Customer Reviews

Isle of the Dead

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of Roger Zelazny's finest novels, this tale of a man who embodies an alien god encompasses science-fiction, mythology, psychology, and the poignancy of being human - and does so in well under 200 pages. There's no overload of unconvincing background minutiae here - with no more than a few colorful strokes, Zelazny creates a rich and meaningful universe for his flawed protagonist Francis Sandow. What begins as a confrontation between two powerful men swiftly becomes a private apocalypse between two gods ... without ever losing its human scale. Dazzling, exciting, moving, satiric, this book deserves to be reprinted soon!

I'm writing this because nobody else bothered, and a writer of his caliber deserves reviews on everything he ever produced.

Well, this is the trouble with double editions: it's impossible to issue a single rating, especially when the two works have markedly different levels of quality, as in this one. So, I'll just do the two separately.

Isle of the Dead: Really ... cool. THIS is why we read Zelazny 30-odd years after he set this stuff to paper. Of the SF novels of his I've read, this belongs on that top tier, shared with Lord of Light and at most one or two others. Where sometimes his dazzling style wanders a bit into navel-gazing(which is why he was so bloody good at short stories: they minimize such tendencies), here the descriptions are sharp, the narrator is one of his classics, and the ideas are captivating. The controlling metaphor is pretty cool, the action is exciting, and the psychology of the narrator kept me riveted. In short, this novel is EXACTLY what one thinks when s/he thinks of "good Zelazny". 5 stars.

Eye of Cat, on the other hand, seems more like what happens when the old master just sits down and decides, "hey, I'll write a story about X". It's still good; I mean, the man's talents wouldn't have let him write complete tripe if he tried. There are some very interesting moments, too; Cat is a striking presence, and some of the throw-away lines are great. His exploration of "primitivism", however, is patchy, and some parts aren't very convincing; in certain spots he even sounds almost a bit bigoted (people from old tribal cultures can't order their thoughts?), even though it is clear he has respect for Native American cultures. Also, parts of the plot meander and drag. All in all, it's a must-read for those of us hungry for more books that have that signature Zelazny style, but if it weren't in this double, I'd tell you to leave it for later.

So: one good + one great novel by Roger Zelazny makes this a good value and a must-buy, but remember, it's the second, shorter one that's the best part.

Roger Zelazny has a tendency to create main characters who are either eternal or have lived a very long time. This isn't a fault, because he relies on this only to establish the depth of the character, not as a major plot device. In fact, perhaps the biggest lesson his heroes learn is that, if you live forever, you can make a lot of enemies. Some of them aren't even your enemies.

Francis Sandow is on such mein character. After a shaky star in this century, modern science and sheer luck have contrived to make him the worlds oldest rich man. The luck was falling into the hands of the Peians, who taught him how to create worlds and some experience in the fine are of revenge. Worldscaping is the basis for his money, but it didn't save him from offending people.

One such antagonist has taken up stealing the dying personality tapes of some of Sandow's best friends and enemies in an effort to lure him to the Isle of the Dead. His offense was to be a human and qualify for the honor of bonding with a Peian god and becoming a planetscaper. A Peian who didn't pass the grade took offense and has spent several hundred years working on getting even. Now he has reconstructed the people and Sandow bites the lure.

Of course, the revenge you see is not necessarily the revenge you get. Things go awry in spectacular style. Sandow is forced to incarnate Shimbo, the Shrugger of Thunders, and suddenly the scope of the conflict goes out of control. Anotherr truth about Zelazny is that even his villains have redeeming traits, and in this wry but tragic tale, the reader will find it hard to dislike anyone.

For some reason, Isle of the Dead has remained one of my favorite Zelazny stories. I won't claim that it is his best, but it pushes all the right buttons for me and I keep coming back to it. Sandow is my kind of hero - a bit of a rat, but basically a good guy in a tough universe. He has every excuse to be bitter, but he refuses to crumble. In any case, this book has a habit of regularly going out of print. If you are a Zelazny fan than find it how you may, I promise you will find it worth the effort.

Francis Sandow is a man -- an unfathomably wealthy 1000 year-old man who channels an alien god called Shimbo of Darktree, and who uses said god's gifts to craft entire worlds.

When Sandow begins receiving letters claiming, and tri-dee photographs seemingly corroborating, that a number of his most dear, dead friends and most dangerous, dead enemies have been resurrected and imprisoned on one of his own worlds, he is both shocked and a bit incredulous. But as evidence piles up and Sandow comes to believe more and more that Nick, Kathy, Shandon and the others really live again, he resolves to set out for Illyria and its sinister Isle of the Dead, face "Green Green," the mysterious letter-writer, rescue old friends and loves, and thwart whatever vengeance may be brewing in the minds of risen foes.

