[Anomander1]

Can anyone recommend novels similar to Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness by Zelazny?

I liked the dark and very powerful aspects of the many characters (reminded me of the silmarrilion, which I also enjoyed), and that the novels were relatively fast moving and issued as stand alones (nice change from all these series i've been following). The range of dominant characters was good for me too, rather than having one good and one bad who meet up only the the end. With Zelazny there were a range of interesting sub plots and closures throughout the books

Thanks

[FitzChivalry]

Zelazny is my favorite author, another book of his that reminded me a little of Creatures and Lord of Light is Lord Demon, here he uses chinese mythology for his telling of a fantasy story, it's a good book but weaker than Creatures and Lord of Light imo, it was completed by Jane M. Lindskold after Zelazny's death, yet it is still a great read.
Another book you might like is Roadmarks, it's about a road that stretches in time instead of in space (moving on that road takes you forward or backward in time instead of in space) and the people that walk it.
My all time favorite book (in general, not just Zelazny's) is A Night In The Lonesome October, i won't say much about the plot, try it.

There are other great books of Zelazny, but they stand less to your criteria of a large cast of characters, they often follow a single hero, books like Isle of The Dead, This Immortal, Jack of Shadows or The Mask of Loki are all great fun.
The Amber Chronicles is another great read but i understand you want a standalone book.
I'd try all those anyway, but that's me.

[Bear]

I can certainly second "A Night in the Lonesome October." My favorite Zelazny book, for sure. Though there's a few others I need to hunt down. But that one was excellent.

[JBI]

You forgot to mention Eye of Cat which is based on Native American tradition.

[cgw]

Here is a list of the best of the rest of Zelazny just to get you started:
This Immortal
Roadmarks
Doorways in the Sand
Isle of the Dead
The Changing Land
Changeling
Jack of Shadows
Nine Princes in Amber
There is plenty more after these.
I would avoid Lord Demon for now as it was not really written by him.
The Mask of Loki was co written by (Thomas Thomas?) so was only 1/2 written by Zelazny (I think they wrote alternating chapters).

If you liked Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness, here are books by other authors you may like:
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Frank Herbert: The God Makers
Modesitt: Hammer of Darkness
John Wright: The Last Guardian of Everness

[cgw]

I just heard that Fred Saberhagen passed away (see the thread in the scifi forum). He and Zelazny co-wrote more than one book.

Saberhagen wrote both scifi and fantasy (and some that was both). I have read all his fantasy (some more than once) and always picked up the new books as soon as they came out. He was one of my automatic reads.

[FitzChivalry]

There are many good Zelazny books, i tried to stick with the recommendations to what he said he enjoyed in Creatures and Lord of Light though.
As for Saberhagen, i haven't read anything he wrote by himself, but what he wrote with Zelazny i don't really consider to be some of Zelazny's best...

[cgw]

Any collaborations this side of Niven/Pournelle are always going to be patchy.

"i don't really consider to be some of Zelazny's best" - I agree but what does that really mean. Second best Zelazny is still very good. Actually Coils is the only one I have read, but I enjoyed it greatly. I think it is more Zelazny than Saberhagen.

[Randy M.]

Can anyone recommend novels similar to Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness by Zelazny?

I liked the dark and very powerful aspects of the many characters (reminded me of the silmarrilion, which I also enjoyed), and that the novels were relatively fast moving and issued as stand alones (nice change from all these series i've been following). The range of dominant characters was good for me too, rather than having one good and one bad who meet up only the the end. With Zelazny there were a range of interesting sub plots and closures throughout the books

Thanks

If you can stand short stories, he was one of the best short story writers in the genre in his time. His first (I believe) collection, The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth is terrific.

Randy M.

[FitzChivalry]

Any collaborations this side of Niven/Pournelle are always going to be patchy.

"i don't really consider to be some of Zelazny's best" - I agree but what does that really mean. Second best Zelazny is still very good. Actually Coils is the only one I have read, but I enjoyed it greatly. I think it is more Zelazny than Saberhagen.

Well, i think Coils was one of the worst Zelazny books i ever read, i don't really consider it a good book, it read it years ago though, so i don't remember it that well.
As for collaborations, some of Zelazny's are very good, The Mask of Loki that he wrote with Thomas T. Thomas (i always wondered if the middle T also stands for Thomas) was splendid in my opinion.
The Millennial Contest series he wrote with Robert Sheckley was also much fun (Bring me the head of prince charming, IF at Faust you don't succeed and A farce to be reckoned with).
I really don't agree that collaborations have to be patchy, The Empire Series by Feist and Wurts for example is almost better than anything those two authors wrote by themselves (excluding Magician itself).