Doorways in the Sand

by Roger Zelazny

A mystery involving the disappearance of an artifact and a fast-paced search to find it. It involves rivalry and greed between interstellar communities, cosmic blackmail, alien police disguise and intrigue of galactic foreign policy.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Humor, Speculative Fiction, Aliens

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1976

About the author

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).

Reviews

[carol. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten this gem until a question on a Zelazny recommendation sent me to my shelves to rediscover this blend of Alice in Wonderland and crime caper. Set in an Earth very similar to our own, aliens have made contact and invited us to join the galactic federation. As a token of sincerity, we're participating in an artifact exchange, lending them culturally significant objects such as the Crown Jewels and the Mona Lisa, and receiving ambiguous alien artifacts in return. Meanwhile, Fred, a perpetual university student with an affinity for heights, is unwittingly pursued by various groups looking for a missing alien artifact. Thankfully, he remains calm, even when he's under duress staked out in the desert to contemplate a future as a raisin, he is rescued by a pair of intergalactic policemen. They've chosen to blend into the Australian scenery dressed as a wombat and a kangaroo.
"So I shshed while he worked on the strap. It was the most interesting hallucination I had had in a long while." (Like Ford Prefect, the aliens seem to have mistaken the dominant life form).

Although it perhaps sounds a little silly, and occasionally even a little absurd (there's a professor who reoccurs "despite his departure from the university long ago under the cloud of a scandal involving a girl, a dwarf and a donkey"), it never goes so far afield that it can't be reeled in with real life dangers and consequences. Zelazny's writing is truly inspired. Clever wordplay based on both real life observations (the quality of coffee in the student commons), absurdity (aforementioned alien disguises), and crazy levels of creativity (stereoisotropic brandy, anyone?) and deadpan delivery combine to alternatively cause giggles and awe.

Then he challenges any absurdity with poetic imagery:
"I was taken by a glorious sensation doubtless compiled of recovery from my earlier discomforts, a near-metaphysical satisfaction of my acrophiliac tendencies and a general overlay of fatigue that spread slowly, lightly across me, like a delicious fall of big-flaked snow."

Narrative style is somewhat unusual, but Zelazny is kind enough to provide variety of well-written transitions. And in these modern times of multiple viewpoints and post-deconstructed novels, a simple scrambled timeline should be readable.

Our lead, Fred, happens to be one of my favorite types of narrators, the knowledgeable eccentric. Of course, it's a lot easier to be knowledgeable when you've spent thirteen years in university classes while avoiding a degree, much to various advisers' chagrin:
"Clocking his expression, I noted disbelief, rage and puzzlement within the first five seconds. I was hoping for despair, but you can't have everything all at once."

Fred's lengthy and varied university education gives Zelazny a chance to play with a wide range of intellectual references and ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, except perhaps the mathematical poem. References are woven in seamlessly, almost throwaway at times. There's the time Fred says at the end of a drinking binge:
"'Let there be an end to thought. Thus do I refute Descartes.'
I sprawled, not a cogito or a sum to my name."

Then there's Zelazny's brilliant creation of the Rhennius machine inversion program--first run through inverts the object left to right (a key chemistry concept made amazing) and the inspired scenes that follow Fred's inversion are madcap genius. There are anthropological references to toilet cave paintings and bead exchanges, analysis of government bureaucracy, naming of the stars of the Big Dipper, stereoisomers from organic chemistry and musings on philosophy. While I know I enjoyed reading this book in high school, more years of education and experience have given me even greater appreciation for the casual and wide-ranging references--surely that is a book that stands the test of time.

In the tradition of the caper, Fred's methods are occasionally questionable (although his ethics are solid):
"Time means a lot to me, paperwork wastes it, and I have always been a firm believer in my right to do anything I cannot be stopped from doing. Which sometimes entails not getting caught at it."

Altogether and enjoyable fun read. As I waver between a 4 and 5 star rating, I realize it's rather irrelevant. I happen to enjoy it's timeless references, sophistication and breezy tone. Definitely hardbound library-worthy. Crud. Now I'm going to have to search out a better copy than my worn, cheap 1977 paperback. Note: Hugo, Locus AND Nebula nominee.

****************

Re-read April 2016 with the flash group at https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Thanks, everyone for reading along! Jason, Andreas, Melora, Naomi, Karl, Athena, Amy (Other Amy), Andrew, Mitticus, Evgeny and Brad (for yet another pun skirmish)

No additional thoughts necessary, although I'll say, wow, does that man stuff a lot of knowledge into one story, and he remains one of my favorite authors because of what he can do with words.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...

[Nataliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know, a part of me really wishes I could have pulled off the same trick the book's protagonist did for 13 years - remain a perpetual student supported by a cryogenically frozen uncle, free to expand my horizons, create Lobachevsky-worthy mathematical odes to beauty, and not ever having to graduate to the real adult world.

"'Let there be an end to thought. Thus do I refute Descartes.' I sprawled, not a cogito or a sum to my name."

However, when the real adult world comes equipped with aliens undercover as a wombat and a kangaroo, even the prospect of potential never-ending student life pales in comparison.



This Hugo and Nebula Awards nominee is a treasure hiding behind the funky 1970s paperback cover. It's wickedly smart and wickedly hilarious, and even its gimmicky structure (each chapter ends on a cliffhanger, and the following chapter picks up the story a while later and eventually works its way back to the previous cliffhanger to explain what happened) did not lessen my enjoyment. The enjoyment that is solely due to the charm of the never-ending smartly funny banter inside the protagonist's head that Zelazny treats us to for much-too-short pages of this book.

"The hot sands had had shouted them through me all afternoon, then night’s frigid breezes had whispered the motto at the overdone lamb chop, my ear: "You are a living example of the absurdity of things."

Fred Cassidy, as I mentioned above, is a perpetual student by day and an acrophiliac in his spare time (as in love of heights, or climbing tall buildings in Fred's case). Due to an apparent loophole in his not-quite-dead uncle's will he is entitled to a very comfortable life as long as he is getting a college degree full-time. For thirteen years, Fred takes full advantage of that, becoming probably the most broadly-educated man on the planet (and also acquiring very practical skills in basket-weaving, coming THIS close to completing a major in it - an a few dozen of other specialties as well).

