Creatures of Light and Darkness [2010, PDF/EPUB, ENG]

by Roger Zelazny

(349 ratings)
Book cover

“Nobody else made myths real and valuable in the way Roger Zelazny could.”
—Neil Gaiman

 

“He writes about science as if it were magic and magic as if it were science.”
New York Times Book Review

The author of more than 50 books and winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, the incomparable Roger Zelazny remains one of the most revered names in sf and fantasy. Back in print at long last is the master’s classic novel
Creatures of Light and Darkness. Set on a faraway world, the seminal tale of a battle between Ancient Egyptian gods, Creatures of Light and Darkness is a grand display of the imagination, wit, and audacious genius that has placed Zelazny eternally alongside Heinlein, Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, and other legendary genre masters.

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Book details


  • Author : Roger Zelazny
  • Publisher : Harper Voyager; Reissue edition
  • Published : 04-12-2010
  • Language : English
  • Pages : 208
  • ISBN-10 : 9780061936456
  • ISBN-13 : 978-0061936456
  • Reader Reviews : 349 (4.5)

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  • Downloads : 3548

About the Author


Roger Zelazny


Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Reader Reviews

J
Kindle Customer
Bizarre and Brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on 05-05-2022
I first read this in my twenties. I didn't understand it completely, but it's the book that introduced me to science fiction, from which I moved on to Robert Heinlein and other incredible stories. I decided to read it again, decades later, and I'm really glad I did.

In essence, this is an epic account of a war waged between gods Anubis, Osiris, Set, and others. It's perhaps one of the most insane books I've ever read.; my mind at times reeling - what the hell does that mean and what drugs did Zelazny take when he conjured this up? Weaving the myriad worlds of his magnificent imagination with bits of humorous commentary on modern life, I laughed out loud more times than I can count. And in the end, this masterful author somehow tied all the crazy loose ends together.

Creatures of Light and Darkness is wild, weird, and wonderful. It's a classic, and it's genius.
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J
A.Luther
Weird Fantasy Fun
Reviewed in the United States on 09-26-2020
This book feels like something out of 1960/70s Marvel comics. Basically, its about 'ancient Egyptian Gods,' doing battle in a sci-fi future. These Gods are presumably not really mythological Gods, but humans who have evolved into something almost God-like: half man/half animal/half machine and who sort out the politics of who-rules-where-and-which-kingdom on an interplanetary scale. The writing is poetic and kind of Shakespearean and the Roger Zelazny weirdness is so much fun. Read this book to young kids too, sure they won't get some of it, but the ideas will excite their imagination. There is a character made of pure emptiness and void that takes the shape of a horse that can change in size; a woman who is transformed into a computational machine that only gives output to questions based on the amount of sexual pleasure that can be given to her and a Millenia-old war-torn General whose human body has been entirely replaced by metal parts. Like I said, this book is pure fun, psychedelic weirdness. In terms of character development, there really is not much. The Jackal-headed Anubis, ruler of the 'House of Dead' and the bird-headed Orisis, ruler of the 'House of Life,' appear to be something of bad guys, but their background story is not fleshed out enough to really make them any more bad or evil than any of the other protagonists of the book. However, Orisis does seem like a bit of a jerk when he jumps up and down on his carpet: a rug woven out of the nervous system of a still living person. The 'Prince With No Name,' is closest we have to a the hero of the story, but there is not enough development of the character to really make him a heroic figure, or even a figure we can identify with. Having said that, I guess there never really is any real good guys and bad guys in war? My favourite scene in the book is where an unfortunate seer is disemboweled for the purposes of divination. The unfortunate seer has his own entrails read by another seer who chose him to be disemboweled out of pure resentment toward him. In a darkly humorous moment, the disemboweled seer does a much more accurate job of reading his own entrails than the intended seer. I have read Zelazny's 'Lord of Light' which is considered by most to be a better book, and perhaps maybe, his best book, yet I personally found 'Creatures' to be a far more entertaining read, although both books have very similar ideas..
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J
Ken
At last!
Reviewed in the United States on 11-04-2020
I have been hitting the 'I want this on kindle' button weekly for years!
This is in many ways Zelazny's finest work, showcasing his unrivalled imagination and style. Some find those qualities challenging or daunting.
All I can say is 'De gustibus non est disputandem'.
I knocked off one star for some errors in digitization of the text. Misspellings, punctuation errors, and errors in typographic composition are annoying in a more prosaic work, but in a favorite loved as much for the authors style as for a highly imaginative story it can be truly jarring to be brought out of the experience by such.
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