What do you think?
Rate this book
The Book of Skulls
Seeking the immortality promised in an ancient manuscript, The Book of Skulls, four friends, college roommates, go on a spring break trip to Eli, the scholar, who found and translated the book; Timothy, scion of an American dynasty, born and bred to lead; Ned, poet and cynic; and Oliver, the brilliant farm boy obsessed with death.
Somewhere in the desert lies the House of Skulls, where a mystic brotherhood guards the secret of eternal life. There, the four aspirants will present themselves–and a horrific price will be demanded.
For immortality requires sacrifice. Two victims to balance two survivors. One by suicide, one by murder.
Now, beneath the gaze of grinning skulls, the terror begins. . . .
Somewhere in the desert lies the House of Skulls, where a mystic brotherhood guards the secret of eternal life. There, the four aspirants will present themselves–and a horrific price will be demanded.
For immortality requires sacrifice. Two victims to balance two survivors. One by suicide, one by murder.
Now, beneath the gaze of grinning skulls, the terror begins. . . .
232 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1971
158 people are currently reading
4569 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
2,205 books1,562 followersThere are many authors in the database with this name.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 457 reviews
August 22, 2022
Together with Dying Inside, standing atop his prolific career as a classic.
His 1971 novel The Book of Skulls, nominated for the Hugo Award, is a psychological thriller, really more of a horror book than sci-fi, and really – if I think about it – this is one of those works that does not fit easily into any recognizable genre.
We’ll call it speculative fiction.
Four travelers go on an unusual quest across the country looking for a mythical opportunity to live forever. Silverberg’s traveling companions represent a good cross section of our society: Timothy, a young blue blood from an Eastern family; Oliver, an orphaned Midwestern athlete scholar; Eli, a stereotypical Jewish student and Ned, a very conflicted Boston Catholic homosexual poet.
Eli has discovered an ancient manuscript, The Book of Skulls, in which a group of four, The Receptacle, can present themselves to the Keepers of the Skulls and two may be initiated into rites that would give them immortality. Silverberg’s brilliantly complex characterization and group dynamics forms the basis for a spot on creepy adventure. This novel also exhibits the right mix of occult absurdity with a healthy curiosity for the mysterious to create a sense of tension that holds the reader to the last page.
This is also a road trip story and Silverberg demonstrates to good effect the strength of this literary vehicle. Like The Odyssey, The Canterbury Tales and Steinbeck’s The Wayward Bus the “journey” story forms a perfect lineal narrative as the characters embark on a passage to towards an expected end and along the way get to know about each and complicated interactions form.
Finally, this work may have influenced the makers of the 2008 Roland Emmerich film 10,000 BC as there are elements of the book that are similar in theme.
An excellent story.
*** 2022 reread –
This is such a great book.
I’ve thought about this book frequently over the years since I first read it so I knew I would reread at some point. There are so many great books out there, if you REREAD an author’s work – I feel that is a very high compliment.
It’s not a spoiler to note that the four members of the group – Ned, Oliver, Timothy and Eli – go to Arizona to become the Receptacle for an ancient mystery that promises eternal life – for two of them. The other two will not make it. That last part is mentioned in the first few pages so the entire travel to the southwest, and all the story leading up to the fateful end is all about whether that last mystery is accurate, and if so, who makes it and who does not.
Even knowing the end, I was still mesmerized by Silverberg’s exceptional writing. Each chapter is from a perspective of one of the four and his characterization is spot on. Each person’s thoughts, fears, concerns, apprehensions and expectations leading up to the trials was hypnotic.
Highly recommended for fans of speculative fiction who enjoy some horror sprinkled in for spice.
His 1971 novel The Book of Skulls, nominated for the Hugo Award, is a psychological thriller, really more of a horror book than sci-fi, and really – if I think about it – this is one of those works that does not fit easily into any recognizable genre.
We’ll call it speculative fiction.
Four travelers go on an unusual quest across the country looking for a mythical opportunity to live forever. Silverberg’s traveling companions represent a good cross section of our society: Timothy, a young blue blood from an Eastern family; Oliver, an orphaned Midwestern athlete scholar; Eli, a stereotypical Jewish student and Ned, a very conflicted Boston Catholic homosexual poet.
Eli has discovered an ancient manuscript, The Book of Skulls, in which a group of four, The Receptacle, can present themselves to the Keepers of the Skulls and two may be initiated into rites that would give them immortality. Silverberg’s brilliantly complex characterization and group dynamics forms the basis for a spot on creepy adventure. This novel also exhibits the right mix of occult absurdity with a healthy curiosity for the mysterious to create a sense of tension that holds the reader to the last page.
This is also a road trip story and Silverberg demonstrates to good effect the strength of this literary vehicle. Like The Odyssey, The Canterbury Tales and Steinbeck’s The Wayward Bus the “journey” story forms a perfect lineal narrative as the characters embark on a passage to towards an expected end and along the way get to know about each and complicated interactions form.
Finally, this work may have influenced the makers of the 2008 Roland Emmerich film 10,000 BC as there are elements of the book that are similar in theme.
An excellent story.
*** 2022 reread –
This is such a great book.
I’ve thought about this book frequently over the years since I first read it so I knew I would reread at some point. There are so many great books out there, if you REREAD an author’s work – I feel that is a very high compliment.
It’s not a spoiler to note that the four members of the group – Ned, Oliver, Timothy and Eli – go to Arizona to become the Receptacle for an ancient mystery that promises eternal life – for two of them. The other two will not make it. That last part is mentioned in the first few pages so the entire travel to the southwest, and all the story leading up to the fateful end is all about whether that last mystery is accurate, and if so, who makes it and who does not.
Even knowing the end, I was still mesmerized by Silverberg’s exceptional writing. Each chapter is from a perspective of one of the four and his characterization is spot on. Each person’s thoughts, fears, concerns, apprehensions and expectations leading up to the trials was hypnotic.
Highly recommended for fans of speculative fiction who enjoy some horror sprinkled in for spice.
January 28, 2013
i have a soft spot for The Book of Skulls. it is a thoughtful tale of college students on a road trip slash quest slash metaphysical odyssey, their destination a secret to immortality. the only problem with obtaining this secret is that major bummer, The Grim Reaper. one of the group has to be sacrificed (i.e. murdered) and another must die by his own hand. the cast of 4 are stereotypes: the studly poor guy, the studly rich guy, the queer, the jew. although on friendly terms, they are decidedly not a group of close lifelong mates. i was absorbed by Book of Skulls' depiction of how social inclusion & exclusion, ability to dominate, class background, and various other differences all cause the characters to continually shift allegiances. unfortunately, near the end, much of the metaphysical stuff started to sorta bore me, like the last 2 or 3 hours of an acid trip.
the characters felt both on-target much of the time and, at other times, oddly alien - too sharply differentiated from each other, if that makes sense. i saw much that was familiar as far as the lifestyle and behavior of these guys' lives goes, but found no one that i specifically connected to in terms of actual characterization. but still, there is something about reading the story of college guys thinking they know it all, while also trying to figure things out about themselves, while in college thinking i knew it all, while also trying to figure things out about myself, that made it an intriguing and enjoyable experience. many parts really spoke to me on a personal level. and i did see a little of myself in each of the characters. except for the studly rich guy - what an asshole.
a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on Shelf Inflicted.
the characters felt both on-target much of the time and, at other times, oddly alien - too sharply differentiated from each other, if that makes sense. i saw much that was familiar as far as the lifestyle and behavior of these guys' lives goes, but found no one that i specifically connected to in terms of actual characterization. but still, there is something about reading the story of college guys thinking they know it all, while also trying to figure things out about themselves, while in college thinking i knew it all, while also trying to figure things out about myself, that made it an intriguing and enjoyable experience. many parts really spoke to me on a personal level. and i did see a little of myself in each of the characters. except for the studly rich guy - what an asshole.
a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on Shelf Inflicted.
September 22, 2022
The Book of Skulls is a great psychological horror book! It also feels very sci-fi so I'll throw that genre in as well.
The book starts off with one of the main characters Eli, finding a book about the House of Skulls. Eli is a college student studying to be a scholar when he comes across this old manuscript.
Eli ends up convincing his three roommates to see if this House of Skulls really exists and whether the book is correct about the Ninth Mystery.
The Ninth Mystery is about immortality and asks four people to sacrifice two lives. A murder and a suicide. After this happens, the other two will receive immortality. And by mentioning this here, I’m not spoiling anything of the plot.
Does the House of Skulls really even exist?!
All four college roommates decide to take this quest or ridiculous adventure, depending on which character you ask. They drive across the country to Arizona and even this part of the book was entertaining. I enjoyed all the character development in this along with their adventures.
All four characters (Ned, Eli, Timothy and Oliver) have distinct voices in this book and it was fantastic!!
Even when the different points of view came up, you still knew who was speaking without needing to know the name. Well done Robert Silverberg on nailing such a tough thing to do in writing!
I so enjoyed the mind fuck that happened at the end. You come to find out the horrors everyone hides and whether they will survive them. I haven’t read something this original in a while.
I think if you love books set in the 1970s with topics of drugs, sex, religion to homosexuality, you'll enjoy this. It's also a great study in looking yourself in the face and coming to terms with your own demons and secrets that you hide deep, deep down even from yourself.
The book starts off with one of the main characters Eli, finding a book about the House of Skulls. Eli is a college student studying to be a scholar when he comes across this old manuscript.
Eli ends up convincing his three roommates to see if this House of Skulls really exists and whether the book is correct about the Ninth Mystery.
The Ninth Mystery is about immortality and asks four people to sacrifice two lives. A murder and a suicide. After this happens, the other two will receive immortality. And by mentioning this here, I’m not spoiling anything of the plot.
Does the House of Skulls really even exist?!
All four college roommates decide to take this quest or ridiculous adventure, depending on which character you ask. They drive across the country to Arizona and even this part of the book was entertaining. I enjoyed all the character development in this along with their adventures.
All four characters (Ned, Eli, Timothy and Oliver) have distinct voices in this book and it was fantastic!!
