The Last Defender of Camelot is a new collection of classic Zelazny short stories, including: "He Who Shapes," the basis for his novel The Dream Master; "Damnation Alley," which was later fleshed out to full novel form; "Passion Play," Zelazny's first published work; and the title story, a robot tale of sorts that explains how Sir Launcelot survived the thousand years since the fall of Camelot. Here There be Dragons is the story of a small kingdom terrorized by dragons-or at least that's what the people living there have come to believe, since all the maps in the kingdom show that they're surrounded by dragons. And if all the maps agree on that point, then it must be true, mustn't it...?
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About the Author
Roger Zelazny was a three-time Nebula Award and six-time Hugo Award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy classics, including the short stories "24 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai," "Permafrost," and "Home is the Hangman." Zelazny was the bestselling author of the ten-volume Chronicles of Amber series of fantasy novels, as well as the novels Lord of Light, and Psychoshop (written with Alfred Bester). Zelazny's novel Damnation Alley served as the basis for the 1972 cult film of the same name, starring Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The first thing to be noted about this book is that it is *not* a reprint of the 1980 collection released under the same name, which featured Zelazny's own selection and commentary of his favourite uncollected stories. This is a new anthology of his best work, chosen by friend and fellow-SF author Robert Silverberg, and featuring a substantially different lineup from the previous volume.
This said, although only one of the stories here ("Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love") has not been published in previous collections, this piece is possibly one of Zelazny's best stories ever, which alone would make this book a worthwhile buy. The Last Defender of Camelot showcases some of Zelazny's best short story writing from throughout his career, and Silverberg's comments and introduction are an insightful and thought-provoking reminder of what was lost when Zelazny died in 1995.
This said, although only one of the stories here ("Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love") has not been published in previous collections, this piece is possibly one of Zelazny's best stories ever, which alone would make this book a worthwhile buy. The Last Defender of Camelot showcases some of Zelazny's best short story writing from throughout his career, and Silverberg's comments and introduction are an insightful and thought-provoking reminder of what was lost when Zelazny died in 1995.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I decided to drop a star because this collection isn't perfect. Which is not surprising, because collections featuring different styles can't please all the people all the time.
Personally, I thought the famous and much lauded "Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice my Love" while good, was an excessively hyped (rarely, if ever, a good thing) showcase of style over content. Ditto for "24 Views of Mt Fuji, by Hokusai". And "Halfjack" was bad. Not because of it's brevity, but I found the underlying premise distasteful.
The rest are all fair to excellent stories. Though for me, "For a Breath I Tarry" is his piece de resitance; a work of genius I could never expect to match. Enjoy.
Personally, I thought the famous and much lauded "Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice my Love" while good, was an excessively hyped (rarely, if ever, a good thing) showcase of style over content. Ditto for "24 Views of Mt Fuji, by Hokusai". And "Halfjack" was bad. Not because of it's brevity, but I found the underlying premise distasteful.
The rest are all fair to excellent stories. Though for me, "For a Breath I Tarry" is his piece de resitance; a work of genius I could never expect to match. Enjoy.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
12 reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A hacked version of the classic anthology
25 Jun 2002
By H. Smith
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
As a huge fan of the author and the original release of this brilliant short story collection, I am extremely disappointed in the new release. HUNT DOWN THE ORIGINAL. The new version omits all of Zelazny's forewords and, more damning, it actually omits some of the better stories found in the original collection. Silverburg mentions "Horsemen!" in the introduction, then the story is strangely absent. This is a travesty.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book of wonderful short stories
11 Mar 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This is a great book of short stories that covers a whole range of subjects in fantasy and science fiction. The title story gives a hopeful continuation of the Arthur legend. The novelette, "And Now, for a Breath, I Tarry," is sheer poetry as it tells a Faustian tale using robots and computers instead of humans. It's definitely worth the time to find it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good new selection with an old title
17 Nov 2003
By L. Stearns Newburg
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This new collection of Zelazny stories, selected by Robert Silverberg, is a good one. It contains 3 of his stronger stories from earlier collections made by Zelazny himself: "For A Breath I Tarry," "The Last Defender of Camelot," and "24 Views of Mt. Fuji."
The book also contains several other worthy stories to create a collection that spans Zelazny's career. I suspect length issues caused the selection to be limited to only 11 stories. Still, as a long-time reader of Zelazny's work since the '60s, I think he would have been better represented if I Books could have made the collection bigger. New readers of Zelazny can't easily get a feeling for the magnitude of his accomplishments with such a small selection.
The absence of "He Who Shapes" and "Damnation Alley," for instance, is to be regretted. Still, the collection is good overall. New readers who wish to read more of Zelazny's work will simply need to scour 2nd hand bookstores.
Another, somewhat irksome problem is that the collection name, _The Last Defender of Camelot_, matches that of a collection that Zelazny published himself back in 1980. That collection was probably one of his 2 or 3 best, and it was also quite large. Giving this collection the same name seems an ill-considered choice, and it will result in some confusion that should have been avoided. Most regrettable, but oh, well. At least these stories are available again, and that is a plus.
Addendum 2011: The NESFA editions of the complete stories of Zelazny now satisfy the needs of people who want to read everything in the order that it was written in. Collections like this one are still useful for introducing readers to Zelazny's work.
The book also contains several other worthy stories to create a collection that spans Zelazny's career. I suspect length issues caused the selection to be limited to only 11 stories. Still, as a long-time reader of Zelazny's work since the '60s, I think he would have been better represented if I Books could have made the collection bigger. New readers of Zelazny can't easily get a feeling for the magnitude of his accomplishments with such a small selection.
The absence of "He Who Shapes" and "Damnation Alley," for instance, is to be regretted. Still, the collection is good overall. New readers who wish to read more of Zelazny's work will simply need to scour 2nd hand bookstores.
Another, somewhat irksome problem is that the collection name, _The Last Defender of Camelot_, matches that of a collection that Zelazny published himself back in 1980. That collection was probably one of his 2 or 3 best, and it was also quite large. Giving this collection the same name seems an ill-considered choice, and it will result in some confusion that should have been avoided. Most regrettable, but oh, well. At least these stories are available again, and that is a plus.
Addendum 2011: The NESFA editions of the complete stories of Zelazny now satisfy the needs of people who want to read everything in the order that it was written in. Collections like this one are still useful for introducing readers to Zelazny's work.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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