Threshold

The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny #1

by Roger Zelazny, Michael Whelan (Illustrator), Alice N.S. Lewis (Illustrator)

The first in a six-volume series, Volume 1: Threshold contains all of Zelazny's short works from his early years through the mid 1960s--a period of experimentation and growth that flowered into gems such as "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "The Graveyard Heart," "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth," and "He Who Shapes." The stories in this series are enriched by editors' notes and Zelazny's own words, taken from his many essays, describing why he wrote the stories and what he thought about them in retrospect.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections, Poetry, Essays

576 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2009

About the author

Roger 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).

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty-three early short stories, novelettes and novellas by Roger Zelazny. I was such a fan of the Amber series, and admirer of Zelazny's technique, that I decided to tackle the 6-book series or his collected short works. I tackled them a bit out of order -- which is okay, because some of the early works are less nimble with more words. I got off on the right foot with Power & Light, then stepped back to the beginning with Threshold.

Each story comes with a touch of background from researchers, and from Zelazny's notes, followed by a bucket-load of references to the allusions and shout-outs in the stories. Good to have reread several of these -- particularly He Who Shapes.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 to 4.5 stars stars. I have not read all the stories in this outstanding collection so this review/rating is for the stories listed below (I will update periodically as I read more stories).

"A Rose For Ecclesiastes" (5.5 stars) - Among Zelazny's best work and certainly one of his best short stories. Brilliant, emotional and unforgettable.

"And the Darkness is Harsh" (4.0 to 4.5 stars). - Great short story about war.

"Mr. Fuller's Revolt" (4.5 to 5.0 stars) - All I can say about this one is...so that's where they got the idea for that Twilight Zone episode.

"Youth Eternal" (4.5 stars) - Smart, short story about how some things never change.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

No surprise to anyone that knows how much I love Zelazny's writing, but this is a fantastic look into his work. Many of the stories are unpublished or not readily available any more. As a whole, the work promises to include every short that he ever wrote. These are many of his early ones. A few are partials, but most are complete & as Zelazny preferred them.

There is discussion about Zelazny's versus editorial preferences. There are excellent notes about allusions & metaphors in the stories as well as personal notes from Zelazny & other authors.

If you're a Zelazny fan, I think this is a must read.

[Brok3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early days of Science Fiction's Intellectual

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) is one of my favorite, and perhaps my all-time favorite science fiction author. And it's not just me. His work is widely praised, won all the awards, and is still popular. The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny is an extraordinary resource for Zelazny scholars. I would not dare call myself a Zelazny scholar, but I am a scholar of other fields, and recognize what the compilers have done.

This is especially valuable because Zelazny's greatest gift was writing short stories. (The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny is slightly misnamed, however, because it includes almost all Zelazny's short works -- that includes poetry and essays as well as stories. Editors Grubbs, Kovacs, and Crimmins did yeoman's work in collecting even formerly unpublished fragments.) Zelazny wanted to write, and did, almost from the moment he learned to read. His first love was poetry. In college, however, he recognized that if he wanted to earn a living as a writer, poetry was not a real option. (As he wrote, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg were the only Americans doing it.) Thus he switched to stories. Later he recognized that, word-for-word, novels pay better than stories, and directed most of his effort in that direction. But he still loved stories best and never ceased to write them.

The Collected Stories are chronologically organized. Thus the first, Threshold, covers his earliest years, before he began writing novels. (The editors even managed to dig up some stories he wrote in high school. Some of these are to cringe, but honestly much less so than I expected.) It is thus a great book that shows where Zelazny came from, literarily speaking.

I called him "Science Fiction's Intellectual" because I cannot think of another writer who better deserves that title. By that I mean two things. First, he was eclectically educated and his writings sometimes, but not always, make great demands on his readers. (The editors of Threshold conclude each story with comprehensive notes, explaining all the names and myths to which the story alludes. One of these notes (for "He Who Shapes") is nine pages long.

Second, Zelazny explicitly intellectualized the craft of writing and had a fair amount to say about it. For instance, he wrote this

Reflecting on my own experience, for whatever it may be worth, out of the thirty or so stories I have written three with which I've been somewhat pleased. In all three I now note that I spent more time on the first page than on any three subsequent pages, and more on the first sentence than on any normal page. In these (all of them over ten thousand words) I had a reasonably decent set of characters worked out before I wrote a word, and had only a sketchy plotline; this, I think, left the characters with room enough to move around on their own and develop accordingly. I feel that the momentum from a strong beginning can carry the reader past those early dead spots which are necessary for stating the problem and stuffing in the background. I now attempt to conceptualize my stories via character rather than gimmicks.

