A little over ten years ago I had moved across country to a little town in California. I didn't really know anyone and so to keep myself busy I had taken a
trip down to the local library. Now I had known the name Tracy Hickman ever since I was in high school, having consumed my way through the nearly every
Dragonlance novel in existance over the course of those four years. It struck me as unusual though, to see a book by this author that did not in any way fit in
with the style of book I had come to expect from him. Intrigued, it found it's way into my stack and out the door.
I got the book and took it home, expecting to read for an hour or so before heading out to the swimming pool. The hour came and went, as well as the one that followed that. And another, and another. The day came and went and at nearly midnight I put the book down with tears running down my face. The Immortals was at that moment and has ever since been my favorite book. Copies of it have always seemed to die unusual deaths around my house; two of my three kids had each grabbed it when they were toddlers and ripped pages out, or the cover off - prompting me to search for a new one (which wasn't always easy when it was out of print). It is the book that I'm quickest to pass off onto friends and family, believing that it is among the most important books I can think of for someone from our culture to read; to take to heart it's warning about being too quick to disassociate yourself from the less fortunate.
I hadn't read it in about two years, nor had I really thought of it when I was driving with my family this past weekend. My wife's parents had moved to Cedar City, Utah and we try to make a point of it to stop in every three months or so to visit. On Saturday we had decided just to go for a drive around the corner of the state, no particular destination in mind. I'm sure that in some corner of my head I was fully aware that many of the locations in the book do exist, but it had never occured to me to look for them. This is why my heart practically jumped into my throat when I passed the interstate sign that said "Beaver, Milford - next exit". Without a word, I took the offramp and we spent the next couple hours driving around a town that I knew only from a book. I spent that afternoon trying to imagine the world of the book as I saw it in to reality of the town laid out around me.
And of course, when I got home I pulled out the tattered paperback and started reading it...for the fiftieth or sixtieth time.
Tracy, thank you for this story. Aside from the bible, there is no book that has ever made more of an impact on me.
Chuck Jones
Hemet, CA
I got the book and took it home, expecting to read for an hour or so before heading out to the swimming pool. The hour came and went, as well as the one that followed that. And another, and another. The day came and went and at nearly midnight I put the book down with tears running down my face. The Immortals was at that moment and has ever since been my favorite book. Copies of it have always seemed to die unusual deaths around my house; two of my three kids had each grabbed it when they were toddlers and ripped pages out, or the cover off - prompting me to search for a new one (which wasn't always easy when it was out of print). It is the book that I'm quickest to pass off onto friends and family, believing that it is among the most important books I can think of for someone from our culture to read; to take to heart it's warning about being too quick to disassociate yourself from the less fortunate.
I hadn't read it in about two years, nor had I really thought of it when I was driving with my family this past weekend. My wife's parents had moved to Cedar City, Utah and we try to make a point of it to stop in every three months or so to visit. On Saturday we had decided just to go for a drive around the corner of the state, no particular destination in mind. I'm sure that in some corner of my head I was fully aware that many of the locations in the book do exist, but it had never occured to me to look for them. This is why my heart practically jumped into my throat when I passed the interstate sign that said "Beaver, Milford - next exit". Without a word, I took the offramp and we spent the next couple hours driving around a town that I knew only from a book. I spent that afternoon trying to imagine the world of the book as I saw it in to reality of the town laid out around me.
And of course, when I got home I pulled out the tattered paperback and started reading it...for the fiftieth or sixtieth time.
Tracy, thank you for this story. Aside from the bible, there is no book that has ever made more of an impact on me.
Chuck Jones
Hemet, CA