Even when the different points of view came up, you still knew who was speaking without needing to know the name. Well done Robert Silverberg on nailing such a tough thing to do in writing!
I so enjoyed the mind fuck that happened at the end. You come to find out the horrors everyone hides and whether they will survive them. I haven’t read something this original in a while.
I think if you love books set in the 1970s with topics of drugs, sex, religion to homosexuality, you'll enjoy this. It's also a great study in looking yourself in the face and coming to terms with your own demons and secrets that you hide deep, deep down even from yourself.
June 30, 2015
Robert Silverberg is possibly the most underrated sf writers of all time, considering that he has been writing sf since the 50s, won numerous Hugo, Nebula and other major sf awards, and is a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master. In spite of all this he never seems to be "in vogue" these days, most of the younger generation of sf readers today have never read anything by him. I believe this is indicative of how criminally underrated he is and the ongoing decline of civilization as we know it.
What Silverberg does better than almost any sf authors writing today is to write short stand alone novels with very strange plots and excellent characterization. His special talent is to drop the reader right in the middle of a strange place and time of his imagining and gradually acclimatize you through his story telling skills.
The Book of Skulls is a very odd book, even among the very odd books he has written. The basic plot is very simple, four American college boys seek immortality in a monastery in the Arizona desert. The caveat being that of the four applicants only two will achieve immortality, the other two have to die, one by suicide and the other by murder. The simple synopsis belies the deep complexity of the book as we get to know each of the young protagonists through alternating first person narrative. Silverberg wrote this book during 1970 when written science fiction was being shaken up by the "new wave" of authors who were experimenting with new writing techniques, structures and often controversial contents (epitomized by the legendary Dangerous Visions anthology edited by Harlan Ellison). The Book of Skulls is a fine example of the sort of sf being written at this time. The story takes some very dark and bizarre turns with several long passages of the main characters' stream of thought, epic length sentences and the odd explicit sex scenes which are in no way titillating.
The book is not overtly sci-fi but it is ambiguous enough to be considered sci-fi under certain assumptions, under different assumptions it could be viewed as a social satire or dark fantasy. Certainly it is character-centric thought experiment, a work of speculative fiction that can comfortably fit into our modern day's "weird fiction" subgenre. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards (but won neither).
The book is very well written as is the case with most of Silverberg's output, the prose style may be less lyrical than a lot of his other books because it is written in the voice of young college students. Interestingly Silverberg has given each of the four narrators their own individual "voice" which may not be so noticeable to begin with but become quite distinct later on in the book.
If you are looking for galaxy spanning sci-fi, post apocalyptic sci-fi, cyberpunk etc. this book is not for you, but if you are in the mood for something weird and disturbing that will leave you wondering the hell the author just hit you with this could be just the ticket.
What Silverberg does better than almost any sf authors writing today is to write short stand alone novels with very strange plots and excellent characterization. His special talent is to drop the reader right in the middle of a strange place and time of his imagining and gradually acclimatize you through his story telling skills.
The Book of Skulls is a very odd book, even among the very odd books he has written. The basic plot is very simple, four American college boys seek immortality in a monastery in the Arizona desert. The caveat being that of the four applicants only two will achieve immortality, the other two have to die, one by suicide and the other by murder. The simple synopsis belies the deep complexity of the book as we get to know each of the young protagonists through alternating first person narrative. Silverberg wrote this book during 1970 when written science fiction was being shaken up by the "new wave" of authors who were experimenting with new writing techniques, structures and often controversial contents (epitomized by the legendary Dangerous Visions anthology edited by Harlan Ellison). The Book of Skulls is a fine example of the sort of sf being written at this time. The story takes some very dark and bizarre turns with several long passages of the main characters' stream of thought, epic length sentences and the odd explicit sex scenes which are in no way titillating.
The book is not overtly sci-fi but it is ambiguous enough to be considered sci-fi under certain assumptions, under different assumptions it could be viewed as a social satire or dark fantasy. Certainly it is character-centric thought experiment, a work of speculative fiction that can comfortably fit into our modern day's "weird fiction" subgenre. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards (but won neither).
The book is very well written as is the case with most of Silverberg's output, the prose style may be less lyrical than a lot of his other books because it is written in the voice of young college students. Interestingly Silverberg has given each of the four narrators their own individual "voice" which may not be so noticeable to begin with but become quite distinct later on in the book.
If you are looking for galaxy spanning sci-fi, post apocalyptic sci-fi, cyberpunk etc. this book is not for you, but if you are in the mood for something weird and disturbing that will leave you wondering the hell the author just hit you with this could be just the ticket.
July 18, 2022
I don’t write reviews.
Can I start with a spoiler? Ok not really. But the thing I love about this book is that you never find out. There’s no laborious struggle to give the Brotherhood members any sort of backstory or attempt to introduce a system of alchemy and magic rites. Are they truly immortal? The answers are left for you to decide.
Do the four travelers achieve what they seek? Are all the events of your life leading to one point of destiny? Is it mistaken to judge some experiences trivial and others grand when the future is equally contingent on their existence? Do we cripple free will with our restrictive misconceptions of ourselves?
Can I start with a spoiler? Ok not really. But the thing I love about this book is that you never find out. There’s no laborious struggle to give the Brotherhood members any sort of backstory or attempt to introduce a system of alchemy and magic rites. Are they truly immortal? The answers are left for you to decide.
Do the four travelers achieve what they seek? Are all the events of your life leading to one point of destiny? Is it mistaken to judge some experiences trivial and others grand when the future is equally contingent on their existence? Do we cripple free will with our restrictive misconceptions of ourselves?
February 9, 2017
This heavily character-driven novel begins and continues like an interesting jaunt through america in a classic road-trip novel, but it eventually becomes something much more on two fronts that might possibly be just one.
Is it really about joining a secret society cult based on a the Book of Skulls that promises immortality at a price? Or is it really about exploring one's sexuality, with the majority of emphasis being on homosexuality?
I'm not saying that being a homosexual is the route to immortality in this tale. Far from it. It's incidental, but intricately linked to what the narrator is focused on within his own mind, always swirling closer and closer and closer and never quite being able to free himself through all the meditations and weird secret-society explorations because of it.
It can get a bit trippy, well beyond the sexuality aspects. Very '70's writing, with main focus on enlightenment and free love and using drugs to open their minds, but more than that, this is a very deep exploration of the mind and motives and reactions to so many conflicting desires. The narrator doesn't see himself as homosexual, he sees himself as bisexual, and all of it is just as muddied as his own hunt for personal enlightenment.
Death? Sex? Drugs? Quest? It's all part of the same novel, and it's very interesting on all those levels and also one more: Spirituality and mystery religions. Silverberg obviously has a great deal of knowledge about them and it held my attention nearly as much as the main tale. Fun stuff.
Other than that, it's nominally SF. It's more a tale of self-discovery during the 70's more than anything. :)
Is it really about joining a secret society cult based on a the Book of Skulls that promises immortality at a price? Or is it really about exploring one's sexuality, with the majority of emphasis being on homosexuality?
I'm not saying that being a homosexual is the route to immortality in this tale. Far from it. It's incidental, but intricately linked to what the narrator is focused on within his own mind, always swirling closer and closer and closer and never quite being able to free himself through all the meditations and weird secret-society explorations because of it.
It can get a bit trippy, well beyond the sexuality aspects. Very '70's writing, with main focus on enlightenment and free love and using drugs to open their minds, but more than that, this is a very deep exploration of the mind and motives and reactions to so many conflicting desires. The narrator doesn't see himself as homosexual, he sees himself as bisexual, and all of it is just as muddied as his own hunt for personal enlightenment.
Death? Sex? Drugs? Quest? It's all part of the same novel, and it's very interesting on all those levels and also one more: Spirituality and mystery religions. Silverberg obviously has a great deal of knowledge about them and it held my attention nearly as much as the main tale. Fun stuff.
Other than that, it's nominally SF. It's more a tale of self-discovery during the 70's more than anything. :)
November 9, 2020
Updated review after a re-read in November 2020.
--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmFZq...
What a strange little book! I really had no idea what to expect when I got into this one, and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. I would be hard-pressed to tell you what kind of book it is: fantasy, horror, psychological thriller? It doesn’t fall neatly into any category; the wide umbrella of “speculative fiction” is the only fair way to shelve this.
The more I think about it, the less I understand why this book isn’t more popular, as while the plot is a simple (and perhaps slightly dated, with the liberal usage of the word “groovy” and all) “spiritual road trip”, there are many, many layers to Silverberg’s story. My husband found a copy of this book in his grandmother’s huge stack of old sci-fi paperbacks, and I dearly wish she was still around so I could have asked her what she made of this!
The plot summary is deceptively simple: four college kids go on a quest to find an ancient secret cult that has the power to make them immortal. Only groups of four applicants can request initiation, and they must do so under the knowledge that to succeed in becoming immortal, two of their numbers will die: one by his own hand, and one by the hand of his companions. That was enough to make me want to read it. I love weird, twisted and dark stories and if you sprinkle some occult stuff on top, I get very curious. When that kind of story is well written, it is such a pleasure!
Silverberg chose to tell this story by alternating the narration between his four acolytes. A lesser writer would have bollocked it right there: alternating POVs, especially first person narrations, are very tricky, because you need to give your characters distinct voices. I think that he pulled it off quite nicely! They are very stereotypical at the beginning: a blue-blood jerk, a farm-boy Adonis, a nerdy Jewish guy, and a conflicted Catholic homosexual (he's actually bi). But as you go along their creepy road trip with them, you peel off layers and start seeing them for more than the stock persona they hide behind. Their group dynamic, severely influenced by their respective backgrounds and relationships to being included or excluded (all of them think they are superior to the other three, of course) makes the story even more interesting because it allows you to glimpse at how they see each other.
And let’s get this out of the way now: those boys are terrible. They do not have two redeeming qualities to rub together, and I started wondering which one I wanted dead the most relatively early. But they have to be awful: the wish for immortality is such a narcissistic desire, and they behave just like idiotic twenty year-olds are expected to.
