This Immortal by Roger Zelazny | Review (
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
- I finally (finally!) re-read This Immortal in order to do a better review. This is an excellent classic science fiction book!
I swear wearing the same shirt as in my weekly wrap up is a coincidence. This was filmed a week ago! Hah :-)
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![This Immortal by Roger Zelazny [Spoiler Free Review][Masterpieces of SF Ep. 37]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3f0g7YUcaig/mqdefault.jpg)
Zelazny has left us too soon. Imagine if he wrote a Thor movie...
You are giving me a new appreciation for this writer.
When I was 10 I read 'Changeling' and 'Madwand' in quick succession.
Despite the almost universal disdain for the Pol Detson books, I fell madly in love with this author's artful writing style.
This book came out the same year as DUNE by Frank Herbert. It was runner up for sci fi book of the year, I believe.
Zelazny wrote many great female characters. Creatures of Light and Darkness is my favorite. You can see that Neil Gaiman was clearly influenced by it.
Conrad is amazing 🤩
I read this book when I got 16,and I really liked it. My favorite person was Hassan the assasin, so old so secure that what he got to do. Now i'll try to read again. Thanks for your comments
Your review style,is perfect..TY
Thanks for your review. This is one of my favorite Zelazny books, and I am glad you enjoyed it too. I would also suggest the novella "Home is the Hangman", about a robot that becomes sentient and goes looking for his creators. It is Sci Fi, but timeless, in a manner similar to "Frankenstein".
I also suggest reading the novel "A night in the lonesome October". I did this two years ago during October, reading a chapter each day (the book is arranged with one chapter for each day in the month) and ending on Halloween. My three kids (7, 10 and 14) loved it, and so did my wife.
I'm hoping to read as much Zelazny as I can get my hands on! Finding decent or recent publications of his works has been a little challenging. If you have any suggestions for collections/anthologies of his work, please let me know! "Creatures of Light and Darkness" and "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth" are next on my reading list.
And that sounds like a great way to reading "A Night in Lonesome October"! Maybe I should get my dad to read it to me. You can *never* be too old for that! :-) (Ok, that may sound weird, but I truly love hearing my dad read out loud. He does all the voices, and he likes Zelazny too!)
Kalanadi Do you require new copies? Over the years I've picked up every book that Zelazny ever wrote for less than two dollars a piece. Of course, that's not just because money, but because I prefer period art on the covers.
I would highly recommend Roadmarks by Z. if you haven't read it yet. Also, Doorways in the Sand.
Adam Brupbacher I usually like new copies when I'm collecting an author's works. I've been buying Zelazny new so I'll stick with new unless something is definitely out of print. I *almost* got Doorways in the Sand last time I was at a secondhand bookstore :-)
I love Roger Zelanzy but I have yet to read this one. I'm familiar with its theme/plot and I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it (I even read some quotes from this work that really got to me). Interesting that you say that the protagonist reminds you of Sam and Corwin. Zelanzy's heroes are always ...ah just perfect. It seems that's a thing with Zelanzy, to have a strong/intelligent/active protagonist.... and I love it.
Isn't Roger an amazing writer? Lord of Light is one of my favourites and I just loved reading the Amber Series. I purchased all the books in Amber series separately and I even considered getting that edition that contains them all...and maybe I will get, I just love that series so much:)...That reminds me ...Have you perhaps read that last short story of his that takes places after the events in Amber. Doesn't it just put everything in perspective? I think that he could have continued the Amber series in style if he had had the chance.
Do you think that Conrad (the character) could have been named by Joseph Conrad? Now that I think of it, I can see some similarities between Zelanzy and Joseph Conrad. They were both Polish immigrants, they both were brilliant novelist and were capable of writing the most hauntingly beautiful lyrical prose!!!!!!!!!!!!
+Ivana Split Nah... Conrad is pretty much wordplay on main character's OTHER name. But there is a Cassandra in the book, and no one heeds her prophecies. Also, Zelazny's father was an immigrant. He himself was an American through and through.
