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След глобална световна катастрофа останките на човечеството се оказват изолирани във вътрешността на Дома — из неговите многобройни Крила, разположени на различни планети, до които се стига мигновено чрез „телепортационно метро“. Агресията и насилието са изкоренени от обществения живот, тайно контролиран от Семейството. Членовете му представляват клонинги на възкресения от миналото мафиот Анджело ди Негри.
Всичко е наред в „най-добрия от световете“ до момента, когато загадъчният господин Блек започва своята космическа вендета срещу Семейството…
Всичко е наред в „най-добрия от световете“ до момента, когато загадъчният господин Блек започва своята космическа вендета срещу Семейството…
176 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1973
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411 people want to read
About the author
Roger Zelazny
745 books3,884 followersRoger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
March 31, 2018
This is one of Zelazny's most over-looked novels, a quasi-experimental piece in which no one is quite what they seem to be when they are introduced. It's a short book that covers a long time, a deeply character driven study with a taut and crackling plot, a crime caper set rigidly in a science-fiction setting... In short, it's vintage Zelazny, challenging and rewarding, thought-provoking and entertaining.
April 9, 2024
From 1973
A hit man for the mafia is frozen then brought to life when needed. At first this is slightly clear then it became less so. As he and others live outside of time. Seems like the Matrix, but that word is never used. In this it is called the Nexus.
A hit man for the mafia is frozen then brought to life when needed. At first this is slightly clear then it became less so. As he and others live outside of time. Seems like the Matrix, but that word is never used. In this it is called the Nexus.
January 15, 2025
What got me to pick this up was the offbeat title and the beautiful cover illustration (the one by Peter Andrew Jones, not the “gangstery” one), along with my decision to poke around a bit among lesser-known classic sci fi titles. This kind of gamble can be dicey, but it paid off, as I was faced with a delightfully weird Zelazny that starts out as quite pedestrian SF – a frozen mobster is woken from hibernation by his family centuries in the future for a job he is uniquely well suited for – then rapidly spins out of control into a mind-and-identity bending deadly game of cat and mouse in a world we have to unravel through very sparse hints scattered throughout.
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July 15, 2025dnf - sometimes old sci-fi is bad and that’s ok
July 8, 2019
If you’re willing to be confused for the first hundred pages, the payoff is worth it. Almost 50 years after its publication, this is still the among the best explorations of the potential benefits and risks of trying to guide humanity toward improvement over time. Should kindness, order, and security be prioritized above other virtues, or does some level of acrimony and conflict contribute to robustness in the face of unknown threats? Zelazny doesn’t give you answers to these questions, but he sure makes you think about them.
October 23, 2014
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.
Very well done & uniquely Zelazny. An interesting SF plot is turned to excellent through his masterful writing style.
February 23, 2012
What the hell?!? I've been so looking forward to reading some Zelazny, and picked this one up at random (I admit it, I liked the cover art) from the local secondhand bookshop last week. What a universal disappointment. It has all the makings of a great story -- true science fiction tropes like cloning and cryonics, plus an entertaining mafioso-assassin protagonist -- but it failed miserably for me. I was prepared for "innovative" stylistic choices, but this just read as if every 6th page was missing. I really do think Zelazny had a good story here, and maybe if, as I've read elsewhere, his wishes to keep Part 1 as a series of flashbacks following Part 2 had been honored by his publisher, it would work better. But, as it stands, I just found it confusing in the extreme.
I remain hopeful that my next Zelazny read will improve on this one; it shouldn't be hard.
I remain hopeful that my next Zelazny read will improve on this one; it shouldn't be hard.
April 16, 2012
It took me a really long time to get into this book. Like, 100 pages. Out of 175. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, I just couldn’t concentrate on what I was reading. Maybe it was written poorly (unlikely), or maybe I was just distracted by other things (highly likely, as I definitely had some stuff on my mind while I was trying to get started on the story), but in any case, I found myself a little lost.
As such, I was thinking of giving this book three stars (or maybe even 2.5, which I’d probably round up) for quite some time. Then I finally cleared my mind and was able to focus for the last 75 pages, and everything was excellent.
YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS BOOK if you want everything explained to you up front. In classic Zelazny fashion, a lot of information is withheld early on and we’re left to see things unfold at the same rate as the protagonist sees them (or even slower, since the first-person narrator doesn’t always explain to us exactly what he knows/is doing).