"And if somebody has put together a course on the subject, this one has probably taken it," said Charv.
"Yes. Unfortunate."

Finally graduating Fred becomes almost a mission of the university officials (they eventually do succeed, bestowing upon Fred a well-earned DhP eergeD ni ygoloporhtnA ). But eventually the real world of this near-future ('soft sci-fi', think aliens and occasional flying cars but otherwise perfectly recognizable 20-th century world) gives Fred a rude awakening from this perpetual studentry bliss when an alien civilization artifact goes missing, undercover wombat and kangaroo interfere, and some things are in dire need of literal reversing. And we are treated to a hilarious and humorous ride peppered with smart references (Fred did NOT waste all those undergrad years, indeed!) and clever allusions. And I loved every page of it. What can I say - I'm a sucker for smart and funny gimmicky literature goodness.

"While I seldom indulge in graffiti, verbal or pre-, I have always felt something of empathy for those who scale walls and make their marks on them. The farther back you go, the more interesting the act becomes. Now it may be true, as some have claimed, that the impulse was first felt in the troglodytic equivalent of the john and that cave drawings got started this way, as a kind of pictorial sublimation of an even more primitive evolutionary means of marking one’s territory. Nevertheless, when somebody started climbing around on walls and mountainsides to do it, it seems pretty obvious that it had grown from a pastime into an art form. I have often thought of that first guy with a mastodon in his head, staring at a cliff face or cave wall, and I have wondered what it was that set him suddenly to climbing and scraping away-what it felt like. Also, what the public’s reaction was. Perhaps they made sufficient holes in him to insure the egress of the spirits behind it all. Or perhaps the bold initiative involved was present in greater abundance then, awaiting only the proper stimulus, and a bizarre response was considered as common as the wriggling of one’s ears. Impossible to say. Difficult not to care."

Zelazny is clearly having quite a bit of fun with the language of this book, alternating between dazzlingly poetic and smartass-y to intelligently witty to occasionally slapstick-y to pseudo-sophisticated to joyful wordplay. He does it with such ease and fun that it turned out to be impossible for me to not completely adore it.

"Thus, thus, so and thus: awakening as a thing of textures and shadings: advancing and retreating along a scale of soft/dark, smooth/shadow, slick/bright: all else displaced and translated to this: The colors, sounds and balances a function of these two.
Advance to hard and very bright. Fall back to soft and black...
"Do you hear me, Fred?" — the twilight velvet.
"Yes" — my glowing scales.
"Better, better, better..."

Zelazny dabbles in absurdity, leading me to inevitable comparisons with parts of Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but never topples into the clearly absurdist territory. He plays with turning his prose to almost-but-not-quite-poetry with all the alliteration and metaphorical language and internal rhythm of the sentences, but does not fully go down that path, either.

"Sunflash, some splash. Darkle. Stardance. Phaeton's solid gold Cadillac crashed where there was no ear to hear, lay burning, flickered, went out. Like me."

"Drifting drowsy across the countryside, I paraded my troubles through the streets of my mind, poking occasional thoughts between the bars of their cages, hearing the clowns beat drums in my temples."

Lovely and clever enjoyable little book, the one that will surely reread quite a few times in the future. 5 star-stones stars.
--------------
Lovely review by Carol that made me aware of this little gem of a book is this way.

——————
Recommended by: carol.

[Kevin Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zelazny wrote this book in the mid-1970’s, first in serial form in ‘Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact’ and then later released in hardcover and paperback. It was nominated for Nebula and Hugo awards. This book came along about in middle of Zelazny’s career, after Lord of Light and in the middle of his Chronicles of Amber series. He himself, rated this among his top five personal favorites.

The book is written in first person (except the last chapter) and follows Fred Cassidy, an odd, witty, sarcastic, long-time university student, who has an obsession with heights and climbing buildings. The story is set in the near future, with air scooters and flying cars, and most importantly, recent contact with aliens. The plot focuses on a mystery -- a missing alien artifact, which may or may not have been in protagonist’s Fred’s possession. Fred is pursued by thugs, government agents, and a series of strange aliens all of whom are attempting to locate the artifact. He sometimes outwits his adversaries, but just as often bumbles into hazard after hazard. My best (and brutish) attempt to describe the story is a combination of ‘Fletch’ and ‘Men in Black.’ Who knows, maybe both were partly inspired by this work. The book is jam-packed and includes elements of crime fiction, science fiction, comedy, and even arguable fantasy. While technically not Fantasy, I doubt Zelazny would argue against a fantasy connection as the story contains a number of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ references and works hard to be chaotic and fantastical.

I enjoyed the book but find I’m not a true devotee of Zelazny. I suspect if this book didn't convert me, none will. Still, he's a talented writer with great range, demonstrating equal talents with science, philosophy, comedy, wit, and near poetic prose. However, this book had a number of elements, such as flash-forward mechanics that I found distracting. Zelanzny also occasional throws in near nonsensical sentences, that drop me out of the story. Whether these devices are intended to keep the reader off balance, or an attempt to be more complex and literary, I personally, could do without them. It’s great range of genres and an endless cast of characters made it difficult for me to stay fully engaged in the story. Still, it’s highly creative, funny, and full of plot twists. I just wish Zelazny had just fully bought into the comedic detective story set in a sci-fi universe and dropped the attempts at demonstrating literary and philosophical chops, and especially his tendency to attempt to intentionally challenge confuse (cough, cough, looking at you - Lord of Light) the reader.

Ultimately, a fun, jam-packed story that crosses genres and styles and demonstrates the breadth of talents of an undeniable science fiction master – Roger Zelazny.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. It's not my very favorite book, but it is the book that I recommend to others far, far more often than any other. Up until now I hadn't read any of Zelazny's other novels since he wrote mostly science fiction and high fantasy, two genres that I'm not particularly interested in. I needed a “book set in the future” for my current reading challenge, however, so here I am having finally read a second novel by Zelazny.

And well … huh. I spent a good portion of this book highly confused, but I think I liked it? And even if I didn't like it (but I probably did), I think it's going to be one of those unique books like A Night in the Lonesome October where I can't get it out of my head and I ramble on about how unique it is to anyone who will listen.

