The Story that made Roger Zelazny

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Күн бұрын

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@MisterCross 5 ай бұрын

I'm going to have to read this story. I met Roger Zelazny at a bookstore called Hunter's Books. I'm not sure if its La Jolla or San Diego proper. I don't know if its even there anymore. But my best friend Mike went to UC San Diego and we just stopped in for a minute before we drove back north to where we live in the OC. Hunter's had a great genre section so we were just looking around and there were a couple tables covered with Zelazny books and Mike was wondering why. We were the only two there besides one employee and some old guy sitting at a table up front with a bunch of books in front of him. After a couple minutes Mike walks up to me, "Hey," he whispers. "I think thats Roger Zelazney." I yell out, "WHAT?! Hey, it is!" He was promoting Knight of Shadows the Amber novel. December 10, 1989. He signed our books He was really nice.

@unstopitable 5 ай бұрын

That's pretty awesome.

@DawnDavidson 5 ай бұрын

Cool! What a great accidental meeting. I loved his Amber novels. I occasionally still quote a sentence from one of the first Amber books (I think the first one): “He tributes him like a brother, which is to say, not at all.” 😂 Fortunately, I don’t have any brothers to insult with that question. 😂

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

That is an awesome story, thanks for sharing!

@maxlandshark 5 ай бұрын

I am on the fourth book in the Amber series and it is in the liminal. I can't wait to hear you talk about the series.

@Scottlp2 4 ай бұрын

The original amber series (5?) is excellent. The 2nd series is good. And there are a few short stories set in that world floating around.

@aaronh.2496 5 ай бұрын

Even though I wasn’t alive during the heyday of these types of works, I still feel a nostalgia for them. This channel is fantastic

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

@bookspin 5 ай бұрын

This sounds great! Looking forward to this - I have Zelazny's collection 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 as an upcoming read soon. I've only read a couple of his novels so far, which I really enjoyed, so I'm looking forward to checking out some of his short fiction.

@cunningba 5 ай бұрын

I read A Rose for Ecclesiastes in the Summer of 1972 and fell in love with Roger Zelazny. Unfortunately it set a rather high bar. I was disappointed by everything else I read by him.

@DawnDavidson 5 ай бұрын

That Sci Fi Hall of Fame book is AWESOME. I listened to it in audio format, which I got out of the library. It is truly a greatest hits book, and it has a bunch of great stuff including “The Roads Must Roll,” which I hadn’t heard before. Like most collections with a variety of readers, it’s a little uneven. But totally worthwhile. And yes, “A Rose For Ecclesiastes” was one of the reasons I got the book. I also have an interest in linguistics, so it was high on my list for a long time.

@meesalikeu 4 ай бұрын

roger zelazny cleveland’s finest dcifi writer (along w/harlan ellison and star trek savior bjo trimble) - also note zelazny died of colorectal cancer that ran in the family at only age 58, so be sure to get those colonoscopy screenings if u need to or as you get older. 🎉

@corvendata 5 ай бұрын

as a lingüist, you had me at gifted linguist and a poet jajajaja

@delmarchipperson2049 5 ай бұрын

It’s weird to stare at a beard and not see some trimming that could get done.

@kallianpublico7517 5 ай бұрын

By the way isn't Ecclesiates about Vanity not meaninglessness or existentialism? In which case the story isn't about saving the Martians, but about overcoming the protagonist's huge ego: vanity? Like saving Narcissus from himself; or by preventing Echo, in love with Narcissus, from her fate; or by having Echo actually succeed in having Narcissus fall in love with her?

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

These kind of comments really make my day! Zelazny gets better and better the more well read you are, and I must admit, I went into this story without really knowing what Ecclesiastes is about. I really like the link to vanity you've brought up. Brilliant stuff!

@void.lawyer 5 ай бұрын

I found that Doors of His Face collection at Goodwill in middle school and fell in love with him.

@OdairFaleco 5 ай бұрын

Just order my book with the collection, thanks a lot for the tip!

@phalanx3632 5 ай бұрын

Roger Zelazny‘s „Damnation Ally“ is also very weird but interesting. There is also a well known Movie with the same name based on the book.

@HectorPlasmic 5 ай бұрын

The novella and novel are great. That movie is awful.

