A review by oleksandr
The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
4.0
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 [b:The Gods Themselves|41821|The Gods Themselves|Isaac Asimov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1351076141l/41821._SY75_.jpg|1253407] by [a:Isaac Asimov|16667|Isaac Asimov|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1341965730p2/16667.jpg], 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