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Francis Sandow #1
Isle of the Dead
Later printing of the paperback original novel (1969). Nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1969, and won the French Prix Apollo in 1972.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Roger Zelazny
679 books3,642 followersRoger Zelazny made his name with a group of novellas which demonstrated just how intense an emotional charge could be generated by the stock imagery of sf; the most famous of these is A Rose for Ecclesiastes in which a poet struggles to convince dying and sterile Martians that life is worth continuing. Zelazny continued to write excellent short stories throughout his career. Most of his novels deal, one way or another, with tricksters and mythology, often with rogues who become gods, like Sam in Lord of Light, who reinvents Buddhism as a vehicle for political subversion on a colony planet.
The fantasy sequence The Amber Chronicles, which started with Nine Princes in Amber, deals with the ruling family of a Platonic realm at the metaphysical heart of things, who can slide, trickster-like through realities, and their wars with each other and the related ruling house of Chaos. Zelazny never entirely fulfilled his early promise—who could?—but he and his work were much loved, and a potent influence on such younger writers as George R. R. Martin and Neil Gaiman.
He won the Nebula award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo award six times (out of 14 nominations). His papers are housed at the Albin O. Khun Library of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ze...
The fantasy sequence The Amber Chronicles, which started with Nine Princes in Amber, deals with the ruling family of a Platonic realm at the metaphysical heart of things, who can slide, trickster-like through realities, and their wars with each other and the related ruling house of Chaos. Zelazny never entirely fulfilled his early promise—who could?—but he and his work were much loved, and a potent influence on such younger writers as George R. R. Martin and Neil Gaiman.
He won the Nebula award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo award six times (out of 14 nominations). His papers are housed at the Albin O. Khun Library of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ze...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
October 24, 2018
One of Zelazny's mythic best, but it's frequently forgotten as it's overshadowed by Creatures of Light and Darkness, Lord of Light, and Amber. This one may be one of his sf best, and I believe it may have been influenced by Heinlein. It's a rather short work, and is definitely worth a read.
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October 27, 2023Fast paced, solidly premised, filled with imaginative imagery and understated wit--Isle of the Dead is yet a rather pale shadow next to Roger Zelazny's best work: e.g. Lord of Light, A Night in the Lonesome October, Doorways in the Sand, or his many brilliant short stories and novellas. Mysterious, quasi-immortal, and ultra-wealthy Francis Sandow is the last survivor of the Twentieth Century and master of the esoteric art of "worldscaping" (terraforming): a prototypical protagonist for Zelazny.
I suppose Sandow symbolizes the creative process of the science fiction author. His agon supplies a kind of meta-commentary on the creative type who also subsists by building worlds with the power of his imagination.
These days, however, Sandow might still better represent the megalomaniacal mega-billionaire class, and their open secret dreams of remaking our world in their own image. With perhaps just a bit of thoughtful tweaking, Isle of the Dead might make a pretty good movie, even a socially relevant one. Still, middling Zelazny, at best.
I suppose Sandow symbolizes the creative process of the science fiction author. His agon supplies a kind of meta-commentary on the creative type who also subsists by building worlds with the power of his imagination.
These days, however, Sandow might still better represent the megalomaniacal mega-billionaire class, and their open secret dreams of remaking our world in their own image. With perhaps just a bit of thoughtful tweaking, Isle of the Dead might make a pretty good movie, even a socially relevant one. Still, middling Zelazny, at best.
April 23, 2011
I feel like I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how much they love Francis Sandow in Zelazny discussions online. As such, I was excited to dive into this book, and had very high expectations.
To put things simply, it was great. But there was something about Isle that I felt kept it from being on the level of stuff like the Amber series, Lord of Light, This Immortal, A Night in the Lonesome October . . . you get the idea. I’m not sure what it was. I think it may have just been that the book felt like it started a little slow to me. Once things really started taking off, it was great, but I wasn’t immediately sucked in like I was with some of the aforementioned titles.
The thing I probably liked most was the mythology Zelazny created here. In a lot of his books he used pre-existing mythology and adapted it to a real-world (or, rather, future-real-world) setting (like with Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness). And I love those books. But in Isle, Zelazny created his own religion (which, as far as I know, wasn’t based on any real mythology) and melded it with the scientific process of “worldscaping.” The idea was that, in order to create a new world, you have to have a sort of God-complex, and that means invoking the power of a deity during the creation process. The question is: are the gods invoked by worldscapers real, or are they just a belief that gives the worldscapers the confidence they need to make their creations?
As I write this, I respect Zelazny’s creativity in this book more and more. A part of me wants to give Isle 5 stars, but I’m going to stick with 4 just because it’s becoming too much of a habit to just immediately give Zelazny books 5. (It sorta cheapens things for the rest of the books!)
Overall, Isle of the Dead was fantastic, and I’ll be happy to read it again some day.
To put things simply, it was great. But there was something about Isle that I felt kept it from being on the level of stuff like the Amber series, Lord of Light, This Immortal, A Night in the Lonesome October . . . you get the idea. I’m not sure what it was. I think it may have just been that the book felt like it started a little slow to me. Once things really started taking off, it was great, but I wasn’t immediately sucked in like I was with some of the aforementioned titles.
