Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Crying Shame, December 6, 1998
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!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Reading Donnerjack Makes You Cry A Little, You Know, October 10, 2005
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.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two master writers confront Death, December 23, 2000
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.
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