Book Review: This Immortal

Originally published in serial form as ...And Call Me Conrad
Roger Zelazny
1965
Awards: Hugo
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ –

The funny thing about this book is that it is not a terrifically complex story, and it is pretty short – 216 pages in my 1989 paperback edition – but it shared the 1966 Hugo award for best novel with the mighty Dune.

And I have to say, I agree with the Hugo voters. It’s a really good book.

I think the main reason it is up there with Dune, in spite of its plot’s relative normal-ness, is because of Roger Zelazny’s great character development and writing technique. He writes in a combination of styles: plain-spoken narrative that occasionally switches into the elaborate, archaic language of religious texts and ancient legends with total smoothness. This can be really funny and also oddly, unexpectedly moving. (Zelazny exhibits this talent to the hilt in his other Hugo-award-winning novel, Lord of Light.)

This Immortal takes place on Earth several hundred years after a three-day nuclear war wiped out most humans and destroyed most continental mainland. The few humans that survived fled to islands or to off-world colonies on space stations or other planets.

Since the war, humans have met the Vegans – that is, blue-skinned humanoid aliens from the planet Vega. They are far more advanced and civilized than us (which is especially obvious given that we have blown up our own planet) and have basically taken over Earth, buying up most of the remaining quality Terran real estate and turning the absentee human government on the planet Taler into a puppet regime.

At the beginning of the book, the Vegans send an emissary down to be led on a tour of Earth’s greatest places. He is supposedly there to write a travelogue, but some humans – especially those in the anti-Vegan resistance movement known as the Radpol – think he is there to figure out how to put the final nail in humanity’s coffin.

Fortunately for us, the puppet human government has assigned the Vegan a native Earth guide and bodyguard: Conrad Nomikos, the narrator of our story. Conrad is none too pleased about acting as a Vegan’s protector and pretty much just wants to be left to himself to lounge around on his Greek island with his wife. He is ugly, proud, grumpy, and cynical, but also a natural leader and an excellent fighter. He is also cool-headed and sane, unlike just about everyone else he runs into.

He also happens to be immortal (a side effect of a radiation-related mutation). He does his best to conceal this from his acquaintances but sometimes it just, well, you know, comes out. Especially when he runs into one of his great-great-grandchildren or someone who knew him in a previous life, or when somebody, like, for example, the Vegan emissary, takes the time to do a computer search on humans with Conrad’s unique physical characteristics and comes up with four or five matches spread out evenly across several hundred years.

Because Conrad's long lifespan, as it turns out, is why the Vegan chose him as his bodyguard and tour guide in the first place.

The story is basically just the tale of Conrad accompanying the Vegan on his mysterious tour and trying to prevent various Radpol agents from assassinating him until Conrad can figure out if the mission is for good or for ill. They run into plenty of dangerous mutants – human, animal, and combo human/animal – who want to do them both in. It’s a bit of a parallel (overtly referenced by the author) to the twelve labors of Hercules, with Conrad as the Herc.

The story is fun and plenty of the other characters and beasties are entertaining. It's simple. But what it lacks in depth and length (compared to Dune, at least), it makes up for with the quirkiness and appeal of the main character and the writing.


An earlier version of this review originally appeared on Cheeze Blog.