Book Review: Doorways in the Sand, by Roger Zelazny

There is a lot to love about Zelazny's writing that is utterly present in Doorways in the Sand.

Now, I've given Zelazny a small amount of shit in the past, at least in the limited context of this blog, but only in the interest of being an honest reviewer.  I now feel obligated to give the old boy some love, publicly and on the Internet, at the cost of my nil critiquing cred, but fortunately that won't be necessary; I actually read Doorways, and enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed any other book ever.

Book Review: Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber, today best known as the author of the excellent sword-and-sorcery tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, died in 1992, at the age of 81, of "organic brain disease".  I have no idea what that means.  He was the son of the Shakespearean actor Fritz Leiber, Sr., who is actually in the picture; I found this a lot more compelling than most photos of Fritz Jr.

Conjure Wife is the first of Leiber's stories that I've read which is set in the then-modern world.  That it was published in 1953 (according to the copyright information), or 1943 even (when it was serialized), goes a long way toward explaining some of the book's more... politically awkward moments.

Book Review: Wizard World, by Roger Zelazny

Who couldn't love that face?

There is a lot to love about Zelazny's writing that is totally absent from Wizard World.

Now I am a huge fan of Roger Zelazny.  The Great Book of Amber is the best 1258 pages I ever spent, twice.  Lord Demon, Donnerjack, and Creatures of Light and Darkness are among the most imaginative, atypical works of fantasy I've read.  Zelazny's main characters are typically demigods, in one way or another, dealing with their demigod problems, but with some kind of connection to something like the modern world (e.g., the main character of the second half of Amber has a CS degree from Berkeley, and is also a sorcerer).  Something about this is strangely compelling to me.  As another e.g., Amber starts with the main character waking up in a hospital with amnesia, and is very much in a noir style; the true nature of things is revealed only slowly.  Great stuff.

For these reasons and more, I really, really wanted to like Wizard World.

Rex Libris: Space Librarian

Read about the first half of Rex Libris: Volume 1 today in the cloying Floridian heat by the pool.  The book starts with a lot of hype about the book itself, which is awkward because I'd:

• Never read the book before, nor
• heard anything about it (I found it at the library)

so that was more annoying than anything, but after that it picks up.  It's about a semi-immortal noir-esque librarian who fights sci-fi/fantasy-style villains to reclaim overdue books, so that's pretty excellent.  The MacGuffin in question in the first book is Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica, and I appreciate that, although it's not entirely clear why the space tyrant Vaglox actually wants it.  (Maybe he really needs to know how to add?)  Oh, and Thoth is the library administrator, which is just excellent.

Based on the words "colour" and "shit-disturber", I'm reasonably certain that the author is from Canada, the country that brought you poutine and Harlequin Romance.

The frame story for the action is that Rex is dictating his autobiography to his publisher, who constantly jumps in with suggestions on how to spice it up.  This is funny enough, but his suggestions often break into the action in a jarring, semi-diegetic way to relieve all that action with some more words, as if we were in danger of forgetting how smart everyone is.  This contrasts severely with the incorrect (but at least consistent) misuse of "it's" versus "its".  That just makes me sad.

The art is pretty decent; it was drawn by computer, and based on one smoke effect I think I recognize the Hand of Illustrator.  It reminds me of nothing so much as Samurai Jack, both in the aesthetic and the hyperbolic action.  All in all, it's pretty good, although (gods forgive me for saying so) a bit wordy.  Get it from the library first, but watch your ass if you take it across the galaxy and rack up late fees.