This shows Zelazny's characteristic humility and tact, "I'm not telling you what you should do, but this is what works for me."

The stories in Threshold are not, in my personal opinion, Zelazny's best, even though they include some of the best known. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", for instance, regularly features in lists of all-time best SF stories. And it's a good story! But I feel that the mature Zelazny did better. I intend to continue the series.

Blog review.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not perfect. It has a lot of early stuff of Zelazny that shows the studential quality that one would expect of any early work. BUT --- it contains the three wonderful (10 STAR!) early stories that "shaped" Zelazny's style: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth," and the short novel "He Who Shapes." They are great! -- and it is great to read them within the context of other stuff he was writing at the time.

Also, there are two introductions and a great deal of editor's notes on Zelazny's own opinions of his early writings. Very interesting!

[Michael Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six volumes of Roger Zelazny stories? What madness is this?

I've always found the conversation around Zelazny interesting because you have what I think an outside observer would consider as someone who qualifies as a major SF author (forty year career, decent commercial success, numerous awards and quite a bit of critical acclaim) that people seem to think either peaked too early or never quite reached his full potential. The tale tends to go like this: Zelazny emerged into the SF landscape in the Fifties nearly fully developed, dazzled everyone with short stories and novels that sounded like no one else and shifted the perception of what SF could accomplish . . . and then spent the rest of his career churning out work that was reader-friendly and commercially lucrative but sort of lacking in the innovation department.

In fact, it was nearly the theme right up to the end of his life. My first exposure to Zelazny was John Clute's 1995 book "Science-Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia" . . . in the biographical sketch Clute praises Zelazny's early work highly, notes that the Amber novels were around the time he became "a smoother and more efficient writer, although not necessarily a better one" and then ends noting that a lot of readers had hoped he would write the great SF novel of the latter part of the 20th century. But, Clute notes, "perhaps one day the great book will come."

In 1995 Roger Zelazny was fifty-eight years old. He would die in June of that year from cancer.

Sick for several years, he appears to have kept his illness a secret from almost everyone outside his immediate family, and was probably almost certainly dying when that book was being prepared. But as someone who always seemed very much alive, given his age it wasn't outlandish to assume that he might have at least one more masterwork left in him. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

In the years since I hid in the library stakes dodging the work I was supposed to be doing and reading Clute's book, I've read two Zelazny novels: "This Immortal" and "Lord of Light". Both are extraordinarily excellent and the latter in particular is a book whose impressions have never quite left me, even though its been well over a decade like I last read it, probably closer to two. At his best Zelazny really did sound like no one else, fusing vibrantly poetic prose with a tear through the back pages of world mythologies to form something really unique.

Beyond the two novels I mentioned above, however, I don't know if there's much consensus on where to go in his longer works. His later novels seem to alternate between being highly experimental or light commercial fare . . . the Amber novels were extremely popular in their day (or at least the first series was, I see a lot of people warning others to stay away from the follow-up) but didn't quite set the critical world on fire (critics liked them, just not with the intensity of the early stuff). His short stories, especially the early ones, were still spoken of with some reverence and he was still winning awards for them even toward the end of his life (his last Hugo was in 1987) so I was looking quite forward to diving into this series, which basically collects everything he did that was shorter than a novel. The early short story collections are generally out of print ("The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" appears to be still available, if you just want to go for the concentrated dose) so you're in for the all-or-nothing approach.

The series is actually a fair decent package, for those of the completist bent (which I guess you'd be if you were considering this). Six volumes in sturdy hardcovers, with a nice wraparound Michael Whelan cover that forms a panorama when they're sitting next to each other on the shelf. Inside are not only all his surviving short stories but various articles he wrote or transcripts of speeches/talks he gave, as well as a multi-part detailed biography. You also have, if you're interested in it, his poetry, which is mostly hit or miss for me (its okay but I don't think he'd go down as one of the greats) but helps to give little breathers in between the stories. Most stories also have a kind of posthumous commentary from Zelazny, where they dig up his thoughts from interviews and letters over the years, as well as sections explaining the many, many, many archaic references and allusions he often made in his stories.

