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Een roos voor de Prediker
Dit zijn zes vreemde, mooie verhalen die het ganse spectrum van Roger Zelazny's opmerkelijke talent omspannen. Kenmerken: ongedwongen verteltrant, kleurrijke taal en inventief shockeffect.
Bevat:
- Een roos voor de Prediker
- Een museumstuk
- De poorten van zijn aanschijn, de toortsen van zijn muil
- Dodenberg
- De dagen van de storm
- Een roes van razernij
Bevat:
- Een roos voor de Prediker
- Een museumstuk
- De poorten van zijn aanschijn, de toortsen van zijn muil
- Dodenberg
- De dagen van de storm
- Een roes van razernij
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
87 people are currently reading
2427 people want to read
About the author
Roger Zelazny
739 books3,818 followersRoger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
January 29, 2016
Zelazny was a master at the short, novelette and novella (rather a pity, since his world-building often leaves me wanting much more) and this collection almost consistently kicked my mental butt for his exploration of humanity and his creativity. His use of language is impressive; he can write concisely, clear-cutting to a quiet moment in the middle of a hurricane, or he can weave together words to perfectly describe an alien sunrise. There is tone of melancholy running through these stories, themes of time and loneliness, but how he translates it into exotic settings is amazing. Who knew he was such a romantic? A few weaker works are included, as well as one or two that seemed like they were fun writing exercises, but even his least efforts are worth reading. A craftsman.
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth: (Nebula winner) Deep-sea fishing on Venus. A baitman takes one last job hunting the biggest sea monster yet, only the commission is from a makeup millionaire. She's filming it, to boot--is Zelazny prescient or what? "Venus at night is a field of sable waters... Dawn is like dumping milk into an inkwell. First, there are erratic curdles of whites, then streamers. Shake the bottle for a gray colloid, then watch it whiten a little more. All of a sudden you've got day."
The Keys to December: Haunting. Beautiful. A group of people bioengineered by General Mining to work in the cold world of Alyonal (now defunct) buy themselves a world and plan to bioengineer it to fit their physical forms. They cryo-sleep during the accelerated planetary evolution, but leave a few people to stand guard each decade, which gives them an unique opportunity to observe local evolution--and extinction. What is it to be human? To be a race? What does one marginalized species owe another? "I'm afraid," she said..."(of) Living the way we've been living, I guess. Leaving little pieces of ourselves in different centuries."
Devil Car: Zelanzy's post-apocalyptic answer to Christine. Groups of wild escaped cars are living in the wastes, led by the Devil Car. Murdock and his artificed car Jenny are tracking him down. What does it mean to be alive and wild?
A Rose for Ecclesiastes: One of his classics. An internationally acclaimed poet with a knack for languages is invited to Mars. He becomes the first human to learn the Martian language, and the first invited into the inner sanctum to see the Martian dance, a mix of spirituality and poetry. "For the next three weeks alphabet-bugs chased each other behind my eyelids whenever I tried to sleep. The sky was an unclouded pool of turquoise that rippled calligraphies whenever I swept my eyes across it." Braxa, the performer, becomes his tutor, and he gains more insight than he expected into the Martian race and a prophecy. A poet as narrator gives Zelazny full reign of wordsmithing. This one is a heart-render.
The Monster and the Maiden: a quick two-pager with a twist.
Collector's Fever: a nephew with ulterior motives collects a Stone that doesn't want to leave. A bit silly, a bit of social commentary. Kind of cute.
This Mortal Mountain: a mountain climber and his team attempt the impossible, the highest mountain in the universe, a mountain higher than the atmosphere. Similar to "A Rose--" it involves a man at the peak of his profession seeking the ultimate challenge. As they climb, his team is not only challenged by winds, but by visions. Poetic beauty; makes me almost identify with mountain climbers, but the quote I found to share contains the ultimate insult: "'You tipped off the press,' I said. 'Now, now,' he said, growing smaller and stiffening as my gaze groped its way through the murk of his central nervous system and finally touched upon the edges of that tiny tumor, his forebrain."
This Moment of the Storm: One of my favorite Zelazny novelettes. A storm predictor and a world hopper predicts the big storm. He works with the Mayor to watch, predict, and steer the city through the Big One, even as society is disrupted. Heartbreaking. A classic, this one is in other collections as well, and is one of my favorites. Begins and ends the the philosophical question of What is Man? "As she looked down into her coffee, I saw a little girl staring into a pool, waiting for it to clear, to see her reflection or to see the bottom of the pool, or perhaps both."
The Great Slow Kings: seems to be a thought exercise: what would be the perspective on life of beings whose lives spanned millennia? "Drax had been musing for the past four centuries (theirs was a sluggish sort) over the possibility of life on other planets in the galaxy."
A Museum Piece: a gorgeous but critically unknown artist decides that "if one could not live by creating art, then one might do worse than turn the thing the other way about, so to speak." In true Zelazny fashion, he not only meets a woman, but an alien. A whimsical tone pervades. "He should have hated being reported stolen during the first week of his career, with nothing to face then but the prospect of second-rate galleries or an uneasy role in the cheerless private collections of cheerless and private collectors."
Divine Madness: a man is caught in a time loop relieves the death of his wife. Remarkable writing technique in capturing the backward loop. "How does a man undo that which has been done? He doesn't. There is no way under the sun. He may suffer, remember, repeat, curse or forget. Nothing else. The past, in this sense, is inevitable."
Corrida: a strange little tale where a man awakens in a bullring. Another short-short, this was one of my least favorite in the collection.
Love is an Imaginary Number: pre-Amber? A demigod tries to escape. Reads much like an Amber short, shifting and escape-focused. "They had made me to forget. They had nailed me with love."
The Man Who Loved the Faioli: "The Faioli were known to come to a man the month before his death--those rare men who still died--" Another haunting, love-lost tale that has the essence of wish-fulfillment about it.
Lucifer: a man who misses the lights and life of the city struggles to get the generators running. An ode to great cities.
The Furies: a little sci-fi opera with a space pirate, an empath, an assassin and a space geographer. A great chase tale with build and tension. What an ending!
The Graveyard Heart: a man meets a beautiful woman who is a member of the Set, an elite, eternal group. In order to be worthy of joining, he needs a lifestyle change and to pass an interview with the head maven. Another one where Zelazny plays with the pinnacle of career, manipulation of time and love.
"He realized, then, that his goals has shifted; the act had become the actor. What he really wanted, first and foremost, impure and unsimple, was an in to the Set--that century-spanning stratocruiser, luxury class, jetting across tomorrow and tomorrow and all the days that followed after--to ride high, like those gods of old who appeared at the rites of the equinoxes, slept between processions, and were remanifest with each new season, the bulk of humanity living through all those dreary days that lay between. To be a part of Leota was to be a part of the Set, and that was what he wanted now. So of course it was vanity. It was love."
Genius.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth: (Nebula winner) Deep-sea fishing on Venus. A baitman takes one last job hunting the biggest sea monster yet, only the commission is from a makeup millionaire. She's filming it, to boot--is Zelazny prescient or what? "Venus at night is a field of sable waters... Dawn is like dumping milk into an inkwell. First, there are erratic curdles of whites, then streamers. Shake the bottle for a gray colloid, then watch it whiten a little more. All of a sudden you've got day."
The Keys to December: Haunting. Beautiful. A group of people bioengineered by General Mining to work in the cold world of Alyonal (now defunct) buy themselves a world and plan to bioengineer it to fit their physical forms. They cryo-sleep during the accelerated planetary evolution, but leave a few people to stand guard each decade, which gives them an unique opportunity to observe local evolution--and extinction. What is it to be human? To be a race? What does one marginalized species owe another? "I'm afraid," she said..."(of) Living the way we've been living, I guess. Leaving little pieces of ourselves in different centuries."
Devil Car: Zelanzy's post-apocalyptic answer to Christine. Groups of wild escaped cars are living in the wastes, led by the Devil Car. Murdock and his artificed car Jenny are tracking him down. What does it mean to be alive and wild?
A Rose for Ecclesiastes: One of his classics. An internationally acclaimed poet with a knack for languages is invited to Mars. He becomes the first human to learn the Martian language, and the first invited into the inner sanctum to see the Martian dance, a mix of spirituality and poetry. "For the next three weeks alphabet-bugs chased each other behind my eyelids whenever I tried to sleep. The sky was an unclouded pool of turquoise that rippled calligraphies whenever I swept my eyes across it." Braxa, the performer, becomes his tutor, and he gains more insight than he expected into the Martian race and a prophecy. A poet as narrator gives Zelazny full reign of wordsmithing. This one is a heart-render.
The Monster and the Maiden: a quick two-pager with a twist.
Collector's Fever: a nephew with ulterior motives collects a Stone that doesn't want to leave. A bit silly, a bit of social commentary. Kind of cute.
This Mortal Mountain: a mountain climber and his team attempt the impossible, the highest mountain in the universe, a mountain higher than the atmosphere. Similar to "A Rose--" it involves a man at the peak of his profession seeking the ultimate challenge. As they climb, his team is not only challenged by winds, but by visions. Poetic beauty; makes me almost identify with mountain climbers, but the quote I found to share contains the ultimate insult: "'You tipped off the press,' I said. 'Now, now,' he said, growing smaller and stiffening as my gaze groped its way through the murk of his central nervous system and finally touched upon the edges of that tiny tumor, his forebrain."
This Moment of the Storm: One of my favorite Zelazny novelettes. A storm predictor and a world hopper predicts the big storm. He works with the Mayor to watch, predict, and steer the city through the Big One, even as society is disrupted. Heartbreaking. A classic, this one is in other collections as well, and is one of my favorites. Begins and ends the the philosophical question of What is Man? "As she looked down into her coffee, I saw a little girl staring into a pool, waiting for it to clear, to see her reflection or to see the bottom of the pool, or perhaps both."
The Great Slow Kings: seems to be a thought exercise: what would be the perspective on life of beings whose lives spanned millennia? "Drax had been musing for the past four centuries (theirs was a sluggish sort) over the possibility of life on other planets in the galaxy."
A Museum Piece: a gorgeous but critically unknown artist decides that "if one could not live by creating art, then one might do worse than turn the thing the other way about, so to speak." In true Zelazny fashion, he not only meets a woman, but an alien. A whimsical tone pervades. "He should have hated being reported stolen during the first week of his career, with nothing to face then but the prospect of second-rate galleries or an uneasy role in the cheerless private collections of cheerless and private collectors."
Divine Madness: a man is caught in a time loop relieves the death of his wife. Remarkable writing technique in capturing the backward loop. "How does a man undo that which has been done? He doesn't. There is no way under the sun. He may suffer, remember, repeat, curse or forget. Nothing else. The past, in this sense, is inevitable."
Corrida: a strange little tale where a man awakens in a bullring. Another short-short, this was one of my least favorite in the collection.
Love is an Imaginary Number: pre-Amber? A demigod tries to escape. Reads much like an Amber short, shifting and escape-focused. "They had made me to forget. They had nailed me with love."
The Man Who Loved the Faioli: "The Faioli were known to come to a man the month before his death--those rare men who still died--" Another haunting, love-lost tale that has the essence of wish-fulfillment about it.
Lucifer: a man who misses the lights and life of the city struggles to get the generators running. An ode to great cities.
The Furies: a little sci-fi opera with a space pirate, an empath, an assassin and a space geographer. A great chase tale with build and tension. What an ending!
The Graveyard Heart: a man meets a beautiful woman who is a member of the Set, an elite, eternal group. In order to be worthy of joining, he needs a lifestyle change and to pass an interview with the head maven. Another one where Zelazny plays with the pinnacle of career, manipulation of time and love.
