nataliya_x 's review for:

Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny

4.0

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“Mercy, I have learned, is a thing that is withheld from one whenever he most needs it," he said. "Yet when he is in a position to grant it himself, those who withheld it previously cry out for it.”

Until now, my acquaintance with Zelazny’s work has been through the brilliantly funny [b:A Night in the Lonesome October|62005|A Night in the Lonesome October|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1274492048l/62005._SY75_.jpg|890916] and [b:Doorways in the Sand|61998|Doorways in the Sand|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327915592l/61998._SY75_.jpg|759315]. So when it came to this one, from the first pages I was expecting a clever adventure romp with a lovable rogue at its center. And a clever romp it was, but oh dear, it was dark. Casually and pointedly dark.

“Then it is impossible to get an honest answer from you."
"If by 'honest answer' you mean for me to say what you want me to say, whether or not it is true, then I would say that you are correct.”

It’s a dark fantasy set on a world that has stopped rotating, eternally split into the dark and light sides, with the sliver of twilight at the boundary. Science (1960s-style) rules the dayside (shields keeping it from baking) and feudal magic is on the darkside (with the magical Shield protecting it from freezing). Daysiders live once and have a soul; darksiders are soulless, wield magic and have a few allotted lives, with the respawn point in the putrid Dung Pits (because universe has a sick sense of humor). So if a darksider commits murder, he can potentially have dinner with his murder victim a few years or decades later.

“I am Jack of Shadows!" he cried out. "Lord of Shadow Guard! I am Shadowjack, the thief who walks in silence and in shadows! I was beheaded in Igles and rose again from the Dung Pits of Glyve. I drank the blood of a vampire and ate a stone. I am the breaker of the Compact. I am he who forged a name in the Red Book of Ells. I am the prisoner in the jewel. I duped the Lord of High Dudgeon once, and I will return for vengeance upon him. I am the enemy of my enemies.”


(Yes, in my mind Jack looks a lot like Crowley from “Good Omens”.)

Jack of the Shadows is a darkside magician and a twilight thief whose magic, as you’d suspect from his moniker, comes from the shadows. His extra lives ensure that the story doesn’t stop after his beheading just a few pages into the book. He initially seems perfect for the traditional part of a lovable rogue — but despite the superficial charm and the rooting for the protagonist we seem to be hardwired to do (especially as for the half of the story he’s very much an underdog) it’s obvious that he’s not a good guy and no heart of gold is hiding under the slippery surface. Jack is cold, cruel and vengeful, merciless and brutal, on par with the world in which he lives and which he plans to rule after vanquishing those who have wronged him.

Zelazny manages to make this very short novel feel much longer through sheer economy of words, setting up horrifying scenes in just a few phrases, making them efficiently chilly. Just look how well this horrific scene about subjugation, rape and mind control is portrayed with the casual coldness that shows you Jack at his usual worst:

“So be it," he said. "Yet all that I have described to you will come to pass, and you will be with me to witness it."
"No. I will have taken my life long before."
"I will bend your will, and you will love me."
"You will never touch me, body or will."
"You will sleep now," he said, "and when you awaken we will be coupled. You will struggle briefly and you will yield to me-first your body, then your will. You will lie passive for a time, then I will come to you again and yet again. After that, it will be you who will come to me. Now you will sleep while I sacrifice Smage upon his Lord's altar and cleanse this place of all things which displease me. Dream well. A new life awaits you."
And he departed, and these things were done as he had said.”

And then you remember that until this moment you actually rooted for the guy, thinking that of course he has something up his sleeve that will show you his actions in a better light. Until you see that no, he doesn’t. And still some of his charm improbably keeps you in its grip. And yes, you know there will be a kind of redemption, and you can even guess where the events may lead, but it still does not take away the darkness of the story about a sort of charming sociopath in the ugly world where you don’t have many other choices.

“If my sanity is to be destroyed, what is it to me whether the rest of the world goes on existing or is destroyed?"
''That is a very selfish attitude," said the Lord of Bats.
"It is my attitude," said Jack, and he jingled his bells.”

The atmosphere is done quite well, although at times it does feel that half of the planet is populated by at most a dozen darksiders - a common fantasy feel of a world being basically a small village. And yet again Zelazny just throws you smack into the middle of the story with zero handholding and expects you to sink or swim, no extra help provided, which I love. And that works yet again. And he keeps it short and to the point in this slim novel.

But it’s not perfect — and apparently, if I believe what I read online, was written in a single draft (!) which may explain a bit of a rough feeling at times. (And anyone who can hammer this out in a single draft is indeed a skilled writer). A bit more cohesiveness wouldn’t have hurt because it does feel a tad disjointed at times, and a bit more developing of some side plots and characters. A little more on his time in the dayside could have helped with giving Jack just a bit more dimension. There’s a bit of a story whiplash halfway through, with the end result feeling like three different books masher up together — a revenge quest, urban fantasy, and a parable about soul corruption — like Freddie Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with its stylistic mishmash, but more jarring.

Those are the things that the second draft could have spliced together more organically and make it feel less episodic — but on the other hand there’s a bit of charm arising from these clashes, the intersection of mundane and fantastical, fascination and repulsion, the victim and the victimizer, dark cynicism and strange almost-redemption for the firmer underdog turned full villain. Almost - because the ending has just enough ambiguity to sow the seeds of doubt.

3.5 stars rounding up to 4 If you’re new to Zelazny, I’d suggest his brilliant [b:A Night in the Lonesome October|62005|A Night in the Lonesome October|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1274492048l/62005._SY75_.jpg|890916] or [b:Doorways in the Sand|61998|Doorways in the Sand|Roger Zelazny|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327915592l/61998._SY75_.jpg|759315] for your first acquaintance instead, and this one when you’re already a fan.

“Fair enough," said Jack. "Only I am not a man. I am a darksider."
"You are all men, whatever side of the world you call home."
"I have no soul, and I do not change."
"You change," said Morningstar. "Everything that lives changes or dies. Your people are cold but their world is warm, endowed as it is with enchantment, glamourie, wonder. The lightlanders know feelings you will not understand, though their science is as cold as your people's hearts. Yet they would appreciate your realm if they did not fear it so and you might enjoy their feelings but for the same reason. Still, the capacity is there, in each of you. The fear need but give way to understanding, for you are mirror images of one another. So do not speak to me of souls when you have never seen one, man.”

———

Buddy read with Kevin.