Review by kirwar4face (2003-03-10)
The Changing Land has a pretty good shot at being Zelazny's worst novel, or at least most confusing. I'm not saying that's what happened, but it reads like a treatment for a projected series cobbled together and offered up as sacrifice to a deadline. You can't actually hate a novel that opens with a shaggy-dog version of Kurt Vonnegut's favorite cartoon, but I'm still struggling to care a whit what happens to anybody in this book. The most personable character is Black, a sort of magical robot horse, who is unfortunately out of commission for a good deal of the novel. (We get to see a lot more of Black, I'm told, in Dilvish, the Damned, a collection of adventures that predate this novel, though published later.) There are a couple of brilliant touches, such as a demon who, though annoying, has managed to escape exorcism because his name is so long and unpronouncable that any thaumaturgist is likely to suffer a slip of the tongue before completing the banishing incantation. But on the whole I found getting through this adventure nearly as difficult as trying to pronounce Melbriniononsadsazzersteldregandishfeltselior (that's 'Melbriniononsadsazzersteldregandishfeltselior') three times before breakfast.