Donnerjack [Mass Market Paperback]

Roger Zelazny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

In our world, called the Verite, he is a Scottish laird, an engineer, and a master of virtual reality design. In the computer-generated universe of Virtu, created by the crash of the World Net, he is a living legend. Scientist and poet with a warrior's soul, Donnerjack strides like a giant across the virtual landscape he helped to shape. And how he has bargained with Death himself for the return of love. The Lord of Entropy claimed Ayradyss, Donnerjack's beloved dark-haired lady of Virtu, with no warning, leaving a hole in the Engineer's heart. But Death offered to return her to him for a price: a palace of bones...and their first-born child. Since offspring have never before resulted from any union of the two worlds, Donnerjack accepts Death's conditions - and leads his reborn lover far from the detritus and perpetual twilight of Deep Fields to his ancestral Scottish lands, hoping to build a sanctuary and a self for Ayradyss in the first world. But there is no escaping, because cataclysmic change is taking place in Virtu. A bizarre new religion is sweeping through this ever-shifting universe where the homely can be virtually beautiful, the lame can walk and the blind can see. Now it's threatening to spill over into Verite. And its credo is a call for a different kind of order. For all the ancient myths still occupy Virtu. And the Great Gods on Mt. Meru are amassing great armies in anticipation of the time when a vast computer system attempts to take over the reality that constructed it. The House of Donnerjack, itself responsible for so much Virtuelle growth, is now responsible for preventing more - as John D'Arcy Donnerjack and Ayradyss, each in their own way, must guard and guide aprecious, impossible legacy from Death and after death. For the Engineer and his beloved Angel of the Forsaken Hope have produced their greatest creation, one coveted by the Lord of the Lost for some incomprehensible purpose; one that will play an integral part in the future moldi

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This "new" Roger Zelazny work was finished posthumously with the help of his coauthor and friend, Jane Lindskold. Unlike some after-the-fact "collaborations," this one has Zelazny written all over it. It's a typical tale from one of science fiction's greats, a world-spanning story that deals heavily with mythology and the ability to cross between two realities. In this case the realities are the real world, Verité, and the virtual world, Virtù. When Donnerjack--one of the architects of Virtù--loses his lover Ayradyss, he makes a pact with Death to return her from the dead. In return, Death demands their first-born child, who will be the first baby born from a Verité/Virtù union, and a force to be reckoned with in both worlds. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Zelazny died in 1995 after beginning this next-to-last hard sf collaboration with Lindskold. They have created a dazzling, 22nd-century future in which the real world, Verite, coexists with a computer-generated realm, Virtu. While citizens of Verite can visit the virtual world, denizens of Virtu cannot exist in Verite until John D'Arcy Donnerjack makes a deal with Death to save his beloved Virtual, Ayradyss. She is the first to cross over to Verite in exchange for giving their firstborn son to Death. First Donnerjack and then his son must find a way to cheat Death. In this intricately plotted novel, the authors create believable, densely populated worlds with a richness of characterization and subplots that will leave readers believing in Virtu. Highly recommended for most sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; Reprint edition (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380770229
• ISBN-13: 978-0380770229
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,565,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reading Donnerjack Makes You Cry A Little, You Know, October 10, 2005

By 

Idan Cohen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Donnerjack (Mass Market Paperback)

Reviews before me have noted the obvious correlation between the end of the first third of this book and the death of the author. Others have argued with such statements, and offered grand compliments to the entirety of Donnerjack.

Allow me to underline the sentiments of the first and blink oddly at the latter in honest confusion.

The first third of Donnerjack is a work of art. Not only to fans of Zelazny, which I do not really count myself as. Not only to science-fiction fans, or fantasy fans. It is a true mythological tale which is so rarely seen in any genre. Death seems to spring from the page. John D'Arcy is seared into our minds. Virtu itself seems to spring up around us.

It's astounding. It is one the better books in this decade.

And then, as you go along, your mouth gaping with unshamed awe, the author dies.

And so does the grand story, its porportions, its characters, and its quiet grace.