I could give a plot summary here, but I have nothing to say beyond what’s probably already listed in the official Goodreads entry. I will say this, though: I went into the book without even reading the blurb on the back cover. (It was a Zelazny book, so I knew I’d be reading it anyway.) I’d recalled reading something in the past about Mafia clones in space, but that was the extent of my information. Maybe this could have contributed to my confusion in the early pages.
If I had to draw a weak comparison here with another Zelazny book, I’d say that Today We Choose Faces is sort of like Lord of Light, except with the story told from the other side of the conflict. Of course, this book is nowhere near as good as Lord of Light (then again, what book is?), and the details of the stories are radically different, but on a very basic level, I did see some similarity between the two.
All in all, a good book, which I look forward to re-reading some day when I can give it more of my attention. Not the first Zelazny book I’d recommend to someone, but definitely enjoyable by the end.
As such, I was thinking of giving this book three stars (or maybe even 2.5, which I’d probably round up) for quite some time. Then I finally cleared my mind and was able to focus for the last 75 pages, and everything was excellent.
YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS BOOK if you want everything explained to you up front. In classic Zelazny fashion, a lot of information is withheld early on and we’re left to see things unfold at the same rate as the protagonist sees them (or even slower, since the first-person narrator doesn’t always explain to us exactly what he knows/is doing).
I could give a plot summary here, but I have nothing to say beyond what’s probably already listed in the official Goodreads entry. I will say this, though: I went into the book without even reading the blurb on the back cover. (It was a Zelazny book, so I knew I’d be reading it anyway.) I’d recalled reading something in the past about Mafia clones in space, but that was the extent of my information. Maybe this could have contributed to my confusion in the early pages.
If I had to draw a weak comparison here with another Zelazny book, I’d say that Today We Choose Faces is sort of like Lord of Light, except with the story told from the other side of the conflict. Of course, this book is nowhere near as good as Lord of Light (then again, what book is?), and the details of the stories are radically different, but on a very basic level, I did see some similarity between the two.
All in all, a good book, which I look forward to re-reading some day when I can give it more of my attention. Not the first Zelazny book I’d recommend to someone, but definitely enjoyable by the end.
July 10, 2009
I like almost nothing about this 1973 Zelazny pure-SF novel. It completely failed engage me at any point. I just struggled through it because I figured it had to get better at some point, and because is it packed with stylistic innovations that are interesting solely from an academic standpoint. But... it didn't add up for me. A huge disappointment after reading Bridge of Ashes, which has a similar -- almost identical in many ways -- stylistic point-of-view conceit at its core, but works beautifully despite requiring some effort. This one required lots of effort, and in my opinion it didn't work. One of Zelazny's rare missteps.
Next on my list: either To Die in Italbar or The Dream Master, which I read the novella version of but never read the expanded book version.
Next on my list: either To Die in Italbar or The Dream Master, which I read the novella version of but never read the expanded book version.
April 5, 2015
Ya know when you come upon a group of people and you think you know what they are talking about but after a minute or so you realize that not only do you have no idea what they are discussing, you can't get even an inkling by the context because the language is too ambiguous and everything is "inside" so no one explains anything in a way that helps you to understand what is going on? That's what this book feels like. It's a good read once you realize how the narration works, but it's foggy like a dream that you kinda remember but not really.
Sci-fi, telepathy, conspiracy, murder, other worlds, etc. Fun read but not Zelazny's best.
Sci-fi, telepathy, conspiracy, murder, other worlds, etc. Fun read but not Zelazny's best.
January 6, 2013
you need to read this book through a number of times...each time it gets a little thicker and you find yourself wondering why you didn't see 'that' before. I read this every time I get frustrated with the human race in general and think the inevitable "wouldn't it be nice if people weren't so ......", this brings me back to reality.
May 4, 2011
One of his weirder books.
August 27, 2012
an often overlooked but stunningly clever Zelazny sf novel, Today We Choose Faces is a grand carnival act where every mask hides another face.
