Nine Black Doves - Volume 5: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny

The fifth volume in the collected stories of Roger Zelazny contains stories written from about 1982 through to 1985. The highlight is certainly '24 views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusi' which is further enhanced by featuring the woodcuts on which the stories episodes are based. 'Kalifriki of the thread' is a lesser known strong story. The last 3 Dilvish stories are here and as enjoyable as ever. These lead into the novel 'The changing land' that had a working title of 'Nine black doves' which gives the volume it's name. There several stories in other writers universes - Fred Saberhagen's berserker, Larry Niven's magic goes away, and two stories in George Martin's wild card series - the later two weren't particularly good, but the first 2 were both fun stories. The Hugo award winning 'Permafrost' is also here. There are a few fairly forgettable stories but overall a good mix.Curiosities include a fragment possibly intended to be a Twightlight zone episode, an outline for for a movie version of 'Changling' and outlines for collaboration novels. More articles and the fifth part of the Zelazny biography. It puts in context how much, or in some cases, how little Zelazny contributed to the many collaboration novels that appeared late in his career.I strongly recommend that you read the whole series which puts in context the great body of short work he produced.

Great collection of short stories and poems by Zelazny.

Only "24 Views of Mt Hokusai" is a really first-class story. There is some cleverness, some laziness, some familiar themes.

How can one rate Zelazny. He was unique and I miss him! Each story, true and fictional, hit home, and reminded me of our great loss.