Book review: Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny
May. 29th, 2010 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kilroyPrint date: 1979 (20s: 1, 60s: 2, 70s: 2, 80s: 3, 90s: 3, 00s: 6)
Zelazny is nothing if not a whirligig of ideas. This particular book is full of neat concepts and interesting juxtapositions... and about a third as long as it would need to be to really develop any of it. The main character is a Zelazny Main Character (if you've read more than two novels of his you know who I'm talking about), the remainder of the characters are underdeveloped, and the plot is sketchy at best. It was a fun read and I certainly enjoyed it, but it really left me wishing that he would have spent the time to work with the concept rather than just dashing it off.
For my own reference I'm going to record the basic idea of the book, which is really the only thing worth taking away from it. This is a massive spoiler, so don't read the next paragraph if you intend on ever reading the book.
There is a race of dragons who transcend time and space. Their abstracted view of our universe has created the Road, a highway that traverses the present, the past, and things which are not currently true but could be with a little work. Special mortals travel the road, driving from time to time and interacting with each other as only a society of time-travelers can. Some of these mortals--or perhaps all of them--are the young of the dragons themselves, who must travel the Road, aging backwards, until they understand the universe and themselves well enough to ascend.
Let your mind fly on that one for a while.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will recycle. (9.5/25 keepers)
Page count: 185 (6331 total)
Completed: 17 (8 female authors, 9 male authors)
Rejected: 8 (5 male authors, 3 female authors)
Next book due: 6/10
Zelazny is nothing if not a whirligig of ideas. This particular book is full of neat concepts and interesting juxtapositions... and about a third as long as it would need to be to really develop any of it. The main character is a Zelazny Main Character (if you've read more than two novels of his you know who I'm talking about), the remainder of the characters are underdeveloped, and the plot is sketchy at best. It was a fun read and I certainly enjoyed it, but it really left me wishing that he would have spent the time to work with the concept rather than just dashing it off.
For my own reference I'm going to record the basic idea of the book, which is really the only thing worth taking away from it. This is a massive spoiler, so don't read the next paragraph if you intend on ever reading the book.
There is a race of dragons who transcend time and space. Their abstracted view of our universe has created the Road, a highway that traverses the present, the past, and things which are not currently true but could be with a little work. Special mortals travel the road, driving from time to time and interacting with each other as only a society of time-travelers can. Some of these mortals--or perhaps all of them--are the young of the dragons themselves, who must travel the Road, aging backwards, until they understand the universe and themselves well enough to ascend.
Let your mind fly on that one for a while.
Verdict: Worth reading once, will recycle. (9.5/25 keepers)
Page count: 185 (6331 total)
Completed: 17 (8 female authors, 9 male authors)
Rejected: 8 (5 male authors, 3 female authors)
Next book due: 6/10