It's an awesome novel written in a brisk but intensely colorful style, punctuated by earthy (and more importantly, highly entertaining) philosophical musings, and blessed with an electrifying climax. This is the good stuff.

I feel sort of bad about rating this book at only 3 stars. But, the two stories in this book are just worlds apart in how good they are. The 2nd story (though listed first on the cover) is "Isle of the Dead," which is a really good story in classic Zelazny fashion. The other story, "Eye of Cat," is not that good at all. Now, if the publisher had put "Isle of the Dead" together with its sequel, "To Die in Italbar," I'd have given the compilation a 5 star rating. But, since the actual two stories have nothing in common, I'm forced to just take an average of my two ratings. For ease of reference, here are my write-ups for the individual stories:

Isle of the Dead: This is classic Zelazny: the merging of man and mythology. In this case, the mythology is entirely alien (the Pei'an pantheon), and, as seems to be the norm for Zelazny, the man (Francis Sandow) is darn near immortal. Also, as usual for Zelazny, the magic is there. My only complaint with the book is that I wish there were more of it. There's an awful lot of stuff that Zelazny hints at that could form entire books on their own. Unfortunately, the only other book with this main character in it is "To Die in Italbar." It's been a while since I read that book, but I remember it as also being very good. Wishing for more, I rate this book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

Eye of Cat: Usually, I really like Zelazny's work. Unfortunately, in this case, he's just gone too far with his mythological basis. I'd estimate that more than half of this book consists of nothing but his interpretation of snippets from Navajo mythology stuck smack in the middle of a story. There IS a decent action-packed plot buried in there, but it's just overwhelmed by the mythology. By the end, the whole thing becomes a psychological "experience" as Zelazny basically drops the plot so the protagonist can confront himself. Even worse, the very last pages leave me unsure about whether or not he succeeds. With a tighter linkage between mythology and plot, this could have been an excellent book. But, because the two elements are so disjoint, and because Zelazny emphasizes the mythology over the plot, it just fails. So, unfortunately, I have to rate this book at a Not Very Good 2 stars out of 5.

This is classic Zelazny: the merging of man and mythology. In this case, the mythology is entirely alien (the Pei'an pantheon), and, as seems to be the norm for Zelazny, the man (Francis Sandow) is darn near immortal. Also, as usual for Zelazny, the magic is there. My only complaint with the book is that I wish there were more of it. There's an awful lot of stuff that Zelazny hints at that could form entire books on their own. Unfortunately, the only other book with this main character in it is "To Die in Italbar." It's been a while since I read that book, but I remember it as also being very good. Wishing for more, I rate this book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

One of Roger Zelazny's finest novels, this tale of a man who embodies an alien god encompasses science-fiction, mythology, psychology, and the poignancy of being human - and does so in well under 200 pages. There's no overload of unconvincing background minutiae here - with no more than a few colorful strokes, Zelazny creates a rich and meaningful universe for his flawed protagonist Francis Sandow. What begins as a confrontation between two powerful men swiftly becomes a private apocalypse between two gods ... without ever losing its human scale. Dazzling, exciting, moving, satiric, this book deserves to be reprinted soon!

This book is out of print? Gosh. It's hard. It's a really good fantastico-mythologico-science fiction book. Zelazny writes an excellent book, of the same lineage that Lord of Light. Reward worth!

I purchased a used copy of Isle of the Dead here at Amazon, and received the single copy, not the double-story edition mentioned in other reviews. I got just the Isle of the Dead and only that. In any case, I found this story to be one of my favorite Zelazny novels of all time, if not one of my favorite novels of all time ever.

The book is deceptively dark and deep, and delves into issues of life and death throughout. Francis Sandow is a character who through luck and hard choices has survived the 20th century to become one of the most powerful and richest in the 30th century. Far into the future he is one of the gods of an alien pantheon that reminds one of Hinduism, and possesses the ability to forge planets.

The book is fast paced, and ultimately leads Francis to one of the planets of his own creations, where he has to face the demons of his past, without his money to protect him after all this time. It's a nasty battle, and the book does a great job building up to the exciting ending.

This book is pretty dark by Zelazny standards, and has a lot to stay about life, death, and how lonely power and long-life can be. I really enjoyed this book while reading it over a weekend, and it gave me something to think about it.

As the book is hard to obtain, definitely take the time to pick it up if you can. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy!