Bridge of Ashes by Roger Zelazny

Bridge of Ashes by Roger Zelazny

This is a Zelazny novel I heard about in high school but somehow never found a copy of until it recently came out as an e-book. It tells the story of the world’s most powerful telepath—a young boy whose brain keeps copying the brains of those around him, keeping him from having a personality of his own. His parents (both telepaths who can shield their brains from him) keep moving further and further from civilization to no avail. Even the moon proves not to be far enough away as he begins connecting with people through time until he copies Leonardo DaVinci’s brain and well, that would be telling…

 

All of this is happening within a world that is going environmentally to hell—all according to an alien race’s plan. It seems that they are terraforming our world to meet their needs, and part of the plan is for humans to grow into an industrial society, pollute our planet, and then kill ourselves off so they can take over. Knowing Zelazny, you can see that the world’s strongest telepath and the aliens are going to have a confrontation by the end of the book.

 

If you like Zelazny’s work, you will enjoy this novel, but there’s a reason it’s been hard to find for the last few decades. It’s fun, but far from his best work.