Every chapter starts in medias res and then backtracks so you have no idea what's going on a good portion of the time, and there are talking kangaroos and wombats and aliens and weird reversal machines and telepathic plants. It took me days to get through it despite it only being 180 pages. I have absolutely no idea what the last sentence of the book is supposed to mean. And yet … it kind of mostly worked for me?

So, yeah. You should probably read this. I think?

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. In the 180 pages of this zany, funny and intelligent SF novel, Roger Zelazny tells the story of Fred Cassidy, an eternal college student doing his level best to never graduate, who gets caught up in a strange mystery of a missing alien artifact, the star-stone, which has no known purpose. Nevertheless, several players - both human and alien - are convinced that Fred knows more about the location of the star-stone than he does, and are willing to use deadly force to get an answer out of him.

Somehow Zelazny mixes off-the-wall elements like alien investigators masquerading as kangaroos and wombats and an inversion machine (which makes fast food and mediocre bourbon taste AMAZING) with literary writing, tongue in cheek humor, and allusions to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other literary and scientific sources. It's a brilliant achievement, one of those books I'll have to read two or three times to try to catch everything that Zelazny is doing, and even then I'll probably miss half of it.

An incredibly fun and strange mental workout. Full review to come!

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual rating: 18 stars. More or less.

This book is impossible to review. Okay, so my buddy reading colleagues seem to have managed it, but that's only because they sold their soul to the devil in exchange for inspiration are superiorly intelligent, while I am naught but a lowly, somewhat fishbrained crustacean. So if you want to read an actual review for this book, take a trip to Our Lord and Master's Canadian Sugar Shack, My Super Hot Dearest of Wives' Most Titillating Abode or The Obscure Bird of Gloom's Occult Aerie (more links to come so stay tuned and stuff). Now if you want to read a fascinating—if a tiny little bit disjointed—list of some of the fairly wacky stuff that makes this book one of the best I've ever read in the entirety of my entire life, then by all means, stick with me and my solitary grey cell, Little Gertrude. Which reminds me, I need to warm things up a little up there before we start. Please give me a minute, I'll be right back.



Just the workout Little Gertrude needed! She's all fired up and ready to go! Let's do this!

Soooooo, this book is: exceptionally absurd. Hilarious. Eccentric. Slightly insane. Witty. Weird. And a teensy little bit nonsensical. There are hypochondriac kangaroos, undercover wombat impersonators and peanut butter sandwiches. And eternal undergraduates, too. The cynicism index is high. Raisinhood is introduced as a gloriously creative way to torture puny humans. The narrative does little frog shrimp jumps backward and forward in time to keep the reader on his/her/its/whatever toes pincers. There are interesting hallucinations. And acrophiliacs (who have nothing to do with necrophiliacs, you dirty minded barnacles). Things never fail to make surrealistic sense. And "where does that leave us," you ask? "Drunk," obviously. Because if there is one thing that this book demonstrates over and over again, it is that alcohol is the solution. Always.



Especially not this one.

And if there is one thing that this book taught me is that being half stoned leaves one half sober. Amazing, but true. One should be extremely cautious, however, as sometimes being half stoned sober makes one's higher cerebral centers move off center. Which can be somewhat excruciating and should be avoided whenever possible. But sometimes a shrimp's gotta do what a shrimp's gotta do, and if one's mission requires one getting thoroughly intoxicated, well, what can one do? Drink antitelepath medicine (aka beer, in layman's terms), that's what.

Anyway, time to get back to our most fascinating—if a tiny little bit disjointed—list. This book is: full of scrumptiously scrummy and cleverly ingenious literary references. There are frozen altruistic uncles. And telepathic donkeys who specialize in budget analysis and accounting. And galactic cops, too. And stones. There is an inversion machine that reverses molecules and makes everything better (even bad bourbon, amazingly enough), thus promising to be The Cure to all DNFs of Doom of Oblivion (TCtaDNFoDaO™). There are hoodlums and doodlehums and Boojums (that are Snarks, obviously. Because Snarks are always Boojums and stuff). Spinal nerves are proven to be cunning little suckers who will almost always screw you over. There are delightfully insidious orchids that are so nefariously Machiavellian they could be my offspring. Oh, and by the way, pseudocopulation rocks. Sometimes PhDs are forced on moderately unwilling candidates, which is quite outrageous, if you ask me. And now poor Little Gertrude is getting tired so let's take a break.



Little Gertrude feels much refreshed, thank thee kindly.

Okay, we're almost there, my Inebriated Arthropods, so let's get this most fascinating—if a tiny little bit disjointed—list over with! This book is: a great reminder that thinking about gangrene never hurts. It also shows that not all adventuresome primates are distastefully venal. There are cymbal-playing grinning dwarves and lousy guide dogs. And bay leaves are considered an appropriate form of attire. Also, one is sometimes "hampered by the lack of an algebraic solution to a general equation of the fifth degree." Just so you know. Some Pips have surprisingly "simple expectations". And the contents of one's circulatory and digestive systems are sometimes delivered to the floor. The narrator has a special fondness for both his metabolism and GNIMMIWS ON signs. And last, but certainly not least, there are consonant-named physicians with fun appendages and creative methods. Assault therapy for the win!!



» And the moral of this I'm Such a Hopelessly Desperate Case that the Devil Wouldn't Even Have My Soul Ergo I Couldn't Exchange it for a Crappy Non Review Like Some People I Know Ergo All You Got is this Crappily Disjointed List Poor You and Stuff Crappily Disjointed List (ISaHDCttDWEHMSEICEifaCNRLSPIKEAYGitCDLPYaSCDL™) is: you don't have to drink alcohol in order to understand what the bloody fish is going on in this book. But it might help.





[Pre-review nonsense]

"Neither a fool nor a raisin be."

And that, my Little Barnacles, shall be my life moto from now on.



I know right? Be there or be square tubular, that's my other life motto and stuff.

➽ Full Where the Bloody Fish has this Shrimping Book Been all my Life Crappy Non Review (WtBFhtSBBamLCNR™) to come.

