Rating: 
Summary: superb quality writing
Review: Skillfull story-telling nearly overcomes a plot which is a hard sell from the beginning. It involves four mostly intelligent college students who embark on a cross country journey to investigate an ancient mysterious site believed to contain secrets of immortality. The four students are very different in personality, and their interactions and thoughts are superbly described. Silverberg was able to convince me of how they could be motivated to participate in this journey. I ultimately could not buy into the great extent to which they went, however, to discover the truth. Perhaps this was no fault of Silverberg's, as the flaw with this book is the distance one's imagination must be stretched to accept the premise. It's ironic that Silverberg's skill in presenting four very believable characters actually increases the difficulty of the reader to accept the events they get involved in. This said, there is enough intelligent exploration of the subject of immortality to warrant a read by any sci-fi fan. Just concentrate on those ideas and the characters, and try to overlook the actual events that unfold. I put this book in the middle range of Silverberg's quality work.
Rating: 
Summary: Insights in the depths of the human soul...
Review: The "book of skulls" is guaranted to set you thinking about mortality, eternity and the dark desires of the human soul. Something you would not expect in "just another old fantasy story". Set against the background of a lonely desert, the book desribes how dark desires are awakened in four inherently different college boys. Two of them are given the opportunity to gain immortality by a strange order of monks, if one of them commits suicide and one is killed.
Strange initiation rites rip apart the characters of the apparently nice and even "cute" boys, making you wonder about whether there is such a thing as "normal".
The book leaves you with questions about your own desires, about life and death, about the boundaries of immortality...
It is a shame this book is out of print for such a long time.
Rating:
Summary: homosexuality and immortality
Review: The book is written from the perspectives of four stereotypic student personalities, with ill-conceived characterizations. A very strong leitmotiv of open vs. repressed homosexuality and its relation to the existential angst makes the book an interesting reading experience. The background story is rather sketchy, and kitsch: The search for immortality, in a desert hideout of an (of course) ancient cult. A short and easy-reading story, but not a good piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: The Book of Skulls
Review: The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg starts off with four college students who have found an ancient manuscript, the book of skulls, that describes of an ancient cult that can teach one how to become immortal. The Boys have discovered that this cult resides in a monastery somewhere in the Arizona desert and that although two of the four can become immortal two must die for this to occur.There are some definite warnings about this book. Silverberg uses some pretty strong language in this book and there are some relatively explicit sex scenes, some which our Christian friends might want to refrain from reading. Homosexuality is dealt with a lot in this book although I don't personally agree with Silverberg's opinions on the matter. Overall not a book for your kids to read. Dialogue in this book is quite long winded but interesting. Silverberg uses a style of writing in which the entire book is in a first person narrative (along with dialogue) but the narrative switches off each chapter with which one of the four kids is telling the story. He does do a good job of having the story told by four very different characters (a Jew, a rich kid, an orphan and a homosexual). Overall a good read although I would not put it on the top of my list.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing...
Review: The premise of this book is very interesting. The story itself tends to suck you in so that you feel like you HAVE to finish it. But even so, I found this book disturbing. Be warned, if you read this book you will have some very detailed homosexual images pumped into your brain. I really wasn't all that interested in hearing about Ned's fantasies concerning Oliver's "bum." If Silverberg were to have left out all the detailed sex in this book (and especially the homosexual junk), it would have turned out to be a decent book. Of course, that would have cut out about half of the book!
Rating:
Summary: classic book by young silverberg
Review: the story is about 4 friends from differenr sociologic backgrounds, which together assemble the puzzle of the U.S.A society - the furness of u.s.a is it's college where they all meet : one is jewish (woody ellen style), the other gay, other is the populor sport guy, and the other a white aristocrat type, all are in pursuit for eternal life only 2 will survive. the book is a tale about america , when not the rich and beutifull win always, but others with other qualities can win the jackpot and implement the "american dream". the idea itself is interesting, althought i can't tell that this is a realy SCI-FI book, almost the survivals probably ghad won eterninty, but i think it more of a tale about american society in the 70's then SCI-FI book.
Rating:
Summary: classic book by young silverberg
Review: the story is about 4 friends from differenr sociologic backgrounds, which together assemble the puzzle of the U.S.A society - the furness of u.s.a is it's college where they all meet : one is jewish (woody ellen style), the other gay, other is the populor sport guy, and the other a white aristocrat type, all are in pursuit for eternal life only 2 will survive. the book is a tale about america , when not the rich and beutifull win always, but others with other qualities can win the jackpot and implement the "american dream". the idea itself is interesting, althought i can't tell that this is a realy SCI-FI book, almost the survivals probably ghad won eterninty, but i think it more of a tale about american society in the 70's then SCI-FI book.
Rating: 
Summary: INVOLVING SCI-FI
Review: Wow. They really need to re-publish this book. It is mesmerizing, and for a young boy, titillating and nightmarish; it jump-starts your imagination. I will give away nothing, other than to say the 70s-cultish premise quickly turns into something much darker, much more thrilling, and more psychologically disturbing than you might imagine. Scary, hip, fabulous - this book would make a wild movie. But read the book, if you can get your hands on it.
Rating:
Summary: INVOLVING SCI-FI
Review: Wow. They really need to re-publish this book. It is mesmerizing, and for a young boy, titillating and nightmarish; it jump-starts your imagination. I will give away nothing, other than to say the 70s-cultish premise quickly turns into something much darker, much more thrilling, and more psychologically disturbing than you might imagine. Scary, hip, fabulous - this book would make a wild movie. But read the book, if you can get your hands on it.
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