Four American college students (Eli, Ned, Timothy, Oliver) travel deep into the harsh desert of Arizona to undergo the trials presented by the Keepers of the Skulls. If they succeed then eternal life is theirs.
Of course, such a gift comes with a steep price: two of the four must be sacrificed … one by murder, one by suicide …
Ah … brilliant.
When Eli, a young Jewish scholar with a gift for languages, discovers an ancient manuscript (the Book of Skulls) hinting at the secret of everlasting life, he is soon enamoured with the idea of finding the immortals described within. He connects a strange compound in the Arizona desert with the cult and convinces three friends to set off on a road trip to find them.
Ned, the flaming homosexual, goes along because it is all a big joke. Timothy, the rich kid travels because he is interested in adventure – and what is more interesting than travelling with a Jew, a Queer and a Farm Boy? Oliver, the farm boy pulling himself up the cultural ladder travels because he wants to believe immortality can be his.
What starts as a bit of a joke, a harmless college student trip of drugs, fucking and hedonism on the way from New England to a desert compound in Arizona soon turns serious. The building adorned with skulls is actually there. The monks living within appear to be ageless. They will accept the four as a group willing to undergo the various trials on the path to immortality.
The manuscript was true.
Perhaps.
The monks within the compound give them a warning: they apply as a unit of four. Until the trial is complete, none may leave or the lives of the others will be forfeit.
Hey sure, that sounds ok. After all, it kind of a big joke anyway right?
The writing style
The text switches effortlessly between four first-person narratives, each chapter headed simply with the character’s name, picking up the thread of the story and pulling us along. The inner monologues spin out eloquent dissertations mixed with base thoughts about fucking and racial and social stereotypes.
Each boy represents on the surface one prime driving force. Eli is Jewish. Ned, a homosexual. Timothy, the rich kid. Oliver, the sporty jock farm boy. As we travel with them, this rather basic setup is transformed as we are privy to their inner thoughts.
Questions explored
Here is a familiar mythos: You can travel to a remote location to learn mysteries from monks carrying on the legacy of an ancient society. If you exercise in a certain way, eat in a certain way, meditate in a certain way you may enter into these hidden mysteries and be transformed.
This is why we have monks up in caves and other various holy men at a distance from society: distance is mystery. Lack of access is mystery. Quiet and non-explanation is mystery. All these mysteries must mean they have knowledge of a giant mystery!
The characters consider this point at various times: how do you know whether these monks are full of shit or not? To claim incredible knowledge is how religions seek to establish dominion and control over people unwilling to undertake the harsh rituals to attain this incredible knowledge.
The monks, fraters, reveal information throughout the long days and weeks of the trial. Hints of ancient societies and an eternal cult from the beginnings of time. Various mythologies are woven together and through each character we pick up pieces of the whole story.
If this sounds a little too deep …
Sophie Monk is not a monk
There is plenty of sex. PLENTY OF SEX. Hot girls out in the world and at the compound with the monks. Ok? So don’t worry.
A psychological mindfuck
Although this story appears on the surface to be about the pursuit of eternal life and the cost of such a pursuit, it is also a close examination of human behaviour within set rules. The monks have set the rules and Eli, Ned, Timothy and Oliver decide for a time to play within those rules. Sure, one of the rules is that one person must kill himself and another must be killed but that can be put out of mind for a while. In this way, the death of two of the boys is put into comparison with our own eventual deaths. If you were to think about it all the time then you’d be paralysed. If you don’t think about it at all then you risk death by not being aware of it.
If you read the book thinking about cult indoctrination then it is a simply terrifying piece of work. It starts off harmless – a few exercises, a bit of meditation – but then slowly slides away from playtime towards murder and death. The rituals soon become habits and then take on deeper meaning, although they deserve none. The people involved in the rituals believe they achieve something which then pulls them further along.
That’s a key word there: believe. Through the rituals and instruction, the four characters start to believe to various degrees that they really can attain eternal life and that the cost of two lives is correct. As their belief in the promise offered by the fraters increases so does the tension between them. One must be murdered. One must commit suicide. They are stuck in a compound and know that two of them will die.
On the front cover it proclaims itself as a thriller fantasy but I think that was only because Robert Silverberg is most well-known for writing science-fiction and fantasy and this book really is neither. Sure, the elements of eternal life are a little fantastical but the realness of the world makes it believable.
I’ve read the Book of Skulls multiple times over my life (I think the first time was when I was sixteen) and read it probably every two years or so now. It’s an amazing story with an underlying tension that doesn’t let up. The moment you discover that two must die so two may live … mmmm tension.
How I got The Book of Skulls
No idea. It has $4 written in pencil on the first page so some second-hand shop I suppose.
It’s still in print and there are copies floating around second-hand bookshops (perhaps for $4).
Happy reading,
Mat
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our diabolical machines fell in love
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