F/SF

Now this was a trippy, LSD-ish story.

I guess it goes with the territory because Zelazny was first and foremost a poet and this book is exactly that kind of weird poetry-become-prose fantasy story that will cause a lot of headaches for people who are more accustomed to standard structured approach to the story telling.

It will need concentration to go through it and figure it out - parts of it are almost movie-like, like first chapter where Lord of the Dead sends his henchman to kill the Immortals that are ruining the balance of dead-and-life-cycle or fight against the dragon (cobra? old man?) that destroys the entire continents, oceans and worlds. Parts of it just .... weird. Trippy.... did I say LSD-ish? You know with spirals and stuff.

Do note that Egyptian mythology given here is not exactly what you would expect - again, that poetic weirdness comes to surface, like copulation with the machine to gain knowledge (because machine works on sexual arousal and satisfaction - had me laughing there :)) or constant incestual father-son-who-is-father's-father relations (?? I know). I guess this comes with the territory (Jodorowsky is another creator that has this approach to art - do not just amaze, make the reader go what-the-.... and OMG and oh blimey because shock is the value - right? Well, not all the time in my opinion and to be honest Zelazny is much better writer and artist).

Story in it essence is pretty straight-forward fantasy story - our hero (who at times was like anything in the world that ever existed except maybe ball-pen) is fighting creature that threatens the very foundation of the world. Then he gets confronted by bunch of heroes on the quest to kill him because our hero is anomaly that is seen as threat to dead-life-cycle (because he is Immortal) but they'll finally decide to join the forces and fight the main danger.

All in all interesting story and I suggest you find the concentration to finish it. If you expect Lord of Light like story then you are looking at the wrong place - this is more like having several storytellers sitting around, taking drugs, re-telling known stories and going "Now it would be cool to have giant rooster attacking the shoe that can talk - because shoe, oh yeah, they are to be worshiped" :):) And yeah, shoes matter in this one, believe me :) ( )

"Criaturas de luz y tinieblas" o "Criaturas de luz y oscuridad" es uno de los primeros libros que dio a luz el escritor estadounidense Roger Zelazny. Este libro es una narración sobre el universo y su creación, la lucha continua entre la vida y la muerte, y mezcla el misticismo egipcio con cruentas y salvajes acciones de la modernidad. Cada ideal va reflejado en un personaje del libro; por ejemplo, la revolución y la guerra es representada por el "General de Acero", la vida por Osiris y la muerte por Anubis. En «Criaturas de Luz y Tinieblas» se cuenta la historia de "El príncipe que fue Mil" intentando recuperar su reino por derecho, y los intentos de la Casa de la Vida y la Casa de la Muerte por evitarlo. El libro comienza con un diálogo mantenido entre Anubis y un hombre mortal por el sentido de su propia existencia y la del hombre. La legitimidad del hombre para poder decir "Yo soy" en función de los cambios que se van dando en el devenir de los siglos, y cómo su alma inmortal podría dotar de humanidad a un cuerpo de metal en caso de que se descubriera el modo de prolongar nuestro cuerpo eternamente.

Not a lot of authors could pull this off but I think Zelazny did. The setting is some distant future where about 300 individuals from a multiworld, multicivilization section of the universe have attained godlike powers over matter, time, space, life and death. There is a power struggle among about a half dozen of these beings. The story is told in "heightened" poetic language but the characters are ordinary joes. There is humor and the writing is beautiful. You have to give it a chance though as it is not a run of the mill adventure novel. It is short, about 200 pages. The chapters are short also. This helps with tolerating the eccentricities. I enjoyed it in the end. ( )

Of all the Zelazny books I have read - and they are quite a few - this one was probably my least favorite. I would qualify that by saying it is probably more my taste than anything else. Building perhaps on "Jack of Shadows" and perhaps also laying the groundwork for his Amber series, the concept is interesting as he combines some classical gods with a multiworld scenario as the representatives life and death battle across worlds and dimensions. It is imaginative and his characters are, as always, good. But note that I didn't say that I didn't like it - only that it was my least favorite of his. I think what bothered me about this one is that it didn't read as quickly as many of his do - I felt like the narrative got bogged down in spots. Still overall, it is a good story and has a lot to recommend it. If you are a Zelazny fan, and can find this, it is definitely worth the read. ( )