Centuries after the three-day war, a ruined Earth is largely uninhabited, reduced to a tourist spot for the Vegans, humanoid aliens quietly oppressing mankind simply by being its cultural superiors. While many Homo Sapiens elect to live off planet, residing on Saturn's moon Titan or more distant worlds, content to accept the intellectual hegemony of Vega, Conrad Nomikos is one of the minority remaining at home. Tall, clubfooted, his visage blighted by a fungal growth contracted at a radioactive hot spot, Nomikos works as Arts Commissioner for Earth, rediscovering and curating the remnants of its once glorious history. Wryly spoken and ironically mannered, Nomikos is hiding something a few are beginning to openly suspect: as lethal in combat as he is erudite, this Greek aesthete is a mutant several hundred years old. When Nomikos is chosen to accompany Myshtigo, the Vegan's greatest living writer on tour around the Mediterranean, it seems that more than a guidebook for the aliens will be the result. Nomikos believes Myshtigo will pen a survey of Earth reinforcing its parochial status as a traveler's curiosity, silencing the few dissenting Terrans who dream of restoring their homeworld to its former importance. But Nomikos understands that merely assassinating Myshtigo will not serve the cause he has covertly supported for centuries - if humanity is to regain its birthright, subtler means will be required.

Zelazny's first novel is the ideal place to begin exploring this singular writer. Displaying an informed, witty understanding of mythological archetypes, This Immortal utilizes its Hellenistic setting and Classical avatars to splendid advantage. Elegant and flavoursome, this book is representative of the author's oblique attack, possessing a concise, edgy quality often absent in works employing styles as ornate as Zelazny's. This astringency contrasts wonderfully with his more poetic moments, becoming more pronounced in his 1970s' work. Rising to prominence as a blinding light of America's New Wave alongside Delany and Ellison, Zelazny was highly regarded within the field, even collaborating with elder statesmen like Bester and Dick. Although his 1960s' work is his most feted, his untimely death in 1995 robbed imaginative writing of one of its most fascinating eminences.

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