@kallianpublico7517 5 ай бұрын

Why has no movie of Zelazny's work been made? Wouldn't he give Hellywood the rights?

@EndingSimple 5 ай бұрын

I'd like to know the answer to that. I can guess why it wouldn't make it to the screen today: Male Savior Complex. That is a no no today.

@MichaelSmith-sd9kz 5 ай бұрын

I think there was a DAMNATION ALLEY movie... And isn't ARGO about a fake attempt to adapt LORD OF LIGHT? Oh, and the first half of WALL-E totally rips off "For a Breath I Tarry...." And I do remember talk about the Amber series being adapted as a series.... But you're right, it's an unused treasure trove of brilliant stories & ideas.

@unstopitable 5 ай бұрын

Great video. It's hard for me to think pf Z. as "Golden Age." It makes me feel so old.

@MisterCross 5 ай бұрын

Same. I'm now 4 years older than he was when I met him in 1989.

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

I think he is mostly defined as a new wave writer, but this story barely squeaked into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology, so it is categorized as a golden age story.

@sirrealistic5625 5 ай бұрын

Have always been a fan of Zelazny's "Chronicles of Amber" books. Rumor has it, Stephen Colbert is also and is working on an adaptation for the big or small screen. It's time as it's been long overdue.

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

That would be awesome!

@GrammaticusBooks 5 ай бұрын

I have an illustrated, graphic novel, version of this story. It's excellent! Good review Liminal!

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

Thanks Grammaticus! That graphic novel sounds really cool!

@paraphernaliawagon2310 2 ай бұрын

I just started discovering Zelazny and I read "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" a few days ago. It's so wonderfully dense and rich and complicated. There are elements of it that felt "of their time" in a bad way to me, like a white male power fantasy... but, like you said, unreliable narrator! When Gallinger suddenly reveals that he's also a judo and jiu-jitsu expert and knocks out the huge guy trying to keep him from entering the temple, I rolled my eyes. But, knowing what we now know, he might have faked being knocked out. What I really love is the irony. Gallinger rebelled against his missionary father, who was the whole reason he was the way he was. He spent his life learning about other religions instead of preaching Christianity.. but look what he ends up doing! I'm also intrigued by the wonderful Hannes Bok illustration. Unlike some illustrators, Bok read every story he illustrated multiple times. Everything he did was on purpose. So why'd he paint a white rose instead of red? It must mean something...

@LiminalSpaces03 2 ай бұрын

It's been a bit since I read this, so I can't speak to the white rose, but I loved reading about your journey through reading this story, it mirrors mine pretty well!

@clarkdissneyer8225 4 ай бұрын

That's quite an issue, I used to have it but gave it a friend who is a Bok fan. Noteworthy not only for the Zelazny and Bok, but for Ray Nelson's "Eight O'clock In The Morning", which was the basis for the movie "They Live".

@LiminalSpaces03 4 ай бұрын

Good friends give vintage sci-fi magazines! Thanks for the Ray Nelson info!

@cerebralparasite9238 5 ай бұрын

I loved reading zelazny as a teenager.

@FatphobeforLife Ай бұрын

The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth is a rare crap Zelazny story.

@LiminalSpaces03 Ай бұрын

Interesting, I'm sure I will read it someday!

@FatphobeforLife Ай бұрын

@@LiminalSpaces03 I'm a big Zelazny fan from way back. I probably wouldn't call it his best story, but I have always loved The Keys to December. That'll get you right in the heart. The last few lines can give you the chills (no pun intended). And if you haven't read Auto-Da-Fe, you're missing out on one of those ultralyrical wonders of his. Also, Creatures of Light and Darkness (novel) is a wonderful pantheon-god story somewhat in the mode of Lord of Light (this time with the Egyptian pantheon), but there's a lot of fun self-mockery in it. The worldbuilding is AMAZING, as always. And the story Home Is the Hangman has in some really brilliant philosophical musings at the end about guilt and its value, and about the relative morality of humans and animals; and the story Frost and Fire will simply suck you in, the sotry is so good, if not deep...sorry I could go on forever about the great RZ. (I have always considered The Dream Master and Eye of Cat to be rather dull misfires) :)