[Choko · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** 5 +++ ***

Yeah, we are the Roger Zelazny Newbies Group and I wonder what has taken me so long to read any of his stuff!!!

"..."Enter, pray."
"In which order?"
O bless this house, by all means, first. It could use a little grace."
"Bless," I said, stepping in.”..."

I am not sure how to start this review, nor what to write really... So, the blessing seemed like a good way to enter:) I loved every second of this book! Every page, every chapter and every sentence! I even loved the inconsistencies in logic from time to time, even for an episode of Fred Cassidy's life, who states at one point:

"...“Let there be an end to thought. Thus do I refute Descartes.' I sprawled, not a cogito or a sum to my name.”..."

Ahhh, remember the good old college days? Fred Cassidy doesn't have to try too hard. He has been a full time student for the last 15 years and doing his best not to give the college any excuse to graduate him and G-d forbid, give him a degree of any sort. His soul purpose, for some good reasons of his own, is to stay a full time student for as long as he can, piling up on credits, knowledge, and opportunities to live life the way he sees best. And his goal of perpetual studentship was going just fine, until two hoodlums start harassing his friends, the school and himself, searching for a stone he had been in close proximity to at one point in time. Apparently, the stone has something to do with a gift by the newly developing relationships with the Alien Races who have come in contact with the Earth Humans. And the hoodlums are not the only ones after him - the government and who knows who else is also following his every step, even when he goes on an unauthorized archaeological dig in Australia, where the heat and the tender attentions of his pursuers obviously take their toll...

"..."...they staked me out where I could wrinkle, darken and concentrate my sugars, while they returned to their vehicle for an ice chest. .... Later, they decided that a night’s worth of wind, sand and stars were also necessary for my raisinhood."..."

Aaaahhhh, the nature of raisinhood!!! Just one of the many not-so-natural human failings talked about in this short book, taking them seriously and not seriously in tern:) I guess I would call it a Sci-Fi Fiction but with heavy philosophical undertones. The homage to Lewis Carroll and his Wonderland is very hard to miss and we cannot under-appreciate it. Only where Alice becomes heavy-footed at times and seems to drag, Fred and his adventures fly by in minutes, leaving you wanting for more.

"..."I AM HAMPERED BY THE LACK OF AN ALGEBRAIC SOLUTION TO A GENERAL EQUATION OF THE FIFTH DEGREE. "
"JUST TELL ME IN PLAIN WORDS."
"IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH."..."

There was one thing I had some logical issues with. I had to really, really suspend disbelief about this Rhennius machine, which seems to reverse the nature of stuff, since it seems to be very selective of what it is reversing... Fred Cassidy is very lucky with the things that got reversed and it is very serendipitous that he is mostly getting the positive effects of the whole procedure... I think everything else is perfect, but my mind just refuses to accept the partial reversal, unless "outside circumstances", like an alien intervention in the process, guides the changes somehow. Even with this, I found the book to be very entertaining and thought-provoking. The scope of knowledge and references is immense, but I think that should not be a hurdle for those who are too young to catch them all. The material itself and the absurdity of the situation and dialogue should be enough to keep you glued from the first page to the last!! But that could be just me:)

"...“I feel obligated to point out, though, that I have always been a sucker for ideas I find aesthetically pleasing. The cosmic sweep of the thing - an interstellar kula chain - affirming the differences and at the same time emphasizing the similarities of all the intelligent races in the galaxy - tying them together, building common traditions... The notion strikes me as kind of fine.”..."

Now I wish you All Happy Reading and my you always find what you Need in the pages of a good Book!!!

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the heck! I'm not an acrophiliac perpetual-student with a penchant for pilfering sentient stones, but after re-reading this book, I kinda want to be. :)

If managing to avoid getting a degree in 13 years while still maintaining a full course load can be considered a special kind of genius, then our MC has it, but wait! This is just the beginning.

Zelazny writes beautifully, with curious and curiouser language, puns, poetry, and slight perfidy, if the last line in the novel is anything to judge the rest by. Just what am I supposed to make of that, eh? Just who is the *I* through the tale, pray tell?

This is a re-read, and probably one of the most enjoyable re-reads I've had in a very long time, with a few very notable exceptions. For one, I never actually intended to re-read this one, and it's only thanks to a few bookish friends here that I ever felt the need.

And I am very thankful. :)

The one thing that strikes me the most about this novel is the perfect knife-balance of absurdity. The knife might be a fool's knife masquerading as a knight's, but the knife cuts a fine story. Don't let the telepathic donkeys and overgrown houseplants fool you. We live in a wild, wild universe, and humanity is about crawl out of our own muck to take part in a tale as old as Time.

That's right. The hunt for lost jewelry. And yet, here's the funny part: no women characters are taking part in said hunt. Absurd! Right?

During the first half of the novel, I kept saying to myself that this novel would be a fantastic humor-laden modern SF, including major building-climbing stunts, kangaroos with wire-rimmed glasses, wombats, and raisins, the most nutritious whiskey drinks ever devised, and looking through a mirrored universe. (I decline to subscribe to the MC's point of view that it is merely *he* that has been flipped. After all, I started seeing things reversed, too, so perhaps the machine is leaking a bit, eh?)

The plot wrap-up wasn't entirely to my liking, for the most part, but it grew into a more subtle and thoughtful end that had lots of consequences for the rest of us, so I was eventually quite satisfied.

I can't believe that goofball actually got a job. Perhaps, with a little luck, he'll eventually climb that tallest building, but I'm not going to hold my breath. The jury's still out on us. :)

This is classic SF at its best. There's nothing out-of-date about it. I think it has held up extremely well and despite its clever cliffhangers with every chapter and Mirror's Edge kind of action escapades, this is a novel that is intelligent right down to it's sentence-core. Entertaining as hell AND it makes you think and scratch your head and go Aha! with it's mini-puzzles.

I totally recommend it for anyone. I always loved the author and it is just dawning on me that perhaps I really out to rediscover the man. Fantastic read!

[Dan Schwent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where do I start?

Fred Cassidy is a college student and has been for the past 17 years due to a loophole in his late uncle's will. Fred is a compulsive climber and a thorn in the side of the administration who would like nothing more than for him to graduate so they can get on with their lives. Long story short, an alien artifact goes missing and a lot of people think Fred has it. The rest of the book is the quest to find the star stone and stay alive. Thankfully, Fred has help in the form of a talking wombat and a talking kangaroo...

