Jack of Shadows [Paperback]

Roger Zelazny (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Roc; Fourth Printing edition (August 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451075870
• ISBN-13: 978-0451075871
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,208,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcendent Science Fiction/Fantasy, February 10, 2008

By 

The Gripester (Wellington, NZ) - See all my reviews

This remains one of my favorite books, possibly the best work of fiction Zelazny ever wrote. At the time it was written (1971), the booklists were just starting to get their heads around the combined yet markedly different fields of fantasy and science fiction. Zelazny wrote a seemingly effortless work that casually crossed from the mists and shadows of the former to the reason and bright lights of the latter, then back again.

The basis of this freedom lies in the ambiguity at the heart of imagination and impulse to discover, along with the moral ambiguities of the antihero. Zelazny makes us feel the torments and trials of the leading character, Jack of Shadows, as he attempts to undo the treachery that leads him to the grave and then beyond it at the outset of the book. The coldness and utter devastation of his revenge brings up us against the limits of our own humanity, and at the moment of his own vulnerability as he reaps the chaos he has sown, our ineffectuality as well.

The scope of Zelazny's imagination is apparent in the architecture of the book's premise. A planet of human beings is rotating a sun with one hemisphere forever facing toward the light, and the other away. The world of light is the world of science, reason, and a very 1960's cosmopolitan culture with automobiles, computers, and universities. The world of darkness is the world of magic, reincarnation, feudalism, monsters, and an aristocracy of sorcerors eternally competing in petty fiefdoms.

A great source of interest and amusement lies in the differences between each culture, and how they view each other. The scientists of the light side maintain a shield to keep the sun from cooking the planet to a crisp; the sorcerors of the dark side maintain a spell to keep the planet from freezing. Neither side seems to believe that the other's science or magic is effective. On the twilight border between the worlds, an enigmatic figure stands guard, trapped in stone, waiting to be released by some world-changing catastrophe.

What is most fascinating about this premise is how un-clichéd the fantasy world is. Magic is used in the most practical, utilitarian way. People speak normally, and are motivated by very understandable pettiness and self-interest. The processes by which the world works are considered so natural by its inhabitants that it's easy to forget that there is anything unscientific about it. And the story rolls along in the most clear and economical way, allowing circumstances and outcomes to evolve naturally out of the characters and premise of each situation. It is highly operatic writing, and I mean that in the most complimentary way.

I would highly recommend this book, especially to an entry-level science fiction reader. Some devotees of fantasy might find it lacking in romance and high concepts, and its protagonist too hard to relate to. But it makes perfect sense in a science fiction arena as a book that works off of the logic of a set of presumptions, and then goes for broke on sheer entertainment. In that way, it anticipates the works of Stephen King and Anne Rice, though I would hasten to add that the Zelazny of this period was a man of fewer, more impactful words. There is not one boring page here for me.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zelazny takes on the Faust Legend, February 25, 2003

By 

Harry E. Spain "spainhe" (Murrysville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack of Shadows (Signet) (Mass Market Paperback)

Zelazny takes on another legend. This time he takes the Faust legend and reverses it. Faust was a reputable scientist who got in trouble by getting involved with magic. Shadow Jack is a rather disreputable magician who gets in trouble when he messes with science. If you had to plow through Goethe in college like I did, you will enjoy seeing how Zelazny takes characters and events from Faust and turns them upside down and inside out. If you never read Faust, read Jack of Shadows anyhow; it's a great story. If you have read it already, read it again; you'll always find something new. Zelazny could pack enough creative ideas into a single book to last a lesser writer a lifetime. Jack of Shadows has one of my personal favorites, a world with an `East pole' and a `West pole'.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A subversive quest of self-discovery, January 5, 2003

By 

"mythologue" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack of Shadows (Signet) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this novel, Zelazny takes on a number of themes and situations and subverts them all through an allusive, elliptical style that allows multiple interpretations. The title character is a man who is constantly between extremes - he's the master of shadow, in itself an intermediary between light (which in this book governs the world's `scientific half') and darkness (which governs the `magical half'). All the dichotomies Zelazny juggles with - light and darkness, science and magic, good and evil, etc. - are always part of the same whole, and the fact that both parts are usually seen as mutually exclusive fuels many of this book's episodes and produces some tension. Throughout the novel, hints are scattered about Jack's double life as a magus and semi-god in the darkness, and as a teacher in the light; meanwhile, Jack faces adversaries representative of light (elaborate machines) and of darkness (strange creatures), and he uses both technological knowledge and magical incantations during his quest. The book is another kind of initiatory voyage, since Jack has been there before but still must go through several challenges, and in the toughest of them he is often confronted with himself - either when put in a chamber of mirrors or when discussing with his own soul. His quest is ultimately a complex quest of self-discovery.