ENGRENAGES

by FRED SABERHAGEN ROGER ZELAZNY, Fred Saberhagen

279pages. poche. Poche.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, American

Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is something of a proto-cyberpunk novel, set in the near-future world of 1995. It's my favorite of Zelazny's collaborative books, and I think Saberhagen must have influenced the characterization heavily. The themes and concepts aren't as mind-spinning as they were forty years ago, since we've resigned ourselves to the idea that A.I. has already taken over the world, but it was a real eye-opening cautionary tale at the time. Zelazny was always ahead of his time.

[Иван Величков · Rating 5 out of 5]

Тандемът Зелазни-Саберхаген е една от малкото сполучливи комбинации между продуктивни фантастични автори, а българското издание е от библиотека Мегафантастика, която преди 20 години ни зарадва само с две, но за сметка на това чудесни, книги.
Романът е един, сега вече наивно изглеждащ, техно трилър с малко елементи на паранормално и капка киберпънк за финал. Писан през 1982 година, като действието се развива в близкото бъдеще (1995). Бъдеще с минимален технологичен напредък, който на места за съжаление, на места за радост, вече 20 години все още не е осъществен. Логичните транспортни магистрали за роботизирани електрически камиони, изцяло електрифициран обществен и частен транспорт и огромни електро-корпорации диктуващи политиката на света.
Главният герой е богат лентяй без спомени за миналото си, който всеки месец получава определена сума пари. Приятелката му успява да го навие да разчепка проблемната си памет с медицинска помощ, а след това изненадващо го напуска. Доналд започва леко да си припомня парчета от миналото, когато е работил в малък и странен отдел на голяма енерго корпорация и осъзнава, че изчезването на момичето не е случайно. Следва интензивен екшън, с доволно количество напрежение и разрушителен финал.
Много любима книга, нетипична и за двамата автори, която успява да вкара уникална атмосфера на фона на задъхано действие (или обратното, според читателя).
Препоръчвам на всеки търсещ леко, но качествено четиво за неделя следобяд.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with Fred Saberhagen, I'm generally not too fond of books where Zelazny writes with another author. This is an exception. They complement each other very well in this short, but very action packed novel.

It's an interesting concept. In the not too distant future, the world is run almost entirely by computers with mega corporations. The hero is caught up in a tense situation, but has a hidden ally & talent that becomes apparent as the novel progresses.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is just something about Zelazny's writing... He is one of the authors who could write anything and I enjoy it.

in this very old school, more than somewhat dated, classic science fiction there is a hint of something a little more stuffy than I usually associate with Zelazny. The lead character is a bit more of a cowboy style, man's man hero than most of his leading characters. However I still enjoyed the book tremendously.

Our story starts with Donald BelParti dozing on his boat near Key West. He has a new lover, Cora, who he is very much into, but she is inclined to be probing about his history and his large source of income. Things that Donald just does not think of. As he drowses, he starts thinking on the same wavelength as his new autopilot....

Under Cora's chivvying, Don tries to take her home to meet his parents, only to find that the town he remembers is not there and neither are any parents. Along the way we get more and more hints that Don can somehow communicate with computers.

Then Cora is kidnaped, Don discovers he used to be part of a large organisation, what exactly it did he is not sure, what he did in it must have ad something to do with his innate ability to communicated with computers a skill he will need to use if he is to find and free Cora. There is a lot of action, a fair bit of questing and some really innovative and interesting world building going on. I especially loved the fully automated and computer guided road trains.

The 1980's had a lot of good speculative fiction whenit came to computeres, AIs and the future mechanised world. While this one has dated a bit, in several different ways in a general sence it has some pretty spectacular predictions and some (also dated) really nice speculative work about computers, communication and the world wide web (not by that name) which is pretty impressive, since www was not really a ling until almost a decade after this book was written.

Anyway, for any lovers of classic science fiction, this is a fun book. If you are interested in cyberpunk - this seems to me to be a kind of first generation cyberpunk.