It is replaced with something that at times seemed to be a childrens' book, a bodice-ripper, and a book based on a D&D session.

I tried to go on. I honestly did. Having devoured the first part in a day, I continued slogging on for literally weeks. I dismissed obvious inconsistencies. I skimmed over plot holes. I even laughingly skipped over the multiple, multiple, multiple times the characters acted with simple childish /idiocy/.

And then I stopped, somewhere fifty pages from the end. Because I could not bear to go on. Donnerjack had died, a hundred and fifty pages ago. What was left wasn't worth the torture.

Donnerjack is amazing. It is an astounding story, astoundingly written, striking somewhere deep within the collective unconcious. But it only runs for 186 pages before it turns into something debasing and crude, and something inside you breaks at that loss.

I've never written a amazon.com review before, and I doubt I will again. But I had to write this one.

Donnerjack is amazing. Don't ever read it. You'll cry a little.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Crying Shame, December 6, 1998

By 

Robert Pylant - See all my reviews

This review is from: Donnerjack (Mass Market Paperback)

Donnerjack is best described as a crying shame-first because I was practically crying reading the beginning third of the book that was so obviously Zelazny-fast, witty, engaging, unique-full of weird characters and a new computer type of mythology which is so Zelazny-ish! It was great to be reading Zelazny again years after he had died! The shame part of the book is after the first third (ended as part one) we enter part two which is obviously not Zelazny! Wordy to the extreme-boring, stupid, stupid humor (if I read "he or she or it CHUCKLED one more time I was gonna scream!) and chocked full of explanations which is one thing Roger once stated in an interview--He hated explanations!!! No wonder the book took so long to come out--it took Jane years to write the next 400 pages! As another reviewer pointed out, read the first third of the book and then stop, you'll be glad you did--Or else do as I do and read it with a handy magic-marker, its great for blacking out all the unnecessary wordiness!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two master writers confront Death, December 23, 2000

By 

Karl E Martell "Karl Erich Martell" (6000' above sea level, high desert, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Donnerjack (Mass Market Paperback)

I read Zelazny as a teen, but never kept up with his stuff. A few years ago I got hooked on Jane Lindskold's SF and fantasies (I've now read all of her books), and I loved Lord Demon, her first collaboration with Zelazny. Inevitably I picked up Donnerjack, and what a great story! It's long, but it's never boring or slow.

A hero confronts Death to regain a love from his realm, in exchange for their firstborn. Donnerjack weaves together tales of computer programs and ancient prototypical gods, legends and 22nd century Americans, and manages to tie them all together with a satisfyingly pretty bow. It balances an incredibly dark subject matter (trying to beat Death and eventually to let go when one cannot - bear in mind that after a long illness Zelazny actually died before the book was finished) with great stories that inexorably twine together as the plot moves forward. While exciting, it manages to catch creepy on a really visceral level - I couldn't just blast through this book like my usual reads, but had to take it in bits.

Part of why Donnerjack is so distressing is that the subject of death touches us all, and the authors capture its horror in delicate ways as when a character's gradual deterioration necessitates the amputation of his leg. The authors present this in such an unapologetic and off-handed way that it feels uncomfortably personal - if this didn't come from life it certainly felt like it. This must have been a very painful book to write. The result is just wonderful, though. Because of the authors' real-life situation, the evolution of the book's presentation of Death from being a horrific chaotic factor to a necessary (and even well-meaning) part of the lawful order of things is particularly evocative.

Because of the masterful storytelling, Donnerjack's plot unravels like a mystery. I genuinely did not know what to expect from one chapter to the next. Perhaps because of the personal stuggles of the authors with death, this "scientific fantasy" is also a novel of horror. As the tale draws on, a force more sinister than Death is gradually revealed, the horror building as the reader considers the implications of this evil. Lindskold and Zelazny do this artfully; Donnerjack reminds me of Lovecraft, with a little less Poe and a lot more storytelling and character development. It's a riveting, wonderful book. I'm going to have to make sure I read all the Zelazny I've missed over the years.