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mburnamfink 's review for:
This Immortal
by Roger Zelazny
This Immortal follows an episode in the long and danger-filled life of Konstantin Karaghiosis, among other names (but call him Conrad). Seat-filling commissioner of Arts, Monuments, and Archives; expert lover, deadly fighter, degenerate sybarite, retired terrorist, and possible demigod, Conrad is called away from his Greek island refuge to serve as a tour-guide for a very important Vegan journalist, a representative of the alien race that now owns most of Earth. This journalist, Cort Mystigo, is writing a report that will determine the fate of Earth, and it is up to Conrad to keep him safe from myriad dangers of Earth, ranging from radioactive monsters to political radicals who want Mystigo dead.
The novel does a great job showing and not telling the dismal future earth. The population has been reduced to a mere 4 million, clinging to islands and a few small resort towns that the organized and aesthetic Vegans use as bases for atrocity tourism, since their species never experienced a nuclear war. With a population this small, it seems plausible that Conrad would know everyone of importance on Earth. The monsters and mutant cannibal tribes are both real threats and psychological markers of the sin of nuclear war. The characters are quite good, if you like them on the hyper-competent side.
But somehow, this book just didn't match my tastes. It was a fine enough dark adventure romp, with humanity stumbling along the verge of extinction and all of earth reduced to a mausoleum. There were a couple of great moments, like dismantling the pyramids to show how they were constructed by playing the film in reverse, and an anthropologist from New Harvard who becomes the witchdoctor of a mutant cannibal tribe, but the moments never really added up to more.
The novel does a great job showing and not telling the dismal future earth. The population has been reduced to a mere 4 million, clinging to islands and a few small resort towns that the organized and aesthetic Vegans use as bases for atrocity tourism, since their species never experienced a nuclear war. With a population this small, it seems plausible that Conrad would know everyone of importance on Earth. The monsters and mutant cannibal tribes are both real threats and psychological markers of the sin of nuclear war. The characters are quite good, if you like them on the hyper-competent side.
But somehow, this book just didn't match my tastes. It was a fine enough dark adventure romp, with humanity stumbling along the verge of extinction and all of earth reduced to a mausoleum. There were a couple of great moments, like dismantling the pyramids to show how they were constructed by playing the film in reverse, and an anthropologist from New Harvard who becomes the witchdoctor of a mutant cannibal tribe, but the moments never really added up to more.