The thing I probably liked most was the mythology Zelazny created here. In a lot of his books he used pre-existing mythology and adapted it to a real-world (or, rather, future-real-world) setting (like with Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness). And I love those books. But in Isle, Zelazny created his own religion (which, as far as I know, wasn’t based on any real mythology) and melded it with the scientific process of “worldscaping.” The idea was that, in order to create a new world, you have to have a sort of God-complex, and that means invoking the power of a deity during the creation process. The question is: are the gods invoked by worldscapers real, or are they just a belief that gives the worldscapers the confidence they need to make their creations?
As I write this, I respect Zelazny’s creativity in this book more and more. A part of me wants to give Isle 5 stars, but I’m going to stick with 4 just because it’s becoming too much of a habit to just immediately give Zelazny books 5. (It sorta cheapens things for the rest of the books!)
Overall, Isle of the Dead was fantastic, and I’ll be happy to read it again some day.
November 16, 2020
* Updated. Reread as part of lsle of the Dead/Cat's Eye double edition*
4.4 ⭐
A little more accessible perhaps than Zelazny's more mystical stuff (Lord of the Light) this novel still touches on some of his favorite themes: man as God; immortality (relatively speaking) through technology; religion as a form of power.
The first part of the Francis Sandow saga of two novels and one short story ( that's all that I'm aware of, anyway). Sandow is a "worldscaper" who uses the powers imparted by to him by his mastery of an ancient, alien religion to terraform planets.
He's pretty successful at it, being stinking rich, with his own private world to live on (Home-free) and his own space yacht (The Model T). He's also the last living person born in the Twentieth century, having survived through a combination of choice, luck and technology. During his long life he's made his share of powerful enemies, some of whom have been collected and revived by an unknown enemy with a long-range and intricate plan of revenge.
Not a long novel but the characters are still well drawn and Zelazny's own efforts at worldscaping are detailed and believable.
An enjoyable, not-too-demanding, story.
4.4 ⭐
A little more accessible perhaps than Zelazny's more mystical stuff (Lord of the Light) this novel still touches on some of his favorite themes: man as God; immortality (relatively speaking) through technology; religion as a form of power.
The first part of the Francis Sandow saga of two novels and one short story ( that's all that I'm aware of, anyway). Sandow is a "worldscaper" who uses the powers imparted by to him by his mastery of an ancient, alien religion to terraform planets.
He's pretty successful at it, being stinking rich, with his own private world to live on (Home-free) and his own space yacht (The Model T). He's also the last living person born in the Twentieth century, having survived through a combination of choice, luck and technology. During his long life he's made his share of powerful enemies, some of whom have been collected and revived by an unknown enemy with a long-range and intricate plan of revenge.
Not a long novel but the characters are still well drawn and Zelazny's own efforts at worldscaping are detailed and believable.
An enjoyable, not-too-demanding, story.
December 16, 2022
Took me a half the book to get into this, was very hard to follow initally but wrapped up nicely at the end. It is definately half sci fi and fantasy mixed together. Nothing special really.
January 10, 2021
This is a New Wave mix of SF and fantasy from the late 60s. the book was nominated for Nebula in 1969 and therefore is a part of monthly reading for January 2021 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.
This is a story of the oldest man alive, surviving from the 20th to 32nd Francis Sandow. Now he is one of the richest men in the galaxy and some strange items arrive in his mail (paper one!), namely recent (?) photos of people he knew and loved but who are long dead. As he investigates what happens, his internal monologue infodumps his back story and we become aware that now he is much more than a man, namely, he was trained as a god by a representative of a very old alien race, Pei’an. A god actually means that he learnt to create habitable planets, a kind of terraforming. As he puts it We spoke for a time of the worlds we had made, of the places we had built and seen populated, of all the sciences that are involved in the feat of transforming rubble into a habitation and, ultimately, we spoke of the art. The ecology game is more complicated than any chess game, goes beyond the best formulations of any computer. This is because, finally, the problems are esthetic rather than scientific ones.
This is a strange story: it may look dated but actually the author uses old stuff even for the 60s, starting from the fact that his space-baggy is named Model T, or that his orgies and costumes have a whiff of the 1920s. It is an intentionally not hi-tech story, and while there is a futuristic tech, like memory recording and cloning or faster than light travel it is more like a background. There are grumblings that ought to sound poetic but which don’t work for me.
I was a fan of Roger Zelazny since my teens. Some of his works, like Lord of Light, I appreciate now more than when I’ve first read them. however, this is not the case for this story (yet). It feels poorly written.
This is a story of the oldest man alive, surviving from the 20th to 32nd Francis Sandow. Now he is one of the richest men in the galaxy and some strange items arrive in his mail (paper one!), namely recent (?) photos of people he knew and loved but who are long dead. As he investigates what happens, his internal monologue infodumps his back story and we become aware that now he is much more than a man, namely, he was trained as a god by a representative of a very old alien race, Pei’an. A god actually means that he learnt to create habitable planets, a kind of terraforming. As he puts it We spoke for a time of the worlds we had made, of the places we had built and seen populated, of all the sciences that are involved in the feat of transforming rubble into a habitation and, ultimately, we spoke of the art. The ecology game is more complicated than any chess game, goes beyond the best formulations of any computer. This is because, finally, the problems are esthetic rather than scientific ones.