September 26, 2019
Continuing my (re-)reading of the Zelazny canon. My records tell me I read this book 28 years ago, but I had no memory of it. Part I feels very different from the previous Zelazny books I've read. There's a definite science fiction setting (a Mafia hitman is shot down but wakes up several centuries in the future and continues his occupation), but it reads more like a crime noir story with the sci-fi elements as backdrop. When Part II arrives, the story switches dramatically. We are now following a group of clones (although that's not immediately apparent) who are being hunted down and killed by a mysterious figure. All this takes place within the House, an elaborate structure with many levels that seems to cover most of the world (there's no going outside). While that sounds like an adventure story, and there's certainly plenty of action scenes, it's dominated by philosophical discussions in internal monologues - a much more character-driven narrative - and as the viewpoint switches from one clone to another, a lot of exploration of identity. And of humanity, as the House is designed to "improve" society and humankind. Zelazny originally conceived of the novel as having Part I come after Part II as an extended flashback, and I honestly think it would have functioned much better in that fashion. Part III is basically a 5-page epilogue and would have had a better and more profound impact in Zelazny's original vision. A lesson learned, perhaps? Don't mess with the master. This is one of Zelazny's lesser-known works, but it certainly contains many of his hallmarks: a very competent if somewhat confused protagonist (told here, like many others, in first person narration), a strange/complex worldbuilding that ultimately hangs together, a narrative that throws the reader into the middle of the action so we get to discover things along with the characters. A novel that deserves to be better known.
July 4, 2025
This is not one of the novels that Zelazny is best known for, but with a little more work, it could have been. I was first introduced to it in high school when a good friend excitedly began talking about a book that is really concerned with a massive social engineering project...but I get ahead of myself.
Today We Choose Faces takes place a couple of hundred years into the future when Angelo, a hitman for the mob, is thawed out of cryogenic sleep because his descendants need him to kill someone. That opening section is classic Zelazny and just fun to read. What comes after, however, is the heart of the book, because Angelo finds himself in a situation in which he thinks he has a chance to save humanity from itself and keep it from killing off the human species.
Moving forward, we discover the world which we quickly figure out that Angelo created. In it, people are far less violent and more accepting than they were before. The price they pay for this is living in "the house" a supercity that is entirely enclosed. Violent crimes have become incredibly rare, so it is quite a surprise when our new hero dies in the opening sentences of this part of the book. He dies--but lives on thanks the science of cloning and telepathy which puts all of his experiences into a younger body.
What follows is his attempt to figure out who is trying to murder him and why they want him dead. This probably wouldn't have been very hard for him except that he too is a product of social engineering. The clones have been excising certain memories and personality traits from themselves so that they will not be sharks among minnows in the world they are creating.
It's a fascinating book, and if Zelazny had been just a little more interested in the social engineering aspects it would have been one of his greats. As it is, it is just a highly enjoyable adventure story.
Today We Choose Faces takes place a couple of hundred years into the future when Angelo, a hitman for the mob, is thawed out of cryogenic sleep because his descendants need him to kill someone. That opening section is classic Zelazny and just fun to read. What comes after, however, is the heart of the book, because Angelo finds himself in a situation in which he thinks he has a chance to save humanity from itself and keep it from killing off the human species.
Moving forward, we discover the world which we quickly figure out that Angelo created. In it, people are far less violent and more accepting than they were before. The price they pay for this is living in "the house" a supercity that is entirely enclosed. Violent crimes have become incredibly rare, so it is quite a surprise when our new hero dies in the opening sentences of this part of the book. He dies--but lives on thanks the science of cloning and telepathy which puts all of his experiences into a younger body.
What follows is his attempt to figure out who is trying to murder him and why they want him dead. This probably wouldn't have been very hard for him except that he too is a product of social engineering. The clones have been excising certain memories and personality traits from themselves so that they will not be sharks among minnows in the world they are creating.
It's a fascinating book, and if Zelazny had been just a little more interested in the social engineering aspects it would have been one of his greats. As it is, it is just a highly enjoyable adventure story.
March 9, 2024
Am pleasantly surprised even when my reading experience has been uncomfortable and/or frustrating at times. A proto cyberpunk scifi with clever plot structure that has kept me guessing. It can be a challenging read because the prose doesn't do a lot of hand holding and only provides context clues. Some dated plot and character elements, and the ever-changing narrators' points of view confused me. Not only that, the story goes in one direction and then to another several times, like a feint within a feint (Oh, so it's cloning? Wait, it's a murder mystery? Uh, telepathy between clones like in Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice"? Etc). However, this is in keeping with the theme of the scifi novel that is deliberate, leading to the third act that left me satisfied (didn't see it coming, but maybe others would). A lot of action similar to "Mission Impossible" (I think). Deserves a re-read and worth the mental acrobatics. Overall, I highly recommend despite the extra focus/patience required from the reader!