The plot is more complicated than I'm letting on but I don't want to give too much away. The plot isn't what drew me to the book, though. The grabber for me was the style that Zelazny chose to tell the story. Each chapter beings with the hero in a situation unrelated to where the previous chapter left off. Once the scene is established, then he backtracks and fills in the blanks. Other than that, what can I say? It's a Zelanzy story.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wildly imaginative and often hilarious romp, Doorways in the Sand blends absurdity with moments of strikingly lyrical prose. Zelazny’s deliberately unconventional structure can feel a bit obtuse, but it ultimately serves the story well.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread Apr2011: Still a good, fun read. I was sick & needed something upbeat & relaxing. Zelazny to the rescue again. I don't know how many times I've read this, but each time his poetic prose & wry sense of humor have made it a treat.


Dec2007: One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. It's an action packed mystery SF. Our hero, Fred, is as average as any Zelazny character - that is to say while he has no extraordinary powers, his sanity, habits & life philosophy aren't strictly normal. He's tossed from his pedestrian existence into an extraordinary, multi-planet robbery & rides the situation into the sunset, kind of.

The story itself is very interesting, but the style is wild. Almost every chapter (maybe all) start in the middle, look back to the beginning & then conclude on a cliff hanger. We then start the next chapter without the cliff hanger being resolved - it must be, but we don't know how. We get caught up in the new situation, only to be brought back to resolving the original situation & then work ourselves back into the next cliff hanger & start it all over again.

It's very effective for keeping the suspense up & not as confusing as you might think to read. The story isn't that complex, so it is easily followed. It's just a really fun ride. Told in a standard fashion, the story would be above average, but not one of his better works. Told this way, it adds so much more character & dimension that it's a charm.

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, here comes the unpopular opinion!
I didn't love this book and I'm kinda upset about it, because I love Zelazny, but it just didn't work for me this time. I had some seriously high expectations that got kicked in the butt.
The fact that the story started making sense somewhere in the middle of its second part didn't please me at all. However, there were many things to keep my interest - the kangaroo and Co. was great, the ideas awesome, especially great was the parasite blue rock from space and the whole reversing thing too. Probably even a greater concept was how the guy was able to keep himself away from earning a degree for so many years...
But as much as parkour and crazy chases are enjoyable to watch on screen, big or small, reading about it is simply boring. Especially when you don't get a slightest thing what is going on and it starts sort of annoy you. I like mysteries but I also like to unravel mysteries together with protagonists and here it was simply impossible. You just have to shut up and just watch it coming to a brilliant - I won't deny that - but completely impossible to foresee conclusion. And it all with the protagonist I didn't really care that much for.
Also, I guess I made a mistake by choosing a translation which probably did no favors to the original language of the book. I feel that it corrupted the word play too many times. Oh well.
Of course in the very end every piece of puzzle found its place and the picture was amazing and we all could celebrate. That's why I rate it 3 stars, instead of 2. Also - it's Zelazny.

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 Reasons To Read Doorways in the Sand: (you can also read this post on my blog.)

Reason #1. We Are Talking Assassin's Creed + Scifi Here

The main character climbs buildings to relax. You could find him on the roof of a university campus building on a quiet evening any day. In fact, the campus has even come up with specific rules regarding this, because of him. I don't know about you, but it only makes me think of this:




Reason #2. Oh My Gosh, The Aliens!



They are so refreshing! The aliens dress up as a wombat, a kangaroo and a donkey - TO BLEND IN. It was so bizarre (and bizarrely amazing!) that it just... worked. Basically, you've got talking and smoking kangaroos. And they say things like "on the other paw". It's pretty hilarious!


Reason #3. The Villain... In Style

So I was very partial to the villain. I will not give major spoilers... let's just say all aliens follow the same style in this book. Only, you know, more in style.




Reason #4. It's Very Witty And Lighthearted

If you're tired of serious spacey sci-fi, then Doorways in the Sand is the right book for you. You won't find seriousness here. I thought we were already clear about this when I told you about the roof-climbing protag and the kangaroo aliens!!




Reason #5. You'll Never Expect To Go Where It's Taking You

I mean, that's all I should really say. Anything else would be a spoiler. So just take the trip yourself.




Other Books You Might Like

It seems, I never fail to recommend Way Station , whenever scifi is involved, do I? It's just that good. But in connection to Doorways in the Sand, it shares a similar topic of a missing/discovered intergalactic artefact that causes a lot of interesting things to happen. I also never seem to fail to recommend Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom – which is definitely one of my favorite scifis ever. What it shares with Doorways in the Sand is its wittiness and lighthearted manner. And of course, if it's wittiness we seek, we must not forget The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.





I thank Farrago for giving me a copy of the book in exchange to my honest opinion.


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[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 4 out of 5]

... or as I like to call it now that I'm finished: Romancing the Star Stone , for it reminds me of the Michael Douglas / Katleen Turner crime caper with its tongue-in-cheek approach and its lively pacing. A priceless alien artefact in the shape of a gemstone has been stolen and the last person to have seen it is Fred Cassidy - a perpetual student who has managed to avoid graduation for 13 years, and who suffers from a rare affliction called acrophilia. Meaning he likes to climb things , preferring to stroll over rooftops instead of using the campus alleys like everyone else. Under Zelazny's pen, acrophilia becomes more that a quirky personality trait, it becomes a metaphor for human aspirations:

Up here the view is less obstructed. You can see farther, take in more of the features of the landscape. Is that it, I wonder? A better perspective?

or: People who don't climb cathedrals miss some good shows

and again: I've spent more time wondering why people quit climbing things than why they start.

The setting is familiar yet profoundly changed: Earth at an unspecified but not to distant future date, prompting an older university profesor to look back at the accelerated rhythm of change and marvel at how far we have come, something I'm sure Zelazny himself would exclaim about if he could see today the technological advances reached since the book was published :

I am especially conscious of the difference between that earlier time and this present. It was a cumulative thing, the change. Space travel, cities under the sea, the advances in medicine – even our first contact with the aliens – all of these things occurred at different times and everything else seemed unchanged when they did. Petty pace. Life pretty much the same but for this one new thing. Then another, at another time. Then another. No massive revolution. An incremental process is what it was.

