Lessons in the Science of Infinite Spirit, and the Christ Method of Healing Book

This is a lot of fun to read & one of my favorite books of all time. Post apocalyptic earth is being toured by an alien, whose species helped save us after we mostly blew up our home. The tour guide, Conrad, who tells the story from his POV & most of the trip is through a surreal blending of SF & diverse mythology brought to life by radiation. It's short, quirky, & simple on the surface, but there are offhand references, names & partial quotes that make this story a bit of a treasure hunt. They also enhance the meaning of so many simple phrases & often lend it a poetic feel. It reads best you are well read in the classics & mythology.

It doesn't hurt to know something of Zelazny. If you've never read his work before, I wouldn't suggest starting with this one. Probably the Amber series, starting with Nine Princes in Amber is the best.

One of the best guides to this story is contained in NESFA's Power & Light, the second of their "Complete Works of Roger Zelazny". There the editors have published the novel in its original form in 2 parts, a novella. Besides some words from Zelazny himself, they have also included explanations at the end of each which explain many (most?) of the references. They did quite a good job of it. In expanding this to a novel, Zelazny didn't really add all that much to it - nothing that matters too much.

If anyone ever wants to do a group read of this, please let me know. I would absolutely LOVE to.