I will not spoil it for anyone: it is quite worth the read, and at a meager 220 pages, you can get through it in a few sittings. But I will say how much I loved the small ambiguities the reader is confronted with through the book. Is this Brotherhood of the Skull for real, or are they an elaborate hoax? Are they really performing immortality-inducing rituals, or are they just fucking with those poor boys’ heads? I honestly cannot make up my mind about it, and I loved having no easy answers at the end of this book. Is it supposed to be a metaphor, or should it be taken a bit more literally? I think it is the perfect way to wrap up a story about the quest for immortality – hard answers would not make this book quite as special as it is left somewhat frustratingly unresolved.
It must be said that while I found the story very compelling, this book could not have been published today. It was written in 1972, and there is a dated sprinkling of casual sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism in the four characters' inner monologues - which may completely turn off some readers. I tried to keep in mind that this was not written for a modern audience in mind, but it made me cringe. No matter how fascinating the premise is, I can't give a book that makes me cringe a full five stars.
I also can’t in good conscience review this book without mentioning that Silverberg’s women characters exist only to be decorative sexual objects, which is very annoying (“The Man in the Maze” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) had the same problem). His ideas are great and thought-provoking, but his dated views are frustrating. I know that’s not the point of the story he was telling, but it’s hard not to get annoyed with it. I do wonder how a group of four women applicants would have done in similar situations…
4 stars and a high recommendation for anyone looking for a challenging book that is quite unlike anything they have read before!
Since the last time I had read “The Book of Skulls”, I read a lot of books by Laird Barron (he is a genius, check him out), and I wonder if he also enjoyed this often overlooked Silverberg novel, as there are definitely some thematic parallels in his stories and this one: he writes amazing short stories that blur the line between cosmic and psychological horror, where his characters are often put in situations where reality/dreams/other places are difficult to tell apart…
--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmFZq...
What a strange little book! I really had no idea what to expect when I got into this one, and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. I would be hard-pressed to tell you what kind of book it is: fantasy, horror, psychological thriller? It doesn’t fall neatly into any category; the wide umbrella of “speculative fiction” is the only fair way to shelve this.
The more I think about it, the less I understand why this book isn’t more popular, as while the plot is a simple (and perhaps slightly dated, with the liberal usage of the word “groovy” and all) “spiritual road trip”, there are many, many layers to Silverberg’s story. My husband found a copy of this book in his grandmother’s huge stack of old sci-fi paperbacks, and I dearly wish she was still around so I could have asked her what she made of this!
The plot summary is deceptively simple: four college kids go on a quest to find an ancient secret cult that has the power to make them immortal. Only groups of four applicants can request initiation, and they must do so under the knowledge that to succeed in becoming immortal, two of their numbers will die: one by his own hand, and one by the hand of his companions. That was enough to make me want to read it. I love weird, twisted and dark stories and if you sprinkle some occult stuff on top, I get very curious. When that kind of story is well written, it is such a pleasure!
Silverberg chose to tell this story by alternating the narration between his four acolytes. A lesser writer would have bollocked it right there: alternating POVs, especially first person narrations, are very tricky, because you need to give your characters distinct voices. I think that he pulled it off quite nicely! They are very stereotypical at the beginning: a blue-blood jerk, a farm-boy Adonis, a nerdy Jewish guy, and a conflicted Catholic homosexual (he's actually bi). But as you go along their creepy road trip with them, you peel off layers and start seeing them for more than the stock persona they hide behind. Their group dynamic, severely influenced by their respective backgrounds and relationships to being included or excluded (all of them think they are superior to the other three, of course) makes the story even more interesting because it allows you to glimpse at how they see each other.
And let’s get this out of the way now: those boys are terrible. They do not have two redeeming qualities to rub together, and I started wondering which one I wanted dead the most relatively early. But they have to be awful: the wish for immortality is such a narcissistic desire, and they behave just like idiotic twenty year-olds are expected to.
I will not spoil it for anyone: it is quite worth the read, and at a meager 220 pages, you can get through it in a few sittings. But I will say how much I loved the small ambiguities the reader is confronted with through the book. Is this Brotherhood of the Skull for real, or are they an elaborate hoax? Are they really performing immortality-inducing rituals, or are they just fucking with those poor boys’ heads? I honestly cannot make up my mind about it, and I loved having no easy answers at the end of this book. Is it supposed to be a metaphor, or should it be taken a bit more literally? I think it is the perfect way to wrap up a story about the quest for immortality – hard answers would not make this book quite as special as it is left somewhat frustratingly unresolved.
It must be said that while I found the story very compelling, this book could not have been published today. It was written in 1972, and there is a dated sprinkling of casual sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism in the four characters' inner monologues - which may completely turn off some readers. I tried to keep in mind that this was not written for a modern audience in mind, but it made me cringe. No matter how fascinating the premise is, I can't give a book that makes me cringe a full five stars.
I also can’t in good conscience review this book without mentioning that Silverberg’s women characters exist only to be decorative sexual objects, which is very annoying (“The Man in the Maze” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) had the same problem). His ideas are great and thought-provoking, but his dated views are frustrating. I know that’s not the point of the story he was telling, but it’s hard not to get annoyed with it. I do wonder how a group of four women applicants would have done in similar situations…
4 stars and a high recommendation for anyone looking for a challenging book that is quite unlike anything they have read before!
Since the last time I had read “The Book of Skulls”, I read a lot of books by Laird Barron (he is a genius, check him out), and I wonder if he also enjoyed this often overlooked Silverberg novel, as there are definitely some thematic parallels in his stories and this one: he writes amazing short stories that blur the line between cosmic and psychological horror, where his characters are often put in situations where reality/dreams/other places are difficult to tell apart…
April 19, 2019
My first Silverberg book and I'm impressed. Not only did he successfully give each of the four characters, all four college age males, their own unique voices, each chapter is told through first person and I knew who was narrating each even without their names being the chapter headings, but he was able to transform each one throughout the book in their own distinct way, which to me seems like a major literary achievement. What starts as a frat boy-esque college road trip transforms into a layered self-revelatory mind-fuck odyssey that has one of the greatest ambiguous endings of all time. Totally not what I was expecting without really knowing what I was expecting but as the pages flew by and I neared the conclusion I was dying to find out what was really going on and how it would all end. Verdict = mind blown. This book is so relevant in its insights and perceptions it could have been written last week let alone four decades ago and the thrills are not of the Jason or Freddy variety but of the darkness that lives within, the "how well do we really know ourselves" variety. Truly an original tale.
May 14, 2025
The Book of Skulls is my favorite Silverberg novel. It's not really a science fiction book, but a new-wave character exploration of friendship and death and character study and immortality and existentialism and... questions are posed, situations are introduced, and it's left up to the reader to decide what happens, what should happen, and just how deeply they want to think about it all. Magic realism before that was a thing. The book is from 1971, so the presence of sex and drugs and rock is manifest, but I thought it had a mind-blowing and timeless quality. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel of the year, but Isaac Asimov was the sentimental fan favorite and swept the ballots that year with his first novel in a long time. Silverberg also had another very popular and successful novel on the ballots that year, Dying Inside, which surely served to split his vote. I believe The Book of Skulls is the best of the many, many Silverberg books I've enjoyed.
July 30, 2021
Written in the '70s, The Book of Skulls is about four college roommates on a road trip toward immortality.
The characters started out as interesting yet flawed young men, but their individual internal monologues shifted around the quarter mark to philosophical diatribes so long-winded and pointless the book should have a trigger warning for existential masturbation.
The characters started out as interesting yet flawed young men, but their individual internal monologues shifted around the quarter mark to philosophical diatribes so long-winded and pointless the book should have a trigger warning for existential masturbation.
May 9, 2022
This little book about a motley gang of college flatmates on a quest to find eternal life shook me much more than I expected. What was meant to be some light holiday reading unexpectedly turned into a riveting roller-coaster of existential dread. When reading it at night it would slip into my dreams, and when reading it by day I’d catch myself staring vacantly at a wall asking myself all sorts of morbid questions revolving mostly around two themes:
Immortality
Would I want to live forever? Does living a long life make death more or less daunting? Would immortality put an end to my individuality, eroding the traits that make me me, let alone human? Would my sense of morality grow or slacken? Would I be beyond good and evil? Would sex mean anything?
Death
When will I die? Will I live to see my son grow up? How many loved ones will I see die? Am I more afraid of my own death or of the deaths of others? Is it better to die by my own hand or by that of another? Is a planned death more or less terrifying than a sudden one?
So here’s the gist of it: a bookish Jew, a rich jock, a sombre farm-boy and a gay poetaster go on a road trip from New England to Arizona to seek a cult that could grant them life eternal. The rub: only two can attain it if the other two die, one by his own hand and the other murdered by the rest.
A long part of the book is dedicated to the road trip, a time-tested vehicle (no pun intended) for getting to know the characters and the web of relations that binds them. Only this web is fascinating; they are little less than friends, don’t seem to care too much about each other, and are on this quest for a variety of reasons: boredom, narcissism, megalomania, altruism.
The novel is very American and very Seventies (I loved the repeatedly un-ironic use of ‘groovy’), and it effectively sustains a decent amount of mysteries until the very end of the book: Will they find the cult? Is life eternal really attainable? Will two of them really die? Mind you, not all questions get clear answers.
As if reading a reverse whodunit, or Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold , you spend the whole book wondering how the two-lives-for-two-deaths debacle will play out. Here’s where the use of first-person narration adds extra booze to the punch; you are privy to the suspicions, prejudices and fears of all four characters. It’s truly riveting how their (and the reader’s) suspicions constantly change as events play out. Despite their almost charicaturesque natures, these undergrads have surprisingly rich, organic interior lives.
My only complaint is probably the result of reading this immediately after Small Island , and that is that all four first-person narrators’ voices sounded kind of the same. They all had very distinct personalities, sure, but all interior monologues had the same quippy over-educated undergrad ring to them.
Still, doesn't stop me from giving this memento mori five stars; it gave me everything I want out of a book and more.
