The Last Defender of Camelot

Rating:
Summary: A hacked version of the classic anthology
Review: As a huge fan of the author and the original release of this brilliant short story collection, I am extremely disappointed in the new release. HUNT DOWN THE ORIGINAL. The new version omits all of Zelazny's forewords and, more damning, it actually omits some of the better stories found in the original collection. Silverburg mentions "Horsemen!" in the introduction, then the story is strangely absent. This is a travesty.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff.... with 1 total classic!
Review: This is worth it all 4 "For a Breath I Tarry," which is 1 of my all-time faves -- words fail me; it's hilarious, heart-wrenching; it'll change your world in 25 pages. "He Who Shapes" (aka "The Dream Master") is also outstanding. Also solid: "The Last Defender of Camelot," & a romantic heart-wringer called "The Engine at Heartspring's Center." There R many others which R at LEAST worth reading. Zelazny was a poet; I miss him. If U like him, U might also try early George R.R. Martin, early Samuel R. Delany, & some of Robert Silverberg's mellower work (like DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH, DYING INSIDE, THE BOOK OF SKULLS).

Rating:
Summary: A good new selection with an old title
Review: This new collection of Zelazny stories, selected by
Robert Silverberg, is a good one. It contains 3 of his
stronger stories from earlier collections made by
Zelazny himself: "For A Breath I Tarry," "The Last
Defender of Camelot," and "24 Views of Mt. Fuji."
It also contains several other worthy stories to
create a collection that spans Zelazny's career.
I suspect length issues caused the selection to
be limited to only 11 stories. Still, as a long-time
reader of Zelazny's work since the '60s, I think
he would have been better represented if I Books
could have made the collection bigger. New readers
of Zelazny can't easily get a feeling for the
magnitude of his accomplishments with such a small
selection. The absence of "He Who Shapes" and
"Damnation Alley," for instance, is to be regretted.
Still, the collection is good overall. New readers
who wish to read more of Zelazny's work will simply
need to scour 2nd hand bookstores.

Another, somewhat irksome problem is that the collection
name, _The Last Defender of Camelot_, matches that of
a collection that Zelazny published himself back in
1980. That collection was probably one of his 2 or 3
best, and it was also quite large. Giving this collection
the same name will result in some confusion that should
have been avoided. Oh, well.