Lord of Light, the best-regarded novel by American science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, has recently been nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. This was good personal news for me, as it gave me all the excuse I needed to read it again. I finished it late Sunday night. I read my autographed paperback copy, signed by the author after the science fiction club I belonged to brought him to the University of Oklahoma.
Zelazny has long been a favorite of mine. When I lived for years in Oklahoma, it felt like many of my favorite writers were from Cleveland -- Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, George Alec Effinger -- although by the time I finally moved here, all of them were gone (Zelazny was dead, the other two had long moved away).
My Zelazny top five:
...And Call Me Conrad/This Immortal
Lord of Light
Isle of the Dead
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
The Dream Master
Ken Gammage's top five:
Lord of Light
Isle of the Dead
Nine Princes in Amber
The Guns of Avalon
Jack of Shadows
Ken: "Before I tell you my Top 5, let me clarify I am not ranking them by some illusory objective quality. These are just my favorites, easy for me to choose based on number of re-readings." Also: "Arriving at a Top 10 would be trickier but would probably include Doorways in the Sand."
Ken is a San Diego fan and writer who has been a friend for decades.
Roger Zelazny by F. Brett Cox is a good critical study. (Brett is a writer and scholar and an old friend. Official website. which has a podcast on the Zelazny book that I'd missed.)
(When I was a teen, Brett and Ken had a bicoastal fanzine.)
Literary links:
Michael Johnson on the odd wanderings of books.
The 2026 souvenir book, a free PDF download for everyone, for the 2026 Worldcon in LA.
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