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Title: The Book of Skulls
ISBN: 0345471385
Author:
Robert Silverberg
Publicate Date: 2006-01-31
Publish: 2006-01-31
List Price: $12.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.07
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.61
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.36
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Book of Skulls, Publ 1972, 191 pages.
It may seem from descriptions given of the four students that they are like interchangeable pieces, but by the beginning of the novel you'll note the differences between the four. And this is what Robert Silverberg intended. Basically there are two groups, the "cool kids" so to speak and the outsiders/geeks/non-cool/etc with two students in each group. You quickly read into Silverberg's book that the non-cool kids are really the heroes of the story. They're the intelligent ones, responsive, empathic, knowledgeable, witty. The "cool" kids are the ones either born with silver spoons in their mouths or have had such a luck of the draw physically that "popular" aspects of life have come to them with almost no effort, either being money, friends, or most notably, women, and Silverberg writes this group as shallow, obsessive, in denial, inflexible, and so on. So with the basis of the book being that two students have to die, you quickly realize who Silverberg has slated for those to be. There's some mystery in that is dying some metaphysical thing, or real... meaning two have to really die. And there's some mystery in how Silverberg wants to play out the heroes; will they die, but somehow their deaths, real or metaphysical, lead to some great event, or will they live. This maybe was an innovative theme in the 50's to have who would have been an anti-hero then become the hero, but this is quite common and unremarkable by now to have such a theme. It's also a bit stereotypical to have the Jewish student from New York City be the geek who feels insecure around the wealthy blue-blood in the story. And a bit ironical in the comparison by Silverberg in noting while the Jewish students ancestors were digging up potatoes to eat in Lithuania, the blue-blood's relatives were having some wealthy time-of their lives. Ironical in that my parents came from the Baltic States leaving with basically the shirts on their backs fleeing for their lives from the Communist tortures and murders, resettled in New York City where I grew up, and while we were struggling financially I would have upper-middle class Jews look down on me on where we had to live, similar to what Silverberg was writing of the Jewish student. So the stereotypes Silverberg sets up are quite contrived and a bit tiresome. Even murder by Silverberg's heroes are justified by the author. Note these adjectives used during a murder in the story (page 183 of my copy): graceful, strength, sensation. Silverberg writes the murder with a sense of beauty in motion.
Basically the book was just OK, and that is surprising. I have read several books by Silverberg and they were quite good, but this is the first book I've read by him that I have to give an average rating to. The most exciting part was the road trip in trying to locate if such originators of the Book of Skulls existed, and in the character development as it proceeds during the road trip. There are some stretches of uninteresting parts before the novel's conclusion. This search for unending life may have been interesting in 1972 after the hippie movement and soul searching by many for the point of life and of course in the hope of immortality, and it's not a bad novel, it's just that by now that there are so many great novels out there, that you could take or leave this offering.
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2: Not Free SF Reader
50% immortality deal.
Any cult or secret organisation with Skulls in the title generally means bad things will happen, at least to some people.
Here the set up is that a group of students set out on a quest for immortality - the only problem is that to achieve it, only half of them can live.
Everything in the group is not going to stay sweetness and light for long with that sort of setup, as Silverberg delves into their troubled minds.
3.5 out of 5
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3: What would you be willing to do to live forever?
Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses
The Book of Skulls
By
Robert Silverberg
Reviewed by
B.L.Morgan
Novel
5 Daggers of Death
What would you be willing to do to live forever?
Four college students are asked this question and take a mystical journey to a forgotten temple called The House of Skulls in the Southwestern Desert. The answers each one of then find in this temple are devastating.
Make no mistake about it The Book of Skulls is a very powerful novel. After reading this book you might be examining your own motivations for the choices you've made in your life. I've never read anything like this book anywhere else and I don't expect to read anything like this ever again.
Told in the first person by four different characters, the structure alone of this novel is fascinating. Writers should read this one just to see how Robert Silverberg put this book together. The most important aspect though was the realism of the characters and the situation they are in.
On the spine The Book of Skulls was labeled as Science Fiction. There was no way this novel was science fiction, not even close. The front cover blurb called it a Dark Fantasy. That's closer but still no cigar. I would call this book a Dark Drama with violent consequences. Usually I don't like dramas. Silverberg makes this drama entrancing.
I highly recommend The Book of Skulls to anyone who wants to experience a novel unlike anything you'll find anywhere else.
So, what would you do to live forever? Remember, the price for immortality is very expensive.
The answers you find may not be to your liking and living forever may not be worth the cost.
Afternote:
As was reported in Sinesteria Volume 1, Issue 2, The Book Of Skulls is being made into a movie with William Freidkin as the director. If the movie is true at all to the book it will be an extremely good movie. I'll be waiting to check that one out.
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4: A great deal more than it appears...
Don't expect science fiction. And don't enter into this because of the fascinating description of the game for immortality: it is explained in no more detail than as described in the synopsis. What this novel from Silverberg does offer, rather unexpectedly, is a quartet of intriguing character studies. The four young college students who set out on this expedition are examined in such astounding detail that they are given an authenticity unrivaled by any other characters I have encountered. Though seeming stereotypical at first glance, a Jew, a homosexual, a farm-boy, and a blueblood, each personality contains much deeper elements and motivations than in any literature I've read. Partially, this is due to the graphic, and at times horrifying experiences that make up their pasts. No detail is spared here; the prudish and faint of heart will likely find themselves repulsed. What prompted my average review, however, is something of a product of my own expectation, though it is fostered by the novel's description. I was searching for a story of the quest for immortality and the ultimate culmination of this search in some form of success or failure. While this element of the plot is indeed fulfilled, it is vastly inferior to the four characterizations that make up this work. To be truthful, they are superb characterizations, but this is simply not what drew me to the novel in the first place and sparked my interest.
3 stars for an admirable display of skill in the portrayal of these four young men, but not nearly enough time was devoted to the fascinating concept of a search for life everlasting.
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5: Pleasantly Surprised!
I bought this book because I thought it was horror. When I read the back and saw it was classified as SF I was a little leary. I don't think it's horror or SF. I see it as a piece of fiction that delves into four very different personalities, how they interact with each other, how they examine their own personal demons. This is definitely a book I want to read again!
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