"He realized, then, that his goals has shifted; the act had become the actor. What he really wanted, first and foremost, impure and unsimple, was an in to the Set--that century-spanning stratocruiser, luxury class, jetting across tomorrow and tomorrow and all the days that followed after--to ride high, like those gods of old who appeared at the rites of the equinoxes, slept between processions, and were remanifest with each new season, the bulk of humanity living through all those dreary days that lay between. To be a part of Leota was to be a part of the Set, and that was what he wanted now. So of course it was vanity. It was love."
Genius.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
November 16, 2020
Venus at night is a field of sable waters. On the coasts, you can never tell where the sea ends and the sky begins. Dawn is like dumping milk into an inkwell. First, there are erratic curdles of white, then streamers. Shade the bottle for a gray colloid, then watch it whiten a little more. All of a sudden you’ve got day. Then start heating the mixture.
For a very long time, science fiction as a genre was defined to me by the works of the golden trio [Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein] with an even earlier infatuation with science and adventure from Jules Verne. Lately, I find myself drifting more and more towards the camp of the dreamers and the poets of space and time: Bradbury, Vance and Zelazny. Their approach to science may not be very accurate, and their focus is often on individual lives and not on the big picture, but their stories are just as thought provoking as they are beautiful. The present collection, published in 1971, includes some of the best novellas and short stories that have won Roger Zelazny many awards and the recognition of his peers.
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of his Mouth sets the mood right from the start, asking the big questions about the human condition. What drives us to the stars and beyond? What makes us take risks and chase phantoms on faraway shores?
And I dream about those eyes. I want to face them once more, even if their finding takes forever. I’ve got to know if there’s something inside me that sets me apart from a rabbit, from notched plates of reflexes and instincts that always fall apart in exactly the same way whenever the proper combination is spun.
I like to think of this novella as a crossover of myths, “Moby Dick” meeting “The Old Man and the Sea” on the shores of a Venusian ocean. Carlton Davits, a playboy fishing enthusiast, is hunting an Ikky, aka Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus, the biggest sea monster in the Solar System. After a couple of failed attempts, Davits joins a new expedition, led by his female counterpart and former lover Jean Luharich, as a baitman.
Green, vast, down. Fast. This is the place where I am equal to a squiggler. If something big decides a baitman looks tastier than what he’s carrying, then irony colors his title as well as the waters about it.
By the time the story was written, almost everybody knew that Venus is practically uninhabitable, so the point is not in the science, but in the evocation of the planetary romances of an earlier era and in the eternal chase after a dream. The mythical, allegorical charge is underlined by the romantic subplot between the two main adventurers, where the roles of hunter and prey are subverted.
“Could be that’s me out there,” I offered. “I am a green sea serpent, a hateful, monstrous beast, and out to destroy you. I am answerable to no one. Push the Inject.”
The Keys to December is about responsibility, about how freedom to act must include also freedom to support the consequences of your actions. In an expanding galaxy with hundreds of hostile environments, corporations turn to genetic manipulation in order to produce the kind of workers best adapted to the conditions of their future mining worlds.
Born of man and woman, in accordance with Catform Y7 requirements, Coldworld Class, Jarry Dark was not suited for existence anywhere in the universe which had guaranteed him a niche. This was either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you looked at it.
Jarry Dark and several hundred others of his Catform breed are left stranded when their destination world explodes. Instead of giving up in despair, Jarry uses his business acumen to amass a fortune and to buy another world, where he hopes to organize a terraforming project for his brethren, who will spend the waiting period in cryo-freeze.
“They made us for Alyonal, and a nova took it away. These creatures came to life in this place, and we’re taking it away. We’re turning all of life on this planet into what we were on our former worlds – misfits.”
But what will happen to the original ecosystem on their destination planet as it goes through cataclysmic changes, especially in view of the apparent intelligence of some of its native species? Who gives one species the right to exterminate another? And what can a single person do against a whole system designed to put the collective interest of a group above individual choice? These are heavy questions without an easy answer, and even more importantly, these are questions we must deal with on our own planet, as mass extinctions and global warming are changing the environment even as we speak.
So look at it however you would, that was the story. Thus does life repay those who would serve her fully.
Devil Car is a shorter piece, about a post-apocalyptic world where cars with artificial intelligence go rogue in an effort to emancipate themselves from their makers. It is, as usual, part whimsical dialogue, part beautiful descriptions of scenery and part allegorical / mythical, like so many other novels and stories from this author.
The desert was a carpet of endless orange, bulging from the sweepings of centuries beneath it.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes chronicles the meeting of two civilizations: the ancient Martians, lost in the contemplation of the past, and the forward pushing Earthmen. A poet with an uncanny gift for languages goes to a Martian temple to study ancient texts. During the dialogue with the High Priestess there, the poet translates from the Book of Ecclesiastes and falls in love with a beautiful temple dancer. A crisis is provoked by this dancer’s unexpected pregnancy after contact with a human, despite a Martian prophecy that claims the doom of their sterile race. The poet rages against this religious fatalism both by quoting our own biblical texts:
It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us.
... and by offering the Martians the gifts of love and beauty in the form of a rose [and a Rilke reference]:
No! Never interpret roses! Don’t. Smell them, pick them, enjoy them. Live in the moment. Hold to it tightly. But charge not the gods to explain. So fast the leaves go by, are blown ...
And no one ever noticed us. Or cared.
Life is too precious to throw it away on dogma and superstition!
The Monster and the Maiden is a two page palate cleanser after the heavy hitters that have come early in the collection. A funny reversal of expectations that brought a kind smile to my face after a tear shed for Mars.
Collector’s Fever is slightly longer than two pages, but belongs in the same category of subversive writing that mocks yet another of our human foibles: that of collecting trophies from the natural world.
“Listen, Stone, my uncle is a rock collector, see? You are the only species of intelligent mineral in the galaxy. You are also the largest specimen I’ve spotted so far. Do you follow me?”
Happy Deeble to all collectors!
This Mortal Mountain is not unlike the first story in the collection, as it deals with adventurers and extreme sports, of seeing the impossible as a challenge to be overcome and of the hubris that comes with the conqueror label.
“I looked down at it and I was sick! I wondered, where did it lead? Stars?
There were no words. I stared and I stared, and I cursed the fact that the thing existed and that someone had found it while I was still around.”
[...] ”A forty-mile-high mountain is not a mountain. It is a world all by itself, which some dumb deity forgot to throw into orbit.”
Zelazny puts to good use here his own fascination with physical activity and dangerous pursuits. The account of a climb up the slopes of the highest mountain in the galaxy is thrilling, complicated by what appears like attacks against the team of climbers by the gods of the mountain. The border between scientific observation and allegory is once again blurred in the service of examining the motivations of the lead character from a metaphysical perspective.
“It is the closest thing to divine drunkenness,” I said to the thunder.
And then she winked at me. It was a red star, so high upon her. Angel’s sword. Phoenix’ wing. Soul on fire. And it blazed at me, across the miles. Then the wind that blows between the worlds swept down over me. It was filled with tears and with crystals of ice. I stood there and felt it, then, “Don’t go away,” I said, and I watched until all was darkness once more and I was wet as an embryo waiting to cry out and breathe.
I am not going to spoil the finale, but I thought Zelazny was brilliant as he once again taps his subversive streak and laughs in the face of the gods.
This Moment of the Storm is probably my favorite story against very strong contenders in this collection. It is nothing less than an attempt to answer the eternal question of our human condition. There is no shortage of popular definitions:
“What is a man?”
I learned that Man is the Reasoning animal, Man is the One Who Laughs, Man is greater than beasts but less than angels, Man is the one who watches himself watch himself doing things he knows are absurd, Man is the culture-transmitting animal, Man is the spirit which aspires, affirms, loves, the one who uses tools, buries his dead, devises religions, and the one who tries to define himself.
But is this enough to describe the man of the future, especially in view of the upheavals introduced by travels between the stars at close to the speed of light and by decades of deep freeze hibernation that disconnects a person completely from his environment. A storm will come that will put all these definitions to the test:
Tierra del Cygnus, Land of the Swan – delightful name. Delightful place too, for quite awhile ...
It was there that I saw Man’s definitions, one by one, wiped from off the big blackboard, until only mine was left. **
Godfrey Justin Holmes, ‘God’ for short, is a Hell Cop of Beta Station on the planet Tierra del Cygnus, a very small colony that serves as a Stopover or waystation for long haul starships. Holmes is a space drifter, an exile from Earth after a personal trauma, a man who is still searching for his place in the universe but who, for awhile, has settled down in this forgotten little corner of the Galaxy.
She is not home, she is seldom destination, but she is like unto both. When you come upon light and warmth and music after darkness and cold and silence, it is Woman.
Holmes calls Beta Station ‘Betty’ and he is more or less in love with the city and with the local mayor, both of whom represent for him a sort of shelter from the storm. Unfortunately, a devastating outer storm hits the station, mirroring Holmes existential doubts and challenging the moment of peace he has found there.
As a side note, a Hell Cop, as described in the novella, is clearly a drone operator, an amazing feat of scientific prediction from an author I have sometimes doubted for his lack of focus on hard science:
We send our eyes on these appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up, just like the old machines could. We patrol the city and the adjacent countryside. Law enforcement isn’t much of a problem on Cyg. We never peek in windows or send an eye into a building without an invitation.
Coming back to the storm hitting Beta Station, the destruction soon becomes cataclysmic, breaking apart all social structures and isolating the humans. Apocalyptic monsters are roaming the flooded streets of the town while God Holmes and his mayor struggle to salvage something from the disaster. Once again, the dividing line between the action and the allegory is blurred, and each development gains a deeper, universal significance.
Such an example is the envy Holmes awakes in people who never left Beta Station. They envy the star traveler for the places he has seen while ignoring the heavy price he had to pay after his frequent space travel put him out of sync with his home world and with his generation.
It shows you just how alone you really are. You are not simply a man without a country or without a world. You are a man without a time. You and the centuries do not belong to each other. You are like the rubbish that drifts between the stars.
In the conclusion of his novella Zelazny the poet takes precedence over Zelazny the SF writer, crying over the destiny of man in the hands of the cruel Fate:
It was the big morning after, following a drunken party by the gods. It is the lot of mortal man always to clean up their leavings or to be buried beneath them.
In the quiet aftermath of the storm, you can be resigned to the expected failure of all hope, or you can start again from scratch. The stars above don’t really care one way or another.
It is cold and quiet outside and the horizon is infinity. There is no sense of movement.
There is no moon, and the stars are very bright, like broken diamonds, all.
... and what about that ultimate definition of Man? I haven’t forgotten about it, but I put it last as an invitation to further debate:
** “Man is the sum total of everything he has done, wishes to do or not to do, and wishes he had done, or hadn’t.”
The Great Slow Kings is another breath of fresh air, a shorter story that can be read as a fun game, or as a more serious reiteration of the existentialist dilemma.
Concerning organic life the only statement which can be made with certainty is that life is uncertain.
A Museum Piece is about the condition of the artist, who must either remain true to his vision or find some gainful employment. Whimsical and romantic, it showcases the author in a less gloomy mood.
Forced to admit that his art was going unnoticed in a frivolous world, Jay Smith decided to get out of that world. The four dollars and ninety-eight cents he spent for a mail order course entitled ‘Yoga – The Path to Freedom’ did not, however, help to free him. Rather, it served to accentuate his humanity, in that it reduced his ability to purchase food by four dollars and ninety-eight cents.
Divine Madness is a great exercise in style that probably inspired a famous video from Coldplay : “The Scientist”
Corrida is, like the earlier story about dragons and maidens, a very short story that subverts your expectations with a role change.
[continues in comments]
For a very long time, science fiction as a genre was defined to me by the works of the golden trio [Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein] with an even earlier infatuation with science and adventure from Jules Verne. Lately, I find myself drifting more and more towards the camp of the dreamers and the poets of space and time: Bradbury, Vance and Zelazny. Their approach to science may not be very accurate, and their focus is often on individual lives and not on the big picture, but their stories are just as thought provoking as they are beautiful. The present collection, published in 1971, includes some of the best novellas and short stories that have won Roger Zelazny many awards and the recognition of his peers.
