Product Description
Includes: Novelettes - The Gladiator's War: A Dialog by Lois Tilton; Men Are Trouble by James Patrick Kelly. Short Stories - My Mother, Dancing by Nancy Kress; The Beteran by neal Asher; Fallow Earth by Paul Melko; Turing Test by Robert R. Chase; The Buried Sword by Ruth Berman; Steep Silence by Lena DeTar. Poetry - Origami Rochets by Bruce Boston; Galilio Flies over Callistor and Finds Signs of a Magnetic Field by Geoffrey A. Landis; Big Idea by Mario Milosevic. Etc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Free SF Reader
Stock standard example of what I would hope to see.A 3.50 average magazine, with some good stories. The 4's are the first two mentioned below, and the last.
Silverberg talks about types of stories, and the book reviews include an interesting sounding astrobiology book by David Grinspoon.

ASIMOVS341 : My Mother, Dancing - Nancy Kress
ASIMOVS341 : The Gladiator's War A Dialog - Lois Tilton
ASIMOVS341 : The Veteran - Neal Asher
ASIMOVS341 : Fallow Earth - Paul Melko
ASIMOVS341 : Turing Test - Robert R. Chase
ASIMOVS341 : The Buried Sword - Ruth Berman
ASIMOVS341 : Steep Silence - Lena DeTar
ASIMOVS341 : Men Are Trouble - James Patrick Kelly


Dame overload detection devilish.

4 out of 5


Poetic disappearance.

3 out of 5


Billy goat hippogruff.

3 out of 5


Promethean explosion Symbioty werewolf potential.

3.5 out of 5


Holding the alien crash fort.

3 out of 5


Avoid violent men. Particularly dying gangsters and supercharged cyborg soldiers.

3.5 out of 5


Spartacus story.

4 out of 5


Only human.

4 out of 5

... Read more

Product Description
Quarry by Peter S. Beagle & stories by Melanie Fazi, Sheila Finch and James Patrick Kelly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Free SF Reader
stories, Beagle's is the best.

As for the non-fiction, it points out that Impostor, a Dick movie with Gary Sinise and Vincent D'Onofrio is good, which I agree wtih.

FSF628 : How It Feels - Robert Reed
FSF628 : So Good a Day - Sheila Finch
FSF628 : Kissing Frogs - Jaye Lawrence
FSF628 : The Masked City - Melanie Fazi
FSF628 : The Long Run - John Morressy
FSF628 : J3w if by Sea - Richard Mueller
FSF628 : Serpent - James Patrick Kelly
FSF628 : Quarry - Peter S. Beagle ... Read more

Product Description
Includes: Novelettes - Chemistry by James Patrick Kelly; Winter Flowers by Tanith Lee; The Toad of Heaven by Robert Reed; The Undifferentiated Object of Desire by Ian McDonald; Microde City By Jim Young. Short Stories - Snow Scene with Frozen Rabbit by Willam John Watkins; The Toad Witch by Jessica Amanda Saimonson; A Falling Out by Rick Wilber. etc. ... Read more

Product Description

Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rules their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons. Lord of Light.

Customer Reviews (156)

Loved the Amber series, this one is to complex for me.
This review is kind of hard for me to write due to the many hours I've spent on swallowing Zelazny's Amber series. I still tend to tag the Amber series as a strong contender for the best fantasy/science-fiction books that I've ever read. Anyway, as my "formal" education in the genre is fairly limited, I recently stumbled upon the "Lord of Light" at a friend's house and quickly got a lecture about this being Zelazny's best work, won many prizes and you *must* read it. So I did, I borrowed it and put it straight on top of my queue.

With great expectations come great disappointments.Following the read I found myself starting to rationalize why I didn't enjoy it. At first I thought that book is so complex and I should give him another try to see if I missed anything. Then I thought that maybe I've changed, I mean I did read the Amber books about 10-15 years ago (but I can still even enjoy Harry Potter kind of books). It might also be the case that one might need formal training in literature to appreciate what I just read.

