Roger Zelazny (Roger Joseph Zelazny) Biography

American science fiction writer, born in Ohio, educated at Columbia University. He is best known for the four books which established his highly figured baroque romanticism as a mode of exploration. This Immortal (1966) depicts with great vigour a declining Earth, enigmatic aliens, and an immortal picaro protagonist; The Dream Master (1966) links psychosis to myth; the tales in Four for Tomorrow (1967), most notably ‘A Rose for Ecclesiastes’, rewrote the clichés of science fiction into augurs of renewal; and Lord of Light (1967) placed a group of humans on a far planet, where they reenacted the epic family struggles of Hindu mythology. His other works include Jack of Shadows (1971), To Die in Italbar (1973), and A Night in the Lonesome October (1993). A long series of novels, beginning with Nine Princes in Amber (1970), has been esteemed for its literary polish and ingenious narrative. His shorter fiction has been collected in The Last Defender of Camelot (1980) and Unicorn Variations (1983).