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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
После неудачного опыта с Тедом Чангом захотелось проверенной фантастики почитать. И пусть это все же не фантастика, а, скорее фэнтези - с магией, древнеегипетскими богами и прочим, но все же прекрасное чтение.
Okay....
Liked: a handful of lines, use of mixed formats, Vramin, the prologue
Disliked: Really, we're in the far future with the Egyptian pantheon and a human society that has transcended death and we're still saying things like "I shall not lose to a woman"? Also, weird inconsistent use of "thou" form
Really big shrug: Aside from names and in some cases appearances, the entire Egyptian pantheon bit is fragmented and feels like a cheap way to raise the stakes of the conflict, and also it just kinda sucks
Liked: a handful of lines, use of mixed formats, Vramin, the prologue
Disliked: Really, we're in the far future with the Egyptian pantheon and a human society that has transcended death and we're still saying things like "I shall not lose to a woman"? Also, weird inconsistent use of "thou" form
Really big shrug: Aside from names and in some cases appearances, the entire Egyptian pantheon bit is fragmented and feels like a cheap way to raise the stakes of the conflict, and also it just kinda sucks
Very Zelazny – I had hoped, after liking Lord of Light a lot, that something similar would work equally well. And it's somewhat similar, superficially. Egypt religion instead of Indian, but regardless, high-powered gods with their own agendas, all that stuff.
But in a way, it's more like **Nine Princes in Amber**, which I didn't get on with: there's nobody to like, and the story is sufficiently abstract that it could go in any direction at any moment, at the author's whim. With Lord of Light, I felt like there was a degree of internal consistency enforced by the story that the reader could rely on – not so here. And when everything feels arbitrary, I'm just not terribly interested.
It **is** pretty well-written, though, and I enjoyed the style and mysticism. If any of the characters had been sympathetic in any way, I would have overlooked any arbitrary (and literal) dei ex machina.
Also, absolute bonus points for the terrifying, terribly cyberpunk addition of women, who out of economic despair lease their bodies to companies, to be joined into machines that are human only from the waist down, and that will answer any question as long as they are kept aroused by the client for the duration of the required computation.
But in a way, it's more like **Nine Princes in Amber**, which I didn't get on with: there's nobody to like, and the story is sufficiently abstract that it could go in any direction at any moment, at the author's whim. With Lord of Light, I felt like there was a degree of internal consistency enforced by the story that the reader could rely on – not so here. And when everything feels arbitrary, I'm just not terribly interested.
It **is** pretty well-written, though, and I enjoyed the style and mysticism. If any of the characters had been sympathetic in any way, I would have overlooked any arbitrary (and literal) dei ex machina.
Also, absolute bonus points for the terrifying, terribly cyberpunk addition of women, who out of economic despair lease their bodies to companies, to be joined into machines that are human only from the waist down, and that will answer any question as long as they are kept aroused by the client for the duration of the required computation.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced
It breaks my heart to give a Zelazny novel such a low score, but this really felt like an unsuccessful experiment.
I’ve been on a Zelazny kick of late. I really like Lord of Light and the first Amber series. There are definitely ideas in Creatures of Light and Darkness that have carried over from the former. And there are ideas that are more fully explored in the latter.
The novel, inspired by Egyptian myth, is both beautiful and horrific with numerous stylistic changes. But at the same time it can drift into mythical and allegorical territory. Is anything in this book to be taken literally?
At one point a character is wrestling with all comers at a public fair. It’s very concrete with lots of blood and mud and nothing but a rope barricade holding back the spectators. Then another character shows up to do battle with the first character and their conflict is so intense it threatens to destroy the entire planet. What kind of power do these characters have?
Nothing is explained in depth. The bizarreness is accepted as just the way things are. I found myself looking for a grand unification theory to explain everything. But maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe it’s just a myth written from the far future. Draw from it what beauty and morals are available and don’t try to explain it.
The novel, inspired by Egyptian myth, is both beautiful and horrific with numerous stylistic changes. But at the same time it can drift into mythical and allegorical territory. Is anything in this book to be taken literally?
At one point a character is wrestling with all comers at a public fair. It’s very concrete with lots of blood and mud and nothing but a rope barricade holding back the spectators. Then another character shows up to do battle with the first character and their conflict is so intense it threatens to destroy the entire planet. What kind of power do these characters have?
Nothing is explained in depth. The bizarreness is accepted as just the way things are. I found myself looking for a grand unification theory to explain everything. But maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe it’s just a myth written from the far future. Draw from it what beauty and morals are available and don’t try to explain it.
Sort of like the iliad, on a ton of peyote... With egyptian techno-gods and logic worshipping sex computers. The poetic prose, shifting styles, and abstract ideas made it really tough to follow at times, but when the ideas are this psychedelic and grandiose, you can't really expect complete coherence. Hugely experimental stuff, and definitely one of the most vividly colourful and thoroughly mindfucking (?) reads of my life. Also, there is a character who is literally just a shadow of a horse (with no horse to cast the shadow) who is also a black hole who can consume planets...so that's pretty sweet.
I found this one even harder to follow than Lord of Light, but it has some great moments that were delightful to read.