It’s a fairly comprehensive package. Is it overkill? I don't think so. If anyone was due a career spanning retrospective, it was probably Zelazny, if only to dilute the "He peaked with 'Lord of Light' and then coasted for the next thirty years" narrative. When someone's been gone for a while, its good to remind people what it was like when they were around.

And of course, we lead the collection off with what a lot of people consider his greatest story. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" even four years after his death was still being ranked in the top five of SF's greatest works, which of course it makes even more chilling to discover it was his first story (not his first published, apparently he wasn't too sure of himself and knocked out some other minor stories before hitting the world with this one) . . . so keep in mind when people say he came out of nowhere, that's really what it must have seemed like back then.

It does feel like a bolt from some other place. Set on a Mars that would soon be fading from the imagination (to be replaced with the red desert that we all know and love watching Matt Damon try to survive on) he conjures up the romance of the SF stories of old but infuses it with a lyrical sensibility and a sharp turn into a kind of subconscious mythmaking. It stars Gallinger, a semi-arrogant linguist and famous poet who is there to interact with the dying race of Mars, learn the language of their High Tongue and do some translating. Mostly all of that happens but not nearly in the way he expects and I think what caught me was not only how tangibly rundown his Mars feels, like the downward slope of a once-great civilization, but how the melancholy comes from such an unexpected place, and how sharp it bites. It would be happier if it didn't hurt so much. And even as it has one foot in the SF of the 30s and 40s, it feels comfortably literary despite the setting. Its ridiculously good. Its also fairly close to the first story he ever wrote.

For some reason Zelazny thought a lack of science in that story would invite a barrage of criticism so instead his first sales to the magazines where a handful of fairly short stories that are interesting now for the sheer verve and energy in the prose, bursting out at full gallop and barely stopping to look back to see if you're following along (everyone likes how "Horseman!" starts but for my money you have the one-two punch of the title "The Teachers Rode a Wheel of Fire" followed by a first line of "When he looked up and saw a moon of blood spinning in the daytime sky he dropped his piece of fruit.")

And while I like the potency of those short tales, he really does well when given a chance to stretch out. "The Graveyard Heart" isn't quite as striking but I like the premise . . . in the future, a man joins the Set, a group of what seems like disaffected partygoers that dip in and out of the world, staying young by sleeping it off in a kind of cold storage. There's romance and people so numbed by existence they do terrible things to each other, because the world has made them that way or because it’s the only way of living in the world. It rides through with a chill that never lets you forget its not going to end well and it still feel sad when it ends just as you expect.

Quite a few of these stories are dense with historical references, as Zelazny seems determined to stuff every book he's ever read into all of these stories ("On the Road to Splenoba" - Communists vs vampires, "The Borgia Hand", referring to everyone's favorite rich sneaky backstabbers, "Moonless in Byzantium" - a play on the famous Yeats poem . . . all of this seemingly culminates in "Nine Starships Waiting" where he tries to rewrite "The Revenger's Tragedy" but in space) . . . it gives this book a definite "let's try anything and see what happens" approach that later volumes can't quite equal. For the most part Zelazny is just firing off whatever ideas are in his head and the hit-miss ratio is surprisingly high. Maybe its just the level of confidence exuded in these stories but you start to sense after a while that Zelazny feels he can do anything and is out to prove it, or at least no one is capable of convincing him that he can't. It makes for exhilarating reading at times, someone realizing that the limits of their abilities are much further away than they might have imagined.

But as much fun as those stories are, and they are, they're just laying the groundwork for the heavy hitters. And when you encounter "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth" its one of those that hits hard.

In essence, he's trying to do to Venus what he did to Mars in "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" while attempting to tell a loose variation on "Moby Dick". Its definitely not for the person who's looking for strict science but at points it almost feels like a farewell to the Venus of the early years of SF when everyone thought it was humid jungles and acidic water (as opposed to being over 800 degrees). But frankly Zelazny tells the story so well you don't care that its scientifically impossible . . . we get Carlton Davits who performs a job function known as being a "baitman", which is exactly what you'd think it is. He and his new boss (who he had a fling with once upon a time) are on the hunt for a giant fish known adorably as "Ikky", which belays the fact that its massive, capable of killing everyone on the ship and has never been caught. Davits was seriously injured once before trying to kill it and so would like to get it right this time. Even better, he'd like to still be alive when it happens.