Immortality
Would I want to live forever? Does living a long life make death more or less daunting? Would immortality put an end to my individuality, eroding the traits that make me me, let alone human? Would my sense of morality grow or slacken? Would I be beyond good and evil? Would sex mean anything?
Death
When will I die? Will I live to see my son grow up? How many loved ones will I see die? Am I more afraid of my own death or of the deaths of others? Is it better to die by my own hand or by that of another? Is a planned death more or less terrifying than a sudden one?
So here’s the gist of it: a bookish Jew, a rich jock, a sombre farm-boy and a gay poetaster go on a road trip from New England to Arizona to seek a cult that could grant them life eternal. The rub: only two can attain it if the other two die, one by his own hand and the other murdered by the rest.
A long part of the book is dedicated to the road trip, a time-tested vehicle (no pun intended) for getting to know the characters and the web of relations that binds them. Only this web is fascinating; they are little less than friends, don’t seem to care too much about each other, and are on this quest for a variety of reasons: boredom, narcissism, megalomania, altruism.
The novel is very American and very Seventies (I loved the repeatedly un-ironic use of ‘groovy’), and it effectively sustains a decent amount of mysteries until the very end of the book: Will they find the cult? Is life eternal really attainable? Will two of them really die? Mind you, not all questions get clear answers.
As if reading a reverse whodunit, or Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold , you spend the whole book wondering how the two-lives-for-two-deaths debacle will play out. Here’s where the use of first-person narration adds extra booze to the punch; you are privy to the suspicions, prejudices and fears of all four characters. It’s truly riveting how their (and the reader’s) suspicions constantly change as events play out. Despite their almost charicaturesque natures, these undergrads have surprisingly rich, organic interior lives.
My only complaint is probably the result of reading this immediately after Small Island , and that is that all four first-person narrators’ voices sounded kind of the same. They all had very distinct personalities, sure, but all interior monologues had the same quippy over-educated undergrad ring to them.
Still, doesn't stop me from giving this memento mori five stars; it gave me everything I want out of a book and more.
March 20, 2021
I was surprised by this book, first, because it was not science fiction. At least, in my opinion. Nothing supernatural happens, though the characters concert toward a supernatural goal. To me, this was a realist novel, driven by the four main characters. It is told in alternating first person, with each of 42 short chapters labeled with the narrating character's name. There is some repetition, and about 25% of the content relates to the sexual psychology of college-age males, with the backward political incorrectness characteristic of the sixties. Oliver, Ned, Eli, and Timothy are the main players in the drama, and they are pitted against one another in a trial that begins as a comradely, light-hearted road novel with dark undertones.
The essence of what they are doing is seeking immortality, cheating death. In their reckless, short lives, they have never attempted something so ridiculous and so serious. They travel in a group toward a cult-like enclave destination in Arizona to fulfill sacred rites outlined in an esoteric text they stumbled upon. Along the way we learn more about their relationships with stray women (objects of desire) and one another, but most of all, we witness their delving into themselves. The internal monologues are raw, unfiltered, and crass, reducing human experience into a tunneling wormhole of psychological insight. It is rude, profane, and American in its concerns and discussions of privilege, religion, free-thinking, free-acting, self-indulgence, and regard for the underlying impetus of mankind's existence. With Silverberg's salacious style, the book sustains high-level readability while challenging the reader to predict the outcome and figure out the hidden depths of character beneath the clichéd surface personas initially presented.
In the spirit of denying society's strictures, these children learn what it means to grow up, to face themselves and to attain a deeper understanding of their flaws.
Silverberg is an incredible author, not only for the 25 million words he published, but because he never once passed a Bechdel test within his entire ouevre. He channeled a massive fount of inspiration and determination to grind out mountains of literary material, some of which is actually worth reading. Sometimes you will wonder if he could go two pages without bringing up sex, but then you read something like Lord Valentine's Castle and the plethora of ideas are resonant in a fictional world brimming with life. In his best work, Silverberg makes for very addictive reading. If you can stomach his personality, which is unveiled more often than not, he can stand next to the greats in the science fiction pantheon.
I was reminded of Philip K. Dick's realist novels while reading this. Don't go in expecting science fiction or fantasy. I will be reading many more Silverberg novels, but will he be able to top this?
Why is it so good? That's hard to pin down. The simple premise works. It's nothing revolutionary, but the intent and voice and execution are clear, hard-edged, and pristine. The prose is lucid in its fluid arguments. The central conceit is universal in nature, and memorable. The ending is powerful because the astute reader will see it coming from a mile off. It all fits together.
The essence of what they are doing is seeking immortality, cheating death. In their reckless, short lives, they have never attempted something so ridiculous and so serious. They travel in a group toward a cult-like enclave destination in Arizona to fulfill sacred rites outlined in an esoteric text they stumbled upon. Along the way we learn more about their relationships with stray women (objects of desire) and one another, but most of all, we witness their delving into themselves. The internal monologues are raw, unfiltered, and crass, reducing human experience into a tunneling wormhole of psychological insight. It is rude, profane, and American in its concerns and discussions of privilege, religion, free-thinking, free-acting, self-indulgence, and regard for the underlying impetus of mankind's existence. With Silverberg's salacious style, the book sustains high-level readability while challenging the reader to predict the outcome and figure out the hidden depths of character beneath the clichéd surface personas initially presented.
In the spirit of denying society's strictures, these children learn what it means to grow up, to face themselves and to attain a deeper understanding of their flaws.
Silverberg is an incredible author, not only for the 25 million words he published, but because he never once passed a Bechdel test within his entire ouevre. He channeled a massive fount of inspiration and determination to grind out mountains of literary material, some of which is actually worth reading. Sometimes you will wonder if he could go two pages without bringing up sex, but then you read something like Lord Valentine's Castle and the plethora of ideas are resonant in a fictional world brimming with life. In his best work, Silverberg makes for very addictive reading. If you can stomach his personality, which is unveiled more often than not, he can stand next to the greats in the science fiction pantheon.
I was reminded of Philip K. Dick's realist novels while reading this. Don't go in expecting science fiction or fantasy. I will be reading many more Silverberg novels, but will he be able to top this?
Why is it so good? That's hard to pin down. The simple premise works. It's nothing revolutionary, but the intent and voice and execution are clear, hard-edged, and pristine. The prose is lucid in its fluid arguments. The central conceit is universal in nature, and memorable. The ending is powerful because the astute reader will see it coming from a mile off. It all fits together.
July 11, 2024
At my age I'm not really a fan of reading about college or uni students, so imagine taking a road trip over hundreds and hundreds of miles with four egotistical college guys who refer to hard-ons, the chicks they've balled - generally talking about girls like they are pieces of meat and sex objects, the drugs they've smoked, and like they know practically everything there is to know about anything. Well, welcome to the first 80 or so pages of this novel.
'Go on, pick up a hitchhiker, I dare you.' (Preferably one who just happens to be a serial killer)
All four get to narrate, alternating between short chapters, and I couldn't wait to see just what awaits them once they hit their destination in Arizona. Hopefully none of them are granted eternal life. Hopefully it all goes very very bad when they discover the remote skullhouse of an ancient cult shrouded in mystery. Like one of those horror films where a group of stupid teens enter a creepy house -
'no, don't go in there whatever you do' (of course they do!) - and no one comes out alive.
This has some decent stuff - great descriptions of the barren and bone dry Arizonian desert landscape setting up a feeling of unease, some detective work to snuff out the actual skullhouse location once they hit Phoenix, with the best being reserved for the last third - I won't go into too many details other than say it captures the transcendental experience of 60s America pretty well, and the dilemma that only two of the four can find immortality sets up an intriguing climax. I was surprised really, seeing as I hated the novel so much early on. I don't know why it's tagged as being sci-fi when it's clearly a slow building thriller with horror and fantasy undertones.
Still felt like a novella being dragged out, and the linguists/ancient manuscript angle of the novel Umberto Eco could have handled with ease with only 1% brain capacity, but I only felt like kicking the foursome by the end whereas earlier on I was fantasizing about running them over with a combine harvester whilst wearing a Mexican-looking death-mask.
A not so immortal 3/5
March 24, 2025
What begins as a Kerouacesque road trip between four bougie young guys- Eli, Ned, Oliver, and Timothy becomes a descent into hell as they seek the Book of Skulls, which promises eternal life. But only two out of the four can survive. The structure of Silverberg's novel is impressive in its language of interior monologues, sexcapades, and violence.
Want to read
April 14, 2019This hardcover is copy 40 of 300 produced and is signed by:
Robert Silverberg
John Anthony di Giovanni (cover art)
Jim Burns (front piece)
Malcolm Edwards (introduction).
Robert Silverberg
John Anthony di Giovanni (cover art)
Jim Burns (front piece)
Malcolm Edwards (introduction).
May 19, 2019
Similar in ways to Dying Inside, this is more an introspective, psychological thriller with supernatural themes than anything truly sci-fi or fantasy. It follows a group of four college friends that become emerged in the quest for an ancient path to immortality, shrouded in mystery. I enjoyed it, though not as much as I would have reading it in my 20's.
July 15, 2011
I am not sure why people describe it as horror...maybe because it is so horribly bad? There is no suspense, spookiness, gore or thrill in this story.
The storytelling itself was lacking A LOT. No suspenseful up-building, the shifting narration doesn't make any sense in the end (plus I never cared much for the gimmick of telling stories from different views but here it adds zero cleverness to the presentation of the characters), even though this is a short one it felt dragged.
The characters are stereotypes, almost caricatures of themselves, who wallow way to deep in each ones fantasies and never surprised me or managed to create real interest. And when the plot is not simply boring and filled with unimportant details it is quite pornographic, sexist and racist; I am not a strong feminist and not offended easily by books but the presentation of women and sex in this story really annoyed me. If there was some good mysticism to balance that out I might be able to overlook that better but there isn't.
To me there really is nothing in this book but a wasted premise.
The storytelling itself was lacking A LOT. No suspenseful up-building, the shifting narration doesn't make any sense in the end (plus I never cared much for the gimmick of telling stories from different views but here it adds zero cleverness to the presentation of the characters), even though this is a short one it felt dragged.
