Пустош

by Roger Zelazny, Gerald Hausman, Роджър Зелазни

„Да бъде светлина и винаги да има книги на Роджър Зелазни.“

Филип Хосе Фармър

„Един от най-добрите разказвачи, майстор на проникновеното, провокативно, увлекателно четиво.“

Пол Андерсън

Джералд Хосмън, изследовател на североамериканските индианци и автор на серия високо оценени книги като „Азбуката на острова — костенурка“, „Тункашила“ и именитият създател на бестселъри Роджър Зелазни са обединили литературните си умения в написването на епична сага за живота и смъртта в американската пустош.

През 1808 г. траперът Джон Колтър пробяга и пропълзя 150 мили през местността, която сега е известна като Националния парк Йелоустоун.

През 1823 г. ловецът Хю Глас, смятан за мъртъв след нападение на мечка и изоставен от приятелите си, пропълзява сто мили от Гранд Вали до река Мисури.

Винаги на косъм от смъртта, сред враждебна, сурова природа и дебнещи врагове, придружени единствено от тежки спомени и странни видения, тези мъже въплъщават американския дух за оцеляване.

Genres: Adventure, Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

Roger 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).

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Пропуснал съм преди години тази книга, но ето че наваксах. ;)

Две истории от Дивия Запад, които трудно могат да оставят читателите си безразлични. И като се сетя, че сега някакви нещастници си играят на уж оцеляване в нагласени тв предавания, ми става смешно и жалко. За едни отминали епохи и за едни корави и силни мъже, за един простичък код на честа и за поведение, които днес широко се възприемат като неуместни.

Струва си да се прочете, макар че попрескочих част от делириумите психоделични в средата на книгата.

P.S. Историите на двамата ловци от книгата ме заинтригуваха и в едно от ревютата тук открих заглавията на книги за живота им, които при случай с удоволствие ще прочета.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilderness is written by Roger Zelazny & Gerald Hausman. I remembered I had this book when I read Hausman's account of his friendship with Zelazny in the beginning of The Road to Amber, the 6th book of the Collected Works. Hausman tells how Zelazny kicked off his career & helped him out, asking only that he pay it forward.

"Wilderness" is a western about 2 early mountain men; John Colter and Hugh Glass. These are fictionalized accounts but firmly based on the historical facts. The book alternates chapters, starting with Colter & then switching to Glass. Zelazny obviously wrote in the dream scenes which highlight the incredible stress of the situation & the determination of the men who managed to survive them against all odds.

Colter is known for his infamous run from 100 Indians in 1808, while Glass is known for surviving a bear attack almost 2 decades later & then making his way back to civilization after being stripped & left for dead by his companions who were sure he was about to die. Their stories are stranger than fiction & I find it amusing that the fictionalized account is actually tamer in some ways than the true stories. That any humans could have done what they did is just incredible.

If you aren't familiar with their stories, I'd suggest you do read their Wikipedia entries which are good quick summaries of their lives, but you might want to do so after. Glass' especially contains a spoiler if you realize too early on who one of the characters is.

Here's links to their Wikipedia entries:

John Colter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colter

Hugh Glass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass
The legendary Jim Bridger was the young man that left Glass, a completely understandable, if heartbreaking mistake.

I can't say anything about the ending without spoiling part of the story. I'll just say that you should keep the dates firmly in mind.

[Alazzar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really know if the "mountain man" genre is a big one, but I feel confident in saying that this book is one of its better representatives.

Wilderness contains two separate stories about two separate mountain men: John Colter, who ran 150 miles while being pursued by hundreds of Blackfoot warriors; and Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a bear and had to crawl 100 miles with a broken leg to get help.

Oh, and these stories are both based on true events.

Yeah.

I love the way the book is structured: Gerald Hausman does a Colter chapter, then Zelazny does a Glass chapter. Rinse, repeat. Or I guess don't rinse, because these mountain men didn't have much of a chance to shower while they were struggling to survive. But whatever.

Anyway, a complaint I often have in Zelazny collaborations is that I sometimes feel the other author's writing hurts the book somewhat. But that's not the case, here! Not only is Hausman a fine writer (based on my one experience with him), but he and Zelazny stayed out of each other's way by writing two separate stories, so I didn't have to worry about a collaborator potentially damaging what Zelazny had started.

If I had to pick which story I liked better, I actually might go with Hausman's telling of Colter's run. (Which is odd, considering what a Zelazny whore I am.) The only thing that holds old Hugh Glass back (aside from the broken leg and bear-mauled face) is that a lot of his story is just . . . crawling. Which can be fine, for a time, but it can also be a little tiresome. Still, once we start getting flashbacks of Hugh's days as a pirate(!), things get good.

And now, for a (minor) complaint about the book, we have spoiler time:

If I have one major complaint about this book, it's that Hugh's story seemed to go on too long. I mean, once Colter had broken free and essentially reached the home stretch, I had the sense of finality you get at the end of a story. But then Hugh wasn't done yet, and I still had a sixth of the book to go, which seemed really odd. It felt like I was done, but I had 50 pages left.

Also, it didn't help that, just after Colter hit the home stretch, Hugh found some friendly natives and finally got to stop crawling. That seems like a natural end to things, right? But no, we get another ~40 pages of Hugh walking around on his healed leg and journeying through the wilderness again.

