Edited sentence: For an author of this stature to publish and then receive strong mention for a Hugo Award for a simple writing exercize is quite an accomplishment.The story has at its core Egyptian mythology and also a bizarre shifting of character perspective and time-sense, and only towards its ending does any sense of good-guy vs bad-guy plotting emerge.This is one of Zelazny's very best, not to be missed by any serious student of SF (sci-fi or spec-fic, your choice).This novel was reportedly writ as an exercize in writing by Zelazny, and then he found it worthy of being submitted as a novel--to very high critical acclaim