The characters are stereotypes, almost caricatures of themselves, who wallow way to deep in each ones fantasies and never surprised me or managed to create real interest. And when the plot is not simply boring and filled with unimportant details it is quite pornographic, sexist and racist; I am not a strong feminist and not offended easily by books but the presentation of women and sex in this story really annoyed me. If there was some good mysticism to balance that out I might be able to overlook that better but there isn't.
To me there really is nothing in this book but a wasted premise.
December 6, 2010
Wow.
I've always known Silverberg is one of the Great Old Ones. A cornerstone of the genre, author of books like Nightwings, Thorns and Dying Inside that are classics in the genre, and would be classics outside the genre as well if the consensus cogs would get their heads out from up the bums of D. DeLillo, I. McEwan and so forth for long enough to notice. But it's one thing to admit a writer into your personal canon and and quite another to be reminded, knee to the groin, uppercut to the jaw, nose leaking blood, head pinned down in the sand and grit that here, make no mistakes, is the real thing - a champion brawler, and he's not pulling his punches.
The Book Of Skulls is a yarn about four young men on a quest for immortality. It's a playing out of a cunningly crafted problem in human nature - given that only two out of four will win, that one must kill himself and one must be killed with the consent of the others, who will crack, who will triumph, and why?
It's a quadruple character study as we weave in between four first-person narratives, each one not perfectly reliable, each one rendered with perfect pitch. A virtuoso performance, but that's not all. Why are these four young men on this quest? Which of their motivations has what it takes to survive all the hardships and doubts on the way? What makes a person strong or weak? Silverberg unfolds answers to these questions with a feel for plot, language and character that is frankly awe-inspiring.
He also scores one for the genre in general.This story could not have been so profound and so real if it was just another 70s yarn about college boys from different backgrounds roadtripping across the US of A. It's the fantastic element that throws everything into perspective, that lets Silverberg give his story the momentum, presence and the power to say something about the everyday human concerns that underpin it. They say speculative fiction is about thought experiments and this is a thought experiment in human nature, conceived and carried out by a massive talent.
I've always known Silverberg is one of the Great Old Ones. A cornerstone of the genre, author of books like Nightwings, Thorns and Dying Inside that are classics in the genre, and would be classics outside the genre as well if the consensus cogs would get their heads out from up the bums of D. DeLillo, I. McEwan and so forth for long enough to notice. But it's one thing to admit a writer into your personal canon and and quite another to be reminded, knee to the groin, uppercut to the jaw, nose leaking blood, head pinned down in the sand and grit that here, make no mistakes, is the real thing - a champion brawler, and he's not pulling his punches.
The Book Of Skulls is a yarn about four young men on a quest for immortality. It's a playing out of a cunningly crafted problem in human nature - given that only two out of four will win, that one must kill himself and one must be killed with the consent of the others, who will crack, who will triumph, and why?
It's a quadruple character study as we weave in between four first-person narratives, each one not perfectly reliable, each one rendered with perfect pitch. A virtuoso performance, but that's not all. Why are these four young men on this quest? Which of their motivations has what it takes to survive all the hardships and doubts on the way? What makes a person strong or weak? Silverberg unfolds answers to these questions with a feel for plot, language and character that is frankly awe-inspiring.
He also scores one for the genre in general.This story could not have been so profound and so real if it was just another 70s yarn about college boys from different backgrounds roadtripping across the US of A. It's the fantastic element that throws everything into perspective, that lets Silverberg give his story the momentum, presence and the power to say something about the everyday human concerns that underpin it. They say speculative fiction is about thought experiments and this is a thought experiment in human nature, conceived and carried out by a massive talent.
September 14, 2014
I liked the idea behind this, and I even liked the way Silverberg set up the four characters, stereotypes that over the course of the novel are pried open and exposed for the often hypocritical things they are. The writing, too, is pretty good, lyrical and intense. The psychological building up and tearing down of the characters works really well, and it's not easy to predict who will commit the murder, who will be the sacrifice, etc. The only real problem for me was that I kept having to check the chapter headings to see who exactly was talking: despite the four very different character backgrounds, they didn't sound different at all.
But. The stereotypes manage to be so offensive -- like, the portrayal of the gay male character/s is kind of horrifying, the whole portrayal of what gay people are like as a community. I know this isn't exactly a new book, and doubtless Silverberg knew he was using stereotypes and that real gay people come from all over the spectrum, but it's still pretty ghastly to read.
I can see why people enjoy it, I think, but euch, not for me.
But. The stereotypes manage to be so offensive -- like, the portrayal of the gay male character/s is kind of horrifying, the whole portrayal of what gay people are like as a community. I know this isn't exactly a new book, and doubtless Silverberg knew he was using stereotypes and that real gay people come from all over the spectrum, but it's still pretty ghastly to read.
I can see why people enjoy it, I think, but euch, not for me.
November 12, 2021
This is a New Wave modern fantasy novel. I read it as a part of monthly reading for November 2021 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The book was nominated for Nebula and Hugo in 1973, but lost to The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, who received both awards chiefly due to the fact that it was his return to SF after writing chiefly non-fic.
This is a story of four young men, traveling across the USA, with stops in New York, Chicago and Phenix (among other places) to try their chance for immortality. They are quite different people, from different background, wealth, sexual orientation, etc.: a Jew, who found a manuscript that suggests that there is a way to become immortal; a gay poet from New York; a scion of a wealthy family with history predating American revolution; a redneck, who saw his father drop dead from cancer and deciding to get to a med collage and finish in on a force of will.
They are traveling in the late 1960s or early 70s, they are all university students (from the same dorm’s room) and they doubt that a mystical cure for death exists, but they still wish it be true. Even if there ias a price to pay, for four should enter the trial, but only two end up eternal, the remainder two should one commit a voluntary suicide and another be killed by the others.
We are told the story from all four points of view, seeing fears and desires of all participants. This is well done, with sufficiently different voices for all four, so readers see different facets of the situation. As with a lot of that period books, there are sex, drugs, rock-n-roll
This is a story of four young men, traveling across the USA, with stops in New York, Chicago and Phenix (among other places) to try their chance for immortality. They are quite different people, from different background, wealth, sexual orientation, etc.: a Jew, who found a manuscript that suggests that there is a way to become immortal; a gay poet from New York; a scion of a wealthy family with history predating American revolution; a redneck, who saw his father drop dead from cancer and deciding to get to a med collage and finish in on a force of will.
They are traveling in the late 1960s or early 70s, they are all university students (from the same dorm’s room) and they doubt that a mystical cure for death exists, but they still wish it be true. Even if there ias a price to pay, for four should enter the trial, but only two end up eternal, the remainder two should one commit a voluntary suicide and another be killed by the others.
We are told the story from all four points of view, seeing fears and desires of all participants. This is well done, with sufficiently different voices for all four, so readers see different facets of the situation. As with a lot of that period books, there are sex, drugs, rock-n-roll
January 30, 2016
One of my friends here whom I usually agree with liked this book a great deal. He notes it is a psychological thriller (and indeed it is) and found it more a horror read. I can see that. But it never opened up to me that far...or maybe I just never got so involved.
I go 3 stars here but I'm bound to say it was a close thing I considered 2. However I can see that this is a well done book. it was just a case of the book never drawing me in.
We have here a shifting point of view as each of the participants takes his turn relating things from their point of view. A manuscript is discovered long over looked in a college library and translated. Within is found the secret of everlasting life. It requires a pilgrimage to the House of Skulls (the secret of the location is revealed through the reading of The Book of Skulls which is what the manuscript was). There are however some catches. (Again all these revealed in the Book of Skulls). First it must be a group of 4 people. Then among these 4 people 2 must die while the other 2 receive the secret of life. One must be murdered while another must commit suicide.
It does sound interesting and the book shows the mindset and psyche of each of the young men who have committed to the trip.
I don't know. As noted it's interesting but I just never got involved. I suppose as I've done before I'll recommend that you try it yourself and see what you think.
I go 3 stars here but I'm bound to say it was a close thing I considered 2. However I can see that this is a well done book. it was just a case of the book never drawing me in.
We have here a shifting point of view as each of the participants takes his turn relating things from their point of view. A manuscript is discovered long over looked in a college library and translated. Within is found the secret of everlasting life. It requires a pilgrimage to the House of Skulls (the secret of the location is revealed through the reading of The Book of Skulls which is what the manuscript was). There are however some catches. (Again all these revealed in the Book of Skulls). First it must be a group of 4 people. Then among these 4 people 2 must die while the other 2 receive the secret of life. One must be murdered while another must commit suicide.
It does sound interesting and the book shows the mindset and psyche of each of the young men who have committed to the trip.
I don't know. As noted it's interesting but I just never got involved. I suppose as I've done before I'll recommend that you try it yourself and see what you think.
March 6, 2024
Un libro irregular, aunque me ha entretenido. En partes es muy descriptivo. En partes con mucho diálogo interno.
La premisa es sencilla: cuatro amigos se embarcan en una aventura rumbo al Desierto de Arizona, donde un antiguo grimorio llamado "El libro de los cráneos" promete, al que supere sus pruebas, la vida eterna. Lo malo: dos debe morir para que los otros dos vivan, lo que irá desvelando las distintas motivaciones, problemas y puntos de vista de cada personaje.
Una novela que se mueve entre la fantasía y la ciencia ficción. Tenemos un personaje hijo de Millonario, un chico popular de campo, un estudioso frustrado por su falta de éxito con las mujeres y un homosexual con alma de poeta. Cada capítulo se cuenta desde la perspectiva de uno de ellos y se van desvelando secretos que sellarán sus destinos. El problema, más allá de su reflexión sobre la inmortalidad, no hay nada del otro mundo en la historia. El trasfondo homosexual de un par de personajes debió haber sido interesante de leer en la época en que se lanzó este libro pero hoy en día se siente de lo más común, mientras que las motivaciones del hijo de millonario nunca llega a ser interesante. El mejor arco argumental se lo lleva el estudioso frustrado... y un poco el chico de campo. Aún así, el libro nunca llega a explotar, dejándonos con un final ambiguo en el que jamás se aclara si lo del libro de los craneos es real o no.
