Roger Zelazny
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 236 pages Rating: 4 | 5789 Users | 283 Reviews
Identify Books During Jack of Shadows
| Original Title: | Jack of Shadows |
| ISBN: | 0451159764 (ISBN13: 9780451159762) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1972), Locus Award Nominee for Best Novel (1972) |
Chronicle Conducive To Books Jack of Shadows
For the plot description I shamelessly plagiarized the first two and a half sentences of the official book description. The Earth no longer rotates. Science rules the dayside of the globe. Magic rules the World of Night. Jack of Shadows was a thief whose magic was strongly connected with shadows. In other words, he could not do any magic in complete absence of them. He was caught in the beginning of the book and executed. Being a supernatural being he had several lives, just like an ordinary cat.
He came back and sought revenge.
I am a big fan of Zelazny. I keep saying that even his minor efforts deserve 3 stars. This looks like one of them. The beginning was quite good; it slowed down by about one third in the book, but still remain decent until the second half. At that point I had to ask myself, "Who the heck wrote this part and why did the Grand Master of science fiction and fantasy let him/her destroy his work???" The very end became quite good - probably the best part, but at that time it was way too late.
Add to this the fact that during the bad part of the book I stopped caring about Jack and his fate and you will understand why I gave one of my all-time favorite science fiction writers only 3 stars this time. It is still not a waste of time by any means, but please if you are not familiar with Zelazny do not start your acquaintance with him with this novel. It has excellent ideas, but the execution really lacked.
At this point I have to recycle the first image I used here to show my face when I finished this novel:
Boy, was I grumpy!Be Specific About Out Of Books Jack of Shadows
| Title | : | Jack of Shadows |
| Author | : | Roger Zelazny |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 236 pages |
| Published | : | May 2nd 1989 by Signet (first published 1971) |
| Categories | : | Fantasy. Science Fiction. Fiction. Science Fiction Fantasy. Speculative Fiction. Magic. Adventure |
Rating Out Of Books Jack of Shadows
Ratings: 4 From 5789 Users | 283 ReviewsAppraise Out Of Books Jack of Shadows
I read plenty of Zelazny when I was younger. In fact I have probably read most of his work. The one novel that eluded me for a long time was Jack of Shadows. This was doubly frustrating because I had heard it was his best book. Time passed and my enthusiasm for science fiction and fantasy began to wane somewhat. I haven't read any Zelazny for quite a while, but I always knew that if I ever managed to get hold of Jack of Shadows I would be eager to read it.Finally last year I saw a second handFor the plot description I shamelessly plagiarized the first two and a half sentences of the official book description. The Earth no longer rotates. Science rules the dayside of the globe. Magic rules the World of Night. Jack of Shadows was a thief whose magic was strongly connected with shadows. In other words, he could not do any magic in complete absence of them. He was caught in the beginning of the book and executed. Being a supernatural being he had several lives, just like an ordinary
What a terrific read of science and magic. Roger Zelazny is the supreme master at mixing the two together. Roger Zelazny truly is fantastic at making someone despicable actually likeable. The Hero, more likely the anti-hero (it is up to you to choose) of the story, Jack is a character most would think to dislike, but simply for Zelazny work of masterful science/fantasy fiction, and in the first few chapters and especially at the end he makes you end up rooting for Jack, the Jack of Shadows! This
Zelazny doing a Vance tribute? The only thing better would be Jack Vance doing a Zelazny tribute.In my more wistful moments, I like to imagine a world in which Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny were massively profitable authors with seven digit sales figures while Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan were modestly successful but never crossed into the mainstream. I picture a world in which the industry standard is delivering an original setting, a compelling society, an intriguing main character, a
Storyline: 3/5Characters: 2/5Writing Style: 2/5World: 3/5I always look forward to reading Zelazny. I never seem to regret finishing his stories even though I rarely enjoy them all the way through. He's one of the more creative and versatile fantasy/sc fi writers I've come across, and this picaresque fantasy was everything I expected it to be. "Slapdash" carries with it the connotation of carelessness but more specifically refers to the haphazard character of a work. I'm convinced that slapdash
A hard to find novel, but worth it if you can track it down. My copy fell apart long ago, and should I find a new one I'll grab it.In a world frozen with a dark side and a light side (science predominates on the light side magic on the dark) one man functions in both worlds...The dark side of this world is "ruled" or dominated by magic while the light side is dominated by science and technology. The magic beings on the dark side are usually limited as the their power emanates from a location.
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