LIBRO DE LOS CRANEOS, EL

by Robert Silverberg

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Publication

LA FACTORIA DE IDEAS (2008)

Description

Four students discover a manuscript, The Book of Skulls, which reveals the existence of a sect, now living in the Arizona desert, whose members can offer immortality to those who can complete its initiation rite. To their surprise, they discover that the sect exists, and is willing to accept them as acolytes. But for each group of four who enter the rite, two must die in order for the others to succeed.

User reviews

LibraryThing member lillasmee

I have never been disappointed by an SF Masterwork. But this one came close! One one hand, it *was* a good read - a fascinating recession/regression into the world of 1970s SF (though I am not at all sure why this novel is considered SF). On the other hand - what a load of self-indulgent

misogynistic nonsense! Hard to tell how much of this was Silverberg's characters (the 4 protagonists *are* a bunch of self-absorbed, hedonistic misogynists), and how much of it simply reflects Silverberg himself, and the period he was writing in.

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LibraryThing member clark.hallman

The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg was first published in 1972. Four college roommates (Eli, Ned, Timothy, and Oliver) drive west across county to a monastery in an Arizona desert where they hope to achieve immortality. Eli, whose scholarship emphasizes ancient languages, discovers a

manuscript in the university archives entitled The Book of Skulls. With much study and effort, he is able to translate the book. It describes a monastery, referred to as the House of Skulls, where the monks were immortals and they can give immortal life to others who are able to successfully endure the acceptance trial. After much research, Eli locates the mysterious monastery and he persuades his roommates to pursue immortality with him. However, immortality comes with serious consequences. Only groups of four people may apply, and only two of them can survive to achieve immortality. The story is presented through successive narration of the thoughts and actions of each of the four individual protagonists. The reader learns much information about the lives of each of them, including intimate details about their relationships with each other and more than I wanted to know about their sexual experiences. The Book of Skulls is an unusual tale that is difficult to categorize. Even Mr. Silverberg states in the Afterword he wrote for this book in 2004 that much of it reads as a mainstream book that perhaps could be thought of as “dark social satire” instead of science fiction. He goes on to explain that it was written in 1970-71 during a time when science fiction writers were trying to combine their writing styles with the methods of modern mainstream novelists, i.e., a movement known as “New Wave” science fiction. However, because it deals with immortality this book has been mostly categorized as science fiction. I consider Robert Silverberg to be one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. I have read ten of his books in addition to several of his short stories. I found this book to be an interesting and worthwhile read. It is steeped in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which elicits many memories and emotions from those of us who lived through those years. However, I’m not sure how readers who did not live through those decades will react. In my opinion, this is not one of Silverberg’s best science fiction efforts, but it is a Silverberg novel, which makes it better than most.

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LibraryThing member dbsovereign

My favorite of Silverberg's novels. This one is a tale of a journey into the heart of an American darkness.

LibraryThing member MarkLacy

Interesting book. Not so much horror or science fiction or fantasy as just a good well-written literary story. Virtually the entire book is chapters alternating between the four principal characters and their internal monologue.

LibraryThing member kraaivrouw

I had a dream recently where I was reading a Robert Silverberg book - Lord Valentine's Castle. In the dream I spent a fair amount of time talking about his books. I don't often dream about books in a way that is this specific so when I went to the library I thought I'd pick up something he'd

written. As it happened, The Book of Skulls was on the new books shelf - that seemed like a sign so I grabbed it.

This is a great book up until our heroes arrive at their destination - the House of Skulls. The road trip is wonderful and the author's ability in writing in four distinct voices is particularly evident. Once at the House of Skulls, however, things start to fall apart - not just from a plot perspective, but from a writing perspective, as well. It's a great story, but much of the book is really dated and showing its age the most in the last section. Ignoring all of that, however, this was mostly a fun read.

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LibraryThing member nmele

Somehow I missed this when it was first published, and I am sorry I did. Silverberg did a great job of writing from the viewpoint of four different characters, and a better job of preserving tension right through to the fated denouement.

LibraryThing member Coach_of_Alva

Four students - a privileged WASP, a Midwestern medical student, an Irish Catholic gay, a Jewish scholar - travel cross-country to an Arizona monastery, there to complete a trial that will give them eternal life. They begin this trial knowing that the Ninth of its mysteries requires one of them to

commit suicide and another to be murdered in order for the surviving two to achieve immortality. The students' adventures are very much set in the late Sixties but are not dated or camp. The execution is almost as interesting as the premise, a rare achievement. One complaint: I didn't appreciate the crack about Oklahoma accents.

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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

There is an order of monks who will grant you eternal life. So a group of friends go looking for them. We discuss death andd life a lot. Not the best Silverberg, but striking cover art.

LibraryThing member helver

Four college students stumble on an old manuscript offering eternal life - for a price. So, of course, they go check it out to see if they can achieve immortality.

The book itself is told from the points of view of the four friends - shifting narrators with each chapter. According to the foreword,

this change of voice was extremely challenging for Silverberg to pull off. I can certainly see how it would be difficult to write - in places it was just as difficult to read. For me, overall, the book had a very Twilight Zone-ish feel - paranormal situation coupled with human frailty.

There was a lot of page real estate spent on sex and sexual orientation - hetero and homo - a long with various sexual misdeeds including rape, seduction, incest, adultery, orgies, etc. More than I needed.

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LibraryThing member AngelaJMaher

Well, I must say this isn't quite what I was expecting, and I'm one of the readers who doesn't think of this as a true SF book. Even the author himself debates it's genre in the afterword.
The first half, especially, is more of a character study of the 4 main characters. It's masterfully written

however, and keeps you interested even without all that much actually happening. The second half is also mostly character based, but with more stuff happening. Some of what happens, or is discussed, could make some readers uncomfortable, and I think the theme of sexuality was used a bit too much. This actually turned me off from the book to a degree, not because I have a problem with that sort of thing, but because I wanted more, or something different, from the book.
Overall, I think this is a book male readers would appreciate more than female readers.

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LibraryThing member allyofthedawn

While the premise of this book was interesting, I have to admit that I regret the time I spent on it.

The writing style is terribly awkward, and includes single sentences that span multiple pages. The story isn't coherent, and many of the details hardly seem relevant to anything that happens in the

book. Many of the passages seem to be an attempt to appear intelligent, with long paragraphs about philosophical ideas.

I would not recommend this book to my worst enemy.

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