En fin, para una tarde de lectura relajada y sencilla está bien. Si esperas algo más complejo y significativo te llevarás una decepción.
Ni la recomiendo, ni la lapido. Si te gusta Silverberg no es una mala lectura. Aunque tampoco es de las mejores.
La premisa es sencilla: cuatro amigos se embarcan en una aventura rumbo al Desierto de Arizona, donde un antiguo grimorio llamado "El libro de los cráneos" promete, al que supere sus pruebas, la vida eterna. Lo malo: dos debe morir para que los otros dos vivan, lo que irá desvelando las distintas motivaciones, problemas y puntos de vista de cada personaje.
Una novela que se mueve entre la fantasía y la ciencia ficción. Tenemos un personaje hijo de Millonario, un chico popular de campo, un estudioso frustrado por su falta de éxito con las mujeres y un homosexual con alma de poeta. Cada capítulo se cuenta desde la perspectiva de uno de ellos y se van desvelando secretos que sellarán sus destinos. El problema, más allá de su reflexión sobre la inmortalidad, no hay nada del otro mundo en la historia. El trasfondo homosexual de un par de personajes debió haber sido interesante de leer en la época en que se lanzó este libro pero hoy en día se siente de lo más común, mientras que las motivaciones del hijo de millonario nunca llega a ser interesante. El mejor arco argumental se lo lleva el estudioso frustrado... y un poco el chico de campo. Aún así, el libro nunca llega a explotar, dejándonos con un final ambiguo en el que jamás se aclara si lo del libro de los craneos es real o no.
En fin, para una tarde de lectura relajada y sencilla está bien. Si esperas algo más complejo y significativo te llevarás una decepción.
Ni la recomiendo, ni la lapido. Si te gusta Silverberg no es una mala lectura. Aunque tampoco es de las mejores.
December 11, 2023
Not sure how I feel about this one, it’s definitely not science fiction and possibly not horror except maybe existential horror at the indeterminate conclusion.
The four main characters are vapid, American archetypes who’s baser characteristics are revealed over the course of the book(especially towards the end)
I feel like the main theme of the book is about facing your true self. We have a mask we show the world to hide our inner self but also a mask that we use to hide our innermost self from our middle self or some shit like that, what the hell do I know?
Cool concept but I still think dying inside is my favourite of his so far. And a big trigger warning for “modern” readers: you’re not going to like how the female characters are treated but I think it’s in keeping with the college age male mentality of the protagonists. Unless of course you count the sex priestesses but sex work is work.
The four main characters are vapid, American archetypes who’s baser characteristics are revealed over the course of the book(especially towards the end)
I feel like the main theme of the book is about facing your true self. We have a mask we show the world to hide our inner self but also a mask that we use to hide our innermost self from our middle self or some shit like that, what the hell do I know?
Cool concept but I still think dying inside is my favourite of his so far. And a big trigger warning for “modern” readers: you’re not going to like how the female characters are treated but I think it’s in keeping with the college age male mentality of the protagonists. Unless of course you count the sex priestesses but sex work is work.
November 13, 2015
Because he has garnered no fewer than eight Hugo and Nebula Awards over the years, has been inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Hall of Fame, and has been, since 2005, anyway, an SFWA Grand Master, it might be difficult to credit the notion that Robert Silverberg might also be a writer of horror. And yet, there it is, the 55th book under discussion in Jones & Newman's excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books"; namely, "The Book of Skulls," which first saw the light of day in 1972, the same year that its author released the masterly "Dying Inside." Though its claims for being listed as a sci-fi novel are as debatable as its claims to being labeled horror or fantasy, the book WAS nevertheless nominated for a Nebula Award in '72, as was "Dying Inside"; both ultimately "lost" to Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves." In '73, the same two Silverberg books were up for Hugos, again "losing" to the same Asimov novel. (Fortunately, the two writers apparently suffered no hard feelings between them, and went on to collaborate on three books.) However one wishes to categorize "The Book of Skulls," however, one thing has become clear to me after a recent reading: It is yet another stunning achievement from Silverberg's most celebrated writing period.
In the book, the reader encounters four college kids who have decided to spend their Easter vacation in a most unusual manner. We meet Eli, a Jew from New York City who, as a philology student, has unearthed and translated a rare text called The Book of Skulls; Ned, a gay, lapsed Catholic from Boston; Oliver, an Adonis-like farmboy from Kansas; and Timothy, an upper-class WASP from a moneyed Chicago family. Eli's translation of the rare volume seems to indicate that a monastic sect of some kind, centuries old at least, has the ability to confer immortality to quartets of applicants! And through other unrelated readings, Eli has discovered that just such a sect might actually exist in the desert north of Phoenix, Arizona! So off the four go, on a car trip into the great unknown, all of them with one nagging thought in their minds: The Book of Skulls promises immortality for only two of the four applicants; the third must be killed by the others, and the fourth must sacrifice himself for the greater good. I don't think I'm spoiling anybody's fun by revealing that the boys DO ultimately discover the desert sect in Phoenix, and that is when the horrors really begin....
Silverberg's novel was apparently a great technical challenge for the author because it is presented via four first-person narrators. Each of the boys gets to have his say as the story proceeds, and we are thus able to see things unfold from four different perspectives. It is a most effective way of learning all about our quartet, and by the book's conclusion all four characters are completely revealed. We not only learn about their reactions to the road trip and their stay with the monastic "fraters," but--as they meditate on their previous experiences--we discover much about their sexual histories, their hopes for the future and so on. In the book's most intense section, perhaps, as part of their initiation, each of the boys is compelled to tell one of the others his most embarrassing secret, as a type of psychic purging, and the four revealed tales DO come as a string of shockers to the reader as they simultaneously round the characters out completely. Silverberg's gambit of employing four alternating narrators here must be deemed a complete success; I cannot imagine an audio version of this book (if there is one) without four separate people providing the voice talent (unless, of course, the publisher can find a genius on the order of a Mel Blanc!). The novel in question gives us a remarkable amount of detail (this is one densely written book), and as usual, Silverberg impresses with his breadth and depth of historical and literary knowledge. Whether referencing explorer John Mandeville, the Uttarakuru and Ugaritic civilizations, the legend of Glaukus the fisherman, or composers Rasoumovsky and Xenakis; quoting poetry from Christopher Marlowe; impressing with his knowledge of the desert Southwest (as he had in his 1967 novel "Those Who Watch"; Silverberg, it should be remembered, among his 70-odd works of nonfiction, released such works as "Home of the Red Man: Indian North America Before Columbus," "The Old Ones: Indians of the American Southwest" and "The Pueblo Revolt"); or stumping us with such bits of choice vocabulary as "geniza," "ithyphallic," "incipit" and "periphrasis," he makes the reader aware the he/she is in the hands of an extremely well-read master.
The book, for all its nightmarish aspects, yet manages to please with occasional glints of humor. Thus, the gay Ned, when contemplating the 10 Commandments, confesses to us that he HAS been guilty of coveting his "neighbor's ass"; when Ned is compelled by the fraters to have sex with three women in a row as a lesson in self-control (some real fantasizing here by the author!), he tells us that he approached the women with "fraudulent hetero cockiness"! I love it! And speaking of sex, yes, the book IS fairly replete with the subject, as its author continued to revel in his newfound literary freedoms. Thus, all four lads reminisce on their past conquests, and enjoy an orgy of sorts during a stopover in NYC. (The Upper East Side pickup bar scene described early in the novel should resonate fondly with all those who lived through it in the early '70s.) The author is not above giving us these lines: "Her palpitating body throbbed to his caresses. Her passionate palm rubbed the swollen front of his trousers." (Silverberg, of course, aside from his immense sci-fi oeuvre, is also the author of some 180 "adult novels," with such titles as "Dial O-R-G-Y," "The Lust Plotters," "Nympho," "Sex Bait" and "The Gay Girls.") But at heart, this is a fairly serious novel. As sci-fi author Stephen Baxter tells us in that Jones & Newman volume, it "is an extended meditation on the ultimate horror, the inevitability of personal death in an immense and ancient universe." Many sections are supremely well-written, bravura exemplars of the writing craft, including Eli's lengthy put-down of modern-day religion, and Eli's detailed plans regarding how he will spend his first few hundred years of immortality. In truth, the book is virtually flawless--intelligent, suspenseful, well crafted, gripping (Baxter tells us that he read it in a single sitting)--and I only say "virtually" because of two minor complaints that I have. Namely, Eli being able to rattle off, in retrospect, the names of every dish that the four had eaten in a French restaurant--"quenelles aux huitres, the crepes farcies et roulees, the escalopes de veau a l’estragon," etc.--though he confesses he had no idea what he was eating. Well, the dude IS a language expert, so I suppose this might be excused. My other quibble: when Eli tells us that he hopes to one day be able to translate the Mohenjo-daro script...although that text had, in actuality, been translated in 1969. (Perhaps the book is supposed to transpire in 1968?) But these, as I say, are quibbles. This really is one remarkable piece of work.
So is it horror or is it science fiction? Well, there ARE skull motifs everywhere in the monastic abode, and things DO turn fairly horrific as events proceed. On the other hand, the fraters claim a line of direct descent from the civilization of Atlantis and are offering immortality, which would argue in favor for a piece of fantasy-laced sci-fi. As Silverberg tells us in his introduction to the 2006 Del Rey edition, it all boils down to whether or not the fraters are legitimate or just a bunch of crazy, desert-dwelling kooks, a point that he leaves somewhat ambiguous by the novel's haunting and disturbing end. And I do mean "haunting and disturbing"; the mood of this book stayed with me for many days after I finished it, a sure sign of a compelling experience. The book is most assuredly a piece of psychological horror, if anything. Apparently, director William "The Exorcist" Friedkin was all set to turn the book into another of his cinematic shockers back in 2006, but the project, unfortunately, fell through. Personally, I'm not sure how well this deeply, quadrupally personal vision would work theatrically, but there ARE well over 70 other Silverberg pieces of full-length science fiction out there, none of which, amazingly enough, has yet to receive the big-screen treatment.