It all sounds simple enough but what Zelazny is so good at in this period of his career was creating a world and a mood that crackles with a weird kind of density. Even when it takes place on Venus, even when he's referencing an entire library full of old texts, even when the whole story is operating in the first person and we only have Davits as our guide. It just moves with its own kind of rhythm and even if it isn't as overtly tinged with sadness as his first masterpiece, there's still a strong thread of introspection as Davits has to figure out if he's the person he always thought he was, or if he can be better than that even as the story heads for a suitably savage climax notable not for any bloodshed but for how much a person can take a scalpel to themselves and understand how they've put themselves together. Again, its an amazing achievement. Zelazny wasn't even thirty.

From there its an barrage of interesting but non-essential stories that once again epitomize the "I'll try anything once" mentality he had at this point until we peak once again with "He Who Shapes". Not quite on par with the previous stunners, it features Charles Render, a psychiatrist who specializes in using dreamscapes to help people understand themselves better. He's the best at it. Then he meets a blind psychiatrist who wants him to teach her how to shape dreams as well. And in the best tradition of "What's the worst that can happen if we give him Jedi training?" Render quickly ignores every creeping sign that This is Not a Good Idea and proceeds to train.

What makes this story work is how tangible the dreamscapes feel, how the more offbeat elements fit in just time (her Seeing Eye dog is a talking dog that on some level is probably the perceptive being in the book) and how weirdly noir the story can feel, with a lady making a man complicit in a doom that he mostly willingly accedes to. Partway through the story you're going to get an uneasy feeling that things are going to end poorly and when they do Zelazny goes full on bonkers, layering on the allusions along with hallucinatory imagery to a remarkably intense finish, one that doesn't even make total sense unless you're familiar with the legend of Tristan and Isolde (the explainer at the end of the story is a solid nine pages long, in case you're doubting how dense this story is, which may be why it doesn't always get listed with the classics . . . its not super accessible in parts). Later on, they would use the story as the foundation for the movie "Dreamscape", although by the time they were finished revising the script it bore absolutely resemblance to what Zelazny had written beyond the fact that both stories feature people and dreams. Needless to say, his name isn't on the credits (not because he removed it) although I don't think he was terribly sad about that.

The rest, for the most part, is ephemera, though generally interesting ephemera. They help put everything in context, especially the biographical essays (Zelazny was reticent about his personal life in interviews, feeling he revealed enough of himself in stories). But the real draw here is the stories, which even today can still shock with just how uncommonly good they are. For a lot of people this and the next volume are going to be the keepers, as Zelazny apparently gradually settled into a more commercial groove (though I think the series makes a good case he stayed weird for quite a while), leaving the spiky, strange stuff to his younger years. I won't dispute the early stuff is probably more essential and anyone who just wants the hits can probably find them in a Best Of somewhere, used or otherwise. I like this way better because you get the full sweep and it’s a good reminder that even the B-level material of a genius can still be pretty good. But at this stage of the game Zelazny didn't produce much B material. Perhaps because the sheer amount of material contained in these volumes it'll be purely for the completists but I think Zelazny is one of those few SF authors where you can make the case the completist approach is one worth pursuing.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much great writing, so early in his career. Loved all of it. Well, I'm not much of a poetry guy. I do think being able to write poetry is laudable, so I admire Zelazny's desire and ability to write it. I just don't enjoy reading it as much as I do prose (I consider this a shortcoming in myself and not in the medium itself). If I had all the time in the world, I'd love to spend time cultivating an appreciation for poetry, but I digress.

Rather than take paragraph after paragraph saying how much I like Zelazny (which anyone who knows me really well already knows), I'll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and was impressed all over again.

Besides the obvious ones, I also really liked: Mr. Fuller's Revolt, A Thing of Terrible Beauty, The Stainless Steel Leech - I could go on. Studies in Saviory was also great fun for the insights into the author himself. I liked Carl Yoke's piece and part 1 of the biography for the same reason.

