by Roger Zelazny; originally published 1971.
The name of this website/blog comes from that of the protagonist of this wonderful novel. Apparently the cognoscienti of sci-fi don’t consider it one of Zelazny’s major novels, but personally I’ve always been extremely fond of it. Maybe it’s one of those things that you latch on at a certain time/place/state of your life when you first read it. But there was something about the characters, the concept, that stuck with me. In fact, I based my first album on characters and ideas from it.
In a nutshell the scenario is this. In some alternate reality, Earth is roughly similar to ours, except for the fact that it doesn’t rotate. There’s a perpetually dark and a perpetually light side. The light side has a Shield which prevents it from burning up.
On the light side, science and technology are the basis of everyday life much as they are in the modern world. On the dark side, magic is the basis of life and civilization. Most entities stay on their own side, but Shadowjack is one of the few who can freely move between the sides. In normal conditions on the light side, he is just like any other man, but if he can set foot in shadow, he gains a connection with the dark side and gains what appear to be magical powers — which gives him an edge. “Shadowguard” is the name of his lair/castle/base of operations on the dark side.
As the story opens, Jack has been caught at the Hellgames, intending to steal the prize of the games. The penalty for that is death, but since he’s a darksider, that is more of an annoyance than something final…and then it gets even more interesting.
I don’t know if this is in print, but it’s one of those things that really ought to never go out of print…in any case, it’s not so hard to run across a used paperback or book club copy for a couple dollars…see my favorite site for that, abebooks.
And of course–it would make a great movie or at least a TV movie…but I’m afraid of jinxing it if I mention such a thing in order that Hollywood butcher a wonderful, magical story.
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