"'The Book of Skulls' is a technical tour de force; deeply unsettling, astounding..." Baxter writes in his review, and I for one could not agree more.
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the Fantasy Literature website -- http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ -- a most excellent destination for all fans of Robert Silverberg....)
In the book, the reader encounters four college kids who have decided to spend their Easter vacation in a most unusual manner. We meet Eli, a Jew from New York City who, as a philology student, has unearthed and translated a rare text called The Book of Skulls; Ned, a gay, lapsed Catholic from Boston; Oliver, an Adonis-like farmboy from Kansas; and Timothy, an upper-class WASP from a moneyed Chicago family. Eli's translation of the rare volume seems to indicate that a monastic sect of some kind, centuries old at least, has the ability to confer immortality to quartets of applicants! And through other unrelated readings, Eli has discovered that just such a sect might actually exist in the desert north of Phoenix, Arizona! So off the four go, on a car trip into the great unknown, all of them with one nagging thought in their minds: The Book of Skulls promises immortality for only two of the four applicants; the third must be killed by the others, and the fourth must sacrifice himself for the greater good. I don't think I'm spoiling anybody's fun by revealing that the boys DO ultimately discover the desert sect in Phoenix, and that is when the horrors really begin....
Silverberg's novel was apparently a great technical challenge for the author because it is presented via four first-person narrators. Each of the boys gets to have his say as the story proceeds, and we are thus able to see things unfold from four different perspectives. It is a most effective way of learning all about our quartet, and by the book's conclusion all four characters are completely revealed. We not only learn about their reactions to the road trip and their stay with the monastic "fraters," but--as they meditate on their previous experiences--we discover much about their sexual histories, their hopes for the future and so on. In the book's most intense section, perhaps, as part of their initiation, each of the boys is compelled to tell one of the others his most embarrassing secret, as a type of psychic purging, and the four revealed tales DO come as a string of shockers to the reader as they simultaneously round the characters out completely. Silverberg's gambit of employing four alternating narrators here must be deemed a complete success; I cannot imagine an audio version of this book (if there is one) without four separate people providing the voice talent (unless, of course, the publisher can find a genius on the order of a Mel Blanc!). The novel in question gives us a remarkable amount of detail (this is one densely written book), and as usual, Silverberg impresses with his breadth and depth of historical and literary knowledge. Whether referencing explorer John Mandeville, the Uttarakuru and Ugaritic civilizations, the legend of Glaukus the fisherman, or composers Rasoumovsky and Xenakis; quoting poetry from Christopher Marlowe; impressing with his knowledge of the desert Southwest (as he had in his 1967 novel "Those Who Watch"; Silverberg, it should be remembered, among his 70-odd works of nonfiction, released such works as "Home of the Red Man: Indian North America Before Columbus," "The Old Ones: Indians of the American Southwest" and "The Pueblo Revolt"); or stumping us with such bits of choice vocabulary as "geniza," "ithyphallic," "incipit" and "periphrasis," he makes the reader aware the he/she is in the hands of an extremely well-read master.
The book, for all its nightmarish aspects, yet manages to please with occasional glints of humor. Thus, the gay Ned, when contemplating the 10 Commandments, confesses to us that he HAS been guilty of coveting his "neighbor's ass"; when Ned is compelled by the fraters to have sex with three women in a row as a lesson in self-control (some real fantasizing here by the author!), he tells us that he approached the women with "fraudulent hetero cockiness"! I love it! And speaking of sex, yes, the book IS fairly replete with the subject, as its author continued to revel in his newfound literary freedoms. Thus, all four lads reminisce on their past conquests, and enjoy an orgy of sorts during a stopover in NYC. (The Upper East Side pickup bar scene described early in the novel should resonate fondly with all those who lived through it in the early '70s.) The author is not above giving us these lines: "Her palpitating body throbbed to his caresses. Her passionate palm rubbed the swollen front of his trousers." (Silverberg, of course, aside from his immense sci-fi oeuvre, is also the author of some 180 "adult novels," with such titles as "Dial O-R-G-Y," "The Lust Plotters," "Nympho," "Sex Bait" and "The Gay Girls.") But at heart, this is a fairly serious novel. As sci-fi author Stephen Baxter tells us in that Jones & Newman volume, it "is an extended meditation on the ultimate horror, the inevitability of personal death in an immense and ancient universe." Many sections are supremely well-written, bravura exemplars of the writing craft, including Eli's lengthy put-down of modern-day religion, and Eli's detailed plans regarding how he will spend his first few hundred years of immortality. In truth, the book is virtually flawless--intelligent, suspenseful, well crafted, gripping (Baxter tells us that he read it in a single sitting)--and I only say "virtually" because of two minor complaints that I have. Namely, Eli being able to rattle off, in retrospect, the names of every dish that the four had eaten in a French restaurant--"quenelles aux huitres, the crepes farcies et roulees, the escalopes de veau a l’estragon," etc.--though he confesses he had no idea what he was eating. Well, the dude IS a language expert, so I suppose this might be excused. My other quibble: when Eli tells us that he hopes to one day be able to translate the Mohenjo-daro script...although that text had, in actuality, been translated in 1969. (Perhaps the book is supposed to transpire in 1968?) But these, as I say, are quibbles. This really is one remarkable piece of work.
So is it horror or is it science fiction? Well, there ARE skull motifs everywhere in the monastic abode, and things DO turn fairly horrific as events proceed. On the other hand, the fraters claim a line of direct descent from the civilization of Atlantis and are offering immortality, which would argue in favor for a piece of fantasy-laced sci-fi. As Silverberg tells us in his introduction to the 2006 Del Rey edition, it all boils down to whether or not the fraters are legitimate or just a bunch of crazy, desert-dwelling kooks, a point that he leaves somewhat ambiguous by the novel's haunting and disturbing end. And I do mean "haunting and disturbing"; the mood of this book stayed with me for many days after I finished it, a sure sign of a compelling experience. The book is most assuredly a piece of psychological horror, if anything. Apparently, director William "The Exorcist" Friedkin was all set to turn the book into another of his cinematic shockers back in 2006, but the project, unfortunately, fell through. Personally, I'm not sure how well this deeply, quadrupally personal vision would work theatrically, but there ARE well over 70 other Silverberg pieces of full-length science fiction out there, none of which, amazingly enough, has yet to receive the big-screen treatment.
"'The Book of Skulls' is a technical tour de force; deeply unsettling, astounding..." Baxter writes in his review, and I for one could not agree more.
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the Fantasy Literature website -- http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ -- a most excellent destination for all fans of Robert Silverberg....)
August 30, 2024
4.25* Pozytywne zaskoczenie. Ciekawa, mocno psychologiczna historia, ale podczas czytania trzeba pamiętać kiedy zostało to napisane ;)
August 9, 2021
Although this is part of Gollancz's "SF Masterworks" lineup, don't expect any robots or ray guns or tentacle-faced aliens; it would be better classified as mild horror or dark fantasy. There's a moral conundrum set-up that is not too much different from the classic episode of "NewsRadio" in which one employee is going to get the "Big Bonus" and another is going to get "The Shaft," albeit here on a metaphysical level. The book is awash in the conventions of the early 1970s and roles for female characters are limited to "sexual plaything" but the tangled web the main characters weave for themselves will spark debate and continues to resonate after the final page.
November 30, 2023
Damn, the 60s were definitely not a time I would have wanted to live through - somewhere in the midst of all those new social trends and political climate, we managed to confuse Horror-Thrillers with Sci/Fi...
Anyways, this was a horrendous read. It's not like I went into it expecting Eco or Calvino but it was really really bad: a boatload of racism, sexism and anti-semitism, the linguistic angle is a comedy show with a bunch of random name droppings to impress the masses (dear Silverberg, you're most definitely not the only person on the planet who knows Gilgamesh, I had lunch with him not many moons ago, he said you're full of shit).
Anyways, there are 4 characters who are in college but speak as if they are 40 years old - I can't exactly take it seriously that a bunch of college jocks are quite that profound at their life philosophies and quite that masterful at existing as Silverberg is trying to portray. Really, if it had been their parents taking this journey I would have had a much more believable/entertaining read.
Anyways, I've been looking forward to their demise since page one, but even reaching that stage proved unsatisfactory as it took too long to get there and the demise in itself wasn't proportional to these terribly constructed characters.
Anyways, I've read far better mediocre books.
Anyways, this was a horrendous read. It's not like I went into it expecting Eco or Calvino but it was really really bad: a boatload of racism, sexism and anti-semitism, the linguistic angle is a comedy show with a bunch of random name droppings to impress the masses (dear Silverberg, you're most definitely not the only person on the planet who knows Gilgamesh, I had lunch with him not many moons ago, he said you're full of shit).
Anyways, there are 4 characters who are in college but speak as if they are 40 years old - I can't exactly take it seriously that a bunch of college jocks are quite that profound at their life philosophies and quite that masterful at existing as Silverberg is trying to portray. Really, if it had been their parents taking this journey I would have had a much more believable/entertaining read.
Anyways, I've been looking forward to their demise since page one, but even reaching that stage proved unsatisfactory as it took too long to get there and the demise in itself wasn't proportional to these terribly constructed characters.
Anyways, I've read far better mediocre books.
