Customer Reviews

Last Exit to Babylon - Volume 4: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny

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4 star:		(1)
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Wow...who knew Roger was so prolific? I'm in the camp of "prejudiced reader", since I've got a huge liking for good science fiction, and Roger Zelazny surpassed anything that was written during his time, both in quality of writing and genre-bending. His ability to render a character that was indelible in one's mind, and seemed to take on a life of it's own was simply thrilling. I remember attending an early science-fiction convention where Roger was a guest and he quietly, tersely read a passage from his 'new' book, concerning a planet where myth had become reality, and a death match between the true Buddha and the God of Death took place...you could have heard a pin drop. True literature, not just good science fiction. This collected volume has many gems, some quite hard to come by, and is terrific way to enjoy Roger and his many creations in small bites. I highly recommend it, as both an avid reader of science fiction, and a lover of good literature. And screw the definitions, maybe someone will benefit from them, so why not? Roger was a lover of all things arcane, including fencing (he nearly punctured my sternum once), The Cthulu Mythos (we did try to raise a demon in Baltimore, but it turned out to be just Jack Chalker, bringing snacks in from the kitchen), and I still miss him to this day.

An excellent read. If you love Zelazny's writing, this is a must-have. While much of the book is stuff I've read before, the explanations of how the stories came to be written, what Zelazny was thinking & all were just fantastic. At the end, there is a section that gave me surprise as it went through book after book with a lot of background I'd never read anywhere before about some favorite books like "Jack of Shadows" & "Changeling".

The two introductory pieces, one by Brust & the other by Joe Haldeman, were fantastic. Short, to the point & gave even more depth to Zelazny, the man.

You can certainly read this or any of the books out of order, unless you're a serious scholar of his work. I'm not, but have read them in order since that's the way I got them.

Volume 4 of the complete Roger Zelazny and we're now up to 1969 in order of publication. This time we have the My Name Is Legion sequence of stories taking up about a third of the collection with four more Dilvish stories taking up a further 80 pages. Other highlights include The Last Defender of Camelot and Unicorn Variation.

As usual for this series we have masses of extras about and by Zelazny on his life and writings with more poems and articles.

It is impossible to overstate just how good this impeccably designed and edited series of books is. At the time of writing, the final two in the series are still to be published and I'll be first in line when they are.

Any definitive science fiction library needs the 4-volume series of collected stories by Roger Zelazny. These include every short story and poem written by Zelazny, including all of his award-winning nominations and stories. Volume 1, THRESHOLD covers early years through the mid-1960s with such works as 'The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth'. Volume 2, POWER & LIGHT covers the mid-1960s, his most fruitful period, and includes 'The Moment of the Storm' and his novel 'And Call Me Conrad'. Volume 3 runs from the late 1960s to the early 70s with stories such as 'Damnation Alley' and 'This Mortal Mountain'. Volume 4, LAST EXIT TO BABYLON covers the late 1970s and early 80s with works such as 'Unicorn Variations' and 'Home is the Hangman'. Edited by David C. Grubbs, Christopher Kovacs, and Ann Crimmins, these are a 'must' for any serious, definitive science fiction library charting the course of the early master authors.

Roger Zelazny is one of my heroes. He had astonishing range and depth, and it is good to see this series being published. I chose this particular volume based on wanting to read these stories again, from this period of his work. Highly recommended.

I was astonished, though, by the pabulum lists at the end of each story explaining common words and concepts. Have we really become such an uneducated nation that the editors felt these 7th-grade-textbook-addenda were necessary to sell the books? For me, they break the mood the stories create. I doubt I will buy more of the series.