1969; 190 pages. New Author? : No. Genres : Classic Science Fiction; Fantasy; Time
Travel. Laurels : 1969 Hugo Award for Best Novel (nominated); 1972 French
Prix Apollo Award (winner). Overall Rating: 6*/10.
Meet Francis “Frank” Sandow. He’s the 87th wealthiest being in
the entire galaxy. That’s quite the
feat, although it’s probably due to the fact that he’s also the oldest being in
the galaxy. Francis was born on Earth in
the 20th century. It’s now
the 32nd century and he lives light years away from here on a
planet called Homefree. Francis personally created that world.
The secret to Francis’s
longevity is something called “time dilation”,
which, as everyone who’s ever taken a course in Quantum Physics (I have!) can tell you, relates to how Time
“slows down” as you approach the speed of Light.
Francis is content with his
life and has no desire to visit 32nd-century Earth. He has too many memories of too many Earthly
companions that have long ago shuffled off their mortal coil. But lately someone has started sending him
photographs of some of those long-departed acquaintances.
Those photos could be fake, of
course. But if they aren’t, they present
Francis with an intriguing enigma.
Because the six former acquaintances of Francis look like they’re
presently very much alive.
What’s To Like...
Isle of the Dead
is a standalone 1969 novel by Roger Zelazny.
It is primarily a work of Science Fiction, thanks to the intergalactic
time travel, with some mystical Fantasy elements blended in.
The world-building is
phenomenal. If properly trained, you can
create your own planet, although I think it actually refers to terraforming an
existing uninhabited world. Two sentient
alien races have been encountered—the Rigelians
and the ancient-but-dwindling Pei’ans. The recall-tapes
were a fascinating innovation, and I’ve got to get one of those slip-sleds to avoid traffic congestion.
The story is told in the
first-person POV, Francis’s. There are
no chapters per se in the text; instead it is divided up into eight
Parts. Francis’s 20th-century
roots allow him to reference lots of familiar things people and things,
including Kafka, Gogol, Rachmaninoff,
and my favorite: Ginnungagap.
Things build to a cosmic-sized
climax, which was the norm for classic 1960s Sci-Fi. It features a couple of plot twists that I
didn’t see coming and wraps up most of the plot threads. I got the feeling Roger Zelazny wrote this as
a first book in a series, but nothing ever came of that.
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 452 ratings
and 43 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.80*/5,
based on 2,085
ratings and 123 reviews.
Kewlest New Word ...
Klepsydra (n.) : a device that measures time using
the steady flow of water from one container to another.
Others: Catenary (adj.); Barratry (n.).
Excerpts...
“Will you consent to accompany me back to
Earth and talk to my chief?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I’ve answered that question a dozen times,
in as many letters. Earth grates on my
nerves, it gives me a big pain these days.
That’s why I live out here. Earth
is overcrowded, bureaucratic, unhealthy, and suffering from too many
mass-psychoses to bother classifying.
Whatever your chief wants to say, you can say for him, and I’ll answer
you, and you can take it back to him.” (loc. 3589)
“A penny for your thoughts,” I said.
“What is a penny?”
“An ancient monetary unit, once common on
my home planet. On second thought, don’t
take me up on it. They’re valuable now.”
“It is strange to offer to buy a
thought. Was this a common practice
among your people, in the old days?”
“It had to do with the rise of the merchant
classes,” I said. “Everything has a
price, and all that.” (loc.
4671)
Kindle Details…
I bought Isle of the Dead as part of a two-book Kindle bundle
of Roger Zelazny sci-fi. The other book
is Eye of Cat, which I read earlier and
is reviewed here. Amazon no longer
offers this bundle in e-book format; but you can buy the paperback version for
a mere $17.99. Alternatively,
you can buy the hardcover and/or paperback versions of Isle of the Dead from
independent dealers through Amazon for outrageous prices.
“Did you ever
witness the combat of Betta splendens, the Siamese Fighting Fish?” (loc. 3932)
I noted 15 instances of
profanity in the first 33% of Isle of the Dead,
which is more than I expected for a Sci-Fi novel written in the 1960s. But they were all of the milder
eschatological nature, so it wasn’t distracting. Later on, several references to female
canines showed up, but hey, this was almost written in the 1970s.
I only saw two typos, both
punctuation-related, which I suspect happened after this was given to the
publisher. There was no Table of
Contents in this bundled e-book version, which bugged me a bit, but that's a quibble.
The big issue was a
storytelling. Halfway through the book,
I still couldn’t tell you what the main storyline was. One of Francis’s ex-lovers has gone missing;
should he try finding her? The 45th
wealthiest man in the galaxy has a proposal for Francis; why? Who is sending him those real-or-fake photos;
and for what purpose?
Things finally come into focus
in the book’s second half, but that’s a lot of time spent on
galaxy-building. When the smoke
finally clears, way too many characters are conveniently deceased, which means
their plotlines have come to naught, plus one of them is still MIA.
All of this could be forgiven
if the book was an introduction to a series.
The beauty of time-travel, and of meeting and interacting with hitherto
unknown extraterrestrials, is that no one has to remain dead. Sadly, Roger Zelazny passed away in 1995, so this remains a one-and-done novel. Someone needs to step up and turn it into a series.
6 Stars. One last thing. Every once in a while, some subtle humor works its way into the text. One example: the three moons of the planet Illyria are named Flopsus, Mopsus, and Kattontallus. I loved that.
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