American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson / Way Station by Clifford D. Simak / Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes / ...And Call Me Conrad [This Immortal] by Roger Zelazny
edited by Gary K. Wolfe
In 1966, the Hugo Award for Best Novel was won by Frank Herbert's Dune, still a staggering titan of the genre that has cast a long shadow over science fiction. According to the voters of the 1966 Worldcon, however, there was another novel that was every bit as good as Dune: ...And Call Me Conrad, the debut novel of Roger Zelazny. Though Zelazny is an acclaimed writer, ...And Call Me Conrad is mostly remembered now as the novel that somewhat inexplicably tied with Dune.
(The novel was originally serialized in F&SF, cut down a little for length; it was later republished in full under the title of This Immortal as a standalone novel. I read it in an Library of America edition that reprints the full text, but reinstates the title of the serial, which Zelazny preferred. I do think the editor of the novel was right. While I don't think "This Immortal" is any great shakes, "...And Call Me Conrad" works as a title for a magazine story, but it's impossible for me to imagine a reader seeing it emblazoned on the cover of a novel and thinking it sounds intriguing. I might have gone with Zelazny's proposed subtitle, "The Reluctant Immortal." It was the serial publication that won the Hugo, technically.)
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Collection published: 2019 Novel originally published: 1965 Acquired: February 2022 Read: July 2024 |
I'm reading it as part of my project to read winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novel I haven't already read—and I read Dune twenty years ago, back in high school, so I'll be skipping that. (I probably really ought to reread Dune, because I don't think I appreciated it at the time, but I must press on, no going back!) Despite that, it's hard not to wonder what the voters of 1966 were thinking, and hard not to compare it to Dune.
The thing about Dune that made it impactful and influential is its total immersion in an alien (future) way of life—it's lead to a style of sfnal storytelling we now totally take for granted. ...And Call Me Conrad is set in a future world, but on Earth. It's not quite as disorienting as Dune, but it's still light on exposition in its early stages; the reader isn't given a lot to go on from the beginning. The editor of F&SF made Zelazny add a page of exposition, which this Library of America edition includes in an end note; I read it where it was supposed to fit into the narrative but found it didn't really clarify anything at all! But it's not immersive in the way Dune is immersive; it didn't reinvent science fiction.
The novel has an interesting set-up; the Earth has become subjugated by the alien Vegans, not through militaristic conquest, but through economic domination. Most humans have emigrated to Vegan planets, Earth itself is owned by the Vegans, and Earth is largely dependent on Vegan tourism. There are some humans, however, who are resentful of Vegan control, and want humanity to return to its home. A book about forms of empire and domination and cultural imperialism and native uprisings and violent resistant to hegemonic power. So while it may not be told in the way Dune was told, it was very much interested in the same kinds of ideas as Dune. Something in the air in 1965! (This was the same year Kwame Nkrumah published his book Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism.) In some ways, though, Call Me Conrad does something more interesting, in making Earth the "Africa" of its colonial allegory—it very much is in the War of the Worlds vein of "what if aliens did to Earth what the West is always doing to other countries?" (Jo Walton has an interesting take over on Tor.com, of course, but I particularly liked this comment by @relogical.)
It resonates with other novels I've read as part of this project. In its contemplative tone, it reminds me a lot of what Clifford D. Simak was doing in books like City (1944-73) and Way Station (1963). Indeed, like both of those novels its focuses on an emotionally isolated immortal! The somewhat pulpy depiction of the Vegans reminded me a lot of what Philip K. Dick was doing in novels like Now Wait for Last Year (1966), using old-school tropes to quickly sketch in a background of cosmic war but then telling the kinds of stories that went in much more interesting directions.
I would say that overall, I liked it but did not love it. Very well written, neat backstory, lots of keen moments of observation and insight. My favorite moment was probably the argument over what was being done to the Great Pyramid in Egypt, some excellent thoughtful satire there. But I never felt a strong interest in its protagonist; the idea of the world-weary immortal has probably been done better elsewhere. I've read some of his short fiction before, but this was my first novel by Roger Zelazny; I look forward to reading Lord of Light for the 1968 awards, which most people seem to consider his best work.
I read an old winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel every year, plus
other Hugo-related books that interest me. Next up in sequence: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
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