This Immortal by Roger Zelazny

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Roger Zelazny's This Immortal.

The Short of It

Plot: A (somewhat) immortal man guides a group (including an alien) on a tour of post-nuclear-war Earth.

Page Count: 174

Award: 1966 Hugo

Worth a read: Yes
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: Minimal
Review: This was originally serialized and you can feel it while reading; it does not have a plot so much as a series of events. Narrator is hilarious without being unbearable - worth reading for his excellent commentary.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

This short book is carried entirely by the charisma and humor of Conrad, the first-person narrator. He pushes right up to the line of obnoxious without crossing it, and his dry zingers and one liners had me do a few spit-takes. I do not wish to ruin them, so I'll only provide one example:

Crossing a room can be a ticklish and time-consuming business: if it's full of people, if the people all know you, if the people are all holding glasses, if you have even a slight tendency to limp.

It was, they did and they were, and I do. 

It's so droll. It also provides a very clear image of the situation; we've all tried to weave across a room while avoiding someone. We all know who I'm talking about. The other characters, with one exception are mostly background noise.

The plot is nothing to write home about. It is more a series of episodes tied up with such a fancy bow that it feels totally unearned. There's enough to it that there are some exciting moments, but there is very little particularly novel. The best portions of plot are those that further expand Conrad's backstory, which is quite extensive. As noted above, this was originally published as a serial; this is an explanation but not an excuse. The story suffers for it.

Post-apocalyptic Earth is a bit of a mess; the rules are unclear, which Zelazny uses to keep things changing. Again, decent. Allows for some fun animal encounters.

I would recommend reading this one. It's short and sweet and the funniest story yet. Put this one in a very similar category to Double Star - kick back, relax, and enjoy.

If you're going to give this a read, please use the link below! I'll get a few cents from it at no cost to you.

Greetings, I am a link.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

There are only a few spoiler-related issues worth discussing.

First, one of my favorite exchanges:

“Uh—Conrad, I don’t know how to tell you, exactly, what happened…”

“Just talk,” I said, “and stop when you’re finished.”

And another:

"You’d fight your weight in anything that moves, wouldn’t you?” 

“Not red ants or bumblebees.”

With those out of the way, the two actual things worth discussing.

The tension between Hasan the Assassin and Conrad, as well as their overlapping backstories, kept me engaged. Traveling and working both together and against each other in equal part is well done.  Conrad mourning and Hasan offering his condolences is a superb scene. Hasan is the only other character who is interesting; even the Cort Myshtigo, the alien, is bland. The one possible exception is Cassandra, if only because she seems to be the same as her ancient counterpart - telling the future without anyone believing it. We only see this very briefly.

I did not like the ending of this story. First, cutting short the list of places seems to have happened because Zelazny decided not to write as many stories as originally planned. Second, it seems completely unearned. The dude gets Earth. Because he was a good bureaucrat and tour guide. Yes, there's much more of his history, but still. We are informed that it exists; we do not actually know much of it. For a plot that is rather thin it manages to end abruptly as well.ff

That's all I've got to say, except:

If you had a piece of gum for every man he's killed and you tried to chew it all, you'd look like a chipmunk.

I don't think you look like a chipmunk, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!