The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
Roger Zelazny
271 pages
published in 1971

I believe the first short story I ever read of Zelazny was For a Long Breath I Tarry which, if it was not his best story, certainly deserves a place in the top ten. At any rate, it sure raises expectations for his other stories and Zelazny has often met or even exceeded them. Not every one of his stories has been as good of course, but he certainly had a good run.

Having said that, this particular collection of his was something of a disappointment. There were only two real classics here, the title story and A Rose for Ecclesiastes, the latter of which has a reputation it did not entirely live up to, but was still quite good. The rest of the collection were all minor pieces, decent enough but lacking the sparkling I'm used to from Zelazny. They could've been written by any contemporary sf writer.

• The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
  A Hemingway-esque hunt for a seamonster on a Venus that never could exist, in which the protagonist wins something far more important back: his soul.
• The Keys to December
  What happens when a world that is terraformed to your needs is discovered to have intelligent life?
• Devil Car
  Maybe giving cars artificial intelligence isn't the best of ideas...
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes
  The best story in the book and something to which you should come without expectations.
• The Monster and the Maiden
  This could've been an Asimov story; one of these short stories solely written for the punchline.
• Collector's Fever
  Another twist ending story.
• This Mortal Mountain
  How do you climb a mountain compared to which Everest is just a hill? Nice story, crap ending.
• This Moment of the Storm
  A story that could've just as well been written about any natural disaster on Earth. Decent enough, but with little reason to be science fiction.
• The Great Slow Kings
  Humour piece about two very long and slow lived Kings and their attempts to get subjects...
• A Museum Piece
  If you cannot make a living making art, become art.
• Divine Madness
  What if you are trapped in a timeloop, forced to relive your blackest days over and over?
• Corrida
  A somewhat heavy-handed allegory about bullfighting.
• Love Is an Imaginary Number
  A story about the ultimate rebel.
• The Man Who Loved the Faioli
  A bittersweet semi-lovestory.
• Lucifer
  Can you bring light to a post-apocalyptic city?