This is a strange story: it may look dated but actually the author uses old stuff even for the 60s, starting from the fact that his space-baggy is named Model T, or that his orgies and costumes have a whiff of the 1920s. It is an intentionally not hi-tech story, and while there is a futuristic tech, like memory recording and cloning or faster than light travel it is more like a background. There are grumblings that ought to sound poetic but which don’t work for me.
I was a fan of Roger Zelazny since my teens. Some of his works, like Lord of Light, I appreciate now more than when I’ve first read them. however, this is not the case for this story (yet). It feels poorly written.
January 20, 2017
При този автор няма как да не съм пристрастен, но книгата е една от неговите, които съм направил парцал от препрочитане. Също така е предистория на може би най-любимата ми книга на Зелазни – Да умреш в Италбар.
Франсис Сандоу е един от най-богатите хора в галактиката. Случайно станал адепт на древна религия, приличаща доста на индуизма, следвана от умираща извънземна раса. Харесан от един от нейните богове, той получава безсмъртие и умението да изгражда цели светове.
Уморен от живота и затънал в безсмислен разкош, героят започва да получава анонимни фотографии на отдавна починали негови приятели. Докато търси подателя се забърква в игра, която е по-голяма и от двамата и осъзнава, че да си съсъд на божественото не е само цветя и рози. Оказва се забъркан в битка много по-стара от човечеството.
От тази книга съм научил за писането, така както го разбирам, много повече отколкото от всички наръчници, които са ми попадали:
- Есето с което започва сигурно ми е най-любимото парченце литература, а плавното му преминаване в историята на романа е висш пилотаж.
- Циментирането на образа на героя със случайни срещи с хора от миналото и неангажиращите разговори с тях е запазена марка на Зелазни. Показва, че героят не е тапет пляснат върху историята, а живее собствен живот.
- Хватката с няколкото малки(по 3-4 изречения) ретроспективни историйки, които показват как са се изградили моралът и мотивацията на Франсис също е гениален.
- Философията вкарана непряко в неангажиращ разговор с духовният му учител също си заслужава да се препрочита.
- Щриховането на света наречен „Острова на мъртвите”, където неизказаното показва много повече от написаното...
- Експериментите с текста като цяло ги надминават само тези в „Окото на котката”.
- Типичното за автора смесване на фантастика и фантазия, омесвайки допуските на двата жанра в хомогенна маса ги бие само „Мост от пепел”.
Горещо препоръчвам!
P.S. Въпросната картина на Арнолд Бьоклин, която според мен трябваше да е на корицата, вместо това зелено извращение.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Франсис Сандоу е един от най-богатите хора в галактиката. Случайно станал адепт на древна религия, приличаща доста на индуизма, следвана от умираща извънземна раса. Харесан от един от нейните богове, той получава безсмъртие и умението да изгражда цели светове.
Уморен от живота и затънал в безсмислен разкош, героят започва да получава анонимни фотографии на отдавна починали негови приятели. Докато търси подателя се забърква в игра, която е по-голяма и от двамата и осъзнава, че да си съсъд на божественото не е само цветя и рози. Оказва се забъркан в битка много по-стара от човечеството.
От тази книга съм научил за писането, така както го разбирам, много повече отколкото от всички наръчници, които са ми попадали:
- Есето с което започва сигурно ми е най-любимото парченце литература, а плавното му преминаване в историята на романа е висш пилотаж.
- Циментирането на образа на героя със случайни срещи с хора от миналото и неангажиращите разговори с тях е запазена марка на Зелазни. Показва, че героят не е тапет пляснат върху историята, а живее собствен живот.
- Хватката с няколкото малки(по 3-4 изречения) ретроспективни историйки, които показват как са се изградили моралът и мотивацията на Франсис също е гениален.
- Философията вкарана непряко в неангажиращ разговор с духовният му учител също си заслужава да се препрочита.
- Щриховането на света наречен „Острова на мъртвите”, където неизказаното показва много повече от написаното...
- Експериментите с текста като цяло ги надминават само тези в „Окото на котката”.
- Типичното за автора смесване на фантастика и фантазия, омесвайки допуските на двата жанра в хомогенна маса ги бие само „Мост от пепел”.
Горещо препоръчвам!
P.S. Въпросната картина на Арнолд Бьоклин, която според мен трябваше да е на корицата, вместо това зелено извращение.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
August 7, 2018
I wanted to like this, I really did. But I really didn't. It took half the book to even start to get into it and it was just too bizarre and not enough explainations for things. Maybe it is too dated for me for a sci-fi. I also found it quite sexist. Even for when it was written. I saw potential but a lot of things needed to be done differently, more information given. I could not visualize this. In many ways I felt like it took place in the 1920s-1940s. Not much of a sci-fi feel very often. A few moments but they never last.
February 26, 2021
Almost any other author would have made this 300 pages longer and volume one of a five-part series. Zelazny, as always, resists the urge to add inessential content, and the book is the better for it. Embedded in the narrative, along with a fairly snappy plot, are musings on mortality, the legitimacy of use of violence in self-defense, the extent to which people change over time, the influence of societal culture on individual character, and probably a few other things too. I think this may be my favorite of Zelazny's standalone novels from the late 1960s, despite some of the others being much better known.
October 23, 2014
This book is followed by "To Die in Italbar". It's an interesting blend of SF & Fantasy. A human studies to make worlds, honing his psyche & psi powers to host an alien god. Another human tries to do the same & picks up a god who is enemies with the first & lays a trap for him. Humans are the pawns, the galaxy is the chess board. An interesting look in how power is handled.