October 25, 2022
You definitely have to keep your wits about you in this sublime revenge tale where humanity has gone to hell in a handcart and it’s up to the Mafia to ride to the rescue (well, sort of). Through an undeniably enigmatic narrative universal political themes eventually rise to the surface following some intriguing action / chase scenes. Audaciously challenging, labyrinthinely cryptic and unquestionably thought-provoking, it’s a book to either love or loathe. I loved it.
October 23, 2020
I first read this back in 1973, rated it quite highly, and reread in 2001, found the action rather repetitive and was less impressed. This time round I'm more inclined to agree with my 2001 thoughts.
As always with Zelazny its very readable with original ideas but the main character is not very likeable, in any of his selves. and the action sequences are overdone and repetitive.
As always with Zelazny its very readable with original ideas but the main character is not very likeable, in any of his selves. and the action sequences are overdone and repetitive.
March 5, 2024
Interesting fantasy with a try of futuristic society philosophy but very superficial. Some interesting dialogues from time to time and too much description of details which gives nothing to the whole book. Latter could just be used as a film script. I could say that if you don't have what to do in a rainy day, you could read it.
October 10, 2019
Slow to start but picks up towards the middle/end. Might have been better if the parts were swapped around (or at least might have been easier to follow). Interesting stuff regarding evolution/eugenics.
January 14, 2025
Written as two separate but related stories. Supposedly Zelazny wanted them printed in reverse order but gave in to his editor. I actually think the pay off would be better the way he had originally intended. Overall, it was happy occurrence coming across a Zelazny story I had not read.
January 7, 2020
Final sorpresivo, empieza con una misión casi suicida y se sucede con misterios e intrigas w que te mantienen pegado al libro hasta el final
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2020
Interesting, but a little hard to follow.
January 20, 2021
Anyone who didn't consult this novel's Wikipedia page to make sense of the storyline is lying. It's ambitious, but too disorienting to be enjoyable.
May 4, 2025
DNF, too confusing.
The premise is interesting but the story is too poorly written to fully tell what is happening or track the characters.
The premise is interesting but the story is too poorly written to fully tell what is happening or track the characters.
December 19, 2025
A few years ago in LA, we stopped in The Last Bookstore (great place) and I picked up a few retro paperbacks, including a nicely beat-up 80s double feature by sci-fi author Roger Zelazny (the cover promises "2 full novels for only $2.95"!). The first novel, Today We Choose Faces, is an imaginative but strange tale of a cryogenically-frozen mafia dude awoken in the future to do one last hit, one which has dramatic effects on the path of humanity.
1970s mafioso Angelo di Negri gets shot in the gut, but gets frozen before dying (ahh, the midcentury obsession with cryogenics), and next thing he knows he's talking to his descendant, hundreds of years later. COSA, Inc. - now a largely mainstreamed company - needs someone to take out the man standing in their way of their expansion, who has networked his brain into a machine. Why Angelo? Well, the human race has become too gentle, incapable of the kind of violence the 20th century man could inflict without second thought. He trains and then fights his way into the facility, only to find out from the dying target that humanity is concurrently destroying themselves with war. Angelo, suddenly motivated to save the human race, uses the technology in that facility to set up a safer, morally evolved world where that could never happen again.
Then Part II begins, and another shooting, and another death - except who are we now? The first narrator dies, then we are shifted into another's consciousness. The second narrator is much rattled by this, moving through different wings of the House, an apparent indoor environment where humanity now lives. Each narrator is called the Nexus, and this hive mind appears to be a secret master of the House, but is also strangely vulnerable to this hunt. As more narrators die, they go deeper into their past, exposing the true origins of this facility and their own capabilities.
Apparently, Zelazny intended Part II as the start of the book, followed by Part I, but his editor convinced him to reverse the sections. I think it would have been better in its original order, because the shift to the hive mind clones is too confusing for too long for the reader. Sure, you have an inkling about how this is connected to Part I, but it is quite disorienting. I do dig the action scenes, which reminded me of some of the spaceship interiors fights in Martha Wells' Murderbot books, even though the overall sequence of Part II's plot was too long. I also enjoyed the wordplay in the clones' names, even though Mark Engel was a bit on the nose. Perhaps if it were written today, the nemesis might be an AI, but there are hints of this with the human-computer construct. In any case, "mafia....in space!" is such a weird concept I have to give Zelazny credit for boundary-pushing.
