Creatures of Light and Darkness

By: Roger Zelazny

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Two gods, two houses, one quest, and the eternal war between life and death.

To save his kingdom, Anubis, Lord of the Dead, sends forth his servant on a mission of vengeance. At the same time, from The House of Life, Osiris sends forth his son, Horus, on the same mission to destroy utterly and forever The Prince Who Was a Thousand.

But neither of these superhuman warriors is prepared for the strange and harrowing world of mortal life, and The Thing That Cries in the Night may well destroy not only their worlds, but all mankind.

As Zelazny did with the Hindu pantheon in the legendary, groundbreaking classic Lord of Light, the master storyteller here breathes new life into the Egyptian gods with another dazzling tale of mythology and imagination.

©2022 Roger Zelazny (P)2022 Recorded Books

Uninspiring reading of fantastic material

This has always been one of my favourite Zelazny pieces. The reading is clear and intelligible, but the voice is very uninspiring. It does not do justice to the imagery and the music of Zelazny’s poetic prose. I suspect he was chosen because his voice is reminiscent of Zelazny himself. There is audio of Zelazny reading several of his own works. Generally the audio quality is poor. Zelazny is mostly clear and of course he has the enormous advantage of knowing precisely what is meant by the prose. You can hear the smile in his voice as he reads some of his own jokes. But Zelazny had no great power or presence in his voice. He was not a voice actor. It does not help that the reader makes very questionable choices of pronunciation. It might be a Zelazny internal joke that the protagonist is named “wake-him”, but it matches a real world name pronounced “wah-keem”.

A unique gem.

This book is a psychedelic romp spiced with mythology and ridiculous ideas. Short and packed with fun - if that happens to be your cup of tea.

I've always loved this book

like I said, I've always loved this book.

But this was just the wrong voice to read it.
From cadence to timber, the narration was just a nope.
I can't express it enough.
The narration was completely off.

Overwrought, like a lot of New Wave SF

Maybe a more Frank Muller style of narrator would have been more effective. Overall, it was a failure as a production, but at least it failed in interesting ways.

A niche classic

This book and others by Zelazny, Moorcock, PKD are the youthful literature of the early progressive rock, Krautrock, space music kids of the 1970s. Read in and around school often to the accompaniment of a vinyl LP. Books far more influential than the drugs that were rumoured more than ingested. To have an audio version of the worn out mouldering paperbacks in the trunk, guitar csse or on the shelf is a pleasure that I can’t describe, it is like social affirmation. This book is wonderful.

Enjoyable!

Old SciFy & still very enjoyable! The mythology of ancient Egypt retold with a technical & entertaining spin.

Perhaps not one of his best

I’ve been a long time fan of Mr. Zelazny, but this audio recording lacked much. I think I would attribute it to the performance of Mr. Godfrey. While he presents the falsetto of the female voice well, there is little difference in his intonation of the other characters.

I also find his voice reminiscent of “Whinnie the Pooh”. Not a criticism of his voice, but perhaps one better suited to a simpler story instead of one relating the tale of Egyptian Gods.

Odd story, poetically written

One of Zelazny’s odder works. I read he wrote this as part of a writing exercise and never intended it for publication. Enjoyed it, but your mileage may vary.

Fascinating novel with echoes of Egyptian mythology

The novel is full of Zelazny's gorgeous description and deep knowledge of mythology. This isn't a retelling of the myth of Set and Osiris, but uses those materials to enhance the emotional impact of the plot. Wondeful tale!

Great writing; the reading...

...well, wait for someone who can manage to deliver Zelazny's dry irony adequately. Godfrey is a decent reader, but his Zelazny readings are pretty lame.