August 9, 2018
This book was just meh all the way through - I didn't find anything I really liked about it. The world building wasn't detailed enough for me. At the beginning there were a lot of things I was excited to learn more about. What is worldscaping? How does bearing a Name work? But by the end, the book hadn't deliveRed. I didn't care much about any of the characters, and the main character was a bit annoying. I also didn't get wrapped up in the plot.
June 20, 2021
Je ne suis pas objective, Zelazny est mon héros :)
February 22, 2019
The story is okay, but the author inserted a LOT of "fluff" to get it up to 50,000 words. This should have been a novella.
The story is more about a problem the main character (told in first person) has than his development from an "ordinary" person to a worldscaper who seems to be immortal (or the next thing to it).
Like most fictional immortals, he has a lot of mortals who've crossed his path in his lifetime. Lovers, enemies, friends, etc. Some of these have been revived via growing a new body and implanting memories from the old (read the book to find out how -- it's not germane to the main plot other than the author had to come up with a method). These people are used as bait to lure him to the "Isle of the Dead" for the purpose of murdering him.
That's the bare bones of the story. The conflict and the ending are all there and fairly well laid out.
I've read this in the past and completely forgot it. Having read it again, I'm going to put the book into my trading bag (used book stores). I don't want to read it again. It doesn't live up to "modern" novels which have more meat and less fluff. People who like fluff may enjoy it more than I did.
The story is more about a problem the main character (told in first person) has than his development from an "ordinary" person to a worldscaper who seems to be immortal (or the next thing to it).
Like most fictional immortals, he has a lot of mortals who've crossed his path in his lifetime. Lovers, enemies, friends, etc. Some of these have been revived via growing a new body and implanting memories from the old (read the book to find out how -- it's not germane to the main plot other than the author had to come up with a method). These people are used as bait to lure him to the "Isle of the Dead" for the purpose of murdering him.
That's the bare bones of the story. The conflict and the ending are all there and fairly well laid out.
I've read this in the past and completely forgot it. Having read it again, I'm going to put the book into my trading bag (used book stores). I don't want to read it again. It doesn't live up to "modern" novels which have more meat and less fluff. People who like fluff may enjoy it more than I did.
February 29, 2008
I derived a Samhain ritual from this one.
January 23, 2023
I decided to delve for the first time into the work of Roger Zelazny. It’s just as brilliant as everyone says, and the first book of his I read, Isle of the Dead, is the one I picked for this review. It may not be as famous as the Lords of Amber series, but it is a classic, and left me wishing for far more books featuring the central character of Francis Sandow. There is one more that I know of in which he plays a minor role – To Die in Italbar, and one short story, but Isle of the Dead is the major work with Sandow as the central character, and it’s a gem.
Zelazny begins the story with Sandow’s strong narrative voice that reminded me of one of Dashiel Hammet’s hardboiled detectives. But that voice works through a complicated opening picture, as well as a punchy verbal style. He describes a version of Tokyo Bay as an image of the ebb and flow of life. The bay collects all the flotsam and wreckage of the world, but also beautiful things that sweep in on the tides. Then the tides recede, and good and bad alike are swept out to sea. He is at once cynical, world-weary and sensitive to the good things life can bring you amid the trash – even if they are washed away again by time, or the tides of Tokyo Bay.
Frank Sandow is an ultra-wealthy worldscaper, someone who developed the ability after long apprenticeship, to fashion planets to order. This has not only made him one of the richest men in the galaxy but also the possessor of a dozen or so worlds of his own. Homefree is the one he lives on most of the time, and it is there, amid his perfectly tailored sunsets, meals prepared by a great Rigelian chef, his intimacy needs answered by a highly paid courtesan, that he receives a series of disturbing messages. These come in the form of pictures of people he once knew who are long dead, in some cases centuries dead. That is possible because Sandow, thanks to having been in cryo-sleep for hundreds of years during interstellar voyages before the advent of faster than light travel, is the last survivor of the twentieth century in the third millenium. He has also preserved a younger body through special medications.
A different message arrives from one of the most important people in his life, a Pei’an, who mentored him through a thirty-year training that not only instilled the power of telepathy but also confirmed him in the name of one of the Pei’an gods. That god is Shimbo, shrugger of thunder, the only Pei’an god to have a human form. The Pei’ans are described as green, seven feet tall with funnel shaped heads, flat on top with a narrow neck. His mentor, Marling, is dying and promises to reveal who is sending him the cryptic messages if he will accompany him in the ritual of death. This involves the two of them entering a journey into a dreamworld from which only one returns to the land of the living. Sandow agrees and learns that another Pei’an, named Gringrin, has been preparing an elaborate revenge for years simply because Sandow had been able to complete the ritual of Naming, and the Pei’an had not.
........
Isle of the Dead is carefully constructed and, despite the sometimes lush language, moves toward its climax with no wasted motion. Zelazny evokes characters, landscape and complex fight scenes in swift strokes that always hit the mark. He’s quickly become one of my favorite writers – too bad I didn’t get to him sooner.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
Zelazny begins the story with Sandow’s strong narrative voice that reminded me of one of Dashiel Hammet’s hardboiled detectives. But that voice works through a complicated opening picture, as well as a punchy verbal style. He describes a version of Tokyo Bay as an image of the ebb and flow of life. The bay collects all the flotsam and wreckage of the world, but also beautiful things that sweep in on the tides. Then the tides recede, and good and bad alike are swept out to sea. He is at once cynical, world-weary and sensitive to the good things life can bring you amid the trash – even if they are washed away again by time, or the tides of Tokyo Bay.
