Bridge of Ashes

Though the cover of this book may fool some readers into thinking the book tells the story of a man who designs covers for the band "Yes" before selling out to paint collectible plates, this book is actually about a near future society in which telepathy has been proven to have some validity and several thousand known telepaths practice their gifts professionally. One such telepath, the son of two telepaths, turns out to be so powerful that he is able to pick up signals from all around the world and even throughout time, and becomes overwhelmed by all the voices in his head, ultimately becoming driven by them into catatonia. He parents move him to a remote area of northern New Mexico to lessen the invasive voices, and then even go so far as to relocate him to--well, just read the book. It's a great twist. What's cool about this story though, is that it turns out that this kid is a major player in a sort of intergalactic war over the fate of earth--against a race of aliens who basically created humanity with the intention that humans would populate and then destroy the earth for the aliens--since the aliens' ideal environment is basically a nuclear wasteland. Aiding the main character is a "dark man" who's using the book's main character and various figures throughout history, et cetera, to fight off the alien beings. There's a lot going on here, and overall, it's really enjoyable, one of the better pulp sci-fi titles I can recall reading, though the ending takes the story a bit further than maybe it should have. The main character's parents are nicely drawn, particularly the casually philandering father, as are most of the side characters, a seeming rarity in the sci-fi genre. The book is a real page-turner once you get through say, the first twenty pages or so, and it really made me want to check out more of Roger Zelazny's work. I really liked it.

In a future world where telepathy is a rare but known phenomenon, Dennis Guise is a young boy whose unprecedented mental power is not a blessing, but a curse. Unable to control the myriad external thoughts and personalities that flow into his consciousness, the constant influx of telepathic information leaves him in an autistic state, from which he only very rarely awakens. His therapist, Lydia, herself a telepath, seems to have some limited success in helping Dennis filter out the powerful minds whose thoughts span across time and distance. After acquiring, (and eventually dispelling) the personalities of a number of strong-minded individuals (including some famous ones), Dennis finally grows up to realize his purpose on Earth - to serve the mysterious stranger called The Dark Man in his fight against alien invaders. Peculiarly, Zelazny doesn't tell us much about the invaders, except that they are secretly manipulating mankind into turning the world into the kind of post-industrial wasteland that is their natural habitat, and they don't even appear in the novel until the very end. A smattering of interludes where we get to see the invaders at work might have made this novel more entertaining, although admittedly it might also have been a little too confusing in this already convoluted story.The most interesting sections are in the middle, where Dennis' young mind is repeatedly being taken over by the thoughts of others, although while reading it, it's very difficult to see exactly where this unusual story is headed, and that can make the reader feel that the plot is progressing rather slowly, or, one might even suspect, not really progressing at all, but merely delaying the ending. Some of the personalities are just fragments, and many of them only last a few pages before being put to rest and then dropped from the story altogether, having served no real purpose except to show how utterly bewildering Dennis' situation is. Fortunately, there are also some gripping chase sequences that shake up the otherwise very cerebral story. As is too often typical of Zelazny's novels, the book feels like a short story that dragged on past its ideal length. The conclusion seems a little too pat and too simple, and too abrupt after the long and elaborate buildup (spanning the Earth, Luna, and also several millennia), but that doesn't keep this book from being a fascinating read. Rabid proponents of environmentalism might find this story particularly to their liking.

I first encountered Roger Zelazny in the late 60's when I picked up a paperback copy of "Lord of Light". After a whirlwind reading of this marvelous novel, I attempted to acquire every book he wrote. I came to the conclusion that Roger Zelazny's books will either be astonishingly good, or somewhat disappointing. This book falls under the "good" category. The setting is a distant future with the current Mafia generation being comfortable and conventional. When violence begins to ravage its ranks, it is clear that more ruthless previous ancestors are needed to cope with the situation. This is able to be accomplished by means of the Family fortress/ gagetry. The tale is Zelazny at his most inventive. It is unfortunate that this, and other RZ novels are out of print, though there appears to be a comeback underway. If you stumble upon this book, buy it.