonists Osiris, Set, Thoth, Horus and the Prince Who Was a Thousand are not explored. But the book's no worse for that. Nor will you find here the same depth of characterisation and plot development. Instead, we're treated to a lyrical pageant that sweeps us along, or rather around, a brilliantly conceived universe.
I hope this obscure but wonderful book makes it back into print. Don't pass by the chance to pick up a second hand copy.
The world is a duller place without Zelazny's brilliance.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Imagine an enormous Universe, millennia from now. Within the Universe, there are many worlds, The Middle Worlds. Most of these worlds are inhabited by more or less intelligent creatures, not all of them human, though. At the beginning of the book, the Universe is ruled by two 'Houses' of Power, The House of the Dead and The House of Life. Osiris, Master of the House of Life, supports life whenever he can, while Anubis, Master of the House of the Dead, strives to destroy it. The Middle Worlds are constantly torn between the two Houses: plenty, proliferation and overpopulation on the one hand, famine, plague and annihilation on the other, mainly resulting in a dubious sort of equilibrium.
After having been a faithful servant in the House of the Dead for one thousand years a man, whose name was taken from him long ago, is summoned by Anubis. He is given a new name, Wakim, and is then sent to the Middle Worlds as Anubis' emissary, to seek and destroy an immortal, presently known as 'The Prince Who was a Thousand'. Meanwhile, in the House of Life, Osiris orders his son, Horus the Avenger, to descend to the Middle Worlds, and kill 'The Prince Who Was a Thousand' in his name.
This is how the story begins. A truly fascinating one, about Egyptian gods, witches, immortals, supernatural beings, magicians, machinery, computers, and betrayal. Quite a complicated story, too, mainly because the reader is, for quite some time, kept in the dark about the true identities of some of the protagonists. Some of the gods possess various identities and others are -due to an anomaly in Time- each other's father and son at the same time, which is quite confusing.
Taking into account that the book was written in 1969, the concepts of 'temporal fugue', a martial art using the fabric of Time and 'Skagganauk Abyss', a phenomenon which is now widely known as 'a black hole', show that Zelazny was definitely ahead of his time.
Roger Zelazny, he died in 1995, was one of the greatest and most inventive SF/fantasy writers of the 20th century. In 'Creatures of Light and Darkness' he has managed to combine various elements of science, fantasy, mythology, ideology and SF in one story, without violating its credibility in any way. Just before he wrote 'Creatures..." Zelazny had won the Hugo Award for his masterpiece 'Lord of Light', which still is one of the best SF books ever.
After having been a faithful servant in the House of the Dead for one thousand years a man, whose name was taken from him long ago, is summoned by Anubis. He is given a new name, Wakim, and is then sent to the Middle Worlds as Anubis' emissary, to seek and destroy an immortal, presently known as 'The Prince Who was a Thousand'. Meanwhile, in the House of Life, Osiris orders his son, Horus the Avenger, to descend to the Middle Worlds, and kill 'The Prince Who Was a Thousand' in his name.
This is how the story begins. A truly fascinating one, about Egyptian gods, witches, immortals, supernatural beings, magicians, machinery, computers, and betrayal. Quite a complicated story, too, mainly because the reader is, for quite some time, kept in the dark about the true identities of some of the protagonists. Some of the gods possess various identities and others are -due to an anomaly in Time- each other's father and son at the same time, which is quite confusing.
Taking into account that the book was written in 1969, the concepts of 'temporal fugue', a martial art using the fabric of Time and 'Skagganauk Abyss', a phenomenon which is now widely known as 'a black hole', show that Zelazny was definitely ahead of his time.
Roger Zelazny, he died in 1995, was one of the greatest and most inventive SF/fantasy writers of the 20th century. In 'Creatures of Light and Darkness' he has managed to combine various elements of science, fantasy, mythology, ideology and SF in one story, without violating its credibility in any way. Just before he wrote 'Creatures..." Zelazny had won the Hugo Award for his masterpiece 'Lord of Light', which still is one of the best SF books ever.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Once every thousand years...
In this book the gods of ancient Egypt are and have always been. And we can assume that the gods of our ancient Egypt were echoes of these beings. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by M. A. Ramos
Egyptian lore
Apparently, Zelazny tries to write books using mythology from all over the world (Eye of Cat: Native American mythology, Lord of Light: Indian mythology), but this book is,... Read more
Published on 23 April 2003 by Zieveraar
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