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of his Mouth sets the mood right from the start, asking the big questions about the human condition. What drives us to the stars and beyond? What makes us take risks and chase phantoms on faraway shores?
And I dream about those eyes. I want to face them once more, even if their finding takes forever. I’ve got to know if there’s something inside me that sets me apart from a rabbit, from notched plates of reflexes and instincts that always fall apart in exactly the same way whenever the proper combination is spun.
I like to think of this novella as a crossover of myths, “Moby Dick” meeting “The Old Man and the Sea” on the shores of a Venusian ocean. Carlton Davits, a playboy fishing enthusiast, is hunting an Ikky, aka Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus, the biggest sea monster in the Solar System. After a couple of failed attempts, Davits joins a new expedition, led by his female counterpart and former lover Jean Luharich, as a baitman.
Green, vast, down. Fast. This is the place where I am equal to a squiggler. If something big decides a baitman looks tastier than what he’s carrying, then irony colors his title as well as the waters about it.
By the time the story was written, almost everybody knew that Venus is practically uninhabitable, so the point is not in the science, but in the evocation of the planetary romances of an earlier era and in the eternal chase after a dream. The mythical, allegorical charge is underlined by the romantic subplot between the two main adventurers, where the roles of hunter and prey are subverted.
“Could be that’s me out there,” I offered. “I am a green sea serpent, a hateful, monstrous beast, and out to destroy you. I am answerable to no one. Push the Inject.”
The Keys to December is about responsibility, about how freedom to act must include also freedom to support the consequences of your actions. In an expanding galaxy with hundreds of hostile environments, corporations turn to genetic manipulation in order to produce the kind of workers best adapted to the conditions of their future mining worlds.
Born of man and woman, in accordance with Catform Y7 requirements, Coldworld Class, Jarry Dark was not suited for existence anywhere in the universe which had guaranteed him a niche. This was either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you looked at it.
Jarry Dark and several hundred others of his Catform breed are left stranded when their destination world explodes. Instead of giving up in despair, Jarry uses his business acumen to amass a fortune and to buy another world, where he hopes to organize a terraforming project for his brethren, who will spend the waiting period in cryo-freeze.
“They made us for Alyonal, and a nova took it away. These creatures came to life in this place, and we’re taking it away. We’re turning all of life on this planet into what we were on our former worlds – misfits.”
But what will happen to the original ecosystem on their destination planet as it goes through cataclysmic changes, especially in view of the apparent intelligence of some of its native species? Who gives one species the right to exterminate another? And what can a single person do against a whole system designed to put the collective interest of a group above individual choice? These are heavy questions without an easy answer, and even more importantly, these are questions we must deal with on our own planet, as mass extinctions and global warming are changing the environment even as we speak.
So look at it however you would, that was the story. Thus does life repay those who would serve her fully.
Devil Car is a shorter piece, about a post-apocalyptic world where cars with artificial intelligence go rogue in an effort to emancipate themselves from their makers. It is, as usual, part whimsical dialogue, part beautiful descriptions of scenery and part allegorical / mythical, like so many other novels and stories from this author.
The desert was a carpet of endless orange, bulging from the sweepings of centuries beneath it.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes chronicles the meeting of two civilizations: the ancient Martians, lost in the contemplation of the past, and the forward pushing Earthmen. A poet with an uncanny gift for languages goes to a Martian temple to study ancient texts. During the dialogue with the High Priestess there, the poet translates from the Book of Ecclesiastes and falls in love with a beautiful temple dancer. A crisis is provoked by this dancer’s unexpected pregnancy after contact with a human, despite a Martian prophecy that claims the doom of their sterile race. The poet rages against this religious fatalism both by quoting our own biblical texts:
It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us.
... and by offering the Martians the gifts of love and beauty in the form of a rose [and a Rilke reference]:
No! Never interpret roses! Don’t. Smell them, pick them, enjoy them. Live in the moment. Hold to it tightly. But charge not the gods to explain. So fast the leaves go by, are blown ...
And no one ever noticed us. Or cared.
Life is too precious to throw it away on dogma and superstition!
The Monster and the Maiden is a two page palate cleanser after the heavy hitters that have come early in the collection. A funny reversal of expectations that brought a kind smile to my face after a tear shed for Mars.
Collector’s Fever is slightly longer than two pages, but belongs in the same category of subversive writing that mocks yet another of our human foibles: that of collecting trophies from the natural world.
“Listen, Stone, my uncle is a rock collector, see? You are the only species of intelligent mineral in the galaxy. You are also the largest specimen I’ve spotted so far. Do you follow me?”
Happy Deeble to all collectors!
This Mortal Mountain is not unlike the first story in the collection, as it deals with adventurers and extreme sports, of seeing the impossible as a challenge to be overcome and of the hubris that comes with the conqueror label.
“I looked down at it and I was sick! I wondered, where did it lead? Stars?
There were no words. I stared and I stared, and I cursed the fact that the thing existed and that someone had found it while I was still around.”
[...] ”A forty-mile-high mountain is not a mountain. It is a world all by itself, which some dumb deity forgot to throw into orbit.”
Zelazny puts to good use here his own fascination with physical activity and dangerous pursuits. The account of a climb up the slopes of the highest mountain in the galaxy is thrilling, complicated by what appears like attacks against the team of climbers by the gods of the mountain. The border between scientific observation and allegory is once again blurred in the service of examining the motivations of the lead character from a metaphysical perspective.
“It is the closest thing to divine drunkenness,” I said to the thunder.
And then she winked at me. It was a red star, so high upon her. Angel’s sword. Phoenix’ wing. Soul on fire. And it blazed at me, across the miles. Then the wind that blows between the worlds swept down over me. It was filled with tears and with crystals of ice. I stood there and felt it, then, “Don’t go away,” I said, and I watched until all was darkness once more and I was wet as an embryo waiting to cry out and breathe.
I am not going to spoil the finale, but I thought Zelazny was brilliant as he once again taps his subversive streak and laughs in the face of the gods.
This Moment of the Storm is probably my favorite story against very strong contenders in this collection. It is nothing less than an attempt to answer the eternal question of our human condition. There is no shortage of popular definitions:
“What is a man?”
I learned that Man is the Reasoning animal, Man is the One Who Laughs, Man is greater than beasts but less than angels, Man is the one who watches himself watch himself doing things he knows are absurd, Man is the culture-transmitting animal, Man is the spirit which aspires, affirms, loves, the one who uses tools, buries his dead, devises religions, and the one who tries to define himself.
But is this enough to describe the man of the future, especially in view of the upheavals introduced by travels between the stars at close to the speed of light and by decades of deep freeze hibernation that disconnects a person completely from his environment. A storm will come that will put all these definitions to the test:
Tierra del Cygnus, Land of the Swan – delightful name. Delightful place too, for quite awhile ...
It was there that I saw Man’s definitions, one by one, wiped from off the big blackboard, until only mine was left. **
Godfrey Justin Holmes, ‘God’ for short, is a Hell Cop of Beta Station on the planet Tierra del Cygnus, a very small colony that serves as a Stopover or waystation for long haul starships. Holmes is a space drifter, an exile from Earth after a personal trauma, a man who is still searching for his place in the universe but who, for awhile, has settled down in this forgotten little corner of the Galaxy.
She is not home, she is seldom destination, but she is like unto both. When you come upon light and warmth and music after darkness and cold and silence, it is Woman.
Holmes calls Beta Station ‘Betty’ and he is more or less in love with the city and with the local mayor, both of whom represent for him a sort of shelter from the storm. Unfortunately, a devastating outer storm hits the station, mirroring Holmes existential doubts and challenging the moment of peace he has found there.
As a side note, a Hell Cop, as described in the novella, is clearly a drone operator, an amazing feat of scientific prediction from an author I have sometimes doubted for his lack of focus on hard science:
We send our eyes on these appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up, just like the old machines could. We patrol the city and the adjacent countryside. Law enforcement isn’t much of a problem on Cyg. We never peek in windows or send an eye into a building without an invitation.
Coming back to the storm hitting Beta Station, the destruction soon becomes cataclysmic, breaking apart all social structures and isolating the humans. Apocalyptic monsters are roaming the flooded streets of the town while God Holmes and his mayor struggle to salvage something from the disaster. Once again, the dividing line between the action and the allegory is blurred, and each development gains a deeper, universal significance.
Such an example is the envy Holmes awakes in people who never left Beta Station. They envy the star traveler for the places he has seen while ignoring the heavy price he had to pay after his frequent space travel put him out of sync with his home world and with his generation.
It shows you just how alone you really are. You are not simply a man without a country or without a world. You are a man without a time. You and the centuries do not belong to each other. You are like the rubbish that drifts between the stars.
In the conclusion of his novella Zelazny the poet takes precedence over Zelazny the SF writer, crying over the destiny of man in the hands of the cruel Fate:
It was the big morning after, following a drunken party by the gods. It is the lot of mortal man always to clean up their leavings or to be buried beneath them.
In the quiet aftermath of the storm, you can be resigned to the expected failure of all hope, or you can start again from scratch. The stars above don’t really care one way or another.
It is cold and quiet outside and the horizon is infinity. There is no sense of movement.
There is no moon, and the stars are very bright, like broken diamonds, all.
... and what about that ultimate definition of Man? I haven’t forgotten about it, but I put it last as an invitation to further debate:
** “Man is the sum total of everything he has done, wishes to do or not to do, and wishes he had done, or hadn’t.”
The Great Slow Kings is another breath of fresh air, a shorter story that can be read as a fun game, or as a more serious reiteration of the existentialist dilemma.
Concerning organic life the only statement which can be made with certainty is that life is uncertain.
A Museum Piece is about the condition of the artist, who must either remain true to his vision or find some gainful employment. Whimsical and romantic, it showcases the author in a less gloomy mood.
Forced to admit that his art was going unnoticed in a frivolous world, Jay Smith decided to get out of that world. The four dollars and ninety-eight cents he spent for a mail order course entitled ‘Yoga – The Path to Freedom’ did not, however, help to free him. Rather, it served to accentuate his humanity, in that it reduced his ability to purchase food by four dollars and ninety-eight cents.
Divine Madness is a great exercise in style that probably inspired a famous video from Coldplay : “The Scientist”
Corrida is, like the earlier story about dragons and maidens, a very short story that subverts your expectations with a role change.
[continues in comments]
March 13, 2021
This review isn’t intended to cover all 17 short pieces by the master, Zelazny. As my GR friend, carol, noted in her review: “His use of language is impressive; he can write concisely, clear-cutting to a quiet moment in the middle of a hurricane, or he can weave together words to perfectly describe an alien sunrise. There is tone of melancholy running through these stories, themes of time and loneliness, but how he translates it into exotic settings is amazing.”
Let’s start with the title story that has a kind of Moby Dick theme of catching the mythical leviathan.
Carl is a “Baitman” on this voyage and he has been on this quest before. Like those who have gone after Moby, the leviathan has left death and destruction in its wake. Carl has witnessed that personally. The ship is immense (“capable of lifting a battleship out of the water with out much listing to that side”).
“You don’t Slide?”
“I bait.”
“We’ll see.”
“That’s all I do. If she wants a Slideman, she’s going to have to ask nicely.”
“You think she’ll have to?”
“I think she’ll have to.”
“And if she does, can you do it?”
“A fair question,” I puffed. “I don’t know the answer, though.”
All the science fiction stuff is wrong, but only because in 1965 we knew so little about Venus, where this is supposed to take place. And by everything, I mean that this Venus is a ball of water and humans have been living on it for many years in 2010. Yet, none of that matters. The battle to hook and land the mythical Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus is worth a read.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes has some similarities but a different “vibe.” The planet Mars that Zelazny imagines is much closer to our current understanding----except that a humanoid species exists there and is the subject of diplomatic study and negotiations. Into it is injected an individual, Gallinger, who has certain unique talents that allow him to interface with this civilization in ways superior to all previous contacts by Earth.
