The great wars between gods and demons began five millennia ago—and ended with the demons' crushing defeat and banishment from their homeland. The demon race would have surely perished in the empty dimension of their exile had they not found a secret conduit to a safe and hidden plane...called Earth. Greatest among the demons was Kai Wren—the Godslayer and Lord Demon—a master swordsman, dreamer, and glassblower who can contain entire universes in bottles of his creation; a legendary warrior who once, long ago, singlehandedly destroyed a god. But now, Kai Wren must seek vengeance for the murder of his devoted human servant, and he fears that this one death heralds the crumbling of a peace that has reigned for a thousand years. Forced into a series of uncomfortable alliances, Kai Wren strives to preserve the Demon Realms. But his heart has become his fatal weakness, growing soft during years of peace. He has given trust where trust should not be given, only to discover that among his closest companions are those who will betray him—even destroy him—unless he can regain that which once made him LORD DEMON.
Author
Roger Zelazny made his name with a group of novellas which demonstrated just how intense an emotional charge could be generated by the stock imagery of sf; the most famous of these is A Rose for Ecclesiastes in which a poet struggles to convince dying and sterile Martians that life is worth continuing. Zelazny continued to write excellent short stories throughout his career. Most of his novels deal, one way or another, with tricksters and mythology, often with rogues who become gods, like Sam in Lord of Light, who reinvents Buddhism as a vehicle for political subversion on a colony planet. The fantasy sequence The Amber Chronicles, which started with Nine Princes in Amber, deals with the ruling family of a Platonic realm at the metaphysical heart of things, who can slide, trickster-like through realities, and their wars with each other and the related ruling house of Chaos. Zelazny never entirely fulfilled his early promise—who could?—but he and his work were much loved, and a potent influence on such younger writers as George R. R. Martin and Neil Gaiman. He won the Nebula award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo award six times (out of 14 nominations). His papers are housed at the Albin O. Khun Library of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger\_Ze...