Not too much time is spent on these changes and their implications, as the life of Fred Cassidy suddenly becomes complicated by doodlehums ( antisocial individuals, intentional circumventors of statutes ) and alien plainclothesmen passing as local fauna. Barely escaping torture from the hoodlums and abduction by the aliens, Fred also had to deal with a voice in his head that quotes from Lewis Carroll nonsense rhymes. Further complications arise from a school counsellor who would do anything to make Fred graduate, an FBI agent with his own secret agenda and several other parties interested in the fate of the missing star stone.

A second alien artefact is introduced, rather abruptly and with little explanation. The Rhennius machine is a sort of black box device that resembles a Moebius strip and is used to flip reality left to right and inside-out ( insert more Lewis Carroll mirror references here). Frank goes into the machine accidentally on purpose, pushed by the telepathic voice inside his head, and the silliness is dialed up another notch, referencing among other things the stereoscopic properties of the grain alcohol molecule:

I decided that a little more antitelepath medicine might be in order. I entered an undistinguished looking bar and got me a mug of beer.

and some of the most exotic examples of plant and insect life:

It is good to pause periodically and reflect on the benefits to be derived from the modern system of higher education.
If it were not for him I might never have had time and opportunity to explore such things as the delightful and instructive habits of Ophrys speculum and Cryptostylis leptochila, whom I encountered in a botany seminar I would otherwise have been denied.

For all the lightness of tone, the quest becomes dangerous for Fred and for his close friends, and the moment arrivess when he must take life seriously and actually work at solving the puzzle. Before we got there, with a scene worthy of the camerawork of Hitchcock in Vertigo , Zelazny couldn't restrain his funny bone and introduces one more wacky personage : Dr. M'mrm'mlrr is an alien telepathic analyst, who practices a technique known as assault therapy. (insert more Hitchcock scenes of subconscious terror).

The structure of the novel is itself unconventional / experimental, with each chapter starting with a cliffhanger moment from later in the timeline, going back to the events preceding the said moment, and ending with a different cliffhanger. The style borrows from the noir novels of the 1940's, with some wild similes (for example, the Outback : The countryside struck me as a good place to send trainee saints to get what was coming to them ) and with some snappy exchanges of wit:

"However, since it is all contingent on the results of the analysis, it would be an exercise in redundancy to detail the various hypotheses which may have to be discarded."
"In other words, you are not going to tell me?"
"That pretty well sums it up."

Most of the book could be considered a lightweight by science-fiction hardcore fans, but the final chapters more than made up for any perceived lack of seriosity, and justify the Hugo and Nebula nominations the book earned. Still with a light touch, but with a return to the poetic imagery of his earlier novels, Zelazny asks the big questions about humanity's place in a populated Universe where not only we are no longer alone, but we are not at the top of the evolutionary scale, technologically or socially - wise.

The trouble with you people in anthropology, for all your talk of cultural relativism, is that the very act of evaluation automatically makes you feel superior to whatever you are evaluating, and you evaluate everything. We are now about to be evaluees for a time, anthropologists included. I suspect that has hit you harder than you may be willing to admit, in your favorite area of thought. I would then say, bear up and learn something from it. Humility, if nothing else.

Instead of a dystopian vision of eternal conflict and Darwinian survival of the strongest, the author prefers to celebrate diversity:

"Are there many... developing worlds... such as my own?"
"Yes," he said. "There is quite a crop of them. New ones keep turning up all the time. A good thing, too – for everybody. We need that diversity – all those viewpoints and unique approaches to the problems life serves up wherever it occurs."

On a personal level, Fred Cassidy has reached the point where he has to leave the safety of the academic circles and do something useful for society, to climb another wall, to explore the unknown:

If you have to do something, it is fortunate if it can be something interesting, something more than a little enjoyable. All those races out there, somewhere, concerning which we now knew next to nothing – I was going to have an opportunity to mine the unknown, hopefully to fetch forth something of understanding, to consider the exotic, to transform the familiar.

For similar authors / books using a bit of comedy, a positive atitude and a fascination for new worlds and new ideas, I would nominate Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold. and I would say goodbye to Fred with a bit of stereoisotropic booze and with the words of one of his teachers / counsellors:

So I drink to you now and to the time that has transfigured us. Keep climbing. That is all. Keep climbing, and then go a little higher.

[Eilonwy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Permanent student and acrophiliac Fred Cassidy (he's managed to stay in college for 13 years so far, without getting kicked out despite climbing every building on campus) gets pulled into an intergalactic thriller when an artifact shared as part of a goodwill mission between aliens and humans goes missing.

And in typical Zelazny fashion, Fred and the reader are off on a wild, twisting ride to the finish line.

This story makes use of a sort of flash-forward-then-rewind narrative device which is probably better appreciated on a reread, since it took me 75% of the book to figure out how that was working. But it was lots of fun trying to figure it out! (Which seems to be half the point of reading Roger Zelazny.) All the important details are dropped in, and it all came together brilliantly at the end. I loved Fred's slightly-confused but ever-chipper voice as the story unfolds, as well. I also enjoyed the setting, which is pretty much the 1970's without any changes other than alien contact.

I don't want to say too much more about this. I think Zelazny is a writer you just have to dive into and trust that he'll bring you to the surface before you run out of breath.

Thanks Evgeny for starting the Roger Zelazny Newbies group and getting me to read this!

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit psychedelic, rather absurd, with a batty plotline advancing by whips and snaps in time so that every chapter starts in the middle of an often-incomprehensible action, against all the invention over-reliant on some tossed off crime caper plotting to generate comprehensible momentum when purer weirdness might have been just fine, snappily characterized, bordering upon shaggy dog joke, a total mess of coincidence and surprise encounter in the fine details of plotting but too quickly-moving to care, with passages of deftly turned phrases, as omnivorously studied as its thirteen-years-in-undergrad protagonist. First Zelazny (probably cause he seems mostly known for one of those endless fantasy series I have such an impossible time scraping together interest in, despite that one PKD collab) and it was an unmistakably fun time, with off-handed cleverness enough to gloss its inattentions and weaknesses, reading a bit like a sharper, smarter Silverberg. I'll be back for more at some point.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Пясъчни врати“ е симпатична и любопитна криминална фантастика. Главният герой в нея е студент, който се забърква в доста шантави премеждия, търсейки изчезналия Звезден камък...