In this story, Zelazny displays some of his great knowledge of religions (of both the “East” and the “West”) and his skill at narration. Thanks to Kevin Lopez for reminding me to “reinvest” in this book.
Both stories explore the human condition and both deal with damaged humans of considerable talents. There is a sadness in these stories but it is not without reason or its own pleasures.
4.5*
Let’s start with the title story that has a kind of Moby Dick theme of catching the mythical leviathan.
Carl is a “Baitman” on this voyage and he has been on this quest before. Like those who have gone after Moby, the leviathan has left death and destruction in its wake. Carl has witnessed that personally. The ship is immense (“capable of lifting a battleship out of the water with out much listing to that side”).
“You don’t Slide?”
“I bait.”
“We’ll see.”
“That’s all I do. If she wants a Slideman, she’s going to have to ask nicely.”
“You think she’ll have to?”
“I think she’ll have to.”
“And if she does, can you do it?”
“A fair question,” I puffed. “I don’t know the answer, though.”
All the science fiction stuff is wrong, but only because in 1965 we knew so little about Venus, where this is supposed to take place. And by everything, I mean that this Venus is a ball of water and humans have been living on it for many years in 2010. Yet, none of that matters. The battle to hook and land the mythical Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus is worth a read.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes has some similarities but a different “vibe.” The planet Mars that Zelazny imagines is much closer to our current understanding----except that a humanoid species exists there and is the subject of diplomatic study and negotiations. Into it is injected an individual, Gallinger, who has certain unique talents that allow him to interface with this civilization in ways superior to all previous contacts by Earth.
In this story, Zelazny displays some of his great knowledge of religions (of both the “East” and the “West”) and his skill at narration. Thanks to Kevin Lopez for reminding me to “reinvest” in this book.
Both stories explore the human condition and both deal with damaged humans of considerable talents. There is a sadness in these stories but it is not without reason or its own pleasures.
4.5*
September 18, 2020
I've generally found Zelazny's shorter fiction hit or miss. His writing is elegant and there's typically a deeply human theme behind his stories that can make them resonate, if they succeed in making a connection with the reader. I failed to connect with a number of stories in this collection, but found some gems as well, including The Keys to December and The Man Who Loved the Faioli, both of which I'd give 5 stars.
The Keys to December is sublimely executed, with a brilliant, deeply introspective concept. Genetically engineered humans inadvertently playing god on a new world sought out as a refuge, inflicting on others the same fate as had been inflicted on themselves.
"And it doesn't really matter how it happened. They're here and we're here, and they think we're gods. Maybe because we do nothing for them but make them miserable."
The Man Who Loved the Faioli is the coolest damn love story between a cyborg of sorts, who understands the fragility of life and its value to himself, and an odd vampire type of creature who comforts men as it drains the life from them.
The title story, the Hugo nominated / Nebula award winning The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, I didn't find all that compelling. Yet Zelazny's vivid prose and descriptions of the fathomless seas of Venus were intriguing enough to keep me engaged.
The Keys to December is sublimely executed, with a brilliant, deeply introspective concept. Genetically engineered humans inadvertently playing god on a new world sought out as a refuge, inflicting on others the same fate as had been inflicted on themselves.
"And it doesn't really matter how it happened. They're here and we're here, and they think we're gods. Maybe because we do nothing for them but make them miserable."
The Man Who Loved the Faioli is the coolest damn love story between a cyborg of sorts, who understands the fragility of life and its value to himself, and an odd vampire type of creature who comforts men as it drains the life from them.
The title story, the Hugo nominated / Nebula award winning The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, I didn't find all that compelling. Yet Zelazny's vivid prose and descriptions of the fathomless seas of Venus were intriguing enough to keep me engaged.
May 19, 2010
I last looked at this collection 35 years ago and I can still remember at least half of them, so I conclude that it must be pretty good.
I think I liked the love stories most: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", where the Earth poet visits the doomed Martian society and falls in love with their priestess, and "The Man Who Loved The Faioli", in which Zelazny pulls off the near-impossible feat of creating a moving romance between a vampire and a cyborg. Really, I'm not being ironic! He was one of the brightest SF talents around during the early to mid-60s.
I think I liked the love stories most: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", where the Earth poet visits the doomed Martian society and falls in love with their priestess, and "The Man Who Loved The Faioli", in which Zelazny pulls off the near-impossible feat of creating a moving romance between a vampire and a cyborg. Really, I'm not being ironic! He was one of the brightest SF talents around during the early to mid-60s.
October 5, 2020
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth • (1965) • novelette (*)
The Keys to December • (1966) • novelette (**)
Devil Car • [Sam Murdock] • (1965) • short story (**)
A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • novelette (*)
The Monster and the Maiden • (1964) • short story (**)
Collector's Fever • (1964) • short story (*)
This Mortal Mountain • (1967) • novelette (previously read online)
This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • novelette (**)
The Great Slow Kings • (1963) • short story (*)
A Museum Piece • (1963) • short story (*)
Divine Madness • (1966) • short story (**)
Corrida • (1968) • short story
Love Is an Imaginary Number • (1966) • short story (**)
The Man Who Loved the Faioli • (1967) • short story
Lucifer • (1964) • short story (**)
(*) previously read in Threshold, Volume 1: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
(**) previously read in Power & Light, Volume 2
The Keys to December • (1966) • novelette (**)
Devil Car • [Sam Murdock] • (1965) • short story (**)
A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • novelette (*)
The Monster and the Maiden • (1964) • short story (**)
Collector's Fever • (1964) • short story (*)
This Mortal Mountain • (1967) • novelette (previously read online)
This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • novelette (**)
The Great Slow Kings • (1963) • short story (*)
A Museum Piece • (1963) • short story (*)
Divine Madness • (1966) • short story (**)
Corrida • (1968) • short story
Love Is an Imaginary Number • (1966) • short story (**)
The Man Who Loved the Faioli • (1967) • short story
Lucifer • (1964) • short story (**)
(*) previously read in Threshold, Volume 1: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
(**) previously read in Power & Light, Volume 2
July 10, 2010
I used to think I loved Roger Zelazny's writing. After trying out a few more of his books, I realized that it was THIS collection in particular that I loved. Nothing else of his that I've read has measured up, although I keep hoping I'll stumble on something I like just as much.
The stores cover a lot of ground, with sentient cars, a hunt for a leviathan, aliens, and some misunderstandings. "The Keys to December" ranks up there as one of my favorite short-stories. (It's about a genetically-engineered race of cat-people who alternate between waking and cold-sleep for thousands of years in order to terraform a planet they can live on. And at 44 years old it most likely predates any Furry fiction out there. But don't quote me on that.) "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" is another favorite, but I had to re-read it about fifteen years after the first read before I could really appreciate it. "This Moment of Storm" was SHOCKINGLY tragic, after being not all that interesting to start out with. "Divine Madness" disturbed me, if only because it strikes me as a word-for-word description of what someone would daydream about when their life has been turned upside down by tragedy. And "A Museum Piece" was just cute, in a fun sort of way.
The stores cover a lot of ground, with sentient cars, a hunt for a leviathan, aliens, and some misunderstandings. "The Keys to December" ranks up there as one of my favorite short-stories. (It's about a genetically-engineered race of cat-people who alternate between waking and cold-sleep for thousands of years in order to terraform a planet they can live on. And at 44 years old it most likely predates any Furry fiction out there. But don't quote me on that.) "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" is another favorite, but I had to re-read it about fifteen years after the first read before I could really appreciate it. "This Moment of Storm" was SHOCKINGLY tragic, after being not all that interesting to start out with. "Divine Madness" disturbed me, if only because it strikes me as a word-for-word description of what someone would daydream about when their life has been turned upside down by tragedy. And "A Museum Piece" was just cute, in a fun sort of way.
May 31, 2017
There are some stories I like less than others but the ones I loved more than compensated for those. It's a testament to how well-conceived and well-written the stories are that they don't feel dated despite being obvious false representations of what is now present day.
One note - there are a LOT of typos in this edition. Not any that prevent understanding, but a very noticeable amount nonetheless. Otherwise the book is nicely laid out.
Highlights include
The Keys To December - Wherein a race of Catform people, genetically modified to work for mining corporation on a planet that was unexpectedly destroyed, seek to in turn modify a new planet so that they can live freely. It turns out that the changes they make in the planet cause one of the native races to become intelligent and look upon the cat-people as their gods.
Devil Car - A tale of sentient cars, like a hardcore version of that Pixar movie. My favorite touch is that the wild Devil Car keeps a rotation of human corpses in the driver seat to pass himself off as a normal decent car.
A Rose For Ecclesiastes - Which is perhaps his best known story and fully worth the hype.
This Mortal Mountain - A spectacular adventure story about mountain climbing (of course), with the special distinction of a 40 mile high extraterrestrial mountain and a ghost story in the mix too.
This Moment of the Storm - About a torrential tropical storm on a smaller colonized planet (pseudo Caribbean), and a space-traveling cop who witnesses all the resulting destruction and madness.
A Museum Piece - Which is actually kind of funny, like the cool version of Night At The Museum (i.e. with 100% less Ben Stiller and 100% more aliens).
One note - there are a LOT of typos in this edition. Not any that prevent understanding, but a very noticeable amount nonetheless. Otherwise the book is nicely laid out.
Highlights include
The Keys To December - Wherein a race of Catform people, genetically modified to work for mining corporation on a planet that was unexpectedly destroyed, seek to in turn modify a new planet so that they can live freely. It turns out that the changes they make in the planet cause one of the native races to become intelligent and look upon the cat-people as their gods.
Devil Car - A tale of sentient cars, like a hardcore version of that Pixar movie. My favorite touch is that the wild Devil Car keeps a rotation of human corpses in the driver seat to pass himself off as a normal decent car.
A Rose For Ecclesiastes - Which is perhaps his best known story and fully worth the hype.
This Mortal Mountain - A spectacular adventure story about mountain climbing (of course), with the special distinction of a 40 mile high extraterrestrial mountain and a ghost story in the mix too.
This Moment of the Storm - About a torrential tropical storm on a smaller colonized planet (pseudo Caribbean), and a space-traveling cop who witnesses all the resulting destruction and madness.
A Museum Piece - Which is actually kind of funny, like the cool version of Night At The Museum (i.e. with 100% less Ben Stiller and 100% more aliens).
April 3, 2021
This spectacular collection of short stories is Roger Zelazny at his unsurpassed best, equal parts humorist, tragedian, and wry observer of the human (and sometimes alien) condition. In a book brimming to the gunwales with short-fiction brilliance, I found the two most absolutely standout, will-reread-again-and-again stories to be “A Rose for Ecclesiastes,” and “The Keys to December.” Both are sublime and enthralling, with endings that leave you with a feeling of bittersweet poignancy—and a mournful, melancholy sensation that demands one burning question: what is the meaning of sentience, of consciousness, of love and of loss and of grief?, in an indifferent universe? Almost every story touches upon this sense of loss, tragedy, urgency and adventure—always leavened by a generous dose of humor—that both pervade and define life.
July 19, 2022
What an amazing book! I loved all these short stories, but my favorite one is This Moment of the Storm:
''It shows you just how alone you really are. You are not simply a man without a country or without a world. You are a man without a time. You and the centuries do not belong to each other. You are like the rubbish that drifts between the stars'' .
Zelazny really manages to make these beautiful and interesting worlds, and the format allows for very rich and dense storytelling.
''It shows you just how alone you really are. You are not simply a man without a country or without a world. You are a man without a time. You and the centuries do not belong to each other. You are like the rubbish that drifts between the stars'' .