Frank Sandow is an ultra-wealthy worldscaper, someone who developed the ability after long apprenticeship, to fashion planets to order. This has not only made him one of the richest men in the galaxy but also the possessor of a dozen or so worlds of his own. Homefree is the one he lives on most of the time, and it is there, amid his perfectly tailored sunsets, meals prepared by a great Rigelian chef, his intimacy needs answered by a highly paid courtesan, that he receives a series of disturbing messages. These come in the form of pictures of people he once knew who are long dead, in some cases centuries dead. That is possible because Sandow, thanks to having been in cryo-sleep for hundreds of years during interstellar voyages before the advent of faster than light travel, is the last survivor of the twentieth century in the third millenium. He has also preserved a younger body through special medications.
A different message arrives from one of the most important people in his life, a Pei’an, who mentored him through a thirty-year training that not only instilled the power of telepathy but also confirmed him in the name of one of the Pei’an gods. That god is Shimbo, shrugger of thunder, the only Pei’an god to have a human form. The Pei’ans are described as green, seven feet tall with funnel shaped heads, flat on top with a narrow neck. His mentor, Marling, is dying and promises to reveal who is sending him the cryptic messages if he will accompany him in the ritual of death. This involves the two of them entering a journey into a dreamworld from which only one returns to the land of the living. Sandow agrees and learns that another Pei’an, named Gringrin, has been preparing an elaborate revenge for years simply because Sandow had been able to complete the ritual of Naming, and the Pei’an had not.
........
Isle of the Dead is carefully constructed and, despite the sometimes lush language, moves toward its climax with no wasted motion. Zelazny evokes characters, landscape and complex fight scenes in swift strokes that always hit the mark. He’s quickly become one of my favorite writers – too bad I didn’t get to him sooner.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
November 16, 2022
“How many miles to Acheron?”
This was not just yet another great Zelazny story. It has to be a source for Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Zelazny’s worldscapers are extraordinarily close to Adams’s Magratheans. They are the guardians of a secret craft, that of building planets to order. They even sneak in personal quirks. And of course they become immensely wealthy.
They’re exactly like serious versions of Slartibartfast. Unless there is a genre of immensely wealthy world-builders that has escaped my attention (not even close to impossible) there is almost no chance that Adams wasn’t influenced by this book.
Frank Sandow is one of those immensely wealth world-builders, an earthling who worked his way into the community of Megapei worldscapers and is now among the top 100 richest people in the known worlds.
Now, someone keeps sending him photos of long-dead friends, and he has no idea who; and an ex-wife writes him for help. He asks his old mentor on Megapei for help, and receives a cryptic “come at once”. Are they related? Of course.
Also related, every worldscaper is enrolled in the ancient Megapei religion, and receives a patron deity. It’s all very pro-forma and yet… it also gives the worldscaper the ability to tap into power sources on planets they build, and when they walk into any temple on any world, their patron’s eyes light up…
Is there something to this ancient religion after all?
This is, as to be expected from Zelazny, a very unique book. It doesn’t completely transcend the science fiction of its age, however; it’s firmly stuck with the “rich protagonist who acts like a normal person” trope. For no particular reason—it has no reasonable bearing whatsoever on the rest of the book—Sandow mentions in passing about his youth in the twentieth century that “Malthus was right”.
Technically, this is one of the reasons that Sandow and others took the opportunity to join one of the first manned flights to another star system. But of course there is no reason to invoke such a tired idea to convince people to visit other stars.
Also very typical of the era, Zelazny, in this 1969 book, has the first manned flights to the stars happen in 1991. Like most science fiction authors, Zelazny was a very optimistic Malthusian.
Because of his space travels, Sandow is centuries beyond his youth, so this also has no bearing on the story; Zelazny does not, for example, fall prey to the other trope often used by science fiction authors of his era in having his far-future world nostalgic for the twentieth century. Sandow does have an archaic system of record-keeping, but there’s no sense given that it’s superior to modern record-keeping; in everything else Sandow revels in a life of modern wealth in the most modern of crafts, building entire worlds.
This was not just yet another great Zelazny story. It has to be a source for Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Zelazny’s worldscapers are extraordinarily close to Adams’s Magratheans. They are the guardians of a secret craft, that of building planets to order. They even sneak in personal quirks. And of course they become immensely wealthy.
They’re exactly like serious versions of Slartibartfast. Unless there is a genre of immensely wealthy world-builders that has escaped my attention (not even close to impossible) there is almost no chance that Adams wasn’t influenced by this book.
Frank Sandow is one of those immensely wealth world-builders, an earthling who worked his way into the community of Megapei worldscapers and is now among the top 100 richest people in the known worlds.
Now, someone keeps sending him photos of long-dead friends, and he has no idea who; and an ex-wife writes him for help. He asks his old mentor on Megapei for help, and receives a cryptic “come at once”. Are they related? Of course.
