Favourite Zelazny novels and short stories

Heh i was wondering because i hoped you had read the novella. Which version Zelazny prefered or which is the better version was what i was wondering. Like This Immortal. The books was cut different than serialized story and RZ prefered it,the novella title according the wiki info. Which made me wonder.

Im becoming a fan so i will get his short collection+Lord of The Light.

Hopefully He Who Shapes is in the same volume as Dilvish stories. A Zelazny S&S i must read.

Zelazny preferred "He Who Shapes" over the expanded The Dream Master, and this is explained in the Notes that accompany the story. He also preferred the novella "Damnation Alley" to the expanded novel version, Damnation Alley.

The Collected Stories are grouped more-or-less chronologically by publication date. "He Who Shapes" is in Volume 1: Threshold.

There are 11 Dilvish short stories plus the concluding novel The Changing Land.

The first 4 Dilvish short stories are in Volume 2: Power & Light.
The next 4 Dilvish short stories are in Volume 4: Last Exit to Babylon, which is going to press very soon and will be released in July.
The last 3 Dilvish short stories will be in Volume 5: Nine Black Doves, due to be released in December.
 
Well, I'm about 200 pages into Threshold, but will say that you all did a great job with it, Chris. I expect (or at least hope!) that RZ would be very satisfied with these, were he still with us (were that the case, there'd probably have to be 7 or 8 books by this point...!).
 
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Zelazny preferred "He Who Shapes" over the expanded The Dream Master, and this is explained in the Notes that accompany the story. He also preferred the novella "Damnation Alley" to the expanded novel version, Damnation Alley.

The Collected Stories are grouped more-or-less chronologically by publication date. "He Who Shapes" is in Volume 1: Threshold.

There are 11 Dilvish short stories plus the concluding novel The Changing Land.

The first 4 Dilvish short stories are in Volume 2: Power & Light.
The next 4 Dilvish short stories are in Volume 4: Last Exit to Babylon, which is going to press very soon and will be released in July.
The last 3 Dilvish short stories will be in Volume 5: Nine Black Doves, due to be released in December.

Thanks that helps alot :). I also felt This Immortal could have been sharper that i will read the novella and the original RZ version of the story.

I will get vol 1 for He Who Shapes and other short stories and i saw a few days ago too that Dilvish first 4 was in volume 2. Im looking forward to reading both volumes. Thats how i decided to get volume 2.

I hope those collections are well balanced beteween his sf and his fantasy stories. Im a big fan of short story collections and i cant wait to read RZ shorter stories !
 
Thanks that helps alot :). I also felt This Immortal could have been sharper that i will read the novella and the original RZ version of the story.

I will get vol 1 for He Who Shapes and other short stories and i saw a few days ago too that Dilvish first 4 was in volume 2. Im looking forward to reading both volumes. Thats how i decided to get volume 2.

I hope those collections are well balanced beteween his sf and his fantasy stories. Im a big fan of short story collections and i cant wait to read RZ shorter stories !

Your comment about This Immortal is interesting. The novel was abridged for its appearance as ...And Call Me Conrad in the magazine F&SF, and the abridged version is what won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Zelazny preferred the original full-length version which later appeared as This Immortal. But fans and critics argued about whether the shorter version was better because it was more focused and coherent. I've read both the abridged and full-length versions and I like both...there are scenes I like in the full-length version that aren't in the abridgment. But the abridged version is included in volume 2 of the collection so that readers can revisit the version that won the Hugo and decide for themselves whether the short or long version is superior.

It should also be clear that This Immortal wasn't a novella expanded into a novel; rather, it was a novel that was abridged by the magazine editor for its appearance as a magazine serial prior to book publication.

As for balance of sf and fanatasy in the collection, well, it's as exactly balanced as Zelazny was. Because we've included all of his fiction. So if you see more fantasy than sf, or vice versa, it's because that's the proportion of what he wrote.

...plus we included non-fiction pieces by Zelazny in every volume.

Everything of Zelazny's in these six volumes comes from my own collection. I'd tracked down every Zelazny story, poem, and essay that had ever been published, plus many more that had been left unpublished. And I made these available to NESFA so that the collection would be complete. It probably would have been a single-volume "best-of" collection otherwise. So if anyone thinks it should have just been a single volume, or shouldn't have had poetry and unpublished/uncollected stories and other curiosities, you can blame me for getting involved in the project!
 
Your comment about This Immortal is interesting. The novel was abridged for its appearance as ...And Call Me Conrad in the magazine F&SF, and the abridged version is what won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Zelazny preferred the original full-length version which later appeared as This Immortal. But fans and critics argued about whether the shorter version was better because it was more focused and coherent. I've read both the abridged and full-length versions and I like both...there are scenes I like in the full-length version that aren't in the abridgment. But the abridged version is included in volume 2 of the collection so that readers can revisit the version that won the Hugo and decide for themselves whether the short or long version is superior.

It should also be clear that This Immortal wasn't a novella expanded into a novel; rather, it was a novel that was abridged by the magazine editor for its appearance as a magazine serial prior to book publication.

