Today We Choose Faces

Uno strano mondo governato in modo occulto da una nuova edizione della famiglia (sì, quella famiglia), formata interamente da cloni e dedita alla ricerca, attraverso metodi più o meno discutibili, dell'elevazione morale dell'umanità.
Se non che c'è un clone mancante, che non condivide questa filosofia, e riuscirà a ripristinare l'antica, feroce, competitiva, modalità dell'evoluzione umana.
La traduzione è al di sotto del minimo accettabile.

A Mafia hit man gains immortality through freezing his body & cloning. He then guides the human race toward a more peaceful existence. When trouble strikes, he is forced to confront pieces of himself that he thought were no longer needed & face down the enemy.Very well done & uniquely Zelazny. An interesting SF plot is turned to excellent through his masterful writing style.

I found this to be a pretty standard story about a solution to family defence. the character is rather flat, but given that he's a sociopath, I shouldn't have been surprized. I'm sorry that RZ has never regained the heights of "Lord of Light" and "Creatures of Light and Darkness".

My least favorite among Zelazny's works. The tone kind of reminded me of Doorways in the Sand, a much better novel I'll have to get around to reading again.

paperback

This is a gripping novel with an unusual scenario; as a piece of storytelling it impresses me. The mood is dark, murders are committed, there is a mysterious enemy. The protagonist has an interesting psychological journey to go through.

In some ways, I’m sufficiently impressed to give the book four stars, but I deduct a star because some of the details are less impressive. The setting feels rather like a stage set, it has a lack of substance. There are relatively few characters in play, and they feel old-fashioned, like characters from a 1950s novel, although the book was published in 1973.

There’s only one substantial female character, Glenda, and her behaviour is odd and unexplained. She seems to act at the whim of the author, show more disregarding her own motivations. She’s fond of Mr Black, who has functioned as her stepfather, but she helps and protects his enemy for no apparent reason, and reacts little when Mr Black is killed.

I read in Wikipedia that Zelazny originally placed the first part of the book at the end, as a flashback, but his editor insisted on chronological order. Of course, the story would be even more mysterious if told in reverse order, but I think I prefer it the way it is, which makes more sense. show less