Zelazny really manages to make these beautiful and interesting worlds, and the format allows for very rich and dense storytelling.
October 19, 2014
Fisher, climber, cowboy romanticism, terraforming, a proto-amber and other stories.
My favourite ★★★★★ story was
A Rose for Ecclesiaste
No ★ or ★★ for me were
The Great Slow Kings
Corrida
Contents:
★★★★ for The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth • (1965) • fisher story on Old Venus - review
★★★1/2 for The Keys to December • (1966) • terraforming for Cold Cats - review
★★★ for Devil Car • (1965) • Wild West romanticism with A.I. cars - review
★★★★★ • A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • fatalisms of Old Marsians - review
★★ for The Monster and the Maiden • (1964) • two-pager faery story, a twist about the eponymous topic
★★★1/2 for Collector's Fever • (1964) • three-pager funny, bizarre SF about trying to collect an intelligent stone. Nearly 100% dialogue but with an interesting world-setting.
★★★ for This Mortal Mountain • (1967) • mysticistic climbing turning real - review
★★★ for This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • storm watcher leads a city through the perils of a storm - review
★★ for The Great Slow Kings • (1963) • satirical and witty story about reptile Gods taking years for simple conversations, witnessing civilizations fade away while they try to come up with answers. "Masters," suggested Zindrome, "the half-life of radioactive materials being as ephemeral as it is, I regret to report that only one spaceship is now in operational condition."
★★★ for A Museum Piece • (1963) • an artist decides to flee the world, exhibiting himself as a statue in a museum. Others do similar. Satirical, witty, absurd story.
★★★★ for Divine Madness • (1966) • reverse time love story - review
★ for Corrida • (1968) • a man awakes as the bull in a tauromachia; thankfully only two pages long
★★★★ for Love is an Imaginary Number • (1966) • proto-Amber - review
★★★ for The Man Who Loved the Faioli • (1967) • A month. A month, he knew, and it would come to an end. The Faioli, whatever they were, paid for the life that they took with the pleasures of the flesh.
★★1/2 for Lucifer • (1964) • the eponymous lightbringer (from "lux"+"ferre") brings back life to a city in the form of electricity, if only for a few moments
My favourite ★★★★★ story was
A Rose for Ecclesiaste
No ★ or ★★ for me were
The Great Slow Kings
Corrida
Contents:
★★★★ for The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth • (1965) • fisher story on Old Venus - review
★★★1/2 for The Keys to December • (1966) • terraforming for Cold Cats - review
★★★ for Devil Car • (1965) • Wild West romanticism with A.I. cars - review
★★★★★ • A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • fatalisms of Old Marsians - review
★★ for The Monster and the Maiden • (1964) • two-pager faery story, a twist about the eponymous topic
★★★1/2 for Collector's Fever • (1964) • three-pager funny, bizarre SF about trying to collect an intelligent stone. Nearly 100% dialogue but with an interesting world-setting.
★★★ for This Mortal Mountain • (1967) • mysticistic climbing turning real - review
★★★ for This Moment of the Storm • (1966) • storm watcher leads a city through the perils of a storm - review
★★ for The Great Slow Kings • (1963) • satirical and witty story about reptile Gods taking years for simple conversations, witnessing civilizations fade away while they try to come up with answers. "Masters," suggested Zindrome, "the half-life of radioactive materials being as ephemeral as it is, I regret to report that only one spaceship is now in operational condition."
★★★ for A Museum Piece • (1963) • an artist decides to flee the world, exhibiting himself as a statue in a museum. Others do similar. Satirical, witty, absurd story.
★★★★ for Divine Madness • (1966) • reverse time love story - review
★ for Corrida • (1968) • a man awakes as the bull in a tauromachia; thankfully only two pages long
★★★★ for Love is an Imaginary Number • (1966) • proto-Amber - review
★★★ for The Man Who Loved the Faioli • (1967) • A month. A month, he knew, and it would come to an end. The Faioli, whatever they were, paid for the life that they took with the pleasures of the flesh.
★★1/2 for Lucifer • (1964) • the eponymous lightbringer (from "lux"+"ferre") brings back life to a city in the form of electricity, if only for a few moments
January 27, 2013
“The Doors of His Face The Lamps of His Mouth” by Roger Zelanzy, © 1971
A very nice collection of short stories by Mr. Zelanzy.
'The Doors of His Face The Lamps of His Mouth' –
A fishing tale told of Venus. It is a bit confusing because the people seem to be talked of in the third person, then they appear to be the people talking, and there is a bit of a love storyu in here, too.
'The Keys to December' –
Humans have developed the ability to create life forms that can live in environments other than Earth. Some of these were created for working on a planet for a mining company. The planet is destroyed before any of the new humans can inhabit it, so they are left in bubbles on planets humans can live on. Another planet is found and terra-formed into one these created beings can live on, to the demise of the present inhabitants.
'Devil Cat' –
In this future time, cars have self-awareness. If there are humans on board, they may be along for the ride or to get something done. Sam Murdock is driving his souped up vcar, Jenny, out to capture a renegade car and his gang.
'A Rose for Ecclesiates' –
Gallinger is a jerk. He knows it and does not care: he can do what no one else can. He is part of a mission to Mars. There has been one already which found a civilization that seems to be tottering towards oblivion, so he is sent to preserve and learn what all he can before it is gone. The story is the best of this collection, though the ending is a bit weird. The details are suspect. Mars is not an environment that people can live in without aid, spacesuits, etc. Beings from different planets should not be able to procreate, much less communicate so easily. This of course is a fallacy that Superman and Star Trek and Star Wars perpetuate. It does make for good stories, though,.
'Collector's Fever' -
'This Mortal Mountain' – A man conquers a mountain, with help. The mountain is so tall it sticks up into outer space and it, seemly, fights them as they crawl to the top.
'This Moment of the Storm' –
In the future, man will travel to the stars and need to have rest stops to relieve the boredom of the ones who tend the ship while the others sleep. One such traveler has stayed on this planet once before and is back for a spell. It is a nice enough planet with good enough people. The weather, though, is a challenge.
'The Great Slow Kings' -
There are two kings who share ruling on this planet and one robot to serve them. The kings are old as the hills, literally. They naturally function slowly. The best quote in this book: “'Concerning organic life the only statement which can be made with certainty is that life is uncertain.'”
'A Museum Piece' -
This is a weird story of a fellow who is down on his luck, so he decides to become piece of art in a museum and finds love.
'Divine Madness' -
This is an impossible story of love. Somehow this fellow can go back in time and make a simple adjustment.
'Love is an Imaginary Number'-
This is the story of one ancient myth explained.
'The Man Who Loved Faioli' –
This is a strange story of a dead man who takes care of dead bodies.
A very nice collection of short stories by Mr. Zelanzy.
'The Doors of His Face The Lamps of His Mouth' –
A fishing tale told of Venus. It is a bit confusing because the people seem to be talked of in the third person, then they appear to be the people talking, and there is a bit of a love storyu in here, too.
'The Keys to December' –
Humans have developed the ability to create life forms that can live in environments other than Earth. Some of these were created for working on a planet for a mining company. The planet is destroyed before any of the new humans can inhabit it, so they are left in bubbles on planets humans can live on. Another planet is found and terra-formed into one these created beings can live on, to the demise of the present inhabitants.
'Devil Cat' –
In this future time, cars have self-awareness. If there are humans on board, they may be along for the ride or to get something done. Sam Murdock is driving his souped up vcar, Jenny, out to capture a renegade car and his gang.
'A Rose for Ecclesiates' –
Gallinger is a jerk. He knows it and does not care: he can do what no one else can. He is part of a mission to Mars. There has been one already which found a civilization that seems to be tottering towards oblivion, so he is sent to preserve and learn what all he can before it is gone. The story is the best of this collection, though the ending is a bit weird. The details are suspect. Mars is not an environment that people can live in without aid, spacesuits, etc. Beings from different planets should not be able to procreate, much less communicate so easily. This of course is a fallacy that Superman and Star Trek and Star Wars perpetuate. It does make for good stories, though,.
'Collector's Fever' -
'This Mortal Mountain' – A man conquers a mountain, with help. The mountain is so tall it sticks up into outer space and it, seemly, fights them as they crawl to the top.
'This Moment of the Storm' –
In the future, man will travel to the stars and need to have rest stops to relieve the boredom of the ones who tend the ship while the others sleep. One such traveler has stayed on this planet once before and is back for a spell. It is a nice enough planet with good enough people. The weather, though, is a challenge.
'The Great Slow Kings' -
There are two kings who share ruling on this planet and one robot to serve them. The kings are old as the hills, literally. They naturally function slowly. The best quote in this book: “'Concerning organic life the only statement which can be made with certainty is that life is uncertain.'”
'A Museum Piece' -
This is a weird story of a fellow who is down on his luck, so he decides to become piece of art in a museum and finds love.
'Divine Madness' -
This is an impossible story of love. Somehow this fellow can go back in time and make a simple adjustment.
'Love is an Imaginary Number'-
This is the story of one ancient myth explained.
'The Man Who Loved Faioli' –
This is a strange story of a dead man who takes care of dead bodies.
April 2, 2019
Me apetecía leer algo retro, old school scifi, y que fueran relatos. Y Zelazny es un autor que, en general, me gusta mucho por su sentido del humor. Los relatos de este libro son un WTF constante, y de la mitad no he sacado nada en claro. No sé qué pensar.
September 17, 2020
3.5 stars. I didn't find the story all that compelling, but Zelazny's vivid prose and descriptions of the fathomless seas of Venus kept me engaged.
December 4, 2017
Few authors are as like themselves as Roger Zelazny, and as hard to explain why they are like themselves. This collection encompasses the short fiction of the middle 1960s, when Zelazny was at the height of his power (his two novel Hugos were awarded in this time.) The stories are lyrical meditations on great themes of life, death, change, and small moments of humanity in the face of the absolute powers of the universe.
The stories are all solid, but the clear standout is "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", which follows a genius poet on a mission to understand Martian religion and culture, and translate the who sense of that dying race.
The stories are all solid, but the clear standout is "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", which follows a genius poet on a mission to understand Martian religion and culture, and translate the who sense of that dying race.
September 12, 2015
This elegant tale, winner of the Nebula for best Novelette in 1965, has somehow not made its way into any of those "best of short stories" collections that come out year after year, always containing the same old classic titles with maybe one or two new mainstream authors included for freshness. That is a literary crime, because this story should be but is not considered a literary classic.
It is a fishing story, but the setting makes it interesting. Told by a black narrator, with elements of the racial insensitivity of the 1960s and 70s, we see a troupe of master fishermen and women coming together for the catch of the millennia -- a staggeringly massive fish, larger than any earthborn creature. Many have tried to catch one, but all have failed, and some have died in the process.
The narrator came close, once, and now he joins the crew of a superrich woman who can actually afford the cost of an expedition. Will they land the fish? Read the story to find out, and go fishing with Zelazny on Venus.
The rest of the stories are good, but the title story is the real gem.
It is a fishing story, but the setting makes it interesting. Told by a black narrator, with elements of the racial insensitivity of the 1960s and 70s, we see a troupe of master fishermen and women coming together for the catch of the millennia -- a staggeringly massive fish, larger than any earthborn creature. Many have tried to catch one, but all have failed, and some have died in the process.
The narrator came close, once, and now he joins the crew of a superrich woman who can actually afford the cost of an expedition. Will they land the fish? Read the story to find out, and go fishing with Zelazny on Venus.
The rest of the stories are good, but the title story is the real gem.
May 19, 2009
Very good collection of '60s SF stories. Having read the first few Amber novels and generally liked them, I was surprised at how much stronger some of these stories are than the series he seems to be remembered by. The twists and turns of the Amber series are certainly fun, but the writing seems much lighter in tone, possibly simplified for the masses, or per a publisher's request.