This Immortal is a good Zelazny. Not great.
Main character is not yet polished into a Corwin or Sam, mythological references are imprecise and convoluted (though he makes it work as a part of narrator's unreliability), and it all ends with a deus ex machina... which again could be an inside joke on account of everything Greek in the story.
Pick up "A Night in the Lonesome October" if you find it.
It's a very... Zelazny's take on horror and mystery classics (like say... Lovecraft) with a bit of Neil Gaiman-like flare.
Main character is a dog named Snuff, whose master Jack has a large knife "with old writing" on it, and is cursed to "do things at night" in order "to keep worse things from happening".
In and around Victorian London, in days (and nights) approaching Halloween.
Great review. Some well put together sentences that really showed you knew this book well. I would probably do The Amber Chronicles read along if you decide to do it. It is something I feel like I should read to better understand what came before and to compare it to what came after.
Nice, well-thought out review.
Very nice review; (but you left out the dog.) I never analyzed it- only read it for the thrills. I read this book, I believe my first by Zelazny, in the mid 70's. By about 1980 I got to my first Amber book and HATED it. (I started with the second volume because it was at a library and they buy the 2nd when the 1st gets good reviews.) Of course I changed my mind about the Amber books after a while. "Lord of Light" is more interesting. I also liked "The Changing Land" and "A Night in the Lonesome October"
I'll buddy read the Amber Chronicles with you! I have them waiting on my shelf, they keep staring at me. When would you want to start? How fast would you want to read them?
Nicole's Adventures in SFF I wanted to start reading them in February - committing to one book per month. They are short, so I'm open to picking up the pace later. I haven't done an official buddy read or read along before so suggestions would be welcomed! :-) My plan is to use #amberreads on Twitter and setup a small Goodreads group for discussions if multiple people want to join in.
Kalanadi If you want to make a buddy read thread on the booktube reading buddies, you're totally welcome to organize things there. We have a couple of people doing a SoIaF readalong where they read one book a month. You could organize something similar. Of course, if you want to open up your own group, I totally understand. One book a month would work for me. They are pretty short, so we could reevaluate and go up to a book every two weeks. A lot depends on how many people end up joining in. If it's just me and you I bet a book every two weeks would be fine (but we both read fairly fast.)
Nicole's Adventures in SFF I am behind on understanding how the BRB group works, but I will check out the rules for suggesting buddy reads there. It makes more sense (to me) to do it over there, if you don't mind, rather than creating a one-off group! And I agree, two books in the series per month would be a great pace for just you and me... maybe even for other people. They are not epic length like so many other fantasy series!
I don't know what buddyread means but I've been cycling through Zelazny since I encountered him. I enjoyed the review.
Andrew Ceyton A buddy read is when you read a book at the same time as a friend and you get to talk about it with them. I've really enjoyed reading more Zelazny this year too! :-)
Kalanadi i should have gotten that from contextual clues, eh? :) Thanks for the clarification.
isle of the dead is my favourite followed by the triology home is the hangman, with this immortal coming in 3rd
I liked this book too, Tied with Dune for the Hugo in '66.
Yep. They're both great books (and incredibly different) but I would probably have picked Dune over This Immortal!
Me too. I have read the first 4 books.. 2 more to go in the original Frank Herbert series :)
@@Kalanadi
Great review. Love this book too. (I'd pass on Creatures of Light and Darkness though :)
You should give Jack of Shadows a try, if you haven't yet.
This is one of my favorite books and he is one of my favorite author. Hasan is my favorite character in this book. I even brought him into a future Harry Potter yahoo RPG. LOL. You did a fantastic review of this.
Morticia
Hassan is my character favorite too
I can't tell for sure if I've read this or not. It sounds familiar and I read lots of Zelazny in t 70s. But that was so long ago I'm not sure.
Wow. Thanks for this. This definitely goes onto the list.
yesmissjane You're welcome ;-) And the good thing is - it's SHORT!
yay!
Thiis is gold pure 👀👌
👍
I'm just here for your irrepressible smile...
Jack of Shadows?