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of Zelazny's published collaborations (after Deus Irae with Philip K. Dick). I'm not familiar with the works of Saberhagen, so to me this just read like a Zelazny novel. After a few fantasy novels, this time he goes for straight-up sci-fi. It's an interesting tale. Published in '82 and set in the then-future world of 1995. Donald BelPatri, our main character, is living a life of ease, getting money anonymously deposited in his bank account monthly. Although what's going on with those strange scars on his skull? He takes his new girlfriend back to his hometown in upper Michigan (they were in the Florida Keys at the start of the novel), where nothing is as he remembers it. And he can't seem to remember much. It's a trope - the main character has amnesia and is discovering details of his past life along with the reader - that Zelazny has used before, most successfully in Nine Princes in Amber. BelPatri also has the (apparently inherent) ability to telepathically enter into computer systems and affect them. I'm sure this was all very novel in 1982 as our hero manages to surf through cyberspace (not that it's called that) and along phone lines (no wi-fi here). Still, it's an entertaining romp for its time. I'm not sure if the novel broke new ground at the time, but it's all pretty standard stuff nowadays. Once the girl disappears, the bulk of the novel becomes an extended chase scene, with automated trucks and trains, a short journey by barge, and motorcycles and helicopters - all very cinematic. And, as I said, fun given its time frame. My version, a Tor paperback, is listed as the "first mass market paperback" and comes with full-page illustrations at the start of each chapter. This is the third of the last five Zelazny novels to be illustrated; was this a big trend in the early '80s? Also the cover (though not the interior illustrations) is by renowned comic book artist Howard Chaykin, so that's cool. Probably 3.5 stars.

[J.j. Metsavana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zelazny on minuarust meister zanrite segamises ja asjade kokkupanekus, mis loogika järgi kokku ei tohiks sobida. Siin raamatus paaritab ta küberpungi ning telepaatia ja kuratlikult hästi. Kirjutatud muuseas paar aastat enne Gibsoni Neuromanti ja ennustab muarust viimasest märksa paremini tulevikku ette. Isesõitvat rekkad ja autod näiteks ja ülemailmne elektrooniline pangadus.

[Printable Tire · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrible. I kept expecting a twist ending but alas, it was a horribly straight-forward scifi/action romp. A waste of both the authors' talents.

I got this from my high school's library for free. Sometimes they would discard books and have them out for free. I think I had it for so long because I thought the cover was cool and the girl looked hot. The cover's about the best thing about this book.

There are really only like three books I regret reading. They are Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates, the Ravengers, and this book.

[Rhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how these authors created a new variety of hacking, as the main character hacks with ESP-like power. Fascinating plot and feels like it was written today almost. Still relevant, especially because the female characters are as bold and interesting as the male characters. I'm probably showing my age as I'm not looking for other sexes, well, there is the Being in cyberspace. Anyway, it's better than Heinlein on that front. It's definitely action packed, which I also liked, and felt it was an easy book to pick up and read for 15 minutes each day.

[Matthew Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, surprising novel. My copy has a tattered dustjacket. I bought it from a used book store only because of the Zelazny name. I'd never heard of the novel.

Anyway, it got off to a slow start, but once its premise was revealed, I really enjoyed it. Why is this not a movie yet?

With the recent advent of AI, this book has renewed relevancy. I encourage anyone interested in philosophical questions about generative AI to give it a whirl.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cowritten by Fred Saberhagen, this still feels like a Zelazny book. It’s not one of his best, being slightly unconvincing throughout, but I like it well enough to reread it now and then. It features a man who can in effect do telepathy with computers, which is implausible but original, and nicely weird.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm thinking like 3.5ish. This was lowkey pretty good, honestly -- I really like Zelazny, but I know nothing about Saberhagen and really don't generally have all that positive an opinion of collaboratively written novels. It felt very much like a Zelazny novel, though -- very much a good thing. A little corny at times and the whole entity-being-born aspect is a little half-baked (as is the Steve/Don-Cora relationship), but otherwise I legitimately liked this, and not even in just a 'it was fun' kind of way.

