Isle of the Dead (novel)

Isle of the Dead is a science fiction novel by Roger Zelazny published in 1969. It is inspired in part by the eponymous painting.

Outline

Francis Sandow is the last surviving human born in the 20th century. An early space colonist, he spent long centuries of space travel in suspended animation, and then suddenly woke in a far future world where everything had changed. Desperate for something to hold to, he sought out a mentor, who happened to be a member of a slowly dying alien race, the Pei'ans. Under this tutelage, Sandow eventually became a telepath and "worldscraper". Worldscrapers terraform planets. The process of becoming a worldscraper culminates in a mystic rite that binds the mortal to one of the gods in the Pei'an pantheon, and it is believed that the worldscraper is actually acting as an avatar for the god. There are only thirty worldscrapers in existence; Sandow is the only non-Pei'an among them, and also apparently the only one who believes the "god" he is linked to is really just a mental construct.

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At the beginning of the novel, Sandow is one of the most famous men in the Galaxy, wealthy beyond inagination, living a life of seclusion and luxury in worlds he fashions according to his taste.

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He zealously protects his youth and privacy, and tries to forget that he actually became Shimbo, one of the gods of an alien pantheon. But when Shimbo's traditional enemy, Belion, rises to destroy him, Sandow must resort to the divine symbiosis and summon all of Shimbo's powers.

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Sandow also appears as the protagonist in To Die in Italbar, 1973.

Related Topics:
To Die in Italbar - 1973

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