„Казвал ли ви е някой, че пробуждането е като смяна на сезони — менят се цветове, идват и си отиват сенки, проблясват светлини, а всичко останало балансира зад някаква невидима преграда.“

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

What an interesting and bizarre novel packed tightly into 200 pages of peculiar fun! This is my first Zelazny and I don't think I was prepared for what I got but I went along with it and certainly enjoyed the ride.

I've heard many things about the author and had wanted to give him a shot and this one fell onto my radar a number of years ago after some excellent reviews so I went with this one. The plot could be summed up simplistically but it wouldn't do justice to the layers added throughout the novel. Plus, how can you say a plot is simple when you have a talking kangaroo, a talking wombat and pissed off aliens who are looking for some alien artefacts. Simple, this is not.

One thing that I really enjoyed was the starting a new chapter with the lead character in a predicament that you don't learn about how he got there until you read further into the chapter. It's sort of like the reverse of a climatic chapter ending but it really worked. I've seen it done in novels where the book starts in the action and you don't know what is going on (I'm looking at you Dresden!) but never every chapter. I'd be interested to read more novels with that gimmick in place.

The reason it didn't get a higher rating? I was confused through some of it, with some plot points that went way over my head and science talk that went beyond my Sesame Street grasp of anything sciency. So not necessarily the books fault, more my own dimwittedness.

I've been provided with some useful information by a trusted source on which to peruse next, so A Night in the Lonesome October will be read around Halloween. I'm looking forward to reading more of the author and perhaps with a few more of his under my belt and I will reread this and appreciate it more.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't really know what to say about this one. It's really good. Read it. Non-linear. Funny. Sent me to the dictionary a few times. More content packed into 180 pages than most modern authors manage in 3 times that. Zelazny was amazing. I need to read and reread more of him. I wish more of his stuff was available on kindle.

[Amy (Other Amy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm going to go down there first thing in the morning and punch him in the eye!"
"Will that solve anything?"
"No, but revenge fits in with the classic life-style."

2015 is going to go down in my personal history as the year of awesome books. I am like a kid in a candy store here, running down the aisles with armfuls of treasure. I could tell you that I am giving this five stars (thinking about six) because I review things for what they are and this little beauty transcends all its genres to become something that is, while small, also quite amazing. True enough. I could tell you that I will probably five star anything that sucks me in and refuses to let me go until I have heard the whole story. Also true. Also that I will five star anything that allows a character I instantly love to follow his own tale to the end with no author tricks or lies anywhere. I do. But more than that, I am five starring this because I finished it an hour ago and I am still grinning ear to ear, still filled with the hope and beauty and humor of the thing.

The book is dedicated to Isaac Asimov, but if you are not a sci-fi fan, don't let that scare you off. I am not much a lover of sci-fi, but I loved this. It has great people sense, a tightly written story, fantastic literary references (hello again, Lewis Carroll), and truly funny humor. If it telegraphs a punch here and there, keep in mind that it was published back in 1976. (Won the Hugo back then, too.) If everybody wrote books this well, we in the postmodern world would all be kids running down the aisles with armfuls of treasure all the time. Not everybody writes this well. Not even close. Go enjoy this.

(What the heck. Six stars.)

Reviewed 7/10/15.

[Daniel Kloke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doorways in the Sand came highly recommended from a person who has great taste in books (Carol - you probably know the one on this site). I wholeheartedly agree.

The storyline is deceptively constructed. The story flows from clever to the absurd and back without missing a beat. It is a comedy first but without the normal laugh track (or the author deliberately punctuating every joke). As such, it is a great and easy read which gives a false impression of simplicity. I wish I could write like this.

I immediately liked our main protagonist. He has attended college for far too long (stopping right before acquiring a degree and then switching to something else) for perfectly rational (albeit unique) reasons. I won't spoil it here. The storyline proceeds as a comedy / mystery set in a future where aliens have visited Earth but the human race and the aliens are still getting to know each other.

At no point did I expect to be able to guess how the storyline would resolve and I was greatly rewarded for my lack of effort. This is not a "who done it" but rather a roller coaster that rides into the dark, in and out of paths unknown, and out the other side.

This is particularly a good read after reading darker and weightier books.
Five stars.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doorways in the Sand is one of my favorite Zelazny novels; I think it tends to be sadly overlooked in the wake of his classic award-winners and the Amber books, and because it had a really poor cover upon its initial release. The plot is as complex and captivating as his earlier works, but doesn't seem to be because of a wide streak of humor. (He makes it look easy, that's what I'm saying!) It's a fun tour of imaginative worlds, with good characterization and the lyrical prose that was his strong suit. It's a quick read, too, though full of cool concepts and neat ideas. It hasn't aged as well as some of his other books, but it's still a great trip. The protagonist (a climber; I always idly wondered if Doorways in the Sand mightn't have been an influence on the development of Parkour) is introduced as someone who loves to learn and study and wants nothing more than to be a perpetual student... that sounds like a great idea, doesn't it?

[Иван Величков · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Преследвам образа си огледален в коридора,
и късчета от мен посипали са пода."