This is honestly also one of my favorite used book store purchases ever -- this edition is awesome, the art is super fun (sometimes good-bad, sometimes just legitimately good and really cool), and it was in perfect condition. $1.25! And in the midst of my cyberpunk craze, I find this, written two years before Neuromancer, not even in the Zelazny section which I usually browse more closely, but in the S's. Definitely not full blown Gibsonian cyberpunk, light on the punk and general tone especially (and style, obviously), but I feel like this for sure has to be an important piece in the development of the genre.

Zelazny is so interesting to me. I can't say I've unequivocally loved anything I've read by him, but I like everything he writes, and I just generally find him fascinating. I mean, hell, I've technically read a dozen books by him now. Granted, all very short and 10 being the Amber books, but still I think that makes him my most read author since books started really taking over my life in 2018/19. I really don't know what it is about him that I like so much but apparently don't love?? I get this strong feeling that some of his books could reach that love status through rereads, and I just generally think he's brilliant despite not having a single book I truly adore. I can't really articulate it, I don't know that I feel this way about any other author.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea behind this novel. A ruthless billionaire got his company ahead in the world by harnessing the abilities of cyberpath, a telepath, a telekinetic, and a guy who can heal or harm with his mind. The cyberpath got out when he found out that people were being murdered to advance the company’s interests—but there was a twist. He had to agree to be hypnotized so that he forgot everything he had been doing with the company. When the hypnotism begins to fail and his memories return, the billionaire grabs the cyberpath’s girlfriend and attempts to kill his former employee.

What follows is a rather straightforward, and I feel, very limited adventure story. Don, the cyberpath, appears to be quite intelligent, but acts as if all he has to do is find his girlfriend and he and she will be allowed to walk off into the sunset. All the while the billionaire is trying to kill him. The really obvious thing for Don to do is to fight back using his own abilities. He could, for example, start wiping out the hard drives on all of the billionaire’s computers. He could, for example, dump the billionaire’s secret files to the press, or other authorities. And I could go on. Instead he drives across country and attempts to walk into a corporate facility and get his girlfriend.

I might also point out that the whole problem could have been avoided if the billionaire used the hypnosis to make Don want to continue working for him. That might actually have led to a better story where Don, on the job, began to recover his memories…

All told, there was great promise in this story, but the implementation was rather lacking.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Adrian Halpert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coils was a fun, fast paced read.
The plot concerns Donald BelPatri, an amnesiac, and his efforts to rediscover his identity while battling a powerful multi-national corporation.
I was drawn in pretty quick by the mystery of the main character's identity and enjoyed the fast paced plot. Written in 1982, this book feels very much like an episode of an 80's TV show like Knight Rider, but for me, that's ok because I enjoy 80s Sci-Fi.
What really makes this book interesting however is that the lead character has the unique ability to "coil" which means that he can enter and manipulate computer systems with the power of his mind. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
This book was released two years before Neuromancer, the seminal cyberpunk novel. In Neuromancer, we see hackers plugging into the web through neural jacks, enabling them to enter and manipulate computer systems with the power of their mind. Hmmm. A connection maybe?
Back in 1982, Blade Runner, the seminal cyberpunk movie, and Tron, a movie about a hacker who enters a computer system, had both just been released, and the ideas that would go into cyberpunk were taking root in SF culture. Coils feels like it was very much a product of this time period and so could be regarded as a kind of "proto-cyberpunk" novel because of it's main themes of a form of hacking and battling the power of mega corporations. That makes it a very interesting little time capsule and should be of interest to any fans of cyberpunk. It certainly was for me!
As a read, it was decent and fun, like watching an episode of Knight Rider, but as window into the proto-cyberpunk world, I would very much recommend it.
3.5/5 Stars

[Richard Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

My stock of unread Zelazny is getting low: I have left only his other collaboration with Saberhagen, his two collaborations with Lafferty and the two incomplete novels finished off by Jane Lindskold after his death. I will continue to ration myself to one a year.