Also related, every worldscaper is enrolled in the ancient Megapei religion, and receives a patron deity. It’s all very pro-forma and yet… it also gives the worldscaper the ability to tap into power sources on planets they build, and when they walk into any temple on any world, their patron’s eyes light up…
Is there something to this ancient religion after all?
This is, as to be expected from Zelazny, a very unique book. It doesn’t completely transcend the science fiction of its age, however; it’s firmly stuck with the “rich protagonist who acts like a normal person” trope. For no particular reason—it has no reasonable bearing whatsoever on the rest of the book—Sandow mentions in passing about his youth in the twentieth century that “Malthus was right”.
Technically, this is one of the reasons that Sandow and others took the opportunity to join one of the first manned flights to another star system. But of course there is no reason to invoke such a tired idea to convince people to visit other stars.
Also very typical of the era, Zelazny, in this 1969 book, has the first manned flights to the stars happen in 1991. Like most science fiction authors, Zelazny was a very optimistic Malthusian.
Because of his space travels, Sandow is centuries beyond his youth, so this also has no bearing on the story; Zelazny does not, for example, fall prey to the other trope often used by science fiction authors of his era in having his far-future world nostalgic for the twentieth century. Sandow does have an archaic system of record-keeping, but there’s no sense given that it’s superior to modern record-keeping; in everything else Sandow revels in a life of modern wealth in the most modern of crafts, building entire worlds.
April 1, 2023
Краткият разказ ("Роза на Еклисиаста") поместен в книгата ми хареса в пъти повече от едноименното произведение. Не знам дали очаквах повече от второто или самият му обем предполагаше в съзнанието ми нещо по-изящно и интересно, но...
В крайна сметка, "Островът на мъртвите" не ме впечатли много. Беше интересна новела, четивна и стилно написана, но някак не е от любимата ми бира.
В крайна сметка, "Островът на мъртвите" не ме впечатли много. Беше интересна новела, четивна и стилно написана, но някак не е от любимата ми бира.
August 10, 2019
Zelazny dealing with immortality, gods, passage of time and human nature in way only he could :)
June 3, 2022
3.5 stars. Better than Eye of Cat, which it was paired with. I was intrigued by the "worldscapers" and the alien gods.
June 17, 2020
Like all Zelazny this book is a sprawling, likable, galaxy-spanning fable, long on ideas and short on details.
Action, history, settings, mysticism and technology are implied and hinted at, but through a fuzzy lens, and his mixture of science, religion and magic results in scenes that read more like metaphor than reportage.
Not that I see that as a flaw. A modern SF writer would have fleshed out and scienced up every throwaway idea in this short book and made a career out of a quintilogy of five hundred page volumes, and lost all Zelazny's poetry and word-shapes.
Action, history, settings, mysticism and technology are implied and hinted at, but through a fuzzy lens, and his mixture of science, religion and magic results in scenes that read more like metaphor than reportage.
Not that I see that as a flaw. A modern SF writer would have fleshed out and scienced up every throwaway idea in this short book and made a career out of a quintilogy of five hundred page volumes, and lost all Zelazny's poetry and word-shapes.
February 7, 2017
Incredible Pacing!
This is the first Zelazny I have read, and I do not think it will be my last. Searched "terraforming" in Google.. obscurely, this is what I ended up buying second hand off amazon for three dollars, gaping hole in cover included. I read to halfway, and was rather bored so I put it down for a little bit. But I wish I hadn’t because little did I know the shit was about to get reeaaal! and would only grow from there.
As an aspiring writer, I am eager to learn from the masters. Here, Zelazny gives a perfect example of how to do backstory and pacing. The climax of this book is incredible, the denouement profound.
Blend of Sci Fi and Fantasy. Highly recommended! And it is short – you can read it in a day.
4.5 stars.
This is the first Zelazny I have read, and I do not think it will be my last. Searched "terraforming" in Google.. obscurely, this is what I ended up buying second hand off amazon for three dollars, gaping hole in cover included. I read to halfway, and was rather bored so I put it down for a little bit. But I wish I hadn’t because little did I know the shit was about to get reeaaal! and would only grow from there.
As an aspiring writer, I am eager to learn from the masters. Here, Zelazny gives a perfect example of how to do backstory and pacing. The climax of this book is incredible, the denouement profound.
Blend of Sci Fi and Fantasy. Highly recommended! And it is short – you can read it in a day.
4.5 stars.
August 30, 2015
Another Roger Zelazny acid trip:
Just before blasting off in his super cool spaceship, the main protagonist encounters a gray cat rubbing his leg, a large blue bird landing on his shoulder, a small black bear licking his face, another bird on his shoulder, then stumbling over a green rabbit and slithering glass snake, and being seized by a winking blonde monkey...before passing through the hatch, while simultaneously hearing the purple parrots calling his name and the glass snake trying to come aboard.
And that was just the beginning! Ugh
Just before blasting off in his super cool spaceship, the main protagonist encounters a gray cat rubbing his leg, a large blue bird landing on his shoulder, a small black bear licking his face, another bird on his shoulder, then stumbling over a green rabbit and slithering glass snake, and being seized by a winking blonde monkey...before passing through the hatch, while simultaneously hearing the purple parrots calling his name and the glass snake trying to come aboard.
And that was just the beginning! Ugh
July 12, 2016
Česky Ostrov mrtvých. Příběh o muži, který prošel zasvěcením bohu a který tvořil světy.
