Zelikman and Amram
Gentlemen of the Road is an adventure novel by Michael Chabon, first published in serial format in 2007.
It is a swashbuckling adventure set in the khaganate of Khazaria
around AD 950. It follows two Jewish bandits, Zelikman and Amran, who become embroiled in a rebellion and a plot to restore a displaced Khazar prince to the throne.
This novel contains examples of:
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Chabon set out to turn this trope on its head — the novel prominently features an Abyssinian Jew and the Khazars, a kingdom of Turkic Jews. It does, however, feature an Ashkenazi Jew who is very far from home.
- Black Vikings: The protagonists are a black Abyssinian and a very white Eastern Frank, both Jewish, who travel the world as bandits and mercenaries and end up in the Caucasus. The Khazars, a nation of Turkic Jews, also features heavily in the plot. It was Chabon's intention to explore the lesser-known branches of Jewish lineage.
- Elephants Never Forget: Filaq is reunited with an elephant from their youth: despite being ancient and near blind, she still recognizes Feliq and cries Tears of Joy upon their reuniting.
- Fake a Fight: Zelickman and Amram do this at the beinning in order to partake of the betting pool for their staged dulel. They have done this many times.
- Homage: Among other things, the novel is a homage to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Our heroes hide out in a bordello full of these in Atil while the city is rioting. One, Flower of Life, Amran takes a particular liking to.
- Kick the Dog: A particularly nasty example after Feliq is reunited with their elephant (see above): despite being under a flag of truce, the villain has his soldiers capture Feliq and stab the elephant to death as Feliq watches while also revealing that he is actually a she.
- Live-Action Escort Mission: This is the main plot; the two main characters (who are essentially mercenaries) have been asked to escort the son of a deposed and murdered king to relatives in another nation where he'll be safe, but all he wants to do is run back to the capitol to kill the usurper.
- Named Weapons: Amran has a Viking ax "whose name, cut in runes along its ashwood haft, translated roughly as 'Defiler of Your Mother'."
- Reconstruction: Reconstructs Two-Fisted Tales and pulp adventure stories.
- Purple Prose: A particularly thick example, as a deliberate part of the Genre Throwback aspect.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: The young prince, Filaq, is actually a princess in disguise.
- Translation Convention: Many of the characters are polyglots, which is implied to be par for the course of residents in such a crossroads of cultures. The main characters run through a wide range of languages, which are all rendered as English.
