Creatures of Light and Darkness

To save his kingdom, Anubis, Lord of the Dead, sends his servant Wakim on a mission to destroy The Prince Who Was a Thousand. Simultaneously, Osiris, Lord of Life, sends forth his son, Horus, on the same mission. However, neither of them is prepared for the world of mortals, and The Thing That Cries in the Night may well destroy everything, mortal or otherwise.

Roger Zelanzy originally wrote this novel as an exercise with no intention of publishing it. However, professor and critic, Samuel R. Delany, convinced an editor at Doubleday to publish the manuscript, earning Mr. Delany a dedication at the beginning of the novel.

Basing the characters around Egyptian mythological characters, Zelanzy constructs a universe where gods battle in nontraditional manners, often time-travelling a few seconds into the past to gain an advantage against an opponent (known as the "temporal fugue"). Conspiracies are layered on top of each other, resulting in a novel that is incredibly dense for its sub-200 page count.

This novel is also famous for bringing The Agnostic's Prayer into popular culture, especially after its use in Larry Niven's short story "What Can You Say About Chocolate-Covered Manhole Covers". The nondenominational cleric Madrak provides some much-needed humor and levity to the supradimensional activies, grounding the story a bit for the reader.

This isn't going to be a novel for everyone. It can be a bit difficult to follow in places, and some of Zelanzy's experiments with poetry and script can throw off the reader. However, its rich use of language and imaginative presentation of how gods interact make this a fine read for someone who can appreciate this type of material.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Overstock.com.

Title: Creatures of Light and Darkness
Author: Roger Zelazny
Year: 1969
Pages: 190

Thrall

After a confrontation in a tavern results in the death of a local official's mercenary, legendary warrior Gorias La Gaul is commissioned to prevent the resurrection of a cult leader. Accompanied by his grandson, the official's daughter, and a bard, Gorias traverses the vampire-plagued land only to find himself caught between an invading horde of barbarians, a powerful necromancer's advancing troops, and two old enemies from his past. Gorias must rely on his own experience and tactical planning to prevent an even greater evil from ravaging the land.

Steven Shrewsbury crafts an engaging tale, much in the tradition of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. The action scenes are depicted in brutal detail, putting the reader at the center of the action. Shrewsbury also has a good sense of tactics and timing, which works well as the forces converge and Gorias's plan begins to unfold.

If I had any complaints, the first chapter is a little slow in its set-up, appearing almost directionless until Gorias gets his mission. Also, there were times when I had difficulties with the dialog as the characters' voices switched between the more traditional fantasy style of speech versus the modern, contraction-laden vernacular. The electronic copy of the book I read also had some infrequent grammar and spelling errors and would have benefited from another round of editing.

Despite these minor issues, this is a welcome addition to the sword-and-sorcery fantasy genre, and fans of the aforementioned authors should enjoy this book. I look forward to reading more of Shrewsbury's work, as well as the forthcoming books in this series.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Title: Thrall
Author: Steven L. Shrewsbury
Year: 2010
Pages: 288

My Fake War

In a dystopian near-future, Saul Dressing's evening is interrupted to discover his forty-something, overweight ass has been drafted. Given no training, only a gun that can do everything, he is air-dropped into a desert country he's never heard of with orders to declare war on the population. Now, if he could only find someone...

From the way it started out, I was expecting a satire of the current U.S. geopolitical situation. The United States of Everything declaring war on every nation on earth provides a perfect analog to the U.S. government's policy in recent years to engage in as many
warskinetic military actions as it can handle. However, once you get past this bit of irony, the book goes nowhere quickly and resulted in a completely anticlimactic dud of an ending.

This is a trend I'm seeing in the four bizarro novellas I've read: The author comes up with a few unique, creative, and weird ideas, expands on these a bit, but then has no idea what to do with the actual plot, so s/he just rushes out an ending to finish the tale. This probably explains why most bizarro novels run in the 75–150 page range. I guess it comes down to whether or not you're a fan of the genre. If you are, then you'll probably love this book. If not, well... you probably won't be too surprised.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Title: My Fake War
Author: Andersen Prunty
Year: 2010
Pages: 112