Beyond the writing, I'll say the book itself is very nice. Great cover, nice quality, well constructed I think. I'm so glad NESFA but it together, I'm excited to read the rest. I especially enjoyed the notes, and "Zelazny speaks" that appear after the stories. In many cases I got new insights into some of the references made in the stories, which gave me new appreciation even for the stories I'd read before.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how to do an objective review of Threshold. This book, which is the first of six, made me giddy as I read it. Yes. Fucking giddy. I can’t overstate the thrill I had in reading these obscure stories, scraps of stories and bad poems that Zelazny wrote in his early career. I loved his pulp science fiction Mars and Venus imaginings. I loved the idea that he and his best friend from middle school wrote competing stories of Parisian subterranean monsters named Yok and Zlaz. I even loved his stupid poem about a shedding cat. But what I love most is Zelazny’s love of story. His relentless submissions and rejections. The fact that he kept writing because clearly he couldn’t stop writing. A tome of forgotten and wonderful stories that exist because he wanted to create, constantly improve and simply couldn’t walk away from what he loved.

I have no idea what else I can possibly say once I read the other five volumes…

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for Zelazny fans or fans of classic short fiction.

I love Roger Zelazny. I was heart broken when he passed away. But my experience with his work consisted solely of later work such as Amber, Lord of Light, and his later short fiction.

I was completely blown away by the stories in this book, especially A Rose for Ecclesiastes and The Graveyard heart. His stories are so well crafted, so seemingly effortless in their rich texture. It's like the literary equivalent of a fine Armagnac.

Get this, enjoy every word.

[Kevin Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Zelazny shortly after returning from England. That year, I read about 300 sciencefiction books. Zelazny's are among the most memorable. This is the first volume the six volumes of his short fiction. Utterly unique, and utterly brilliant. I've read them all and treasure them.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Zelazny and his writing, and there are some really good stories here and a lot of ephemera which is interesting, but not his best. Looking forward to later volumes, when he was firing on all cylinders.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early works by Roger Zelazny. Contains 4 of my favorites by him; "A Rose for Ecclesiates", "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth", "The Graveyard Heart", and "He Who Shapes."
There is also a plethora of poetry and about 25 more short stories that give a glimpse into his writing process.

[Deborah Laux · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much like Bradbury but for grown-ups. Philosophy disguised as SF.

[Jeremy Bagai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitive and must-have collection for the fan. Amazing extras (essays, introductions, analysis).

[Steve Smoot]

first volume of insanely complete Zelazny reprint. Nice to reread with commentary.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Roger Zelazny ever since I first picked up a copy of Nine Princes in Amber from the public library paperback spinner sometime around 1980. (Well, I think I initially picked up Sign of the Unicorn and was quite confused until I went back and found the first book in the series.) But while I knew that he wrote a lot of short fiction, I never really read much of it -- I was mostly smitten with the Amber books and some of his other novels -- Jack of Shadows, Doorways in the Sand, etc.

Happily, a while back NESFA Press put out a six-volume collection of all (or at least all-ish) of Zelazny's short fiction; and even more happily, they very recently released it on Kindle, allowing me to fill this major gap in my reading.

On the one hand, this volume contains his earliest professional (and pre-professional) work, so allowances do sometimes have to be made; but on the other hand, it comes out of the gate with the novelette A Rose for Ecclesiastes and that one left me just gobsmacked.

The bulk of the collection is relatively short (5-10 page) stories, many of which he was clearly writing to hone his craft, but hone it he did, and plenty of poetry, which he also wrote prolifically; but the collection is anchored by several major works -- the aforementioned Rose for Ecclesiastes; The Graveyard Heart; The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth; and Nine Starships Waiting, amongst others, all of which were new to me, and all of which I immediately regretted not reading many years ago.

I'm not sure if this is the collection I'd give to somebody who's just Zlaz-curious -- for that, I'd probably look for something that was more of a best-of instead of a comprehensive survey -- but if you do want to dig deep, then this is the place to start.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4 stars

Roger Zelazny deserves every bit of his status as a legendary SFF author. At his best (which he often was - see Lord of Light), his prose verged on poetry without ever losing its readability. His short fiction (gathered in several partial collections over the years) was as good, if not better. So, running across a complete collection of his short works is as exciting to an SF fan as finding that a (more) affordable version of the [Jack] Vance Integral Edition is being published. Zelazny and Vance were not only among the top SF writers, but were two of the absolute best for those who love good writing for its own sake.

