Rating: 
Summary: An Unsung Classic of Fantasy
Review: Jack of Shadows was one of, if not the, first fantasy book that I ever read. And it was what made me the fantasy reader that I am today. The world he creates, from the atmosphere of the planet right down to the villians are vividly detailed. Jack himself is an amazingly complex and interesting character. Truly a find: one of the greatest fantasy books the I've ever read. If there's a problem, it's that there wasn't a sequel. This one will keep you reading right up until the last period. Read this book, if it's the last thing that you do!
Rating:
Summary: Totally Outstanding
Review: My favorite of all time. I have probably read this one in excess of 25 times over the years. This is why I have my "handle" and designed my web page as a dedication to this book. "Changeling" by Zelazny is another great one. All the Zelazny novels are fantastic.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read that might have been great
Review: This book seems like the last hurrah of Zelazny's early
writing career. Roughly contemporaneous with the first
couple of Amber books, it's a fast-developing science-fantasy,
told with a lot of poetic imagery, and (for the most part)
well written. As was common for a lot of his work of this
period, the language seems to echo Elizabethan and Jacobean
poetry, and the author's control is always good. In pattern,
it resembles a Jacobean period revenge tragedy--another
feature of his early work.The characters, the fantasy milieu (sort of scientifically
justified), and the plot are good. At this stage in his
career, Zelazny seemed to throw this sort of thing off in
an almost offhand manner. I like this book a lot. The first half is, I think, among the
best things Zelazny wrote of this sort. There are problems
with the second half of the book, though. The protagonist,
Jack, almost a supernatural force in human form, relocates
to the quotidian world to perform research "undercover" as
it were. This is a nice notion. It's interesting to note
how the sense of shadow and darkness that accompanied Jack
seems to follow him even into the "daylight" world in the
form of mood and verbal imagery. The color and inventiveness of the book almost carry the
reader away--but not quite. Unfortunately, after a
good beginning of the second part of the book, it feels as
if Zelazny was in too much of a hurry: the storytelling seems
too perfunctory. I think he could have gotten a lot more
out of Jack's life in the daylight side. Here the book feels
almost like an outline for a novel rather than the novel
itself. The final section, when Jack has returned to the dark side,
works out with a certain inevitability, but I think it
became a little too predictable. A good book, for all these qualms. I'd give it a 4.5 for the
first part, then a 3-3.5 the rest of the way. It's useless
to complain about what the writer might have given us. We've
got all that Zelazny wanted to write on this subject. I'm
happy with the final product. I think admirers of Zelazny
will mostly feel the same.
Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiesce from the great Roger Zelazny
Review: This book touched me deeply ! It's not just made for fun to put it away and forget it...This book like all Zelazny's is made with it's own personality and charm which we cannot ignore... It's a shame that so many of his books are out of print now and so many readers don't have the oportunity to be put under the spell of Zelazny's magic and charm. The publishers must do something for that !
Rating:
Summary: An underestimated work of Science Fiction/Fantasy brilliance
Review: This is one of my favorite books. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The world that Zelazny creates is a vivid and imaginative one, full of beauty and ugliness, light and darkness, good and evil. The book is all about duality. It is about objects and their opposites, ideas and there antithesis. And at the center of the work is Shadowjack, a character whose presence betrays the ideas in the rest of the book. He is a shadow, inbetween light and darkness. He is the grey between the white and black of the world in which he lives. This book is brilliant on so many levels. As a simple work of fiction it is entertaining and brilliantly written. As an allagory it is beautifully crafted and deeply moving. A must read. Buy this book and share it with others.
Rating:
Summary: An underestimated work of Science Fiction/Fantasy brilliance
Review: This is one of my favorite books. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The world that Zelazny creates is a vivid and imaginative one, full of beauty and ugliness, light and darkness, good and evil. The book is all about duality. It is about objects and their opposites, ideas and there antithesis. And at the center of the work is Shadowjack, a character whose presence betrays the ideas in the rest of the book. He is a shadow, inbetween light and darkness. He is the grey between the white and black of the world in which he lives. This book is brilliant on so many levels. As a simple work of fiction it is entertaining and brilliantly written. As an allagory it is beautifully crafted and deeply moving. A must read. Buy this book and share it with others.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Told with Zelazny's dash and style, this book is simply one of the best. The writing style is classic, and the title character, Jack of Shadows, is wonderful beyond belief. Many books are hard to put down while you are reading them - this book was also hard to put down when it ended. Read this, you'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Zelazny takes on the Faust Legend
Review: Zelazny takes on another legend. This time he takes the Faust legend and reverses it. Faust was a reputable scientist who got in trouble by getting involved with magic. Shadow Jack is a rather disreputable magician who gets in trouble when he messes with science. If you had to plow through Goethe in college like I did, you will enjoy seeing how Zelazny takes characters and events from Faust and turns them upside down and inside out. If you never read Faust, read Jack of Shadows anyhow; it's a great story. If you have read it already, read it again; you'll always find something new. Zelazny could pack enough creative ideas into a single book to last a lesser writer a lifetime. Jack of Shadows has one of my personal favorites, a world with an `East pole' and a `West pole'.
Rating:
Summary: Zelazny takes on the Faust Legend
Review: Zelazny takes on another legend. This time he takes the Faust legend and reverses it. Faust was a reputable scientist who got in trouble by getting involved with magic. Shadow Jack is a rather disreputable magician who gets in trouble when he messes with science. If you had to plow through Goethe in college like I did, you will enjoy seeing how Zelazny takes characters and events from Faust and turns them upside down and inside out. If you never read Faust, read Jack of Shadows anyhow; it's a great story. If you have read it already, read it again; you'll always find something new. Zelazny could pack enough creative ideas into a single book to last a lesser writer a lifetime. Jack of Shadows has one of my personal favorites, a world with an 'East pole' and a 'West pole'.
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