Coils may not be among the very best Zelazny but there are some characteristic and brilliant passages. I'm not really sure whether it's really a spoiler to note that the basic idea bears some resemblance to the excellent short story he put out a year before, ' Halfjack', or that the resolution reminds me a bit of Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive. But just in case, I'll tick the box.

Saberhagen is a new one on me so it's harder for me to assess his contribution but I definitely want to check out more. I understand that the Berserker series ain't a bad place to start.

[John Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second reading of this book, the first coming decades ago. An unusual premise with a good setup executed competently, if perhaps too quickly and tritely. I can imagine that the authors thought of this as a "fire and forget" kind of book. It's not surprising to (re-)find that the book has merit, considering how good a writer Zelazny was, and how inventive (and sometimes very good) Saberhagen was. I've been thinking about AI recently, in ways that reflect my continuing work with it as well as the challenge it increasingly represents to our society. Some insight may follow from the end of this book, but will need reflecting upon. Nothing explicit, of course, but some saw the current situation looming on the horizon long before it actually materialized. Science fiction writers are good for that.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of an action adventure with some near future Sci fi tossed in. Enjoyable read that I'll pass along.

[Brown Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nifty little thriller, suggestive of King's Firestarter or Koontz' Watchers. It is definitely worth having on hand for a dark and stormy night.

[David Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't stay interested. DNF

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Понравилась идея "дорожных танцоров", людей которые из хулиганских побуждений взламывают алгоритмы беспилотных автомобилей для создания пробок. Сама история довольно скучная.

[blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

S is for Saberhagen, though I note more recent editions of this book list Zelazny first.

It's not great. It's not bad, either. Competently constructed and written, it suffers a bit for being so much of its time while taking place in an arena that is contemptuously familiar to us all today, the Data-net. I think it takes place in the 1990s, and features an Internet that is powered by phone lines, with roads full of auto-driving cars and skies full of auto-driving vehicles. There's a naive plot about a megalomaniacal power magnate who has cashed in on (sigh) solar energy but who is still somehow afraid of the government—the corruption doesn't go all the way to the top, apparently. (There's also a naive bit of credit card fraud; at least, I don't think it's ever worked the way he describes.)

I don't particularly hold this against it; the hazards of science fiction are what they are. But the characters feel thinly drawn, mostly, after having just finished Giants in the Earth, which is more simply written, I would say, but full of well fleshed-out characters.

Zelazny uses a trick here that he used in Madwand—this is why I attribute the technique to him and not Saberhagen—where the virtual reality is given a more concrete form, which makes the hero's struggling (in a non-material context) a little more interesting for the reader and easier to grasp, at least theoretically. It worked well enough in the magic book, but not as well here. I felt like the descriptions were not well enough nailed down to provide a really strong, compelling picture.

I didn't like the stinger much, but then I wouldn't, so I didn't hold this against the book either.

It's got a couple of rather good ideas. The notion of a reverse faith-healer, for example. The telepath who brings floral scents with her projections. And a near-fatal accident which seems to be a red herring—but actually isn't. A random encounter with a mysterious rogue which seems to have no bearing on anything whatsoever (but may be a reference to another novel).

My expectations were probably too high. It's not a bad read, though. Fast, easy, enough action to keep things going. I think (besides the characters), I just didn't connect (so to speak) with the conceit used to describe the character's super-powers, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might.

Reminds me that I should read Neuromancer, which this predates by two years, next time I get to "G".

[Alazzar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m never sure what to think about one of Zelazny’s collaborations before I dive in. I mean, I’ve never read one that was bad (of course, I’ve also never read Flare ), but I tend to think of them as slightly lower quality than his solo works. As such, a used copy of Coils sat on my bookshelf for the better part of a year before I finally decided to crack it open. And even then, I wasn’t terribly excited about it.

