Unicorn Variations is a collection of stories and essays by author Roger Zelazny, published in 1983. The title story, "Unicorn Variation", was written as a result of Zelazny having been asked to contribute to two different upcoming anthologies—one collecting stories set in bars, and one collecting stories about unicorns. When Zelazny mentioned these requests to his close friend George R. R. Martin, the other told Zelazny of a third upcoming anthology—one which would collect stories about chess—and jokingly suggested that Zelazny write a story about playing chess against a unicorn in a bar, so that he could sell the story three times. Zelazny did just that and then went on to win a Hugo Award for the story. Contents: Introduction (Unicorn Variations) [essay] (1983) Unicorn Variation (1981) The Last of the Wild Ones [Sam Murdock] (1981) Recital (1981) The Naked Matador (1981) The Parts That Are Only Glimpsed: Three Reflexes [essay] (1978) Dismal Light [Francis Sandow] (1968) Go Starless in the Night (1979) But Not the Herald (1965) A Hand Across the Galaxy (1967) The Force That Through the Circuit Drives the Current (1976) Home is the Hangman [Nemo] (1975) Fire and/or Ice, Exeunt Omnes, A Very Good Year ... [essay] (1983) Fire and/or Ice (1980) Exeunt Omnes (1980) A Very Good Year ... (1979) My Lady of the Diodes (1970) And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee (1981) The Horses of Lir (1981) The Night Has 999 Eyes (1964) Angel, Dark Angel (1967) Walpurgisnacht (1981) The George Business (1980) Some Science Fiction Parameters: A Biased View [essay] (1975)
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...