October 28, 2017
Storyline: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing Style: 4/5
Resonance: 3/5
Behold a work that falls into a category I rarely encounter: an artistic gem and engaging narrative which remained steadfastly off-putting. Silverberg's portraits of youth are exceptional. A chapter at a time, first-person perspectives rotate through the four college students' vacation and their road trip adventure. Our author gives an intimate look at their inner confidence and buoyant hopes yet manages to simultaneously provide the critical distance that allows the reader to see them for what they are: whimsical, starry-eyed adolescents. That ever-so-valuable ability to show two things at once was evident in the plot and pacing as well. The reader is invited along to experience the day-by-day happenings of their life-changing exploits, while at the same time we are constantly reminded of the smallness and brevity of a trip conveniently scheduled during a university's spring closing. Elsewhere Silverberg did not make the effort. He frequently presented the inner monologues and public dialogues of our four fully in their racist, homophobic, and sexist biases. There was little effort to abstract out from these. Whatever tolerance our characters did exhibit was subverted by Silverberg with his insistence on showing that those accommodations were themselves prompted by spite, personal uncertainty, and concern for reputation. A perverse delight pervaded the telling, where everyone despised his origins and identity, and we readers were supposed to savor their inner turmoil. Likewise Silverberg relished tales of sexual conquest and degradation. Debasing dalliances between consenting adults, incest, pederasty, orgies, rape, and partner swapping. These were zoomed views, showing us the experiencing and their effects on each of the four but never offering the compensating wider focus. The point seemed to make the deviant normal, the delinquent acceptable; and the presentation of it all was to the reader as entertainment. I could never make this final step demanded by Silverberg. The acerbic prose and biting scenarios I could respect, the complexly disaffected identities I could relate to, and of the mildly mocking narration of their quest, I could appreciate. I couldn't make that final step, however, to carelessly enjoy the degeneracy that undergirded what seemed like every flashback, every pit stop, every day in the tale. So there it sits, a brilliantly written work of haunting experiences made to seem casual.
Stylistically, this is one of the best Hugo-nominated books I've encountered. Substantively, it is one of the most obscene things I've ever read. Of the now seven Silverberg books I've finished, this is undoubtedly his masterpiece. I do not understand how it was nominated for either the Hugo or the Nebula, as it was not science fiction. There is some hint of the fantastic in there but only insofar as dealing with legends and the possibility that some truth might underlie them.
Characters: 5/5
Writing Style: 4/5
Resonance: 3/5
Behold a work that falls into a category I rarely encounter: an artistic gem and engaging narrative which remained steadfastly off-putting. Silverberg's portraits of youth are exceptional. A chapter at a time, first-person perspectives rotate through the four college students' vacation and their road trip adventure. Our author gives an intimate look at their inner confidence and buoyant hopes yet manages to simultaneously provide the critical distance that allows the reader to see them for what they are: whimsical, starry-eyed adolescents. That ever-so-valuable ability to show two things at once was evident in the plot and pacing as well. The reader is invited along to experience the day-by-day happenings of their life-changing exploits, while at the same time we are constantly reminded of the smallness and brevity of a trip conveniently scheduled during a university's spring closing. Elsewhere Silverberg did not make the effort. He frequently presented the inner monologues and public dialogues of our four fully in their racist, homophobic, and sexist biases. There was little effort to abstract out from these. Whatever tolerance our characters did exhibit was subverted by Silverberg with his insistence on showing that those accommodations were themselves prompted by spite, personal uncertainty, and concern for reputation. A perverse delight pervaded the telling, where everyone despised his origins and identity, and we readers were supposed to savor their inner turmoil. Likewise Silverberg relished tales of sexual conquest and degradation. Debasing dalliances between consenting adults, incest, pederasty, orgies, rape, and partner swapping. These were zoomed views, showing us the experiencing and their effects on each of the four but never offering the compensating wider focus. The point seemed to make the deviant normal, the delinquent acceptable; and the presentation of it all was to the reader as entertainment. I could never make this final step demanded by Silverberg. The acerbic prose and biting scenarios I could respect, the complexly disaffected identities I could relate to, and of the mildly mocking narration of their quest, I could appreciate. I couldn't make that final step, however, to carelessly enjoy the degeneracy that undergirded what seemed like every flashback, every pit stop, every day in the tale. So there it sits, a brilliantly written work of haunting experiences made to seem casual.
Stylistically, this is one of the best Hugo-nominated books I've encountered. Substantively, it is one of the most obscene things I've ever read. Of the now seven Silverberg books I've finished, this is undoubtedly his masterpiece. I do not understand how it was nominated for either the Hugo or the Nebula, as it was not science fiction. There is some hint of the fantastic in there but only insofar as dealing with legends and the possibility that some truth might underlie them.
December 12, 2015
This is a book I have been meaning to read for some time but you know things kept on getting in the way (like other books) so now I have finally been encouraged to read it and here we are.
The book itself is part of the SF masterworks series - an excellent series I am so glad to see they have decided to start issues new editions of. However I will admit that I struggle see how this warrants such a place in the series although I am not as naive as to think that all science fiction contains stories about aliens and space ships, however I do wonder if its entry is more to do with the author than the story (makes you wonder what they would do with Iain M Banks and Iain Banks).
This minor question aside the book itself is a fascinating read which did get me thinking. The book itself really can be divided in to two separate parts although the book does not differentiate them, the first is a road trip the second is what happens once they are there.
Its at this point that I will stop as I am in danger of giving away details of the story and I am sorry but I do not do spoilers. But what I will say is that the story does shift between various points of view - now this is not a bad thing as thankfully we are not made to sit through the same events or scenes from four different perspectives but what it does mean is you get to see events coloured by the characters describing them. At times this made me feel uncomfortable considering who these four are. However I am neither a prude or a xenophobe I did start to question the authors intentions that was till I realised something.
The author Mr Robert Silverberg is a master of the story telling and this is all part of the plan. Rather than an excuse to rant on about his thinly veiled agenda instead to get to see prejudices (not of those towards each other more what they have been preprogrammed to believe by their peers or society) and how it colours their perception of the world around them and how they interact. For example you seen how some react to living with wealth and reacting to those who have it. This is really where I think the story has something fascinating to say. Its about perception, and not just how you see the world but how you make yourself see the world.
As always the Masterwork series is full of surprises and I can see now why this title was included and why although many commentators say this book is flawed or incomplete there is still a subtlety that takes a while to spot
The book itself is part of the SF masterworks series - an excellent series I am so glad to see they have decided to start issues new editions of. However I will admit that I struggle see how this warrants such a place in the series although I am not as naive as to think that all science fiction contains stories about aliens and space ships, however I do wonder if its entry is more to do with the author than the story (makes you wonder what they would do with Iain M Banks and Iain Banks).
This minor question aside the book itself is a fascinating read which did get me thinking. The book itself really can be divided in to two separate parts although the book does not differentiate them, the first is a road trip the second is what happens once they are there.
Its at this point that I will stop as I am in danger of giving away details of the story and I am sorry but I do not do spoilers. But what I will say is that the story does shift between various points of view - now this is not a bad thing as thankfully we are not made to sit through the same events or scenes from four different perspectives but what it does mean is you get to see events coloured by the characters describing them. At times this made me feel uncomfortable considering who these four are. However I am neither a prude or a xenophobe I did start to question the authors intentions that was till I realised something.
The author Mr Robert Silverberg is a master of the story telling and this is all part of the plan. Rather than an excuse to rant on about his thinly veiled agenda instead to get to see prejudices (not of those towards each other more what they have been preprogrammed to believe by their peers or society) and how it colours their perception of the world around them and how they interact. For example you seen how some react to living with wealth and reacting to those who have it. This is really where I think the story has something fascinating to say. Its about perception, and not just how you see the world but how you make yourself see the world.
As always the Masterwork series is full of surprises and I can see now why this title was included and why although many commentators say this book is flawed or incomplete there is still a subtlety that takes a while to spot
July 27, 2016
Четирима студенти от различни прослойки, вярвания и социални групи се впускат на едно пътешествие, чиято крайна цел е мистериозно братство, предлагащо безсмъртие на тялото. За да го постигнат, обаче те трябва да подложат на чудовищно изпитание моралът и душите си.
Точно това произведение на Силвърбърг ми стои някак в страни от останалото му творчество. Въпреки чудесното въвеждащо есе/писмо не мога да го приема като фантастика или ако приемем фантастичния допуск в книгата, то мога да го категоризирам като слаба фантастика. До някаде това се дължи на избора на свят – тук автора е избрал съвремието си, лишавайки се от най-силния си коз като писател, а именно изграждането на пълнокръвни и красиви светове-илюзии. Ако трябва да съм честен бих определил жанра като мистерия/трилър и то само втората част на книгата. Първата част пък, която е едно пътуване към заветната цел, ми показа една действителност, която по никакъв начин не ми се понрави. Може би точно там е проблема - живеещ по друго време и на друго място, не можах да проумея мотивите на героите. А те са фанатично последователно развити и описани, но ми се струва, че така само ги е вкарал в клишета-образи, вместо да им предаде автентичност и анима. Иначе напрежението се натrупва чудесно по време на цялата книга и успях да се вживея в ролите на участниците и трудността на избора им.
Книгата ми напомни "Песента на Кали" на Симънс и "Сърца в Атлантида" на Кинг, като внушение и атмосфера, но и двете ми се сториха по-добри от тази.
Точно това произведение на Силвърбърг ми стои някак в страни от останалото му творчество. Въпреки чудесното въвеждащо есе/писмо не мога да го приема като фантастика или ако приемем фантастичния допуск в книгата, то мога да го категоризирам като слаба фантастика. До някаде това се дължи на избора на свят – тук автора е избрал съвремието си, лишавайки се от най-силния си коз като писател, а именно изграждането на пълнокръвни и красиви светове-илюзии. Ако трябва да съм честен бих определил жанра като мистерия/трилър и то само втората част на книгата. Първата част пък, която е едно пътуване към заветната цел, ми показа една действителност, която по никакъв начин не ми се понрави. Може би точно там е проблема - живеещ по друго време и на друго място, не можах да проумея мотивите на героите. А те са фанатично последователно развити и описани, но ми се струва, че така само ги е вкарал в клишета-образи, вместо да им предаде автентичност и анима. Иначе напрежението се натrупва чудесно по време на цялата книга и успях да се вживея в ролите на участниците и трудността на избора им.
Книгата ми напомни "Песента на Кали" на Симънс и "Сърца в Атлантида" на Кинг, като внушение и атмосфера, но и двете ми се сториха по-добри от тази.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 457 reviews