Humorná byla vsuvka o byrokracii Země. Jako vždy má Zelazny okamžiky, které pročítáte znovu a znovu ("Když pohádka exploduje a prach po snech se usadí a vy tam jen stojíte a víte, že poslední větu už nikdy nikdo nenapíše, proč si neodepřít vše, co je zbytečné?"). A bohužel i pasáže napsané jen proto, že tam musí být.
Výpisky: Víří kolem vás přátelé, nepřátelé..., jako na nějakém maškarním plese, a čas od času si ty masky vyměňují.
Humorná byla vsuvka o byrokracii Země. Jako vždy má Zelazny okamžiky, které pročítáte znovu a znovu ("Když pohádka exploduje a prach po snech se usadí a vy tam jen stojíte a víte, že poslední větu už nikdy nikdo nenapíše, proč si neodepřít vše, co je zbytečné?"). A bohužel i pasáže napsané jen proto, že tam musí být.
Výpisky: Víří kolem vás přátelé, nepřátelé..., jako na nějakém maškarním plese, a čas od času si ty masky vyměňují.
June 19, 2016
It took me a while to get into this story, the quality of the audio tape recording wasn't very good, but once I was in, it was rather speedily flowing story (as all of Zelazny's books, come to think of that...).
So if you like him, you'll like this one too. It's old, but nonetheless interestingly developing story spiced with witty comments ;)
So if you like him, you'll like this one too. It's old, but nonetheless interestingly developing story spiced with witty comments ;)
December 31, 2012
49th book read in 2012.
Number 180 out of 281 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgzTuz...
Number 180 out of 281 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgzTuz...
November 27, 2018
Another great Zelazny book that draws you in and leaves you wanting more.
July 20, 2023
2.5/5
Francis Sandow, a telepathic man that has seen centuries pass, has learned the art of world creation through the channeling of one of a pantheon of gods from the mythology of a different species. This career has amassed him incalculable personal wealth, and also a long list of enemies. Sandow must travel to a world of his own creation to solve a mystery in which his own long since dead friends have becomes resurrected, while he fears foul play. Isle of the Dead should really be considered closer to a straight up fantasy novel. While there are some science fiction motifs, Zelazny hardly tries to make anything that happens appear to be scientific, or even logical.
Zelazny's writing here is mixed at best. The beginning of the book felt like jumbled mess of various ideas as he tries to set his feet in his own world. An interlude concerning the ethics of tipping culture was especially confusing. The writing improved dramatically for the middle section of the book, as he describes Sandow venturing into his own long forgotten world. The prose style is short but beautiful, as a god looks upon his creation with a touching tenderness. I also enjoyed the sections in which Sandow joins an old friend on a spiritual send-off before his death. The ending was so-so in my opinion. It was rather anti-climatic. My major point of contention here was the tone itself. There's a certain smarmy quality that Zelazy writes in that makes me think that he wrote the book after one too many bourbons and a half a cigar. He is at times rather flippant in his writing, trying to make quips or sarcastic jokes that maybe landed 50 years ago, but certainly don't land now. He writes as though he identifies with Sandow in most aspects, which makes me maybe not like him as a person, as Sandow is not exactly the most relatable or empathic person. It feels a little greasy, especially for some of the subject matter.
Zelazny apparently really like to explore mystical and religious themes, where men act as gods, or at least conduits for them. He likes to think about immortality and the consequences for humanity on the individual and societal level. How strong human emotions, especially things like righteous vengeance, can effect those around us and ourselves. These are some rather heavy topics, topics that deserve to explored with some amount of reverence and care. I just don't know if Zelanzny is up to the task, at least in this specific novel. The greasy quality of tone and writing style doesn't mix well with such lofty ambitions.
Francis Sandow, a telepathic man that has seen centuries pass, has learned the art of world creation through the channeling of one of a pantheon of gods from the mythology of a different species. This career has amassed him incalculable personal wealth, and also a long list of enemies. Sandow must travel to a world of his own creation to solve a mystery in which his own long since dead friends have becomes resurrected, while he fears foul play. Isle of the Dead should really be considered closer to a straight up fantasy novel. While there are some science fiction motifs, Zelazny hardly tries to make anything that happens appear to be scientific, or even logical.
Zelazny's writing here is mixed at best. The beginning of the book felt like jumbled mess of various ideas as he tries to set his feet in his own world. An interlude concerning the ethics of tipping culture was especially confusing. The writing improved dramatically for the middle section of the book, as he describes Sandow venturing into his own long forgotten world. The prose style is short but beautiful, as a god looks upon his creation with a touching tenderness. I also enjoyed the sections in which Sandow joins an old friend on a spiritual send-off before his death. The ending was so-so in my opinion. It was rather anti-climatic. My major point of contention here was the tone itself. There's a certain smarmy quality that Zelazy writes in that makes me think that he wrote the book after one too many bourbons and a half a cigar. He is at times rather flippant in his writing, trying to make quips or sarcastic jokes that maybe landed 50 years ago, but certainly don't land now. He writes as though he identifies with Sandow in most aspects, which makes me maybe not like him as a person, as Sandow is not exactly the most relatable or empathic person. It feels a little greasy, especially for some of the subject matter.