Which is why the editorial policy behind this collection (published by NESFA) is so puzzling. Curious decisions include: - stories are not in chronological order, nor in series groups, nor in topical order. Yes, there's a general chronological sequence here, but stories are often presented out of order, for no evident reason. - Zelazny aspired to be a poet, and there's a lot of his poetry here. Ironically, for a writer whose prose was so beautifully poetic, his actual poetry is pretty poor. The poems are scattered throughout the volumes of the collection - often topically linked with the following story. It's a little hard to argue with the editors on this - several hundred pages of poetry in one place would have seriously weakened one of the volumes in the set. And if the poetry had just been left out entirely, you'd wonder about it, and how good it must have been. - Several excerpts from novels. Frankly, I just resent this. I have the novels - they're mostly available for purchase. I bought this set for the short stories. - One little quibble. One the inside back jacket, Michael Whelan gets as much space as Zelazny himself. Yes, he's a famous (if overrated) artist, but hey, he just did the one cover, not the six volumes of content.

Strange sequencing, etc. aside, the collection is well done. There is excellent information on publication dates and how the stories fit the various series. There are many previously unpublished (or underpublished) pieces. There are carefully collated comments from Zelazny about each story, and there are (over-) copious interpretive notes about the allusions in each story. Also, there's a nicely written biographical piece included in each volume. While they're all respectful of Zelazny's talent, they're not sycophantic in tone. There are also introductions by guest notables for each volume - some good, some that lead you to question why the editors selected people who clearly did not know Zelazny well.

Finally - the stories themselves. If you're a Zelazny fan, this collection is well worth your time. Otherwise, it's not your best introduction. Some of the underpublished (e.g. in a fanzine) stuff just isn't that good. And the strange sequencing ends up undercutting the effect of the really great stories that are also here. I'm a long time, committed Zelazny enthusiast, and I'm confident that this is not the collection I'd give my spouse in order to share my burning enthusiasm for Zelazny's work. If you're already a fan, though, this will satisfy your completist desires, and give you access to a lot of new work, uneven though it may be.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm glad he realized he'd never make it as a poet, because his poetry was awful. Clunky, jagged, and so vague as to be meaningless. It took me weeks to get through this selection of stories and poetry. There were a few stories that I wanted to like because the premise seemed fun, but the unnecessary references and symbolism kept me from enjoying (and sometimes comprehending) them. The last story in the book was 84 pgs in length and the Notes to help you understand terms and references you had just read was 5 pgs long. There is also a comment at the end of this one in which Theodore Sturgeon put all of my opinions on the matter much more eloquently. It was frustrating to mostly understand a story (finally!) and then have the ending make absolutely no sense.
I like some of his characters, such as the mutant seeing-eye dog. I don't care for his tone, but I understand that it was geared for his audience. Some of his experiments with writing were interesting as an exercise, but not interesting as a story itself. He has wonderful character development, but many of his characters are just the same person over again in different clothes, and himself I suspect.
I think that the ant queen story was interesting because it seems that Orson Scott Card lifted her almost perfectly from Zelazny.
I did not read the non-fiction articles at the very end.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather than going into analytical discussions into the "where & how" of me getting switched off while reading these stories, I would like to state that I am deeply regretting the whimsical decision taken about purchasing the first couple of volumes of collected shorter works of this very-very highly regarded author without sampling some of it first. In American coloquolism, it is the absence of this "rain check" that forced me to try to read some highly literate, and yet exquisitely boring (and in case of the fantasies, much-much worse than the masters like Leiber and even Moorcock) stuff, because after paying good money I had no option other than trying to read them.

If you prefer your science-fiction or fantasy to be action-oriented and plot-driven, rather than being ratiocinations about religion & philosophy in high language of the exalted, DO NOT GO FOR THESE BOOKS. If you wish to establish yourself as a "cool dude" who reads "real heavy stuff", the pleasure is all yours!

[Leo Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having never read any Zelazny, this was a great introduction, and even though I did not utilize every single note or contextual bit of information, the research and effort to compile this volume was certainly impressive.

The stories themselves were generally quite good, with a few very notable exceptions that I did not finish. "The Graveyard Heart" and "Nine Starships Waiting," in particular. I don't know if it's a coincidence these were the longer stories included, but I almost immediately realized I had no interest in finishing either.

As these are earlier works, and all I have as of now to compare, it really says nothing about his work save that I disliked those a lot and enjoyed everything else immensely. Since there are several more volumes after this one, I look forward to seeing how Zelazny progressed as a writer.

[Matthew Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good Zelazny. Character driven and fast paced, the stories are people implementing ideas. People will like the intensity and well fleshed characters. People may not like the quickness. Because everything is short fiction, much is left undeveloped. The commentary does a good job of clarifying detail.