The stories served up here range from dark to humorous, but Zelazny's intellect is clearly on display. Beyond the requisite far future imaginings of this era of SF, I was surprised by the number of references to high literature and religion. I don't have the patience to write a story by story review -- a handful of the shortest stories don't stick, but most are excellent, particularly: A Rose for Ecclesiastes, This Mortal Mountain, and The Keys to December -- but overall the book stands tall as one of the better SF collections I've had the pleasure to read.
The stories served up here range from dark to humorous, but Zelazny's intellect is clearly on display. Beyond the requisite far future imaginings of this era of SF, I was surprised by the number of references to high literature and religion. I don't have the patience to write a story by story review -- a handful of the shortest stories don't stick, but most are excellent, particularly: A Rose for Ecclesiastes, This Mortal Mountain, and The Keys to December -- but overall the book stands tall as one of the better SF collections I've had the pleasure to read.
November 14, 2012
I got a little over halfway through this awesome collection of stories (to Divine Madness) before the overdue notices started assaulting me; I took a while to get through the first story because I wasn't really familiar with Zelazny's style, but by A Rose For Ecclesiastes I was completely absorbed.
Zeleazny's writing is spectacular. I could list all the synonyms for 'spectacular', but instead of that I will just recommend that you read his descriptions of the storm, both brewing and happening, in This Moment Of The Storm. And occasionally, it's quite hilarious: Collector's Fever and The Great Slow Kings in particular.
These are interesting, thought-provoking stories of the future, humankind's destiny, personal struggle, and deebling rocks. I'd like to do a story-by-story review, but I will need to hold off until I acquire a copy. Anyway, intensely recommended.
Zeleazny's writing is spectacular. I could list all the synonyms for 'spectacular', but instead of that I will just recommend that you read his descriptions of the storm, both brewing and happening, in This Moment Of The Storm. And occasionally, it's quite hilarious: Collector's Fever and The Great Slow Kings in particular.
These are interesting, thought-provoking stories of the future, humankind's destiny, personal struggle, and deebling rocks. I'd like to do a story-by-story review, but I will need to hold off until I acquire a copy. Anyway, intensely recommended.
January 30, 2024
"The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" (novelette, 1965), a lively retro-Venus story, won the Nebula award in 1966. Free copy online:
https://readerslibrary.org/wp-content...
4+ stars, recommended reading. One of Zelazny's better shorts. I should reread it. Been a few years...
https://readerslibrary.org/wp-content...
4+ stars, recommended reading. One of Zelazny's better shorts. I should reread it. Been a few years...
July 8, 2013
This is the first work of Zelazny's I've read. I'm not all that impressed by the inventiveness of the plots; what stuck with me was the astonishing, highly poetic, sometimes almost biblical or prophetic language and imagery. This is a writer.
August 21, 2010
I'm generally not a sci-fi guy, but I'm definitely a Zelazny guy. And, of course, Zelazny managed to make me like sci-fi with this book, because he's just that good.
I could give a general review for the book, but I think I'll just go story-by-story instead (mostly so I can remember what they're all about when the memories of reading this collection leave my mind in about 3 months).
1. The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth: One of my favorite stories in the book, if not my very favorite. A tale of a fisherman on Venus who's trying to catch more than just a big freakin' fish.
2. The Keys to December: Took me a while to get into this tale of cat-people colonizing a new planet, but it ended up being quite good, and I really liked the way things worked out towards the end.
3. Devil Car: A decent story about sentient vehicles and how they interact with the world and their drivers. Not the best story in the book, but not bad.
4. A Rose for Ecclesiastes: I can't help but wonder if the reason I liked this story so much is because it's so famous for being one of Zelazny's greatest shorts. In any case, I did end up enjoying this story of Martian/Human relations, romance, and faith, regardless of whether or not that enjoyment was injected into me by reputation before I even started reading. The last line of this story is one of the best (if not the very best) in the book.
5. The Monster and the Maiden: A very short story (2 pages) that... well, I can't even give a summary for it without spoiling it, because at 2 pages, the whole thing practically is a summary. It was interesting, I'll say that.
6. Collector's Fever: Another fairly short one, this tale with the distinction of being almost entirely dialogue. Zelazny always wrote great dialogue, and there's a little bit of humor injected into this story simply by the use of a funny-sounding made-up word. Definitely enjoyed this one quite a bit.
7. This Mortal Mountain: A man sets out to climb the largest mountain in the known universe, and runs into some unusual complications along the way. One of my favorites of the book.
8. This Moment of the Storm: I didn't like this one as much as I feel I should have, and I'm not sure why. I could interpret the message in this story in either of two ways, and I find both interesting, but the story itself just wasn't really my thing (which is weird, because I love rain, and it pours for the majority of the tale).
9. The Great Slow Kings: Another really short one, which I found delightfully enjoyable. It's about a pair of kings that are really, really slow when it comes to making decisions for their kingdom.
10. A Museum Piece: I seem to remember being pretty tired when I read this one, which could contribute to my inability to enjoy it fully. I should probably read it again some day, as the memory is a little foggy. But, as with virtually every story in this book, I know this at least: it wasn't bad, because Zelazny doesn't know how to do bad.
11. Divine Madness: This definitely ranks up there with my favorites of the book. Fairly short, and written almost entirely in reverse. Another successful experiment with form by Zelazny.
12. Corrida: Didn't read this because I've read it in another collection (Manna From Heaven), but I remember thinking it was pretty interesting for such a short story.
13. Love is an Imaginary Number: I definitely see shadows of the Amber series here (hmm... maybe I could have selected better words to describe that). Anyway, this could very well be the story that gave Zelazny the idea for shadow-shifting. It also boasts traces of mythology, in classic Zelazny fashion.
14. The Man Who Loved the Faioli: Another one where I shouldn't have been reading while I was so sleepy, but damn it, Zelazny just makes me stay up past my bed time. As with A Museum Piece, I should give this another read, but it seemed good based on what I recall.
15. Lucifer: Interesting little tale about a man trying to regain that which was lost. The title seems to give it another layer of meaning that I otherwise wouldn't have seen.
16. The Furies: Another story I read back in Manna From Heaven, and didn't repeat this time. I seem to recall thinking it was OK, but I didn't like it as much as everyone else seems to. Of course, I was still extremely wary of sci-fi back then, and now that I've read more of Zelazny's stuff, I might go into it with a fresh set of eyes.
17. The Graveyard Heart: The longest story in the book, and also my least favorite. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that I was trying to finish the book last night, and ended up reading beyond my attention span's willingness to continue. It's about a group of people who have formed a sort of upper-class society that remains virtually immortal by freezing themselves between big parties, and only being awake for small amounts of time. It just didn't do enough for me, and I think maybe I'm being extra harsh on it because 1) it was the longest story in the book (if the story's that long, it should at least be good!), and 2) it was the last story in the book, and kind of a bad taste to go out on.
All in all, a great collection. It seems to me that Zelazny may have been going through some relationship issues during this time period, because a lot of the stories have some sort of romance angle as the primary focus (whereas in his Amber series, for example, romance is just a little something extra on the side).
I realize that this review likely isn't very useful to anyone else (lots of "I liked this story" that doesn't really tell you anything), but once again: it's mostly for my own benefit. Because I'm SELFISH. It won't be long before I start to forget exactly which stories were what, so I'll be using this as a reference for myself.
But here's one thing I certainly won't be forgetting: Zelazny was a god.
I could give a general review for the book, but I think I'll just go story-by-story instead (mostly so I can remember what they're all about when the memories of reading this collection leave my mind in about 3 months).
1. The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth: One of my favorite stories in the book, if not my very favorite. A tale of a fisherman on Venus who's trying to catch more than just a big freakin' fish.
2. The Keys to December: Took me a while to get into this tale of cat-people colonizing a new planet, but it ended up being quite good, and I really liked the way things worked out towards the end.
3. Devil Car: A decent story about sentient vehicles and how they interact with the world and their drivers. Not the best story in the book, but not bad.
4. A Rose for Ecclesiastes: I can't help but wonder if the reason I liked this story so much is because it's so famous for being one of Zelazny's greatest shorts. In any case, I did end up enjoying this story of Martian/Human relations, romance, and faith, regardless of whether or not that enjoyment was injected into me by reputation before I even started reading. The last line of this story is one of the best (if not the very best) in the book.
5. The Monster and the Maiden: A very short story (2 pages) that... well, I can't even give a summary for it without spoiling it, because at 2 pages, the whole thing practically is a summary. It was interesting, I'll say that.
6. Collector's Fever: Another fairly short one, this tale with the distinction of being almost entirely dialogue. Zelazny always wrote great dialogue, and there's a little bit of humor injected into this story simply by the use of a funny-sounding made-up word. Definitely enjoyed this one quite a bit.
7. This Mortal Mountain: A man sets out to climb the largest mountain in the known universe, and runs into some unusual complications along the way. One of my favorites of the book.
8. This Moment of the Storm: I didn't like this one as much as I feel I should have, and I'm not sure why. I could interpret the message in this story in either of two ways, and I find both interesting, but the story itself just wasn't really my thing (which is weird, because I love rain, and it pours for the majority of the tale).
9. The Great Slow Kings: Another really short one, which I found delightfully enjoyable. It's about a pair of kings that are really, really slow when it comes to making decisions for their kingdom.
10. A Museum Piece: I seem to remember being pretty tired when I read this one, which could contribute to my inability to enjoy it fully. I should probably read it again some day, as the memory is a little foggy. But, as with virtually every story in this book, I know this at least: it wasn't bad, because Zelazny doesn't know how to do bad.
11. Divine Madness: This definitely ranks up there with my favorites of the book. Fairly short, and written almost entirely in reverse. Another successful experiment with form by Zelazny.
12. Corrida: Didn't read this because I've read it in another collection (Manna From Heaven), but I remember thinking it was pretty interesting for such a short story.
13. Love is an Imaginary Number: I definitely see shadows of the Amber series here (hmm... maybe I could have selected better words to describe that). Anyway, this could very well be the story that gave Zelazny the idea for shadow-shifting. It also boasts traces of mythology, in classic Zelazny fashion.
14. The Man Who Loved the Faioli: Another one where I shouldn't have been reading while I was so sleepy, but damn it, Zelazny just makes me stay up past my bed time. As with A Museum Piece, I should give this another read, but it seemed good based on what I recall.
15. Lucifer: Interesting little tale about a man trying to regain that which was lost. The title seems to give it another layer of meaning that I otherwise wouldn't have seen.
16. The Furies: Another story I read back in Manna From Heaven, and didn't repeat this time. I seem to recall thinking it was OK, but I didn't like it as much as everyone else seems to. Of course, I was still extremely wary of sci-fi back then, and now that I've read more of Zelazny's stuff, I might go into it with a fresh set of eyes.
17. The Graveyard Heart: The longest story in the book, and also my least favorite. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that I was trying to finish the book last night, and ended up reading beyond my attention span's willingness to continue. It's about a group of people who have formed a sort of upper-class society that remains virtually immortal by freezing themselves between big parties, and only being awake for small amounts of time. It just didn't do enough for me, and I think maybe I'm being extra harsh on it because 1) it was the longest story in the book (if the story's that long, it should at least be good!), and 2) it was the last story in the book, and kind of a bad taste to go out on.
All in all, a great collection. It seems to me that Zelazny may have been going through some relationship issues during this time period, because a lot of the stories have some sort of romance angle as the primary focus (whereas in his Amber series, for example, romance is just a little something extra on the side).
I realize that this review likely isn't very useful to anyone else (lots of "I liked this story" that doesn't really tell you anything), but once again: it's mostly for my own benefit. Because I'm SELFISH. It won't be long before I start to forget exactly which stories were what, so I'll be using this as a reference for myself.
But here's one thing I certainly won't be forgetting: Zelazny was a god.
