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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
Oh no, a classic novel I have to feel guilty about not liking... Possible I just need to really sit and think on these characters: what they represent, their attitudes in faith, and the things they are guilty of. But I really just felt like everything just kinda... happened. I dunno. I'm a small brain reader I guess.
Part road trip, part psycho-sexual exploration. It made me chuckle a couple of times. Still, it didn't grab me that much. This book has the distinction of having the two most unerotic sex scenes I have ever read, but that is probably intentional by the author. A year from now I probably won't remember much of it. It might work better as a movie.
I came upon this book in a list of best horror novels but it’s utterly unconcerned with the conventions of that genre (like much of the most revered horror tends to be). It doesn’t aspire to horror but there’s enough supernatural malfeasance, bodily harm, morbid aesthetic, and subversive gender stuff that it really doesn’t disappoint on that front!
The author says in an afterword that it has been in various stages of development as a movie for some time. It absolutely would lend itself to that possibility for sure. He also speaks about the degree to which it’s considered science fiction, and about how he wrote it in the spirit of the “new wave” science-fiction of the time. Its most pressing scientific speculation seems to be whether or not there could be bisexual people. It is also a real sausage fest and I don’t think that adds to the effectiveness of the story. But you know how the seventies be. This book is seventies-y as shit in ways that are mainly quite endearing. But like this book is just way hairy-bodied and groovy.
The author says in an afterword that it has been in various stages of development as a movie for some time. It absolutely would lend itself to that possibility for sure. He also speaks about the degree to which it’s considered science fiction, and about how he wrote it in the spirit of the “new wave” science-fiction of the time. Its most pressing scientific speculation seems to be whether or not there could be bisexual people. It is also a real sausage fest and I don’t think that adds to the effectiveness of the story. But you know how the seventies be. This book is seventies-y as shit in ways that are mainly quite endearing. But like this book is just way hairy-bodied and groovy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Well written and unique like all of Silverberg. A book of its time but barely dated. I intend to read all Silverberg.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, Murder, Outing, Classism
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For the first half of this book, I was disappointed by the paucity of skulls. However at the halfway point skulls started to appear, and by the end not only were there many depictions if skulls, and not only was skull imagery central to the themes and metaphors that Robert Silverberg was putting across, but skulls began to get involved in the action. If you came yo this book because of the title don’t be put off by the slow burn, this really is a book of skulls.
The story, part road trip part character study part spiritual journey, is satisfying. Silverberg crafts four central characters who start as stock types but grow and deepen as the story continues. It’s a dark tale that takes a fairly dim view of humanity, but it wraps up in a very satisfying manner both in terms of narrative and theme.
But let’s face it, we’re here to read about skulls and Silverberg delivers.
Four skulls out of five. One skull deducted for the very 1970s sexism.
The story, part road trip part character study part spiritual journey, is satisfying. Silverberg crafts four central characters who start as stock types but grow and deepen as the story continues. It’s a dark tale that takes a fairly dim view of humanity, but it wraps up in a very satisfying manner both in terms of narrative and theme.
But let’s face it, we’re here to read about skulls and Silverberg delivers.
Four skulls out of five. One skull deducted for the very 1970s sexism.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A journey of four college-aged men as they seek out the House of Skulls, where they believe (to varying degrees) that two of them can find the source of eternal life, through the death and sacrifice of the other two. This novel defies genre, landing somewhere in the nebulous space between science fiction, fantasy, and horror, without really satisfying the qualities of any of them. This is the third novel that I've read by Silverberg, and probably the hardest to both rate and qualify for myself.
The quality of the writing itself, like Man in the Maze and Hawksbill Station, is superb. It reads effortlessly, even as the subject matter increases in complexity. It has a trance-like quality to it, where I found myself getting wrapped up in the prose itself. The Book of Skulls has a compelling premise, that I enjoyed from beginning to end, especially satisfied with it's ambiguous conclusion that leaves the reader to determine the outcomes. Silverberg touches on some important themes like sacrifice, guilt, and betrayal, but saves most of his thoughts for death. How humans relate to it, what a meaningful death entails, how much of our energies go towards fighting it, what it would mean to be immortal. I also found most of the characterization work to be fruitful and detailed. All of the main characters were starkly different, with unique life experiences, fears, and thought processes that fed into their actions.
I especially enjoyed the novel as it turned inward, exploring the darker crevices of each character's psyche. The reader slowly begins to unfurl each one in turn as they expose themselves mental and emotionally, making for compelling reading.
This all being said, I do think this novel dates itself more harshly than the others that I've read from Silverberg. His treatment of not only women, but also homosexuality, is cringe inducing at best, flat out appalling at worse. Women only serve as objects of sexual appetite to all of the main characters, and while some might argue that this is befitting for late-teen, early-college aged men, it is not handled in a way in which it is clear that these men are exclusively at fault for their backwards behavior. Sex in this context played a huge role in the novel, which made it not only a distraction from Silverbergs more sane and salient points, but actively made the work significantly worse.
Ultimately, I am left feeling wholly disappointed. The ingredients of something amazing are here, but they are largly ruined. I think a modern take on same plot and themes could drop all of the sexist and homophobic nonsense, but lose none of the value.
The quality of the writing itself, like Man in the Maze and Hawksbill Station, is superb. It reads effortlessly, even as the subject matter increases in complexity. It has a trance-like quality to it, where I found myself getting wrapped up in the prose itself. The Book of Skulls has a compelling premise, that I enjoyed from beginning to end, especially satisfied with it's ambiguous conclusion that leaves the reader to determine the outcomes. Silverberg touches on some important themes like sacrifice, guilt, and betrayal, but saves most of his thoughts for death. How humans relate to it, what a meaningful death entails, how much of our energies go towards fighting it, what it would mean to be immortal. I also found most of the characterization work to be fruitful and detailed. All of the main characters were starkly different, with unique life experiences, fears, and thought processes that fed into their actions.
I especially enjoyed the novel as it turned inward, exploring the darker crevices of each character's psyche. The reader slowly begins to unfurl each one in turn as they expose themselves mental and emotionally, making for compelling reading.
This all being said, I do think this novel dates itself more harshly than the others that I've read from Silverberg. His treatment of not only women, but also homosexuality, is cringe inducing at best, flat out appalling at worse. Women only serve as objects of sexual appetite to all of the main characters, and while some might argue that this is befitting for late-teen, early-college aged men, it is not handled in a way in which it is clear that these men are exclusively at fault for their backwards behavior. Sex in this context played a huge role in the novel, which made it not only a distraction from Silverbergs more sane and salient points, but actively made the work significantly worse.
Ultimately, I am left feeling wholly disappointed. The ingredients of something amazing are here, but they are largly ruined. I think a modern take on same plot and themes could drop all of the sexist and homophobic nonsense, but lose none of the value.