I must admit that I am often finding the world is to much with me lately. All the ism's that I thought we had put behind us seem to be returning with a vengeance and the results of each election is as depressing as the last. As someone whose life often has revolved around books and reading I have a constant supply of things I want to read. But every once and awhile some impulse instead points me towards something I have already read, something I know will entertain me without disturbing or challenging me. A version of hiding my head in the sand, maybe, a waste of time I think not. Often I find something new I never noticed or perhaps forgot, maybe the reason I loved it in the first place comes flooding back. Often I remember the circumstances when I first read a particular title or other books it encouraged me to read. And I do value my mental health enough to give it a little vacation from the world now and then.Which like Corwin prince in exile, has lead me to Amber. Roger Zelazny has long been a favourite author. I enjoyed the first five Amber books when I read them, but I don't think they represent anything close to his best work which I would consider to be his short stories or novels like Lord of Light (my personal favourite) or This Immortal, Isle of the Dead etc. But it is a good read, lots of action and a long enough series to immerse myself in. Since I had them I also re-read the Merlin Cycle, centred on Corwin's son, but I have never found Merlin as compelling a character. Wikipedia has a good entry on the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Amber
What do you like to re-read?
The Chronicles of Amber 2 Vols covers by Boris Vallejo
Trumps of Doom cover by Andrew Rhodes
According to the ISFDB Arbor House lost a plagiarism suit brought by Michael Whelan for the similarity between this book's cover and that of his cover for the 1978 Ace edition of Fred Saberhagen's Brother Assassin.
Other covers in the series for William Morrow / SFBC are by Linda Burr.
The photo is from the back of one of the books but i don't have an attribution, sorry.
I do some rereading, but my comfort reading is reading old science fiction. But I'm more likely to reread Zelazny's short stories from the 1960s. I also love reading current nonfiction, but sometimes I get tired of the world like you, and want to return to an earlier time in my life.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim
ReplyDeleteSorry to be so long in replying. I have to admit I am all over the place, I try to make sure I read some current SF mostly short stories, the novels are so lang and often parts of series. But I also like to delve back into the older works even pulps from the 1920's. And sometimes I just want to see an old friend one more time.
Guy