Don't get me wrong--if you took the story of Hugh Glass and read only that, it would be fine. But it seemed odd to me that Colter finished, and then Glass finished, and then Glass started a new journey that went on for another ~40 pages.

Anyway, if you have any interest at all in reading about fur-trappers/hunters engaging in larger-than-life adventures, this may just be the book for YOU!

[Sarah Smithers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just pitiful...Read Lord Grizzly for a great hugh Glass story, and give Your Heart to the Hawks for Colter's story plus some others...Do not read The Revenant.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2
Writers Roger Zelazny, Gerald Hausman fictionalize the heroic survival stories of two famous Mountain Men, John Colter & Hugh Glass. Hausman embellishes Colter's already fantastic story of being the naked prey of a band of 100 Blackfeet, running, hiking & hiding for eleven days until he reaches a frontier fort. Some of Hausman's additions are a bit ridiculous, but the over-all presentation is a fine adventure.
Zelazny has the more difficult job, because Glass was mauled by a bear, was left for dead by his friends, and then had to CRAWL, alone in the wilderness, more than 200 miles to Fort Kiowa; therefore, much of Glass's action is slow crawling, which could make for SLOW READING. Zelazny buffers the slow crawl with flashbacks, memories and hallucinations. The dreamy quality often seems jarring when juxtaposed with the fast-moving Colter story (I should mention that the chapters of WILDERNESS alternate between the Colter & Glass stories). This is not a negative criticism, though; I actually liked reading these differently paced biographies placed side-by-side.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 great stories of survival. Interested in The Revenant? Here's the story of Hugh Glass, told by Roger Zelazny - who is known for his fantasy, but was a great writer in general.

[Daryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Continuing my (re-) reading of all of Zelazny's books, now I come to Wilderness. I started reading this book back in 1995 (a year after its release) but abandoned it after 100 pages. It bored me and I just couldn't get through it. I went into this time somewhat reluctantly but determined that I'd finish it, which I did. Another collaboration, this time with Gerald Hausman, a "storyteller" and author who's written a lot about Native Americans of the West. Wilderness tells two stories, both based in fact: one about John Colter, a trapper who, in 1808, was captured by the Blackfoot tribe, who stripped him naked, then released him and pursued him as he ran, climbed, and hid for 150 miles through what is now Yellowstone National Park to escape. The second story, set in 1823, is about hunter Hugh Glass, who is left for dead after being attacked by a grizzly bear. Glass revives and, despite a broken leg and severe injuries, makes his way 100 miles, mostly by crawling, to the nearest fort. Both Colter's and Glass's stories have been told previously and since, in literature and film, Glass's most recently in the novel and movie The Revenant (which I have neither read nor seen). The two stories are told in alternating chapters, written by the two authors. I understand, though this is second-hand information, that Hausman wrote the Colter story while Zelazny wrote Glass's. I'd say Hausman has the easier task, as Colter moves rapidly through different areas and we also get the perspective of the Blackfoot pursuers at times. Unfortunately, it gets bogged down in details, and I never got a sense of Colter's amazing accomplishment. Zelazny spends 100 pages describing Glass crawling along the ground - if that sounds boring to you, you're absolutely right. Despite some flashback scenes of Glass's past, occasional hallucinations and daydreams, I was terribly bored by this telling. (That's the reason I gave up on it in '95.) It does pick up slightly toward the end - after Glass arrives at his destination, we get a final chapter of 45 pages (from Zelazny) about what Glass does afterwards (he's healed and sets off to find those who abandoned him, revenge on his mind). But it all comes too little, too late, to save this slog of a novel. And there's no connection between the two stories being told in the novel. (The one exception *minor spoiler alert* is a scene in the last couple pages of the novel where the two characters meet up - coming chronologically between the two main stories - and that seems more contrived than anything. Glass decides to head out to the wilderness to take his chances, like Colter did. Ugh.)

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not perfect, but still a fun amalgam of two tall tales.

[Aengus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger Zelazny and Gerald Hausman co-authored this book about two of the most renowned feats of endurance and survival in the Old West. Hugh Glass was mauled by a grizzly bear, then left for dead by his friends (including a young Jim Bridger). He crawled 100 miles over the course of several weeks, driven by thoughts of revenge. John Colter was captured by Blackfeet indians while he was trapping beaver. In a show of good sportsmanship, the Blackfeet took his shoes, gave him a hundred yard head start. If he could outrun them, hey, they wouldn't torture and kill him! Over the next 150 miles, he out paced and outsmarted them.
Chapters alternate between the two stories. I suspect Zelazny wrote the Colter sections-there are some oddly lyrical reveries alongside the heart pounding action scenes. The Glass sections drag a little. "He crawled another 10 feet and thought of what he'd do when he saw Jim . . " Colter's run has more of "Perils of Pauline" quality to it. All in all a worthy book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little known book by one of my favorite authors (Roger Zelazny) in collaboration Gerald Hausman, an author an expert on Native Americans.
This novel is based on two mountain men who lived out west in the early 19th Century who survived a harrowing experiences.
John Colter who had been part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition became what many say was the first "Mountain Man". He was chased by over 100 Blackfoot Indians for 150 miles narrowly escaping death. The other antagonist is Hugh Glass who several years later was mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead. He eventually awoke and crawled 100 miles with a broken leg and several horrendous wounds to survive. These are based on true stories altough this is a fictional retelling.
Very poetic rendering at times.