Огледалата на Луис Карол и Джон Бериман се сблъскват брутално в този ранен роман на Зелазни, силно повлиян от все още поетичният му период.
Обичам тези ранни произведения, пропити със самодоволство. Фантастичните допуски изобилстват, структурата е напредничева, а референциите обхващат огромен обем от информация.
Пясъчни врати е една от малкото чисто фантастични книги на автора, изпълнена е с добродушен хумор и танцува по границата на абсурда.
Но да се върнем на огледалата, които тук изобилстват. Освен вече гореспоменатите препратки имаме и машината на Рьониус, която е нещо като огледален преобразувател, а и самата структура на текста е написана огледално - всяка глава започва с отворен финал, който после се обяснява с ретроспекции, като накрая се свързва с края на предходната глава. Това освен симпатичен литературен експеримент е и част от решението на криминалната загадка в романа, но за това трябва да стигнете до финалните две глави, които си вървят както трябва и епилога, който... но да не развалям читателския кеф на някого.
Франк е симпатичен и високо ерудиран безделник. Благодарение на наследство от почти починал чичо (всъщност замразен) той получава стипендия докато следва. Желаейки да запази бохемския си живот, Франк вече 13 година прави всичко възможно да не завърши, което изисква умения доста по-сложни от изучаваните в университета. А, да, и има афинитет към ходенето по покриви. Та така един ден се оказва замесен в междугалактическа конспирация, заради хлапашка шега, която е изиграл на един от професорите си. Това, обаче може да му коства живота, освен ако не открие Звездния камък, който отдавна е забравил къде е забутал. Така се оказва в центъра на интрига в която са замесени мафията, група английски фанатици, ООН, кенгуру, говорещо магаре и междузвезден комитет. Това ще доведе (О, по дяволите!) до завършването му, неприятно пренощуване в пустинята, изстрел в гърдите и един извънземен симбионт.
Макар и номинирана едновремено за Хюго, Небюла и Локус, тази книга не е от най-популярните на Зелазни. Може би заради това по-късно авторът е рециклирал доста парчета от нея. Аз видях влияние върху "Мост от пепел", "Избор на лице", "Валпургиева нощ", части от вторите пет Абъра и няколко разказа от по-късния му период.
Чел съм книгата два пъти. В тийнейджърските си гоини и после в късните си 20. Сега отново преоткрих десетки неща, които са убегнали на по-простото ми и наивно аз. След десетина години пак.

[Alazzar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just don’t get how he does it.

No matter how many Zelazny stories I read, he still finds a way to surprise and amaze me. I simply cannot fathom how he keeps track of so many characters and creates plot twists that are entirely unpredictable yet still believable within the frame of the story. And then, just when you think you have everything figured out, more information is unveiled and your appreciation for the masterful storytelling increases a thousand fold.

I really don’t know what else to say about Doorways in the Sand, beyond these Zelazny generalizations. It’s a fast read with an interesting premise and an interesting protagonist (not to mention an interesting cast of supporting characters). And, as I said, the plot twists and revelations are all superbly done.

I’ll admit that the cover art of my edition (and the description on the back) made me think this would be more of a “galactic” sci-fi tale (for lack of a better term), but the vast majority of the book takes place on Earth in what could easily pass for modern-day society (there aren’t a bunch of flying cars zipping around, or robots tending bars, or laser-fights). And I sort of like that about the book. I don’t think you’d need to be a big sci-fi fan to like it. You could probably like it just fine if you enjoyed fantasy or even the standard thriller. (Okay, you can’t hate SF if you’re going to try this book, because there are still SF elements to it, but still . . .)

Highly recommended for any Zelazny fan.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The first 2/3 of the book are great fun, light science fiction with good solid science. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 is pretty contrived and over-the-top.

Reminds me of a student friend of mine at MIT in the 1970s, Russ W., who also managed to never quite graduate for many, many years!

Nice quote
"As a student of business administration, I know that there is a law of evolution for organizations as stringent and inevitable as anything in life. The longer one exists, the more it grinds out restrictions that slow its own functions. It reaches entropy in a state of total narcissism. Only the people sufficiently far out in the field get anything done, and every time they do they are breaking half a dozen rules in the process.”

12.0% "... a bit dated but fun. Reminds me of a student-friend of mine at MIT in the 1970s, Russ W. who also managed to never quite graduate for many, many years."

14.0% ".... some fine humourous exposition here."

24.0% ".... now the book is great fun."

37.0% "... why is it so few books have a hero/protagonist named: Fred"

71.0% "... this was great fun, very cute until 2/3 the way through. Then it got verbose and overly complicated just for show. Too bad."

[Quintin Zimmermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

First a confession - I am one of the few that hasn't enjoyed the stylistic humour of the venerable Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. So when I encounter a talking wombat and kangaroo offering a peanut butter sandwich, I am on shaky ground.

Fortunately, Roger Zelazny weaves together a wonderful narrative with insightful humour and wordplay that both provokes and entertains the reader in equal measure.

Zelazny employs an unusual narrative device in the structuring of the story - each chapter jumps ahead in time before backtracking to resolve the previous chapter's cliffhanger and then moving forward to a new cliffhanger which will only later resolve in the next chapter.

A very accessible and entertaining read for anybody that has not had the privilege of reading Zelazny's body of work.

[Andrew✌️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that this is only the second novel I read by Zelazny, but I found it funny and engaging, although often slightly surreal.

The story is focused on Fred Cassidy, eternal university student, with the obsession to scale buildings at all hours of day and night and the innate ability to be able to avoid the degree. Suddenly, he finds himself in the middle of a mystery that revolves around a stone of alien origins, the State Department and two shady and not well identified bad guys.

I liked the ability of Zelazny to create a story that encompasses many different genres. It’s a science fiction story, for the obvious presence of alien cultures, but it is also a mistery, where page after page the reader will follow the adventures of Fred, until you get to the solution of the mystery. It 'a story told with humor, but also, includes long passages of philosophical reflections, which sometimes make your head spin.
So there is something for all tastes. There are numerous comic or surreal situations, although some episodes are not thorough enough see a story that has as its protagonists a university professor, a girl, a dwarf and a donkey , leaving the reader with his curiosity unsatisfied.
Other than that, the narrative often leaves the reader bewildered, because chapters start with the main character in a delicate situation or danger, then continues, telling what’s happened.

Apart from these considerations, I loved the book and recommend it to all those who want to read a good science fiction story, and more.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever sat in a restaurant with friends or family and when dishes are delivered to the table, looked around and felt that everyone else’s plate looks better than your own?

Well that’s how I felt with this tale… I looked around here and noticed everyone else seemed to be reading something a lot more interesting.

So I stopped.

Maybe to finish another time.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Hardcover Edition signed by Roger Zelazny.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get far with this one, as the (alleged) humor just wasn't working for me. Zelazny has always been a hit-or-miss author for me. This was a definite "miss."