Isle of the Dead is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, published in 1969 with cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon.

A later Ace books edition featured a cover painting by Dean Ellis that was deliberately reminiscent of Böcklin's work.

Desperate for something to hold to, he sought out a mentor, who happened to be a member of a very long-lived and slowly dying alien race, the Pei'ans.

At the beginning of the novel, Sandow is one of the most famous men in the Galaxy, wealthy beyond imagination, living a life of seclusion and luxury in worlds he fashions according to his taste.

Through Sandow's narrative, Zelazny presents observations on 20th-century American culture and how it has changed as other planets are created or discovered.

Eventually Sandow makes his way to Illyria, a world he created as an idyllic paradise, but finds it has been severely damaged.

The enemy is a Pei'an rival who as an orthodox member of the faith feels that Sandow's Naming was sacrilege.

Sandow also appears as a character in To Die in Italbar (1973) and the short story "Dismal Light" in the collection Unicorn Variations.

Sandow is jolted from his wealthy, indolent lifestyle by a series of messages, each accompanied by a picture of one of a number of people once important to him, and all dead for many years.

Sandow realizes the pictures could be fake, and he has other obligations, one of which is responding to a call for help from a friend, Ruth Laris.

Sandow soon learns that somebody has been stealing the memory records and tissue samples of people who died on Earth.

Landing by stealth, and armed to the teeth, he sets out to walk the remaining distance to the Isle of the Dead.

Apparently the Pei'an gods are real and Gringrin, attempting to ordain himself independently, asked for a creative spirit to come to him, but instead was chosen by Belion.

From one of them, a feisty dwarf named Nick, Sandow learns that his recalled wife Kathy is having an affair with Shandon.

Once in the rite, Gringrin confesses that the recall tapes were ruined by Shandon's conflagration, but Ruth is alive in a hospital and can be saved.

Waking, Sandow crawls on and reunites with his ship, then returns to Lady Karle's cave with a weapon and vaporizes the rock.