As for balance of sf and fanatasy in the collection, well, it's as exactly balanced as Zelazny was. Because we've included all of his fiction. So if you see more fantasy than sf, or vice versa, it's because that's the proportion of what he wrote.

...plus we included non-fiction pieces by Zelazny in every volume.

Everything of Zelazny's in these six volumes comes from my own collection. I'd tracked down every Zelazny story, poem, and essay that had ever been published, plus many more that had been left unpublished. And I made these available to NESFA so that the collection would be complete. It probably would have been a single-volume "best-of" collection otherwise. So if anyone thinks it should have just been a single volume, or shouldn't have had poetry and unpublished/uncollected stories and other curiosities, you can blame me for getting involved in the project!

About this Immortal, i thought it was strong story but that it was like a shorter story that was prolonged for a novel. Somtimes it wasnt focused. The latter parts,near ending was my favorit. It will be interesting to read the other version.
Also it was easy to confuse it as a novella cause of the Call Me Conrad title and the This Immortal title afterwards. It seemed like one another famous,award winning novella that became a novel.

About the balanced beteween SF,fantasy thing i only meant that i hope the early volumes im getting are like that. Not how they were collected but hoping my first few RZ shorter stories are both SF,fantasy. I want both sides of him since im getting vol 1-2 for certain stories.

Personally i dislike best of collections, i collect these kind of collection to read a writers less popular stories. See more of him and not only the most famous stories.
 
My top Zelazny novels are:

  • Amber Series
  • Lord of Light
  • This Immortal
  • Isle of Darkness
  • A Night in Lonesome October
 
With the Collected Stories books now all in hand, I'm afraid I have acquired many favorites. Have to say that I enjoyed The Georges Business a lot when I read it last night, however.....
 
hey guys i was wondering if this is the right place for this post but i'll still post it here :D :D .
btw favorite books are the
the amber series and the lord of light.

i was wondering what else from him is good any suggestions ?
 
My Favorite Zelazny novels and stories is a tough list for me to compile because I love so much of his work.

My favorite is Nine Princes in Amber. I read it at a formative period of my life and I loved the tone and how the protagonist and I discovered things at the same time. It is the best of the Amber novels in my opinion.

The other novels I love are:

  • Lord of Light
  • Isle of the Dead
  • Creatures of Light and Darkness
  • Donnerjack
  • Lord Demon
  • Jack of Shadows
I like all of Zelazny's writing but those above stand out for me. In fact I think I need to reread them again.
 
I always put Lord of Light at the top of my list, but on re-readings alone I would now have to go with Today We Choose Faces. I've just re-read the first five Amber books and they are still magical.
 
The only things so far that I've read of Mr. Zelazny's are his contributions to the Wild Cards series, so right now those are my favorite (the Sleeper rocks). I did just recently pick up a book that has a collection of his short stories that he picked out for publication, like the first work he ever had published and such, but I haven't dived into them yet.
 
I'm generally not a fan of short fiction, though Zelazny is a major exception. Of the half a dozen or so of his anthologies I think the first one "The Doors Of His Face..." is still the best overall, even if it's missing one or two classics.

And I think the Sleeper was definitely the best Wild Cards character.
 
The first short story of his I read was from the Camelot book, Passion Play. It was cool to then read how he said it was his first story sold and what he went through getting it ready for publishing.

Croyd Crenson is one of the most fascinating in that universe (big fan of that universe too).
 
Here's my ranking of Zelazny's novels:

First Tier:
• This Immortal (Ace, July 1966 [pb])
• The Dream Master (Ace, 1966 [pb])
• Lord of Light (Doubleday, 1967 [hc])
• Damnation Alley (Putman, 1969 [hc])
• Creatures of Light and Darkness (Doubleday, 1969 [hc])
• Isle of the Dead (Ace, 1969 [pb])
• Nine Princes in Amber (Doubleday, 1970 [hc])
• Jack of Shadows (Walker & Co., 1971 [hc])
• Doorways in the Sand (Harper & Row, Mar. 1976 [hc])
• Roadmarks (Ballantine Books/Del Rey, Oct. 1979 [hc])
• Eye of Cat (Underwood/Miller, 1982 [hc]; Timescape, 1982 [hc])
• A Night in the Lonesome October (William Morrow/Avon Books [AvoNova], Aug. 1993 [hc]) with illustrations by Gahan Wilson
• Wilderness (Forge, 1994 [hc, pb]) with Gerald Hausman (Zelazny wrote Chs. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 [“Glass”]; and Ch. 15)

Second Tier:
• The Guns of Avalon (Doubleday, Oct. 1972 [hc])
• Today We Choose Faces (Signet, Apr. 1973 [pb])
• Sign of the Unicorn (Doubleday, Feb. 1975 [hc])
• The Hand of Oberon (Doubleday, 1976 [hc])
• The Courts of Chaos (Doubleday, 1978 [hc])
• The Changing Land (Underwood/Miller, 1981 [hc]; Ballantine/Del Rey, Apr. 1981 [pb])
• Coils (Wallaby/Simon & Schuster, May 1982 [tpb]) with Fred Saberhagen
• Trumps of Doom (Arbor House, May 1985 [hc])
• Blood of Amber (Arbor House, Sept. 1986 [hc])
• Sign of Chaos (Arbor House, Sept. 1987 [hc])