[Kimbeattie]

Zelazny is my #1 favorite author bar none. A collection of his stories is an unexpected dream come true. While I have read most/many of his novels, my reading of his shorter works has been hit or miss and I'm really looking forward to digging into this material, most of which will be new to me.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing how good Zelazny was at the beginning of his career.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is good to begin this collectio0n of Zlaz collecter stories, poems, et al. A master of the written word has to start somewhere. This first vol. begins th Journey Zelazny.

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago, I read (mostly reread) the entire Zelazny canon, all 50 of his published works, in order of publication. I was aware of this six-volume set of the collected stories of Zelazny (I'd looked at the set when it was first released), but didn't own it. I decided that needed to change, so I bought all six volumes, though I didn't include them in my Zelazny read, knowing I'd get to them sometime later. That time has come. I recently finished this first volume. It's a bit hit-and-miss in terms of entertainment value, though as a historical document, it's extremely fascinating. It reprints a lot of Zelazny's early published work (including several very well known stories: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth" and others), along with a number of early works written around that time that had never previously been published. (It goes back as far as including a story he published in his junior high magazine.) Good stuff. It also includes a lot of his poetry, some previously published, some not. I hadn't been able to read much of his poetry before this, so that was a treat. (Zelazny began his writing career wanting to be a poet, and his prose writing has often been accurately described as poetic.) There are also a few odds and ends and a fairly lengthy (25 pages) literary biography, which I believe is continued throughout the six-volume series. I probably wouldn't recommend this to a novice Zelazny reader, but to someone familiar with his work, it's a fascinating look at his very early years.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a collection it has highs and lows, which is to say that one had to leave the summits occasionally in order to get back on top of another. But being on a supposedly low col still leaves one wandering about way up high. Even when Zelazny supposedly misses, he delivers something interesting.
I got hooked, like a great many, by the original Amber novels, but over the last 30 years, it's been a real education to find his short stories collected here and there in used bookstores. This collection has the benefit of editorial notes, annotations, and where possible, even some of Zelazny's own commentary on the pieces. This is just the first of 6 volumes, and I'm grateful for all the work that has gone into making this available to Zelazny's readers. It's never too late to discover "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" or many other gems here. It's admittedly scary to see the talent he was already wielding as a teenager!

[Alazzar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently picked up all 6 volumes of Roger Zelazny's collected stories, and based on the first book, I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Zelazny's early work was amazing (not to say that his later work wasn't . . .), and it's really interesting to see things from the very beginning, including stuff he had published in his high school newspaper. A lot of the stories are extremely short (think 2-4 pages), which can actually be a ton of fun, because you get so much variety that way.

I'd read some of the stuff in this book already (most of it from The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth), so I skipped a lot of the re-reads this time through, being that I've got a ton of Zelazny I want to get through. However, some things were so good they were worth a second read (I'm looking at YOU, "A Rose For Ecclesiastes"). I even read "He Who Shapes" even though I'd read the novel-version of it (The Dream Master) only a few months ago. (And lemme tell ya, either the novella is way better than the novel or that story is just a lot better the second time through. Either way, I loved it.)

One of the beautiful things about this book (and this entire series) is the notes following each story. It's basically like having a specialized Wikipedia at your fingertips, ready to explain every single reference Zelazny made in any given story (and let's face it, you didn't understand all of the references, because that guy's all over the board with his mythology and Jacobean drama and whatnot). Also, many stories have notes from Zelazny, discussing how the story was conceived, what his goals were, etc. Fantastic!

There's also some great biographical information in here, which is awesome for someone who worships Zelazny as much as I do.

All that being said, here's a list of the stories in the book (I'm not including the poems, 'cause I'm not a poetry guy). I've bolded the ones I thought were particularly swell.

A Rose for Ecclesiastes
And the Darkness is Harsh
Mr. Fuller’s Revolt
Youth Eternal
The Outward Sign
Passion Play
The Graveyard Heart
Horseman!
The Teachers Rode a Wheel of Fire
Moonless in Byzantium
On the Road to Splenoba
Final Dining
The Borgia Hand
Nine Starships Waiting
Circe Has Her Problems
The Malatesta Collection
The Stainless Steel Leech
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
A Thing of Terrible Beauty
Monologue for Two
Threshold of the Prophet
A Museum Piece
Mine is the Kingdom
King Solomon’s Ring
The Misfit
The Great Slow Kings
Collector’s Fever
The Night Has 999 Eyes
He Who Shapes


Huh. Looking back on that, I guess it would have been easier to bold the ones I liked less. Or maybe I should have just been a lot more strict in the judging and only picked the MEGA hits, like “Rose,” “Doors,” etc.

