The Book of Skulls was written during an era when students were rejecting institutionalized education and "dropping out" of conventional social roles to search for mystical enlightenment and alternative life styles. In Robert Silverberg's novel, four students leave their New England university and undertake a journey across the United States to find their "Arizona Shangri-la," a mysterious monastic retreat where a secret order follows the rituals of the Book of Skulls, and seeks not only a higher consciousness but assurance of immortality.

The four students turn out to be an illassorted bunch, and despite their considerable intelligence, they are by no means thoroughly committed mystics. A Christian theologian might call them modern "gnostics," searching for a hidden wisdom unknown to the rest of the world.

They are also motivated by arrogance or hubris, for the most part, and generally lack the will to self-denial and abasement...