December 3, 2023
Minu armastus Zelazny vastu algas „Amberi“ sarjast ja pärast tema voolava kirjutamisstiili ning mitmekülgsete maailmade avastamist olen nautinud tema lugusid nii eesti kui ka inglise keeles. Selle antoloogia 15 pikemat ja lühemat lugu, mis pärinevad eelmise sajandi kuuekümnendatest, sisaldavad küll mõnevõrra aegunud detaile, kuid see ei takista nautimast antud raamatus kirjeldatud fantastilisi maailmu. Enamik selle antoloogia pikematest lugudest, eranditega, suudavad panna lugeja kiiresti kaasa elama, hoides huvi ja loo tempot üleval kuni juttude lõpuni. Samas lühemad palad jäävad tihti minu maitse jaoks liiga abstraktseteks.
Detailsemalt lugudest ulmeajakirjas "Reaktor" - https://www.ulmeajakiri.ee/?raamatarv...
Detailsemalt lugudest ulmeajakirjas "Reaktor" - https://www.ulmeajakiri.ee/?raamatarv...
June 3, 2022
Gostei de quase todos os contos, exceto o primeiro, que dá nome à coletânea. Um dos meus primeiros contatos com o autor e gostei bastante do estilo dele. Curioso para ver como ele desenvolve um romance.
April 3, 2025
Zelazny is an author who, for me can do no wrong and has never written a single word I was not willing to read. His prose is poignant, sometimes humorous sometimes deeply serious, always deeply moving. It seems to me that a lot of what people get from both classic and modern literature I get from Zelazny: the deep insight into human feelings and actions, the desperation and hope the loneliness and ambition that are all part of the human condition. Add to that, Zelazny loved mythologies, symbology and stories and enjoyed retelling elements from them in unique ways.
All written in that beautiful prose some of the most startlingly speculative stories and novels out there, and Zelzany is a winner for me every time!
This book is one I picked up, simply because of the author. I never even checked if I had all the stories or not (some I had, some I hadn't). Once again I am confronted by the fact that there are too many stories in the collection to review them in detail, to mention them all in depth:
1) "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" is a novelette first published in the March 1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, it won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and was nominated for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction.
It is set on future Venus, Zelazny's Venus is Earth-like, offering breathable air, water-filled oceans and native fauna, one of which is the fictional Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus, a 300-foot-long denizen of the Venusian oceans commonly called "Ikky". It has never been caught, despite numerous attempts to do so. Our protagonist has been hired by the businesswoman bankrolling the expedition as a 'Baitman” and it is a marvelous adventure yarn, though a poignant as any of Zelazny's work.
2) The Keys to December
(1966) Is a fascinating story of a future in which it is quite normal for prospective parents to indenture their unborn child to a corporation. In this case the child was modified for a ice planet which ceased to exist before he could get there. The protagonist and a group of similarly afflicted people buy a planet to turn into a ice planet and deep moral judgments creek into the question of what will happen to the flora and fauna.
Our protagonist is a perfect example of when Zelazny said he was fascinated by flawed characters but he is a fascinating, intricate character.
3) Devil Car
Murdock is a man bent of vengeance, he has commissioned Jenny, a designer AI car (think Kitt the car from Knight Rider, if anyone remembers that) who is designed as a deathcar which will help him end the renegade devil car who killed his brother. Though the characters are mostly cars, there are deeply humanistic questions and philosophies woven into the story.
The Devil car is an example of Zelazny's fascination with the Intelligence of machines, AI as we call it now and ALSO of the potentially malign alliance of intelligence and automaton. In this story Jenny keeps the faith with her human maker, but she felt the lure...
4) A Rose for Ecclesiastes
Is the poignant story of a translator brought in to learn the language of a dying Martian race. And in it, in that 1982 interview Zelazny created this character who was not ordinary, who had incredible talents, but at the same time is full of emotional weakness and this mix makes Gallager so very relatable. I have read this one often, but it never gets old and there is always more to get out of it.
5) The Monster and the Maiden
(1964) Is a very short quirky story, like, two pages and as Zelazny often does, he reverses elements of fairy tales and mythologies to make you look at them from a different direction.
6) Collectors Fever
Is just hilarious! It involves a human collector and an alien intelligent stone and ends in a most excellent Deeble. If you don't know what a Deeble is, do not google it, read this short story instead.
7) This Mortal Mountain (1976 Galaxy)
Is... about a few different things, but the intoxicating part of it is about mountain climbing. A galactic superstar of mountain climbing is persuaded to look at the most immense mountain imaginable by me. He is hooked and assembles a team to climb. The descriptions of his experiences in the climb, his relationship to the mountain, the beauty of it are intoxicating.
The ending is... unexpected and it would do no one any favours to spoiler it. But I think in this one especially the reader gets the full contemplative force of a beautiful story about the human spirit and how it reaches toward certain experiences (In this case climbing a huge alien mountain).
8) The Moment of the Storm
(1966) Is set on an alien planet settled by people; Tierra del Cygnus, Land of the swan.
Zelazny hooks you first with an interesting character – he traveled the stars, in cold sleep so is both hundred and thirty years old and thirty five years old, but entirely out of phase with anyone he ever knew. A kind of social isolation that Zelazny explores.
'How to describe the world' he says, then does it beautifully [on page 252] this is the tragic story of the floods that overtook the world and as a Queenslander, not unfamiliar with record breaking floods, this was a great story.
9) The Great Slow Kings
Hypothesises a very slow race, with only two remaining species and their servant robot. In the time it takes them to discuss a subject species rise and fall. It is farcical and funny but has a couple of insightful ideas about how alien a real alien might be.
10) A Museum Piece
(1963)This is just... bizarre and unlike anything else I have ever read. I had read it before but now I also own it...
A man decides life is too difficult so he decides to sneak into the museum and pretend to be a sculpture... it sounds ludicrous but in fact it makes for a fascinating story.
11) Devine Madness
Is a wonderful and desperate little story, an exploration of a man who has these states of fugue during which he lives backwards. Until finally he reaches an event in his life which he would have given anything to undo.
12) Corrida
Exceptionally odd. Never mind the details, this is another one about human experience, what it might feel like dissociated and dislocated from reality. If you have no idea where you are or how you got there. Actually, I guess, kind of a horror story.
13) Love is an Imaginary Number
This is another reality twister: Our protagonist wakes up and realises that he has been fooled for years into accepting a reality that is not real. This is another one in which Zelazny plays with classical mythology, but again, in a thoroughly atypical way.
14) The Man Who Loved the Faioli
Well! This has a very sci-fi type scenario; a future where people can be 'dead' yet preserved by mechanicals into a facsimile of life that is virtually indistinguishable... to the person. But not to an alien? Fairy? race, the Faioli and that sets up a really unique story, combining SF and definite fantasy, as Zelazny so often did.
15) Lucifer
Is not at all what you think it is about, from the title. It is a post apocalyptic scenario where once every few years a remnant man makes the lights of the city come alive again. It is detailed, meticulous and strongly desperate story.
16) The Furies
(1965) Is a truly odd an quirky story about three antiheros who combine to hunt down a space pirate; a disenfranchised man and the ending hits straight to mythology.
17) The Graveyard Heart.
Is a future scenario where a party is happening and has been happening forever. The Set are a group of people, sort of influences and celebrities combined who sleep in suspended animation most of the time, emerging for a few hours at a time to attend parties. Bastille Day in France, New Years Eve in New York (apparently no one bothers with Time Square anymore, they just watch the set.
Our Protagonist, Moore, decides to fall in love with a member of the set, then to join it to pursue her.
All written in that beautiful prose some of the most startlingly speculative stories and novels out there, and Zelzany is a winner for me every time!
This book is one I picked up, simply because of the author. I never even checked if I had all the stories or not (some I had, some I hadn't). Once again I am confronted by the fact that there are too many stories in the collection to review them in detail, to mention them all in depth:
1) "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" is a novelette first published in the March 1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, it won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and was nominated for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction.
It is set on future Venus, Zelazny's Venus is Earth-like, offering breathable air, water-filled oceans and native fauna, one of which is the fictional Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus, a 300-foot-long denizen of the Venusian oceans commonly called "Ikky". It has never been caught, despite numerous attempts to do so. Our protagonist has been hired by the businesswoman bankrolling the expedition as a 'Baitman” and it is a marvelous adventure yarn, though a poignant as any of Zelazny's work.
2) The Keys to December
(1966) Is a fascinating story of a future in which it is quite normal for prospective parents to indenture their unborn child to a corporation. In this case the child was modified for a ice planet which ceased to exist before he could get there. The protagonist and a group of similarly afflicted people buy a planet to turn into a ice planet and deep moral judgments creek into the question of what will happen to the flora and fauna.
Our protagonist is a perfect example of when Zelazny said he was fascinated by flawed characters but he is a fascinating, intricate character.
3) Devil Car
Murdock is a man bent of vengeance, he has commissioned Jenny, a designer AI car (think Kitt the car from Knight Rider, if anyone remembers that) who is designed as a deathcar which will help him end the renegade devil car who killed his brother. Though the characters are mostly cars, there are deeply humanistic questions and philosophies woven into the story.
The Devil car is an example of Zelazny's fascination with the Intelligence of machines, AI as we call it now and ALSO of the potentially malign alliance of intelligence and automaton. In this story Jenny keeps the faith with her human maker, but she felt the lure...
4) A Rose for Ecclesiastes
Is the poignant story of a translator brought in to learn the language of a dying Martian race. And in it, in that 1982 interview Zelazny created this character who was not ordinary, who had incredible talents, but at the same time is full of emotional weakness and this mix makes Gallager so very relatable. I have read this one often, but it never gets old and there is always more to get out of it.
5) The Monster and the Maiden
(1964) Is a very short quirky story, like, two pages and as Zelazny often does, he reverses elements of fairy tales and mythologies to make you look at them from a different direction.
6) Collectors Fever
Is just hilarious! It involves a human collector and an alien intelligent stone and ends in a most excellent Deeble. If you don't know what a Deeble is, do not google it, read this short story instead.
7) This Mortal Mountain (1976 Galaxy)
Is... about a few different things, but the intoxicating part of it is about mountain climbing. A galactic superstar of mountain climbing is persuaded to look at the most immense mountain imaginable by me. He is hooked and assembles a team to climb. The descriptions of his experiences in the climb, his relationship to the mountain, the beauty of it are intoxicating.
The ending is... unexpected and it would do no one any favours to spoiler it. But I think in this one especially the reader gets the full contemplative force of a beautiful story about the human spirit and how it reaches toward certain experiences (In this case climbing a huge alien mountain).
8) The Moment of the Storm
(1966) Is set on an alien planet settled by people; Tierra del Cygnus, Land of the swan.
Zelazny hooks you first with an interesting character – he traveled the stars, in cold sleep so is both hundred and thirty years old and thirty five years old, but entirely out of phase with anyone he ever knew. A kind of social isolation that Zelazny explores.
'How to describe the world' he says, then does it beautifully [on page 252] this is the tragic story of the floods that overtook the world and as a Queenslander, not unfamiliar with record breaking floods, this was a great story.
9) The Great Slow Kings
Hypothesises a very slow race, with only two remaining species and their servant robot. In the time it takes them to discuss a subject species rise and fall. It is farcical and funny but has a couple of insightful ideas about how alien a real alien might be.
10) A Museum Piece
(1963)This is just... bizarre and unlike anything else I have ever read. I had read it before but now I also own it...
A man decides life is too difficult so he decides to sneak into the museum and pretend to be a sculpture... it sounds ludicrous but in fact it makes for a fascinating story.
11) Devine Madness
Is a wonderful and desperate little story, an exploration of a man who has these states of fugue during which he lives backwards. Until finally he reaches an event in his life which he would have given anything to undo.
