Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Lew Wolkoff

Critical Essay by Lew Wolkoff

There is no set "Roger Zelazny" story. He can take the reader on tour across a radiation-scarred America in one story and show him/her a wizards' duel in the next, swinging easily from hard science to dark fantasy. What his stories do have in common is a strong sense of background. He works as hard at making his settings three-dimensional as he does with his characters. (Or should I say "as he does with his other characters?") Setting, however, doesn't speak, and one can dwell only so long on descriptions of ruined towers and tattered robes. The rest has to be left to subtle hints and the reader's imagination.

Lew Wolkoff, "Science Fiction: 'The Illustrated Roger Zelazny'," in Best Sellers (copyright © 1978 Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation), Vol. 38, No. 3, June, 1978, p. 73.