The Book of Skulls
Four students seek immortality through a deadly monastic ritual.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
Robert Silverberg's 1972 science fiction novel *The Book of Skulls* earned nominations for the Nebula Award that same year, followed by Hugo and Locus Award nominations in 1973. The story centers on four college friends who find a Catalan manuscript describing a monastery in the Arizona desert. The monks there claim to grant immortality through an initiation rite, but with a grim condition: for every group of four initiates, only two gain eternal life—one must sacrifice himself, and one must be killed by the others.
The narrative shifts between the four young men as they travel to the monastery and undergo the ritual. Timothy, a wealthy athlete, grows restless with monastic discipline. Ned, an openly gay poet, contemplates the contrast between eternity and death. Eli, the awkward Jewish student who found the manuscript, wrestles with doubt versus faith. Oliver, a midwestern farmboy, pursues life with an intensity he doesn't fully understand. Each carries hidden secrets.
The monks teach a history of immortality involving prehistoric shamans and Atlantean scholars. A trial of confession forces each student to reveal his darkest moment to another. Ned confesses his role in a gay double affair that led to a double suicide. Timothy admits to drunkenly raping his sister after social rejection. Oliver confesses to a teenage homosexual encounter. Eli breaks confidentiality, using Oliver's confession as his own, but Ned rejects this. Eli's real guilt emerges: his academic career rests on plagiarism of a dead colleague's manuscript.
At dawn, Timothy tries to convince Eli to leave, then walks away toward Phoenix. Knowing the consequences, Eli kills Timothy with a carved stone skull. Oliver, unable to face his sexuality after Ned's attempted seduction, castrates and stabs himself to death. With one initiate murdered and one a suicide, the monks declare the ninth mystery fulfilled and grant the remaining two eternal life.
Critic Baird Searles called the novel well-crafted but unsatisfying, finding none of the viewpoint characters likeable or convincing. James Blish, though deeming it a "noble failure," praised its writing as "so unobtrusively, flawlessly written" that it approached "poetic beauty."
Paramount Pictures optioned the film rights in 2003, with William Friedkin to direct and Jeff Davis adapting, but no further development occurred. The 2006 paperback cove
- author
- Robert Silverberg
- published
- 1972
- genre
- Science fiction novel
- awards_nominated
- Nebula Award (1972), Hugo Award (1973), Locus Award (1973)
- setting
- Arizona desert monastery
Lore & Background
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 allegedly have the power to bestow immortality on those who complete their initiation rite. Most frightening among the order's mysteries is the ninth: for each group of four initiates, only two will become immortal—one will sacrifice himself, and one will be sacrificed by the others. The boys travel across America to the monastery, where they are accepted collectively as a 'Receptacle' and told that, once accepted, if any one of them were to leave the three others' lives would be forfeit.
Reader's Guide
The narrative switches back and forth between the viewpoints of the four young men as each confronts his personal demons on the way to completing the ritual. Timothy, star athlete and blue-blooded son of a wealthy family, quickly grows bored with the austere monastic life. Ned, an openly gay poet, finds himself fascinated by the philosophical contrast between eternity and extinction. Eli, the gifted but awkward young Jewish student who discovered the manuscript, questions the surety of the mundane vs faith in the extraordinary. Oliver, the handsome midwestern farmboy, works himself harder than ever out of a powerful lust for life that even he himself doesn't fully understand. Each of them harbors secrets that will come back to haunt them. The monks' teachings include a history of immortality, alluding to prehistoric shamans and advanced Atlantean scholars.
Did You Know?
- The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1972, and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1973.
- In 2003, Paramount Pictures optioned the film rights, with William Friedkin to direct and Jeff Davis adapting, but no further development were made.
- The cover of the 2006 paperback edition stated that the novel is 'Soon to be made into a major motion picture', but plans for production failed to materialize.
- James Blish described the novel 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.'
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