Third Tier:
• To Die in Italbar (Doubleday, 1973 [hc])
• Bridge of Ashes (Signet, July 1976 [pb])
• Deus Irae (Doubleday, Aug. 1976 [hc]) with Philip K. Dick
• Madwand (Phantasia Press, July 1981 [hc]; Ace, Nov. 1981 [tpb])
• Knight of Shadows (William Morrow, Nov. 1989 [hc])
• The Mask of Loki (Baen, Nov. 1990 [pb]) with Thomas T. Thomas
• Prince of Chaos (William Morrow, Nov. 1991 [hc])
• Psychoshop (Topeka Bindery, June 1998 [hc]; Vintage, July 1998 [tpb]) with Alfred Bester

Minor Novels:
• The Dead Man’s Brother (Hard Case Crime, Feb. 2009 [pb]; written early 1970s)
• Changeling (Ace, June 1980 [tpb])
• A Dark Traveling (Walker & Co., Apr. 1987 [hc])
• The Black Throne (Baen, Oct. 1990 [pb]) with Fred Saberhagen
• Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming (Bantam Spectra, Dec. 1991 [hc, tpb]) with Robert Sheckley
• Flare (Baen, Sept. 1992 [pb]) with Thomas T. Thomas
• If at Faust You Don’t Succeed (Bantam Spectra, Mar. 1993 [tpb]) with Robert Sheckley
• A Farce to be Reckoned With (Bantam Spectra, Apr. 1995 [tpb]) with Robert Sheckley
• Donnerjack (Avon, Aug. 1997 [hc]) with Jane Lindskold
• Lord Demon (Avon Eos, Aug. 1999 [hc]) with Jane Lindskold

And here are my favorites among his short fiction:

Novellas:
• The Graveyard Heart (Fantastic, Mar. 1964 [novella])
• He Who Shapes (Amazing, Jan. 1965 & Feb. 1965 [novella])
• Damnation Alley (Galaxy, Oct. 1967 [novella])
• 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (Asimov’s, July 1985 [novella])
• Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love (Amazing Stories, Aug. 1992 [novella])

Novelettes:
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes (F&SF, Nov. 1963 [novelette])
• The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth (F&SF, Mar. 1965 [novelette])
• The Furies (Amazing, June 1965 [novelette])
• For a Breath I Tarry (New Worlds, Mar. 1966 [numerous typesetting errors]; corrected version: Fantastic, Sept. 1966 [novelette])
• This Moment of the Storm (F&SF, June 1966 [novelette])
• The Keys to December (New Worlds, Aug. 1966 [novelette])
• This Mortal Mountain (If, Mar. 1967 [novelette])
• The Last Defender of Camelot (Asimov’s SF Adventure, Summer 1979 [novelette])
• Unicorn Variation (Asimov’s, Apr. 13, 1981 [novelette])
• Permafrost (Omni, Apr. 1986 [novelette])
• Kalifriki of the Thread (Hidden Turnings, Methuen Children’s Books [hc], Feb. 1989 [novelette])
• Godson (Black Thorn, White Rose, AvoNova/William Morrow [hc], Sept. 1994 [novelette])

Short Stories:
• Horseman! (Fantastic, Aug. 1962 [short story])
• The Stainless Steel Leech (Amazing, Apr. 1963 [short story]; as by Harrison Denmark)
• Devil Car (Galaxy, June 1965 [short story])
• Divine Madness (Magazine of Horror, Summer 1966 [short story])
• Comes Now the Power (Magazine of Horror, Winter 1966–’67 [short story])
• The Man Who Loved the Faioli (Galaxy, June 1967 [short story])
• Angel, Dark Angel (Galaxy, Aug. 1967 [short story])
• Auto-da-Fé (Dangerous Visions, Doubleday, Oct. 1967 [hc; short story])
• Way Up High (Donald M. Grant [hc; chapbook, with illustrations by Vaughn Bodé], Sept. 1992 [short story; written 1968])
• Dismal Light (If, May 1968 [short story])
• Come to Me Not in Winter’s White (F&SF, Oct. 1969 [short story]) with Harlan Ellison
• The Engine at Heartspring’s Center (Analog, July 1974 [short story])
• The Game of Blood and Dust (Galaxy, Apr. 1975 [short story])
• The Naked Matador (Amazing, July 1981 [short story])
 
I would probably swap some of your first and second tier round, but broadly I'd agree with the rest.

Had he finished it, for me Donnerjack would definitely had featured much higher. I really liked the idea and large parts of it.
 
I would probably swap some of your first and second tier round, but broadly I'd agree with the rest.

Which would you swap? Mine do change over the years, as time goes by and rereadings bring out this or that.
 
Today We Choose Faces and a couple of the first Amber cycle would replace The Dream Master and Eye Of Cat. They are not favourites of mine, though I appreciate the writing, especially in The Dream Master.

Sign Of The Unicorn is probably my favourite Amber novel, even though there's not a lot of action. The revelations come thick and fast, plus it's the first time we get to see all the family together and how they interact.
 

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