Roger Zelazny: Roger Zelazny Biography
Published: Sep 09, 2004 - 11:39 PM :: Print this article
Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 - June 14, 1995) was a United States writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels. He won the Nebula award three times and the Hugo award six times, including twice for novels: Lord of Light (1968) and ...And Call Me Conrad (1966) (which was later published as This Immortal).
Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio, an only child of Josephine Sweet and Joseph Frank Zelazny (Żelazny). His father had emigrated from Poland when he was a young man and met Josephine Sweet in Chicago. In high school, Roger Zelazny was the editor of the school newspaper and joined the Creative Writing Club. In the fall of 1955, he began attending Western Reserve University and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1959. He was accepted to Columbia University in New York and specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, graduating with a M.A. in 1962.
Zelazny had a rare gift for conceiving and portraying worlds with plausible magic systems, powers, and supernatural beings. His captivating descriptions of the nuts and bolts of magical workings in his imagined worlds set his fantasy writing apart from otherwise similar authors. His science fiction was highly influenced by poetry, including the French, British, and American classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and by wisecracking detective fiction. A frequent theme is gods or people who become gods.
He was a prolific writer and, with the exception of the Amber novels (and the related pairs Changeling/Madwand, Isle of the Dead/To Die in Italbar, and Dilvish the Damned/The Changing Land), created a completely new setting for each book.
While his earlier works won greater critical acclaim, Zelazny is probably best known for the Amber novels. These fall into two distinct series; the second series is widely perceived as being of markedly lesser quality than the first.
The first five books describe the adventures of Prince Corwin of Amber and comprise:
1970 Nine Princes in Amber
1972 The Guns of Avalon
1975 Sign of the Unicorn
1976 The Hand of Oberon
1978 The Courts of Chaos
The second series tells the story of Corwin's son Merlin (Merle) - a wizard and a computer expert. These volumes are:
1985 Trumps of Doom
1986 Blood of Amber
1987 Sign of Chaos
1989 Knight of Shadows
1991 Prince of Chaos
An interactive fiction computer game based on Nine Princes in Amber was released by Telarium in 1987. The Amber novels also inspired a role-playing game, Amber Diceless Roleplaying, published by Phage Press. The game is distinctive in that it suggests that players ignore or alter any rule as they see fit.
Zelazny had a rare gift for conceiving and portraying worlds with plausible magic systems, powers, and supernatural beings. His captivating descriptions of the nuts and bolts of magical workings in his imagined worlds set his fantasy writing apart from otherwise similar authors. His science fiction was highly influenced by poetry, including the French, British, and American classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and by wisecracking detective fiction. A frequent theme is gods or people who become gods.
He was a prolific writer and, with the exception of the Amber novels (and the related pairs Changeling/Madwand, Isle of the Dead/To Die in Italbar, and Dilvish the Damned/The Changing Land), created a completely new setting for each book.
While his earlier works won greater critical acclaim, Zelazny is probably best known for the Amber novels. These fall into two distinct series; the second series is widely perceived as being of markedly lesser quality than the first.
The first five books describe the adventures of Prince Corwin of Amber and comprise:
1970 Nine Princes in Amber
1972 The Guns of Avalon
1975 Sign of the Unicorn
1976 The Hand of Oberon
1978 The Courts of Chaos
The second series tells the story of Corwin's son Merlin (Merle) - a wizard and a computer expert. These volumes are:
1985 Trumps of Doom
1986 Blood of Amber
1987 Sign of Chaos
1989 Knight of Shadows
1991 Prince of Chaos
An interactive fiction computer game based on Nine Princes in Amber was released by Telarium in 1987. The Amber novels also inspired a role-playing game, Amber Diceless Roleplaying, published by Phage Press. The game is distinctive in that it suggests that players ignore or alter any rule as they see fit.
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