F/SF

Very minor Zelazny ( )

I love Zelazny and everything but this really sucked. I've got it in this beautiful illustrated hardcover (millennium) edition but really there had to be 25 other Zelazny novellas that deserved this treatment more than this piece of crap. At a very stretched out 143 pages, the action starts at about page 120. There's the werewolf angle that goes nowhere and seems to be included for no reason other than possibly to increase page count. The dues ex machina. The main evil bad dude that shows up for about 3 pages toward the end. And then an interesting paragraph or two at the end that talks about multiple realities.

Not recommended - even for hardcore Zelazny fans ( )

On the first read, I was disappointed. It's a thin book, more of a novella & it begs for follow-up, which we'll never get since the master is dead. This is another of his SF/Fantasy blends & is reminiscent of "A Wrinkle In Time". On a second read, I picked up on a lot of subtle references that made it much more enjoyable.There are endless dimensions, the result of different decisions in the past. In some of these, the Dark has won & in others, the Light, so it's a classic good vs. evil tale. Not everyone can travel the dimensions, but there are families who do have the technology to do so. The boy telling the story is a member of one. He's also a werewolf. Where is the line between science & magic? Again, Zelazny blurs it in a fun way. ( )

This is a short novel about a teenager who has a sister who’s a witch, a brother who’s spending time in a castle, a visiting student who’s an assassin, an uncle who’s a werewolf, and parents who are missing. Actually, his mother has been missing for some time, but his father disappeared after a struggle in the room where the transcomp (transporter computer) is located. Barry has been noticing tendencies to act more like Uncle George, Becky has visions, and James is ready to fight whatever is a threat. The background involves transporting between bands or dimensions where other possible scenarios of life are happening. There are light bands (as in good) and dark bands (as in evil), and the trio discovers there’s an interband war ongoing. It’s a lot of fun, not too heavy on the plot devices, and short enough to wish there might have been just a bit more. ( )