I think Lord of Light was Zelazny's best (but you have to read it 2 or 3 times to catch the temporal order). I certainly enjoyed the first five Amber books, but things deteriorated badly in the second five. I really liked the hell-rides (especially the Kentucky Fried Lizard Parts). I think the paths of the dead owe a lot to the pattern. But it amazes me how different are the tastes of the people on the list all of whom presumably love Brust as much as me. Aside from Kay, I loved the early Card (especially Songmaster and Ender's game, but not the sequels), the early Tepper (up to about Sideshow), Asimov (although Kingsbury has taken Asimov's universe and done it much better in Psychohistorical Crisis), Vance,... I think War for the Oaks has just about the most sympathetic heroine I have ever read. Michael On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Andrew Lias wrote: > >I've only tried the Amber Chronicles. I just couldn't get into the > >story. It was depressing. Maybe Iain (husband) can give more insight. He > >encouraged me to try them, but acknowledged that he didn't think they > >were "my thing", whatever that means. > >(Note: I don't like depressing books. They may be necessary, but I go > >out of my way to avoid them, including _Teckla_!) > > That's interesting. In my opinion, although the Amber books are his most > famous work, they aren't my personally favorites (although I do rather like > the first series -- the less said about the second, the better). > > If I may offer a few suggestions, should you decide to take another crack at > him, consider reading Creatures of Light and Darkness. I guarantee that > it's like nothing else you've ever read (whether you'll find that a good > thing or not, I don't know). Likewise, you might try Roadmarks (a very > different time travel story), or Isle of the Dead (which, IMO, was simply > beautiful). > > You might also see if you can dig up a collection of his short stories (I'm > especially fond of the Unicorn Variations collection). > > _________________________________________________________________ > STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail >