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kilroyPrint date: 1973 (20s: 1, 50s: 1, 60s: 4, 70s: 8, 80s: 7, 90s: 6, 00s: 17)
A while back I tried to construct a taxonomy of fiction for myself; basically it broke down into Plot, Character, and Style. Good fiction needed to excel in at least one category, and the more categories you could manage the better. Style was sort of the kitchen sink category. I knew what it meant but I couldn't really define it at the time-- it encompassed too many different things. Nowadays I'd probably call it something like "expresses a strong and unique artistic vision." Style is when no one else could ever have made the fiction the same way.
Roger Zelazny is the master of Style. He has pretty much one female character and not that many more males; he recycles the same elements in endless variations; his plots are usually incoherent; and he considers "resolution" to be optional. But you pick up one of his books and a few pages later you're snapped into a world so vivid that it leaves a mental afterimage which colors everything else you see for a while. He's worth reading for the thrill alone.
This book pretty much follows what I just outlined. You don't actually see the ending; the perspective is of a character listening to another character who's seeing things from a distance. It's also a plot cop-out in a lot of ways. There are gods walking among men, which probably sounds familiar if you've read Lord of Light or Creatures of Light and Darkness. The exception to his general pattern is that the debatable main character isn't The Zelazny Protagonist; he's actually vulnerable and a bit of a pawn of circumstance.
Still, the book pulled me right along. I was turning pages, immersed in the universe, trying to figure out what was happening and what would happen. Reading it was a breeze. It feels like a good short story that goes on 50 pages too long, but there's more than enough to keep you interested.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will recycle. (28/76)
Page count: 174 (15231 total)
Completed: 44 (19 female authors, 24 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, due Sat. 3/19
A while back I tried to construct a taxonomy of fiction for myself; basically it broke down into Plot, Character, and Style. Good fiction needed to excel in at least one category, and the more categories you could manage the better. Style was sort of the kitchen sink category. I knew what it meant but I couldn't really define it at the time-- it encompassed too many different things. Nowadays I'd probably call it something like "expresses a strong and unique artistic vision." Style is when no one else could ever have made the fiction the same way.
Roger Zelazny is the master of Style. He has pretty much one female character and not that many more males; he recycles the same elements in endless variations; his plots are usually incoherent; and he considers "resolution" to be optional. But you pick up one of his books and a few pages later you're snapped into a world so vivid that it leaves a mental afterimage which colors everything else you see for a while. He's worth reading for the thrill alone.
This book pretty much follows what I just outlined. You don't actually see the ending; the perspective is of a character listening to another character who's seeing things from a distance. It's also a plot cop-out in a lot of ways. There are gods walking among men, which probably sounds familiar if you've read Lord of Light or Creatures of Light and Darkness. The exception to his general pattern is that the debatable main character isn't The Zelazny Protagonist; he's actually vulnerable and a bit of a pawn of circumstance.
Still, the book pulled me right along. I was turning pages, immersed in the universe, trying to figure out what was happening and what would happen. Reading it was a breeze. It feels like a good short story that goes on 50 pages too long, but there's more than enough to keep you interested.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will recycle. (28/76)
Page count: 174 (15231 total)
Completed: 44 (19 female authors, 24 male authors, 1 anthology)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, due Sat. 3/19