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A review by zare_i
Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny
4.0
Now this was a trippy, LSD-ish story.
I guess it goes with the territory because Zelazny was first and foremost a poet and this book is exactly that kind of weird poetry-become-prose fantasy story that will cause a lot of headaches for people who are more accustomed to standard structured approach to the story telling.
It will need concentration to go through it and figure it out - parts of it are almost movie-like, like first chapter where Lord of the Dead sends his henchman to kill the Immortals that are ruining the balance of dead-and-life-cycle or fight against the dragon (cobra? old man?) that destroys the entire continents, oceans and worlds. Parts of it just .... weird. Trippy.... did I say LSD-ish? You know with spirals and stuff.
Do note that Egyptian mythology given here is not exactly what you would expect - again, that poetic weirdness comes to surface, like copulation with the machine to gain knowledge (because machine works on sexual arousal and satisfaction - had me laughing there :)) or constant incestual father-son-who-is-father's-father relations (?? I know). I guess this comes with the territory (Jodorowsky is another creator that has this approach to art - do not just amaze, make the reader go what-the-.... and OMG and oh blimey because shock is the value - right? Well, not all the time in my opinion and to be honest Zelazny is much better writer and artist).
Story in it essence is pretty straight-forward fantasy story - our hero (who at times was like anything in the world that ever existed except maybe ball-pen) is fighting creature that threatens the very foundation of the world. Then he gets confronted by bunch of heroes on the quest to kill him because our hero is anomaly that is seen as threat to dead-life-cycle (because he is Immortal) but they'll finally decide to join the forces and fight the main danger.
All in all interesting story and I suggest you find the concentration to finish it. If you expect Lord of Light like story then you are looking at the wrong place - this is more like having several storytellers sitting around, taking drugs, re-telling known stories and going "Now it would be cool to have giant rooster attacking the shoe that can talk - because shoe, oh yeah, they are to be worshiped" :):) And yeah, shoes matter in this one, believe me :)
I guess it goes with the territory because Zelazny was first and foremost a poet and this book is exactly that kind of weird poetry-become-prose fantasy story that will cause a lot of headaches for people who are more accustomed to standard structured approach to the story telling.
It will need concentration to go through it and figure it out - parts of it are almost movie-like, like first chapter where Lord of the Dead sends his henchman to kill the Immortals that are ruining the balance of dead-and-life-cycle or fight against the dragon (cobra? old man?) that destroys the entire continents, oceans and worlds. Parts of it just .... weird. Trippy.... did I say LSD-ish? You know with spirals and stuff.
Do note that Egyptian mythology given here is not exactly what you would expect - again, that poetic weirdness comes to surface, like copulation with the machine to gain knowledge (because machine works on sexual arousal and satisfaction - had me laughing there :)) or constant incestual father-son-who-is-father's-father relations (?? I know). I guess this comes with the territory (Jodorowsky is another creator that has this approach to art - do not just amaze, make the reader go what-the-.... and OMG and oh blimey because shock is the value - right? Well, not all the time in my opinion and to be honest Zelazny is much better writer and artist).
Story in it essence is pretty straight-forward fantasy story - our hero (who at times was like anything in the world that ever existed except maybe ball-pen) is fighting creature that threatens the very foundation of the world. Then he gets confronted by bunch of heroes on the quest to kill him because our hero is anomaly that is seen as threat to dead-life-cycle (because he is Immortal) but they'll finally decide to join the forces and fight the main danger.
All in all interesting story and I suggest you find the concentration to finish it. If you expect Lord of Light like story then you are looking at the wrong place - this is more like having several storytellers sitting around, taking drugs, re-telling known stories and going "Now it would be cool to have giant rooster attacking the shoe that can talk - because shoe, oh yeah, they are to be worshiped" :):) And yeah, shoes matter in this one, believe me :)