1970s mafioso Angelo di Negri gets shot in the gut, but gets frozen before dying (ahh, the midcentury obsession with cryogenics), and next thing he knows he's talking to his descendant, hundreds of years later. COSA, Inc. - now a largely mainstreamed company - needs someone to take out the man standing in their way of their expansion, who has networked his brain into a machine. Why Angelo? Well, the human race has become too gentle, incapable of the kind of violence the 20th century man could inflict without second thought. He trains and then fights his way into the facility, only to find out from the dying target that humanity is concurrently destroying themselves with war. Angelo, suddenly motivated to save the human race, uses the technology in that facility to set up a safer, morally evolved world where that could never happen again.
Then Part II begins, and another shooting, and another death - except who are we now? The first narrator dies, then we are shifted into another's consciousness. The second narrator is much rattled by this, moving through different wings of the House, an apparent indoor environment where humanity now lives. Each narrator is called the Nexus, and this hive mind appears to be a secret master of the House, but is also strangely vulnerable to this hunt. As more narrators die, they go deeper into their past, exposing the true origins of this facility and their own capabilities.
Apparently, Zelazny intended Part II as the start of the book, followed by Part I, but his editor convinced him to reverse the sections. I think it would have been better in its original order, because the shift to the hive mind clones is too confusing for too long for the reader. Sure, you have an inkling about how this is connected to Part I, but it is quite disorienting. I do dig the action scenes, which reminded me of some of the spaceship interiors fights in Martha Wells' Murderbot books, even though the overall sequence of Part II's plot was too long. I also enjoyed the wordplay in the clones' names, even though Mark Engel was a bit on the nose. Perhaps if it were written today, the nemesis might be an AI, but there are hints of this with the human-computer construct. In any case, "mafia....in space!" is such a weird concept I have to give Zelazny credit for boundary-pushing.
January 19, 2013
Continuing my late night reads of Roger Zelazny with a fussy baby in my lap, I picked up "Today We Choose Faces." Zelazny's tale of identity and the destiny of the human race contains all of his hallmarks--a complex, highly-competent protagonist, a setting that accretes in glimpses, action interspersed with philosophical discussion and strategic and tactical thinking. He maintains a high degree of tension throughout, and the ending is oddly fitting if not terribly triumphant.
The central conceit is an interesting one (in the interest of spoilers, I'll not go into details) that allows Zelazny to use his characteristic first-person prose to show a man (or men) grappling with issues of identity and self-control. One of the plot twists is a bit predictable, but since it's a short novel with high momentum, that doesn't really spoil it.
And, as always, it can be read just for the language: "...Seeing the fire-flowers unfold all in a row beneath me, the final blossom covering half of the building, its target; my vehicle faltering, diving burning then, myself ejected, the cabin intact about me and moving with a life of its own, dodging, darting, firing, downward and forward, downward and forward, coming apart then and dropping me gently, gently down, my prosthetic armor making the barest of clicks as my feet touch the ground and the repellors cut off; and then my lasers lancing forward, cutting through the figures who advance up me, grenades flying from my hands, waves of protoplasm-shattering ultrasonics flowing from me like notes from some rung, invisible bell..."
Like reading a scene from Iron Man turned to poetry.
The central conceit is an interesting one (in the interest of spoilers, I'll not go into details) that allows Zelazny to use his characteristic first-person prose to show a man (or men) grappling with issues of identity and self-control. One of the plot twists is a bit predictable, but since it's a short novel with high momentum, that doesn't really spoil it.
And, as always, it can be read just for the language: "...Seeing the fire-flowers unfold all in a row beneath me, the final blossom covering half of the building, its target; my vehicle faltering, diving burning then, myself ejected, the cabin intact about me and moving with a life of its own, dodging, darting, firing, downward and forward, downward and forward, coming apart then and dropping me gently, gently down, my prosthetic armor making the barest of clicks as my feet touch the ground and the repellors cut off; and then my lasers lancing forward, cutting through the figures who advance up me, grenades flying from my hands, waves of protoplasm-shattering ultrasonics flowing from me like notes from some rung, invisible bell..."
Like reading a scene from Iron Man turned to poetry.
March 14, 2024
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, disregarding her own motivations.
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.
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, disregarding her own motivations.
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.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews