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dan1066 's review for:
This Immortal
by Roger Zelazny
This is an amazing little book. Zelazny’s narrator is sly and would rather not reveal his own history. We receive glimpses from the reminiscing of other characters, but Conrad doesn’t elaborate. He’s old, but he never overtly states how old. He has a checkered past replete with terrorist activities using fission weapons on alien resorts or realty companies.
Zelazny constructs a world we recognize. We’ve seen a thousand tales about life after a nuclear holocaust with “hot spots” and mutants. But Zelazny’s world is striking and rises above pulp. Rather, Zelazny forces the reader to attend to the narrator carefully. But Zelazny isn’t doing an action tale; rather, he’s examining man’s place in the universe. The alien from Vega who hires Conrad stands before crumbling remnants of Earth’s accomplishments and cast aspersions on its character, art, and architecture. Conrad needs to decide what to make of the alien mission and how it impacts the people remaining on his devastated world.
There’s instances of deus ex machina to get our narrator out of some scrapes, and it is a little too pat. These are possibly the result of writing a first novel. But it’s doesn’t ruin the reading experience. These instances remind me of similar instances in Gene Wolfe’s Books of the New Sun. The surrounding story minimizes their import. The story is too well-written to quibble the author took an easy exit to pull his characters from peril.
Be aware the opening of the novel is extremely confusing. The first sentence: “You are a Kallikanzaros,” she announced suddenly.” This isn’t off the cuff dialogue—the whole novel pivots on this statement. You have to immerse yourself into Zelazny’s prose. Once you’re accustomed to its ripples and currents, let it carry you. As soon as I finished, I started again and realized the narrator had already told me things at the start I “discovered” later
This novel shared a Hugo with Dune—and is its equal. For a comparable Hugo winner, check out Miller’s Canticle for Lebowitz.
Zelazny constructs a world we recognize. We’ve seen a thousand tales about life after a nuclear holocaust with “hot spots” and mutants. But Zelazny’s world is striking and rises above pulp. Rather, Zelazny forces the reader to attend to the narrator carefully. But Zelazny isn’t doing an action tale; rather, he’s examining man’s place in the universe. The alien from Vega who hires Conrad stands before crumbling remnants of Earth’s accomplishments and cast aspersions on its character, art, and architecture. Conrad needs to decide what to make of the alien mission and how it impacts the people remaining on his devastated world.
There’s instances of deus ex machina to get our narrator out of some scrapes, and it is a little too pat. These are possibly the result of writing a first novel. But it’s doesn’t ruin the reading experience. These instances remind me of similar instances in Gene Wolfe’s Books of the New Sun. The surrounding story minimizes their import. The story is too well-written to quibble the author took an easy exit to pull his characters from peril.
Be aware the opening of the novel is extremely confusing. The first sentence: “You are a Kallikanzaros,” she announced suddenly.” This isn’t off the cuff dialogue—the whole novel pivots on this statement. You have to immerse yourself into Zelazny’s prose. Once you’re accustomed to its ripples and currents, let it carry you. As soon as I finished, I started again and realized the narrator had already told me things at the start I “discovered” later
This novel shared a Hugo with Dune—and is its equal. For a comparable Hugo winner, check out Miller’s Canticle for Lebowitz.