tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post2094397824272853865..comments2024-03-21T19:03:19.133-04:00Comments on Where there had been darkness...: October 31: A Night in the Lonesome October-festJugularjoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03768939120752611597noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-8944864912787265712017-12-04T02:22:00.456-05:002017-12-04T02:22:00.456-05:00I finished my long, belated re-reading of Lonesome...I finished my long, belated re-reading of Lonesome October under the perigee light of December's full moon. It was like visiting an old friend. Show me your teeth!vilstefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14183356136648221026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-16417596849871131542013-11-01T15:37:05.845-04:002013-11-01T15:37:05.845-04:00Zach: Is it just me, or did you not actually bold ...Zach: Is it just me, or did you not actually bold a line in that passage? I wanna know which one you were referring to!<br /><br />Whoops! I'll sometimes compose posts in email and either save them as a draft or email them to myself. This will occasionally make the formatting all weird, so I'll have to remove the formatting and set it back as plain text and add the formatting back in. Looks like I forgot to restore the bold there. I'll edit the post once I finish here. <br /><br />The line was the last sentence in the paragraph. "It comes in handy on particularly cold nights, too."<br /><br />Zach: Anyway, I know there's a certain bias to be had here (since I just finished reading the book), but Lonesome October may just be my favorite Zelazny novel. It's just that good.<br /><br />I think I feel the same way. I can't give you an exact quote, but I do recall that Zelazny has acknowledged a certain debt to the hard-boiled noir detective stories on his body of work. As much as I like the genre, it seldom emphasized tight plotting, instead focusing on a briskly moving narrative. Raymond Chandler, an author I love, has said, on the subject of writing such stories, "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand."<br /><br />I think this influence is most in evidence in NINE PRINCES, but you can see it elsewhere as well. I certainly don’t mean it as a dig or to imply that one type of story is better than another, but rather that a frenetic pace and a complicated plot tend not to mix well, and I’ve found that Zelazny’s stories tend to be written to be fast-paced, and while they’re always literate and entertaining, the structure of the plots tend to be fairly straightforward. <br /><br />However, with Lonesome October, he manages to get both of them together, and it’s as sophisticated a merging of the two styles as I’ve ever seen, not just in Zelazny’s corpus, but *anywhere*. The plotting is extraordinarily tight, and I love how everything ties back at the end. As you’ve observed, there are no loose ends. (Except for maybe Needle’s absence at the final ceremony. I like to imagine the Count tearing across the sky in his world-warping way, with Needle flapping along, far behind him, “Hey, wait up, boss! I can’t fly that fast.)<br /><br />It’s criminally underexposed. I don’t know anyone who knows of who doesn’t love it. My friend Frederick, whom I’ve mentioned, and who commented here a couple times, wanted to get a personal hard copy for himself, but for some reason it’s out of print, and used copies are cost a fortune. I’m glad that Speaking Volumes released an audio book, but it’s shame that a physical copy is so hard to obtain. <br /><br />Another thing I really like is Trent Zelazny’s account of the story, that Roger loved Snuff as much as we do. It’s a little thing, but knowing that makes me love the story even more. Jugularjoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03768939120752611597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-90247228062191766542013-11-01T14:37:04.564-04:002013-11-01T14:37:04.564-04:00First, before I forget:
". . . and the line ...First, before I forget:<br /><br />". . . and the line I bolded, which is characteristic of his writing, always struck me as particularly brilliant."<br /><br />Is it just me, or did you not actually bold a line in that passage? I wanna know which one you were referring to!<br /><br />With that out of the way, I now want to comment on how much I agree with your final paragraph. It never ceases to amaze me just how many components Zelazny's stories have to them, and how effortlessly he brings them all together at the end. I mean, we've got all the players and their companions, sure, but then there's also Lynette, Larry, the Experiment Man, the Great Detective, Bubo, the Slitherers--EVERYONE gets a chance to contribute something to the final scene. You're not left wondering, "But what about ____? What happened to him?" It's all so perfect.<br /><br />(Oh, and one of my very favorite moments from the entire book--not just this chapter--is when the Count straight-up murders Morris and MacCab. There's just something about the way Zelazny writes the Count's movements. So awesome.)<br /><br />Anyway, I know there's a certain bias to be had here (since I just finished reading the book), but Lonesome October may just be my favorite Zelazny novel. It's just that good.<br /><br />(Of course, if I were to read Lord of Light next week, I'd probably change my vote to that. Whatever!)Zachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07692070094174090593noreply@blogger.com