12) Corrida
Exceptionally odd. Never mind the details, this is another one about human experience, what it might feel like dissociated and dislocated from reality. If you have no idea where you are or how you got there. Actually, I guess, kind of a horror story.
13) Love is an Imaginary Number
This is another reality twister: Our protagonist wakes up and realises that he has been fooled for years into accepting a reality that is not real. This is another one in which Zelazny plays with classical mythology, but again, in a thoroughly atypical way.
14) The Man Who Loved the Faioli
Well! This has a very sci-fi type scenario; a future where people can be 'dead' yet preserved by mechanicals into a facsimile of life that is virtually indistinguishable... to the person. But not to an alien? Fairy? race, the Faioli and that sets up a really unique story, combining SF and definite fantasy, as Zelazny so often did.
15) Lucifer
Is not at all what you think it is about, from the title. It is a post apocalyptic scenario where once every few years a remnant man makes the lights of the city come alive again. It is detailed, meticulous and strongly desperate story.
16) The Furies
(1965) Is a truly odd an quirky story about three antiheros who combine to hunt down a space pirate; a disenfranchised man and the ending hits straight to mythology.
17) The Graveyard Heart.
Is a future scenario where a party is happening and has been happening forever. The Set are a group of people, sort of influences and celebrities combined who sleep in suspended animation most of the time, emerging for a few hours at a time to attend parties. Bastille Day in France, New Years Eve in New York (apparently no one bothers with Time Square anymore, they just watch the set.
Our Protagonist, Moore, decides to fall in love with a member of the set, then to join it to pursue her.
April 30, 2018
This is one of the best collections I've read as far as the stories being consistently good to great. Below is a short blurb about each story. There may be spoilers there.
Corrida (6.5) Bullfighting, you’re the bull, Satan's the toreador.
The Man Who Loved the Faioli (7.0) I don't really get it but it was just so damn cool. Robot graveyard keeper gets together with life draining, angel/slut of death.
The Monster and the Maiden (7.0) Sacrifice a dragon to a human. Pretty funny, very short like a joke
A Museum Piece (6.5) Short silly, sometimes witty, if you can't be an artist then be art.
Collector's Fever (6.0) Short, quirky, I guess it's a hard sci-fi joke.
Devil Car (7.0) This was cool and fun. Mad Max-ish, but totally original.
Divine Madness (6.0) Man loses wife in car accident, now has siezures where everything happens in reverse. Finally reverses to before accident and stops accident from happening.
Love is an Imaginary Number (6.5) Not bad. Trying to figure out if he's the devil, Prometheus or just man in general.
Lucifer (7.0) Not sure why it's called "Lucifer" but damn is it poignant.
The Great Slow Kings (9.0) Excellent, they're like ents only even slower.
The Keys to December (7.0) Forgot to add notes, but I remember liking it.
The Mortal Mountain (6.0) Original. Team climbs highest mountain ever and is haunted by computers trying to protect a woman dying in the mountain. I didn't get the ending at all.
This Moment of the Storm (7.0) This was good, not super creative but poignant and interesting.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes (7.5) Anyone else would have stopped with the basic plot but he gave it so much more
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (9.0) This is Zelazny at the top of his game. Amazing writing. Super witty, cool original plot.
Corrida (6.5) Bullfighting, you’re the bull, Satan's the toreador.
The Man Who Loved the Faioli (7.0) I don't really get it but it was just so damn cool. Robot graveyard keeper gets together with life draining, angel/slut of death.
The Monster and the Maiden (7.0) Sacrifice a dragon to a human. Pretty funny, very short like a joke
A Museum Piece (6.5) Short silly, sometimes witty, if you can't be an artist then be art.
Collector's Fever (6.0) Short, quirky, I guess it's a hard sci-fi joke.
Devil Car (7.0) This was cool and fun. Mad Max-ish, but totally original.
Divine Madness (6.0) Man loses wife in car accident, now has siezures where everything happens in reverse. Finally reverses to before accident and stops accident from happening.
Love is an Imaginary Number (6.5) Not bad. Trying to figure out if he's the devil, Prometheus or just man in general.
Lucifer (7.0) Not sure why it's called "Lucifer" but damn is it poignant.
The Great Slow Kings (9.0) Excellent, they're like ents only even slower.
The Keys to December (7.0) Forgot to add notes, but I remember liking it.
The Mortal Mountain (6.0) Original. Team climbs highest mountain ever and is haunted by computers trying to protect a woman dying in the mountain. I didn't get the ending at all.
This Moment of the Storm (7.0) This was good, not super creative but poignant and interesting.
A Rose for Ecclesiastes (7.5) Anyone else would have stopped with the basic plot but he gave it so much more
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (9.0) This is Zelazny at the top of his game. Amazing writing. Super witty, cool original plot.
August 9, 2014
This is a fairly comprehensive collection of Zelazny’s early short fiction.
THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH is another example of Zelazny presenting great action. There’s also some interesting relationship commentary that can be unpacked from under the action. I suspect that in the pulp era that this story is responding to, the relationship would be reconciled by the culmination of the action, rather than the give-and-take of power. THIS MORTAL MOUNTAIN seems to be a return to this same theme of a man exiting retirement to take down the white whale, yet is still surprising and powerful in its resolution.
A ROSE FOR ECCLESIASTES subverts the pulp era style even more than DOORS. The Great White Hope comes to Mars to save the natives with poetry and the Old Testament, while dishing out some Two Fisted Justice. He fundamentally changes their culture, but not in the way he intended and not without being fundamentally changed himself.
THE KEYS TO DECEMBER is a powerful story that explores what it is to be human, and explores the morality of interfering with the development of sentient life.
LOVE IS AN IMAGINARY NUMBER points at both themes in LORD OF LIGHT as well as stylistic tweaks that will arise integral to Amber. And who doesn’t love a good Loki story?
Of the light fare in the collection A MUSEUM PIECE is the most absurdistly endearing. An artist who deems himself a failure sneaks into a museum to exhibit himself as a statue. Then we receive more and more layers. Fun and tightly packed.
THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH is another example of Zelazny presenting great action. There’s also some interesting relationship commentary that can be unpacked from under the action. I suspect that in the pulp era that this story is responding to, the relationship would be reconciled by the culmination of the action, rather than the give-and-take of power. THIS MORTAL MOUNTAIN seems to be a return to this same theme of a man exiting retirement to take down the white whale, yet is still surprising and powerful in its resolution.
A ROSE FOR ECCLESIASTES subverts the pulp era style even more than DOORS. The Great White Hope comes to Mars to save the natives with poetry and the Old Testament, while dishing out some Two Fisted Justice. He fundamentally changes their culture, but not in the way he intended and not without being fundamentally changed himself.
THE KEYS TO DECEMBER is a powerful story that explores what it is to be human, and explores the morality of interfering with the development of sentient life.
LOVE IS AN IMAGINARY NUMBER points at both themes in LORD OF LIGHT as well as stylistic tweaks that will arise integral to Amber. And who doesn’t love a good Loki story?
Of the light fare in the collection A MUSEUM PIECE is the most absurdistly endearing. An artist who deems himself a failure sneaks into a museum to exhibit himself as a statue. Then we receive more and more layers. Fun and tightly packed.
February 29, 2012
Lovely stuff, as always. This is earlier Zelazny, prototypical and experimental, still in his development phases. Most of these stories were published in the years prior to Lord of Light, and you can see the ingredients of that novel budding in shorts like "Love Is An Imaginary Number," published in 1966, one year prior to Lord of Light. I swear, "Love" and "Lord" are essentially the same basic story, spun in different directions.
Likewise, some parallels between Devil Car and Damnation Alley, and the repeated appearance of the archetypal Zelazny Protagonist--a compassionate man with a rebellious streak, a great deal of confidence, a smug sense of humor and a penchant for cigarettes.
This Mortal Mountain, The Keys to December and This Moment of the Storm are probably my favorites. The Great Slow Kings, Museum Piece and Collector's Fever were funny, clever and bizarre; Zelazny doesn't receive nearly enough credit for his chummy wit.
I wasn't a huge fan of the titular short, and the later stories felt a little flat. This may be because I'm spoiled, and my love affair with Zelazny began with some of his finest work (Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, A Night In The Lonesome October).
Recommended for Zelazny fans and anyone interested in early 60's Sci Fi from a young master.
For anyone new to Zelazny, do yourself a favor and read LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT instead, which is a far superior collection of Zelazny's stories.
Likewise, some parallels between Devil Car and Damnation Alley, and the repeated appearance of the archetypal Zelazny Protagonist--a compassionate man with a rebellious streak, a great deal of confidence, a smug sense of humor and a penchant for cigarettes.
This Mortal Mountain, The Keys to December and This Moment of the Storm are probably my favorites. The Great Slow Kings, Museum Piece and Collector's Fever were funny, clever and bizarre; Zelazny doesn't receive nearly enough credit for his chummy wit.
I wasn't a huge fan of the titular short, and the later stories felt a little flat. This may be because I'm spoiled, and my love affair with Zelazny began with some of his finest work (Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, A Night In The Lonesome October).
Recommended for Zelazny fans and anyone interested in early 60's Sci Fi from a young master.
For anyone new to Zelazny, do yourself a favor and read LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT instead, which is a far superior collection of Zelazny's stories.
May 6, 2014
It took me a while to finish this only because the copy I have is 40 something years old and that apparently did not agree with my allergies. My opinion of this book did not lessen in the slightest because every time I got near it made me physically ill, in fact my opinion of it grew stronger. If it had not hooked me in, then I probably would not have picked it up and would have put it into my occasional donate pile.
I went in knowing nothing of the author's writing ability or anything about the short stories collected, except for the cover telling me that the leading story won the Nebula Award. By the end of this book I cannot describe how happy I was to learn that I also had another of his books. I will be forever grateful to my boyfriend for picking them up at a locale library book sale.
As the stories developed around me I was astounded at the intelligence and creativity behind each world building and character.
There was love and determination. Monsters and death. Usually, I am not one for a love story, but my goodness! This was beautiful writing without an excess of sugary descriptions (not that I dislike those). I could tell each word was carefully selected for the overall goal of Never Letting You Forget Them.
I went in knowing nothing of the author's writing ability or anything about the short stories collected, except for the cover telling me that the leading story won the Nebula Award. By the end of this book I cannot describe how happy I was to learn that I also had another of his books. I will be forever grateful to my boyfriend for picking them up at a locale library book sale.
As the stories developed around me I was astounded at the intelligence and creativity behind each world building and character.
There was love and determination. Monsters and death. Usually, I am not one for a love story, but my goodness! This was beautiful writing without an excess of sugary descriptions (not that I dislike those). I could tell each word was carefully selected for the overall goal of Never Letting You Forget Them.
April 8, 2016
I decided to give this collection a try after reading, and liking, Lord of Light. In the short stories here, Zelazny maintains a brash, belligerent style, and a preference for smug, egocentric, cigarette-smoke blowing narrators. His language, though colorful and poetic, is hard to follow most of the time, and I ended up reading and rereading parts to get a grip on the going ons. Well, not all stories are at the same level of density, but most of them rank pretty high up there. It was infuriating at times, but pretty intense at the others. Zelazny cares more about imagery than he does about science, and each of his stories make you stop and think. His imagination is quite brilliant, as he envisions and contemplates the possible futures in store for the mankind. This is required reading for a sci-fi fan.
February 6, 2017
I really liked this collection, but the treatment of women as plot devices rather than characters demoted this read to three stars. Zelazny has some really interesting ideas and integrates them well with actual plots in his stories (which is not always the case with classic sci-fi). His writing style also borders on poetry at times. However, there was not one story where a female character existed in her own right; she was always present to affect the main male character (and many of these female characters died to further the male's plot - expendable women isn't a theme I support). My favorite story was "This Moment of the Storm," and there were many other stories with thought-provoking ideas, but they didn't affect me emotionally (and, again, the treatment of female characters was deplorable).
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