Zelazny apparently really like to explore mystical and religious themes, where men act as gods, or at least conduits for them. He likes to think about immortality and the consequences for humanity on the individual and societal level. How strong human emotions, especially things like righteous vengeance, can effect those around us and ourselves. These are some rather heavy topics, topics that deserve to explored with some amount of reverence and care. I just don't know if Zelanzny is up to the task, at least in this specific novel. The greasy quality of tone and writing style doesn't mix well with such lofty ambitions.
June 19, 2019
Continuing my reading of the Zelazny oeuvre. This is the second Zelazny novel from 1969 and couldn't be more different than the first, Damnation Alley. That novel was a post-apocalyptic pulp adventure. In Isle of the Dead, which I hadn't read before, we are introduced to the character Francis Sandow, the last surviving human born in the 20th century (it's set in the 32nd). Sandow has become a worldscaper, someone who creates or terraforms worlds. Somehow people Sandow has known many centuries ago are turning up alive in the present and he sets out to investigate. There's conflict with another worldscaper, an alien of the Pei'an race, but it's just a prelude to the real enemy who doesn't show up until 2/3 of the way through the book. It's a slow build and another great example of world-building from Zelazny. (A friend once described Zelazny in a review as a master of throwing the reader into the middle of a story and allowing them to discover as they read along. Quite true for this novel.) A lot of the Zelazny hallmarks are present. In order for Sandow to do what he does, he takes on the aspect of a mythological god, but the gods here are ones of the Pei'an race, a mythology created whole cloth by the author, rather than the various mythologies used in other Zelazny novels. There's even a scene where the characters climb a cliff face that reminds me of similar scenes in Lord of Light and the Amber books (a recurring motif). Is there some blatant sexism and misogyny in the text? Yeah, and it's something that makes the novel a bit dated, a product of its time. But there's also some fascinating ideas and beautiful prose. This is one of Zelazny's more overlooked novels, but definitely worth a read.
February 28, 2021
An old friend of mine mentioned in an email how much he'd been influenced by the writings of Heinlein over the years. I, too, assimilated much of Heinlein's philosophy, but was reminded when I re-read Isle of the Dead the other day about Zelazny's immense influence on my life, as well.
Isle of the Dead begins with musings on how life is like Tokyo Bay. All kinds of odd things wash up on the beach and may stay there for a while or be taken away. Sometimes, things which are taken away may return for a while, but mostly they're never seen again.
This has been true in my life, especially as it relates to old friends and acquaintances, but this sort of occurrence is magnified in the life of Francis Sandow, protagonist of Isle of the dead, a man who has lived for centuries and has outlived many old friends and old enemies. At the beginning of the book, Sandow becomes aware that someone may be resurrecting a select group of his old lovers, friends and enemies for unknown but probably nefarious purposes.
As Sandow investigates, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. An enemy he never even met has brought his old flotsam back to the beach in order to force a confrontation. Sandow and his enemy, GrinGrin Tharl, are both worldmakers, and their final battle brings into play forces which can create or destroy planets.
This one is well worth reading - and re-reading.
Isle of the Dead begins with musings on how life is like Tokyo Bay. All kinds of odd things wash up on the beach and may stay there for a while or be taken away. Sometimes, things which are taken away may return for a while, but mostly they're never seen again.
This has been true in my life, especially as it relates to old friends and acquaintances, but this sort of occurrence is magnified in the life of Francis Sandow, protagonist of Isle of the dead, a man who has lived for centuries and has outlived many old friends and old enemies. At the beginning of the book, Sandow becomes aware that someone may be resurrecting a select group of his old lovers, friends and enemies for unknown but probably nefarious purposes.
As Sandow investigates, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. An enemy he never even met has brought his old flotsam back to the beach in order to force a confrontation. Sandow and his enemy, GrinGrin Tharl, are both worldmakers, and their final battle brings into play forces which can create or destroy planets.
This one is well worth reading - and re-reading.
January 16, 2021
This is the first book by Zelazny I've read since the Amber books (which I liked alot as a kid, but am a bit afraid to re-read). I think this is one of those books that might be enchanced if you are 'a child of the 60s', lets say.
Even without chemical assistance, though, it's pretty fascinating. The main character is a Howard Hughes-like reclusive that has the power to shape worlds.. which he does for a living, and apparently means he's fabulously rich. He gets some interesting correspondence from his past on day and goes on a bit of a quest, that leads him back to his origins, and his rival.
The plot was a bit all over the place (though it does hang together... barely), but there are lots of fun nuggets in the book about creation and humanity.., the one early in the book where he meets a business rival that cuts him in on a deal because he assumes he was on the planet to try to steal it was priceless.
There was also a heroic lizard, which makes me happy. The 'Shrugger of Thunder' is also a hilarious name for a god. Yup.... written in 1969.
Even without chemical assistance, though, it's pretty fascinating. The main character is a Howard Hughes-like reclusive that has the power to shape worlds.. which he does for a living, and apparently means he's fabulously rich. He gets some interesting correspondence from his past on day and goes on a bit of a quest, that leads him back to his origins, and his rival.
The plot was a bit all over the place (though it does hang together... barely), but there are lots of fun nuggets in the book about creation and humanity.., the one early in the book where he meets a business rival that cuts him in on a deal because he assumes he was on the planet to try to steal it was priceless.
There was also a heroic lizard, which makes me happy. The 'Shrugger of Thunder' is also a hilarious name for a god. Yup.... written in 1969.
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