The Book of Skulls

Last updated
The Book of Skulls
Bookofskulls.jpg
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Robert Silverberg
Cover artistRobert Aulicino
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date
1972
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages222
ISBN 0-684-12590-0
OCLC 240381
813/.5/4
LC Class PZ4.S573 Bo PS3569.I472

The Book of Skulls is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg, first published in 1972. It was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1972, [1] and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1973. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

The plot concerns four college students who discover a Catalan manuscript, The Book of Skulls, dealing with an order of monks living in a monastery in the Arizona desert, whose members claim the power to bestow immortality on those who complete their bizarre initiation rite. The boys travel to the monastery, where they are accepted as a "Receptacle", and told that for each group of four who agree to undergo the ritual, two must die in order for the others to succeed—one must sacrifice himself, and the other must be sacrificed at one or more of the others' hands.

The narrative switches back and forth between the viewpoints of the four students as each confronts his personal demons on the way to completing the ritual. Ned, who is openly homosexual, must face his guilt over the tragic aftermath of one of his affairs; Eli, the gifted (but socially inept) young man who discovered the manuscript, makes a confession that could destroy his academic career; Timothy, star athlete and prodigal son of a wealthy family, confronts a terrible sin from his past involving his younger sister; and Oliver, the handsome, over-motivated farm kid from the wrong side of the tracks, comes face to face with his own true innermost nature.

The Book of Skulls has been republished as part of the series SF Masterworks .

Reception

Baird Searles found the novel well-crafted but unsatisfying, saying of the viewpoint characters that "none [were] particularly likeable, interesting, or convincing." [3]

James Blish, despite finding the novel a "noble failure," described it as "so unobtrusively, flawlessly written that even at its most puzzling it comes as perilously close to poetic beauty as any of the contemporary novels I've ever read." [4]

Film adaptation

The cover of the 2006 paperback edition [5] stated that the novel is "Soon to be made into a major motion picture". While there has been speculation on various film-related websites, plans for production failed to materialize. [6]

In 2003, Paramount Pictures optioned the film rights, with William Friedkin to direct and Jeff Davis adapting. [7] No further development has been made.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Brin</span> American scientist and science fiction author (born 1950)

Glen David Brin is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards. His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner.

The Heechee Saga, also known as the Gateway series, is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Frederik Pohl. The Heechee are an advanced alien race that visited the Solar System hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared. They left behind bases containing artifacts, including working starships, which are discovered and exploited by humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Haldeman</span> American science fiction writer (born 1943)

Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his novel The Forever War (1974). That novel and other works, including The Hemingway Hoax (1991) and Forever Peace (1997), have won science fiction awards, including the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. He was awarded the SFWA Grand Master for career achievements. In 2012 he was inducted as a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Many of Haldeman's works, including his debut novel War Year and his second novel The Forever War, were inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War. Wounded in combat, he struggled to adjust to civilian life after returning home. From 1983 to 2014, he was a professor teaching writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Charles Wilson</span> American-Canadian science fiction author (born 1953)

Robert Charles Wilson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Silverberg</span> American speculative fiction writer and editor (born 1935)

Robert Silverberg is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Grand Master of SF. He has attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953.

Roger Elwood was an American science fiction writer and editor, who edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early to mid-1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Priest (novelist)</span> British author

Christopher Priest is a British novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, The Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige, and The Separation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Valentine's Castle</span> 1980 novel by Robert Silverberg

Lord Valentine's Castle is a novel by Robert Silverberg published in 1980.

<i>Dying Inside</i> 1972 novel by Robert Silverberg

Dying Inside is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg. It was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1972, and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1973.

<i>Up the Line</i> 1969 novel by Robert Silverberg

Up the Line (1969) is a time travel novel by American science fiction author Robert Silverberg. The plot revolves mainly around the paradoxes brought about by time travel and is considered an example of the more sexually-permissive era of late 1960s American science-fiction, a reflection of the counterculture of its day. It was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1969 and a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1970 but lost to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness both times.

The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) was productive during a writing career that spanned the last 49 years of his life; the Robert A. Heinlein bibliography includes 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections published during his life. Four films, two TV series, several episodes of a radio series, at least two songs and a board game derive more or less directly from his work. He wrote a screenplay for one of the films. Heinlein edited an anthology of other writers' science fiction short stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyr (publisher)</span> American specialty publishing imprint

Pyr was the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, launched in March 2005 with the publication of John Meaney's Paradox. In November 2018 it was sold to Start Publishing.

<i>Thorns</i> (novel) Novel by Robert Silverberg

Thorns is a science fiction novel by American author Robert Silverberg, published as a paperback original in 1967, and a Nebula and Hugo Awards nominee.

<i>The Best Science Fiction of the Year 2</i>

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #2 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by American writer Terry Carr, the second volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in July 1973, and reissued in May 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poul Anderson bibliography</span>

The following is a list of works by science fiction and fantasy author Poul Anderson.

This is a partial bibliography of American science fiction and fantasy author Roger Zelazny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Silverberg bibliography</span> List of works by Robert Silverberg

List of the published work of Robert Silverberg, American science fiction author.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2001</i>

Nebula Awards Showcase 2001 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Robert Silverberg. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt in April 2001.

<i>Nebula Award Stories 5</i>

Nebula Award Stories 5 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by James Blish. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1970. The first American edition was published by Doubleday in December of the same year. Paperback editions followed from Pocket Books in the U.S. in January 1972, and Panther in the U.K. in December 1972. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Five. The book has also been published in German.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2005</i> Science fiction anthology

Nebula Awards Showcase 2005 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by American writer Jack Dann. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2005.

References

  1. "1972 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  2. "1973 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  3. "Boo Kreviews", The Haunt of Horror, June 1973, p.123
  4. "Books", F&SF , January 1973, p. 51
  5. Silverberg, Robert (January 2006). The Book of Skulls. ISBN   0-345-47138-5.
  6. "The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg".
  7. Kit, Zorianna (August 4, 2003). "Par Pics to crack 'Skulls' for Friedken". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 25, 2003. Retrieved July 13, 2022.