Anyway, this book really was an excellent deeble. It always pays to be a Zelazny reader.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1296094.html[return][return]This weighty volume of almost 600 pages covers the early work of the late, great Roger Zelazny (1937-1995). It is the first of a planned series of six volumes covering his entire literary career, published by the New England Science Fiction Association and edited by David G. Grubbs, Christopher S. Kovacs and Ann Crimmins. Together with volume two, it was launched at Boskone in February which was where I bought it.[return][return]I suspect that the book's main audience will be Zelazny fans like myself, hoping for 1) hitherto unpublished literary gems unearthed by the editors' diligence, 2) some insights into those aspects of Zelazny's life and background which made it possible for him to produce his work, and 3) a convenient volume including our favourite pieces. NESFA have delivered on all three. A lot of the uncollected pieces here are rather minor, but there were a couple which jumped out at me as memorable ('Final Dining', 'Circe Has Her Problems'). There is a decent amount of explanatory biographical material by co-editor Kovacs, Carl Yoke and a preface by Robert Silverberg. And this first volume includes 'A Rose for Ecclesiastes', 'The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth' and 'He Who Shapes', Zelazny's best early stories, which is a powerful mixture.[return][return]Satisfying those three requirements would just about justify the hefty $29 price of this hardback. But there are several other positive points about it. First, a lot of Zelazny's early poetry is collected here, interspersed through the stories, certainly at a pace where I could appreciate it. Second, and probably deserving to be mentioned before this, there is a brilliant Michael Whelan cover which will apparently span the jackets of all six volumes. Third, each story and poem has, if available, a short epilogue from Zelazny himself explaining his own feelings about it, and also a glossary of literary references (most of which are accurate, though I wouldn't be surprised if the Miller whose writing has emetic effects is Henry rather than Arthur). [return][return]So, apart from its obvious appeal to existing fans, I think volume one at least is well-designed as a gateway book to encourage new sf readers to read more Zelazny and just to read more widely. 'A Rose for Ecclesiastes' is a really powerful story to begin with - consciously old-fashioned but doing something new as well. 'He Who Shapes', drawing as it does on Zelazny's own experience of car accidents and bereavement, is a good ending point for this first selection. The commentary keeps us going through the less memorable stories in the middle. I am looking forward to reading volume two, and to buying the rest as they come out.

[Magill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of early short stories and poetry supported by end notes, background and comments, as well as several pieces written about Zelazny by people who seemed to have known him well.

As a fan of his Amber series (particularly the first), I was curious about his other works, even though I am more fantasy than scifi in preference. The presentation of his early work in a series of volumes was too tempting to pass by.

After reading this first volume, I am still more fantasy than scifi, but I did find it interesting and hope to access the other 5 books in the series. I suspect that this will be more appealing to people who are fans of his work and, possibly, slightly obsessive compulsives who, having started with volume one, will be compelled to continue.

To be honest, these short stories are really more of an amuse bouche as you don't get the chance to really become immersed in a story, and some of the characters are less than appealing on such a brief aquaintance. And I still don't get some of the ideas the notes indicate were in the story, but they are literate with ideas and references, and that is nothing to complain about.

Volume 4 has been the most enjoyable so far.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More like 4.5 stars but bumping up.) The first of NESFA's six volumes collecting Roger Zelazny's short fiction, covering the first few years of his career. While Zelazny is one of my favorite authors, I've always found him a bit hit-or-miss; he's written some bad stuff, but also stuff that blows you away.

This collection reflects that. There are some subpar stories, but there are also three of his best, acknowledged classics in the genre - 'The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth,' 'A Rose for Ecclesiastes,' and 'He Who Shapes.' I'd read those before, but still find them compelling. His best traits are on display (humor, wordplay, allusions to myth and literature), as are his worst.

Many of the stories here appear for the first time after their initial publication. Mixed in throughout are some his poems, and the end matter includes part of a biography, as well as some miscellaneous fragments that have never been published before. Many of the pieces include commentary from Zelazny, culled from interviews and other sources, which I enjoyed. I appreciated the explanatory notes, but I wish they had appeared as footnotes, rather than endnotes.

A must for any Zelazny fan.