But, in the end of the day, I just think the book is not a very good read. It does have some interesting ideas, the plot is original and appealing as it spans around Hindu gods who are basically depriving human beings from accessing or developing technology in order to keep their beneficiary life for eternity. These "gods" control and decide which body one gets when his "current" body died from natural or other causes.

However, it's really hard to keep track of what is going on, who are the characters (as there are many gods with different names that relates to them) and what moves them. The book is composed of several "sub-plots" on very large time scales that seems very disconnected from one another. Some of the stories are interesting, but as soon as one finishes you find yourself reading a chapter or two that simply does not really connects to anything else.

Its about two month since I've finished the book, and the best test is that it seems that I can remember very little of what I read, as oppose to Zelazny's "nine princes in Amber" which I pretty much remember the entire plot about 15 years after the last read.

What a wonderful read!
Over the years, beginning in the late 60s I have read this book many times.It never fails to entertain me.I won't go into a critique of the work.Just read it yourself and make up your own mind.I've invited some friends to read the work and can judge their types of personalities from their comments.Try it yourself and see what you decide.

Very different
A good read.Believable world set in the future with a very different premise.

Zelazny's Citizen Kane
I've owned at least a half-dozen copies of "Lord of Light" since I first read it as a tenth-grader in '71. I lend them out and then I have to buy a new one when I want to read it again. The blending of science fiction and Hindu lore, stirred with Zelazny's imagery and sense of humor (not counting that pun) was a heady concoction for my young mind.I'm not going to waste your time describing the plot - you can read about it right underneath the prices - I'm just going to say it is a milestone in the science fiction canon and has a permanent place in my "desert island" book list. If you've never read it, I envy you your new discovery.

Great work from a wonderful author
Originally published in 1967, Lord of Light was one of the earliest and best loved novels by author Roger Zelazny.Based on a world long colonized by humans from "long lost Urath", the main theme of the book is the struggle between the denizens of Heaven, who have named themselves Brahma, Shiva, Krishna...etc. after the Hindu Pantheon, and the common man.While the struggle between man and his Gods is a well worn literary plot, here it is approached by a different angle.In Lord of Light, Heaven is located high in the mountains, much like Mount Olympus, and its residents are men descended from the crew of the Star of India, the spaceship that colonized the planet.They possess fantastic levels of technology, even allowing for their reincarnation into new and enhanced bodies.Through this power they rule the rest of the worlds as Gods, suppressing their technological levels to keep themselves in power.There are some who have spurned the power of Heaven, or been cast out, and they seek to advance man upon the world to level they feel more appropriate.The central character of the book, called by many names but best referred to as Sam, founds Buddhism as a counter movement to Hinduism and leads many forces against the gods to break their hold over the planet and accelerate man out of the dark ages.

The Author goes to great lengths to give the story the feel of myth.The book is broken down into seven chapters, each telling a different part of this saga.These chapters have brief headers that give some context to what is about to occur, as well as a quote from various Hindu/Buddhist texts.These are necessary as the chapters do not follow events in a linear fashion, which can be hard to grasp upon first read, but give better feel to the number of years that pass during the course of the novel as well as imparting that ambiguous feel that tend to travel with older texts about the gods and their dealings.

As an author, Zelazny often skirted the edge between Science Fiction and Fantasy. Known for his poetic style and engaging characters, he was considered a leading part of the New Wave of Science Fiction writers in the 1960's.Awarded many Hugo and Nebula awards for his work, he was a prolific publisher of short stories and novels up to his untimely death in 1995 at the age of 58.

As this novel is not the easiest read, I would recommend it to someone of high school age and up that also is possessed of an active and open imagination.Should you enjoy this book, as I hope you will, and seek other titles both Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick are quality titles by other New Wave Science Fiction writers.

... Read more