Boy, was I a fool.

Of all the Zelazny collaborations I’ve read, this is the one that reads most like a book he wrote by himself. I haven’t read any of Saberhagen’s other work, but he either has a voice very similar to Zelazny’s or he was just able to create the illusion that he does with Coils.

In previous Zelazny collaborations, it’s been very obvious to me when Zelazny stopped writing and the other guy/gal picked up. Lord Demon was a tragedy, starting out as a five-star story and then going downhill after about six chapters; Deus Irae was pretty good, but every time Zelazny and Dick swapped seats at the typewriter it was about as obvious as a punch to the face. Coils, however, was pretty seamless, and I have to give it points for that.

As far as the story goes, Don BelPatri is a pretty standard Zelazny stock protagonist, but I’m okay with that because I like the standard Zelazny stock protagonist. He starts out the book suffering from amnesia (sound familiar, anyone?) and goes on a journey to A) find out who he is and B) take the fight to the jerkwads who are hunting him. Things drag a bit in the middle, but aside from that, the book is excellent overall. One chapter in particular was probably worth 5 stars all by itself (spoiler: it’s chapter 12 ), and one of the villains is just a fantastic, stand-out character that I’ll (hopefully) remember for years to come.

Overall, it’s a good book that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a quick sci-fi read.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coils posits a man of terrifying power and unshakeable morals—more or less. Donald Belpatri doesn’t kill out of sadism or spite yet he shows little remorse when human beings get murdered. He’s dead set on getting his kidnapped girlfriend back but you wonder what it is he really feels about her. He’s not willing to let her go yet there’s no impression given that he actually loves her. He seems closer to the duplicitous and intelligent Ann than to his beautiful Cora.

Yet his feelings are perhaps incidental to the plot. What Messrs. Zelazny and Saberhagen give us is part science fiction, part fast-paced action adventure and the plot certainly delivers. The protagonist is called upon to use every ounce of cunning, intelligence, power and might to outwit his pursuers and what ensues is one high-speed thrill ride after another with a liberal dose of psychic powers thrown into it. The science part of it doesn’t detract from or slow down the story in the slightest so the novel holds up well, even after its initial 1980s printing.

[Mathew Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coils is a novel by Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen, published in the early 1980s and set in the authors' projected idea of the mid-1990s. The book is short and fast-paced with a mystery at its center as the main character tries to remember his past, discover the mysterious powers hidden by his amnesia, and prevent the people who did this to him from harming him or his girlfriend.

Although we've achieved more of the negative than the positive predictions this book holds for a future now 20 years past, nothing is especially far out of reach in terms of technology. The best comparison I can think of would be a combination of a superhero/comic book story with a techno-thriller/spy novel.

[Charl · Rating 3 out of 5]

So weird. Two of my favorite authors, put them together, and get a lackluster, barely engaging story, with a literal deus ex machina at the end. I found it disappointing.

2019: re-read it because maybe I was just in a bad mood or something, and I liked it a little better, bringing it up a star, but still not what I'd expect from a collaboration between these two. It's not bad, and not a waste a time, but I still feel like it was lacking something.

[Alex Rogalski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book not because the story is great (it is not) but because of how it incorporates technology as a fantasy element in a way that is historically unusual - it occupies a slice of time when a modem and a cordless phone were state of the art. Zelazny tends to provide you with an expanding insight into the fantasy framework that his characters operate in/with and it's just kinda funny to see this happen with electronics that are now really outdated.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't Zelazny's best work by a long shot, but I'd have to give it at least 4 stars. It has some of his most incredible writing and a few really memorable scenes, even if the book as a whole is hardly his best. I guess I just have a real soft spot for this one.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

All hail the Singularity!

[Jamie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fun to laugh at.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly Zelazny's best. It kind of felt like the result of a creative writing workshop assignment.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick easy read. Enjoyed the story line