tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post1106301167124633560..comments2024-03-21T19:03:19.133-04:00Comments on Where there had been darkness...: Roger Zelazny Book Review: Bridge of AshesJugularjoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03768939120752611597noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-45154476203487347292020-09-01T23:21:55.584-04:002020-09-01T23:21:55.584-04:00niceniceAlia parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02326303770549335930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-3035776930356312432014-01-21T16:20:46.663-05:002014-01-21T16:20:46.663-05:00I'd be interested in hearing what you liked ab...I'd be interested in hearing what you liked about Faces. (I've long since given up on finding anyone else who enjoyed this book.)Jugularjoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03768939120752611597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-15351421072258175792014-01-20T22:34:38.593-05:002014-01-20T22:34:38.593-05:00This gets a better grade than 'Today We Choose...This gets a better grade than 'Today We Choose Faces'? There ain't no justice. :) I adore RZ, and I find this perhaps his most forgettable work. It's a book that never gelled for me. It's very bound up with 'Great Man' ideas about history, and some of his choices of Great Men are rather preposterous. (His version of Julian the Apostate owes more to Tennyson than actual history.) Frankly, there isn't much to like about it at all, though I too appreciated Da Vinci's ethics.<br /><br />--Garth RoseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-83383493344146368872011-04-16T21:29:26.797-04:002011-04-16T21:29:26.797-04:00I agree with both of you. I love the same parts of...I agree with both of you. I love the same parts of it that Josh loves, but I agree the ending is unconvincing and anti-climatic (and the whole Dark Man bit is even more implausible than the time-telepathy, so why worry about it). <br /><br />Great individual scenes, flimsy plot.Fionahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367178990462341240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-88929565410315006852011-02-07T18:19:40.458-05:002011-02-07T18:19:40.458-05:00While we clearly came down on different sides on t...While we clearly came down on different sides on this book, I do appreciate a good rant and yours was SCATHING!Jugularjoshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03768939120752611597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504598332261057441.post-86268571945325990192011-02-06T19:49:02.298-05:002011-02-06T19:49:02.298-05:00I think BRIDGE OF ASHES is far and away Zelazny...I think BRIDGE OF ASHES is far and away Zelazny's worst non-collaborative novel. The writing is flat and humorless, often stilted ("There is simply no time to tell you my story, as it is longer than all of history."), and occasionally silly ("If I get away, I may be able to carry off some more big ones for the Children.") The eco-terrorists' various speeches justifying their actions range from the implausible to the sophomoric.<br /><br />The structure of the book is the only thing I find interesting about it -- figuring out the whole shifting-viewpoint thing -- but once that's settled (i.e., after Dennis Guise develops an alleged personality) that's no longer a factor. We're left with the ending, which would be absurd if it weren't so flat and anti-climactic -- the aliens view a few "Great Men" through DG's eyes, say "Sorry, nevermind," and go away. I'd've liked the ending a lot better if the aliens' response had been: "You're kidding us with this shit, right? You justify murder with sophistries. You elevate brutality to a virtue. You raise hypocrisy to an art form. And those are your GOOD qualities. We're looking forward to exterminating all you self-righteous glorified apes."<br /><br />And it's pointless to argue about fantasy science, but the whole time-travel-telepathy thing makes no sense even by the premise Zelazny sets up. On the moon, DG's telepathic range is limited, finally, by his distance from Earth, so he reaches back through time -- and reads the minds of some people who lived on Earth in the past. Which of course was just as far away from the moon then (and, actually, much further away from Dennis Guise, since the solar system moves through the galaxy and the galaxy moves through the universe, and all that astronomical horseshit). <br /><br />I think BRIDGE OF ASHES is both poorly written and extremely unlikeable. (And those two things don't necessarily go together -- for example, I find "He Who Shapes"/THE DREAM MASTER immensely unlikeable, though brilliantly written.) It's the only non-collaborative Zelazny novel I don't own, though I did reread it (got it from the library) before writing this. Just doesn't work for me.<br /><br />--Chris DeVitoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com