Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg is a seasoned writer and editor in the field, who honed his skill in the pulp market in the 1950s and then unleashed his highly-entertaining and progressive fiction on the unsuspecting public in the 1970s. Quite a lot of his stories are regarded as classics of the genre, his writing is usually very smooth, sparkling with imagination and adventure (at his best) and smooth to the point of being forgettable (at worst). Pen names: Gordon Aghill, Robert Arnette, T. D. Bethlen, Alexander Blade (some), Robert Burke, Walter Chapman, Dirk Clinton, Walter Drummond, Don Elliott, Richard Greer, E. K. Jarvis (some), Ivar Jorgensen (some), Warren Kastel (some), Calvin M. Knox, Dan Malcolm, Webber Martin, Ray McKenzie, Alex Merriman, Clyde T. Mitchell, David Osborne, George Osborne, Robert Randall, Ellis Robertson, Eric Rodman, Lee Sebastian, Leonard G. Spencer, S. M. Tenneshaw (some), Hall Thornton, Gerald Vance (some), Richard F. Watson, L. T. Woodward Scroll down for reviews: ---------------------------------------------- "Absolutely Inflexible" © Fantastic Universe, Jul 1956 Needle in a Timestack, 1966 --/ cool time sf story Time travel nicely done. The head of the institution responsible for locking up time travelers finds himself left in his office with the kit of a recently arrived time traveler and he thinks he'll just try it himself, so he leaps back in time a few hours and is promptly locked up, leaving the kit in the head's office where... review: 10-Jul-06 (read in 1985) ---------------------------------------------- "After The Myths Went Home" © F&SF, Nov 1969 Moonferns and Starsongs, 1971 "Against Babylon" (part of "The Alien Years") © OMNI, Feb 1986 Secret Sharers, 1992 "Among The Dream Speakers" (MajiPoor Chronicles) © IASFM, Jan 1982 MajiPoor Chronicles, 1988 "Appropiation" (transl. Russ. As "Chestny Contract") © New Worlds, 1959 also in - Saturn, May 1959 --/ fourth place space sf story --/ wonder award --/ humour award --/ rare find "The Artifact Business" © Fantastic Universe, Apr 1957 The Calibrated Alligator, 1969 "The Assassin" © Imaginative Tales, Jul 1957 "Beauty In The Night" (The Alien Years series) © Science Fiction Age, Sep 1997 --novelette : 1998 Locus /12 ---------------------------------------------- "Birds of a Feather" © Galaxy, Nov 1958 Needle in a Timestack, 1966 ---------------------------------------------- "Blind Sight" (part of "Hot Sky At Midnight") © Playboy, Dec 1986 Pluto In The Morning Light, 1992 "Blue Fire" (Blue Fire series) © Galaxy, Jun 1965 To Open The Sky, 1967 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award ---------------------------------------------- "Born with the Dead" © F&SF, Apr 1974 Born with the Dead, 1974 --novella : 1975 Hugo --novella : 1975 Nebula W --novella : 1975 Locus W --novella : 1975 Jupiter --novella : 1999 Locus All-Time Poll /22 --/ fourth place sf novella --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ shock value Simple is hard: very, very hard. Not that complexity is, therefore, easy, but writing a story that's elegant yet lean, graceful yet subtly complex, lyrical yet spare -- that demonstrates the skill of a true master. A true master like Robert Silverberg. It's no wonder his Born With The Dead won the Nebula: the story is the absolute essence of a simple, powerful story told with true mastery of the storyteller's art. The plot is pretty easy to explain. In the future (well, the 1990s ...according to the story) the recently dead can be reanimated, "rekindled" to use the term in the novella. The problem is that while they aren't dead, they aren't quite alive either: distant and removed, the resurrected live among themselves in Cold Towns, forming a whole population, an entire world, apart from the rest of still-alive humanity. Having recently lost Sybille, his wife, Jorge is having a hard time adjusting to seeing her rekindled into an aloof and distant version of herself. A very hard time. In fact he begins to stalk her as she slips into the life of the reanimated dead. This is where Silverberg again shines: the world he creates, if just for the length of a novella, is rich and sensory, full of sparkling details woven with musically brilliant prose. Silverberg also manages, in the space of a few spare pages, to investigate and ponder the role of death in human society, as well as in various flavors of culture. The ending of Born With The Dead comes almost too soon, but when it does come it arrives like a thunderclap. And like a thunderclap, when you think back on its arrival, you realize you saw it coming for a long time - a short journey of Jorge and Sybille makes for a perfectly executed story, a tight little package of character, theme, style. Born With The Dead is considered one of Silverberg's best works, and it's definitely worth to seek out. Review by author M. Christian ---------------------------------------------- "Breckenridge and The Continuum" © Showcase, ed. R. Elwood, 1973 Capricorn Games, 1976 --/ cool sf story --/ style award "Caliban" © Infinity # 3, ed. R.Hoskins, 1972 The Reality Trip, 1972 Unfamiliar Territory, 1973 --short fiction : 1973 Locus /12 "Capricorn Games" © The Far Side of Time, ed. R.Elwood, 1974 Capricorn Games, 1976 --/ cool sf story "The Catch" © OMNI, Aug 1990 "Catch'em All Alive!" (also as "Collecting Team") © Super-Science Fiction, Dec 1956 also in - Authentic SF, Jun 1957 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 --/ cool space sf story --/ wonder award "Caught In The Organ Draft" © Vertex, Apr 1973 And Now Walk Gently Through Fire, 1972 Unfamiliar Territory, 1973 --/ cool sf story "Certainty" © Astounding, Nov 1959 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 --/ cool sf story "The Changeling" © Amazing Stories, Feb 1982 The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, 1984 "Chiprunner" © The Microverse, 1989 also in - IASFM, 1990 "Collecting Team" (also as "Catch'em All Alive!") (Collecting Team series) © Super-Science Fiction, Dec 1956 also in - Authentic SF, Jun 1957 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 Moonferns and Starsongs, 1971 --/ cool space sf story --/ wonder award "Collision Course" (nv) © Amazing Stories, Jul 1959 Ace Double, 1961 --/ cool sf novel "The Dawning Light" (nv) (as Robert Randall) (with Randall Garrett) (sequel to "The Shrouded Planet") © Astounding, Mar 1957 book: Gnome, 1959 "The Day the Founder Died" © Crisis, ed. R. Elwood, 1974 also in - Void # 1, 1975 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 "The Day The Monsters Broke Loose" (Collecting Team series) © Super Science Fiction, Jun 1959 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ rare find "Deadlock" © Astounding, Jan 1959 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 "Double Dare" © Galaxy, Nov 1956 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 --/ cool sf story "Downward to the Earth" (nv) © 1969, Galaxy 1970, Random House --novel : 1971 Locus /5 (tie) --/ fourth place sf novel --/ wonder award "The Dybbuk Of Mazel Tov IV" © Wandering Stars, 1974 Capricorn Games, 1975 "The Face Of The Waters" (nv) © Amazing Stories, Aug 1991 book: Bantam Spectra, 1991 "The Feast Of St. Dionysus" © An Exaltation Of Stars, ed. T. Carr, 1974 The Feast Of St. Dionysus, 1975 --novella : 1974 Locus /3 --novella : 1974 Jupiter W ---------------------------------------------- "The Final Challenge" © Infinity Science Fiction, Aug 1956 The Shores Of Tomorrow, 1976 ---------------------------------------------- "The Final Decision" (as Robert Randall) (with Randall Garrett) © Imaginative Tales, Mar 1958 "Flies" © 1967, Dangerous Visions Parsecs And Parables, 1970 Earth's Other Shadow, 1973 --/ cool sf story --/ humour award "Gate Of Horn, Gate Of Ivory" © Universe # 14, 1984 Pluto In The Morning Light, 1992 "Gianni" © Playboy, Feb 1982 The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, 1984 "Going Down Smooth" © Galaxy, Aug 1968 Parsecs & Parables, 1970 --story : Best SF 1969 --/ cool psychology sf story "Good News From The Vatican" © Universe # 1, 1971 Unfamiliar Territory, 1973 --short story : 1972 Nebula W "Halfway House" © IF, Nov 1966 Dimension Thirteen, 1969 A Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1971 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Hawksbill Station" © Galaxy, Aug 1967 The Reality Trip, 1972 --novella : 1968 Hugo --novella : 1968 Nebula --/ cool sf novella --/ wonder award --/ idea award "Hi Diddle Diddle!" (as Calvin M. Knox) © Astounding, Feb 1959 Worlds OF Wonder, 1969 Sunrise On Mercury, 1975 "Homefaring" © Amazing, Nov 1983 book: Homefaring, 1983 --novella : 1984 Nebula --novella : 1984 Locus --novella : 1984 SF Chronicle /3 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Hot Times in Magma City" © OMNI, May 1995 also - IASFM, Dec 1995 --novella : 1996 Locus /14 --/ third place sf novella --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ adventure award --/ style award "How It Was When The Past When Away" © Three for Tomorrow, ed. R.Silverberg, 1969 Earth's Other Shadow, 1973 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award "Hunt The Space-Witch!" © Science Fiction Adventures, Jan 1958 ---------------------------------------------- "The Hunted Heroes" © Amazing Stories, Sep 1956 ---------------------------------------------- "In Enthropy's Jaws" © 1971, Infinity # 2, ed. R.Hoskins The Reality Trip, 1972 Unfamiliar Territory, 1973 --short fiction : 1972 Locus /13 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Invaders from Earth" (nv) (also as "We, The Maradeurs") © Science Fiction Quarterly, Feb 1958 1972, Hawthorn books --/ cool sf novel --/ wonder award "The Iron Chancellor" © Galaxy, May 1958 Needle in a Timestack, 1966 The Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1970 "Ishmael In Love" © F&SF, Sep 1970 Parsecs And Parables, 1970 "The Isolationists" © Science Fiction Stories, Nov 1958 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 "Lair Of The Dragonbird" © Imagination, Dec 1958 --/ cool sf story --/ rare find "Lazarus Come Forth!" (Blue Fire series) © Galaxy, Apr 1966 To Open The Sky, 1967 --/ cool sf story "Lord Valentine's Castle" (nv) (Lord Valentine's Castle 1) © 1980, Random House --novel : 1981 Hugo --fantasy novel : 1981 Locus W --novel : 1981 Balrog --all time fantasy novel : 1987 Locus All-Time Poll /25 --/ cool f novel --/ wonder award ---------------------------------------------- "The MacAuley Circuit" © Fantastic Universe, Aug 1956 also in - New Worlds, Apr 1958 Sunrise On Mercury, 1975 Computers compose music. This story echoes "So Bright the Vision" by Clifford Simak where computers write marketable fiction - both stories are in the same pulp issue. review: 25-Jul-06 (read in 1997) ---------------------------------------------- "A Madman On Board" © Imagination, Feb 1958 --/ cool sf story --/ rare find "The Man in the Maze" (nv) © IF, Apr 1968 book: 1969, Avon Books --/ fourth place sf novel --/ wonder award --/ adventure award "The Man Who Came Back" © New Worlds, Feb 1961 also in - Galaxy, Dec 1974 "The Man Who Never Forgot" © F&SF, Feb 1958 also in - Science Fantasy, Dec 1958 Parsecs and Parables, 1970 "The Man With Talent" © Future SF, Win 1956 also in - Science Fantasy, Aug 1957 Godling, Go Home, 1964 "The Masks Of Time" (nv) (also as "Vorman-19") © 1968, Ballantine Books --novel : 1969 Nebula --/ cool sf novel "The Millenial Express" © 2000, Playboy, Jan --short story : 2001 Locus /32 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award ---------------------------------------------- "Mind For Business" © Astounding, Sep 1956 To Worlds Beyond, 1970 Average story about aliens trying to camouflage as humans, but not having enough... "mind for business". Silly entertainment. Typical output of Silverberg in these years - prolific and totally forgettable. It hardly needs mentioning that the second half of the Fifties were the years of the sad demise of "Astounding" magazine, with a total drop in the quality of its vision and fiction, as a result. review: 19-Sep-06 (read in 1989) ---------------------------------------------- "Misfit" © Super Science Fiction, Dec 1957 To Worlds Beyond, 1970 --/ cool sf story ---------------------------------------------- "Mugwump Four" © Galaxy, Aug 1959 A Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1971 The Calibrated Alligator, 1969 --/ cool sf story ---------------------------------------------- "The Mutant Season" (nv) (The Mutant series) (also exp. into a novel) © Androids, Time Machines and Blue Giraffes, ed. R. Elwood, 1973 Unfamiliar Territory, 1973 book: 1989, Doubleday Books (with Karen Haber) --/ cool sf novel "The Nature Of The Place" © F&SF, Feb 1963 --/ cool dark f story "Neutral Planet" © SF Stories, July 1957 Godling, Go Home, 1964 Sundance And Others, 1974 --/ cool sf story "Never Trust A Thief!" (as Ivar Jorgensen) © Imagination, Feb 1958 "New Men for Mars" © Super Science Fiction, Jun 1957 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 "The New Springtime" (nv) (also as "The Queen of Springtime") (At Winter's End series 2) © 1989, Bantam Spectra "Now + N, Now - N" © Nova # 2, 1972 Unfamilliar Territory, 1972 --short fiction : 1973 Locus /18 (tie) --/ cool sf story "The Nudes of Quendar III" © 1955, Imaginative Tales --/ cool sf story --/ rare find "The Overlord's Thumb" © Infinity Science Fiction, Mar 1958 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 "Ozimandias" © Infinity Science Fiction, Nov 1958 also in - New Worlds, May 1960 To Worlds Beyond, 1965 "The Pain Peddlers" © Galaxy, Aug 1963 Needle in a Timestack, 1966 Sundance & other stories, 1974 --/ cool sf story "Passengers" © Orbit 4, ed. D.Knight, 1968 The Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1970 Moonferns and Starsongs, 1971 --short story : 1970 Hugo --short story : 1970 Nebula W --short story : 1999 Locus All-Time Poll /29 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Pirates of the Void" (as by Ivar Jorgensen) © Imaginative Tales, July 1957 --/ cool space sf story --/ rare find "The Pope Of The Chimps" © Perpetual Light, 1982 The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, 1984 --short story : 1983 Nebula --novelette : 1983 Locus /12 "Postmark Ganymede" © Amazing Stories, Sep 1957 --/ cool sf story --/ rare find "The Queen of Springtime" (nv) (also as "The New Springtime") © 1989, Bantam Spectra "Quick Freeze" © Science Fiction Quarterly, May 1957 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 --/ cool space sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award "Road To Nightfall" © Fantastic Universe, Jul 1958 Parsecs And Parables, 1970 "Sailing To Bysantium" © IASFM, Feb 1985 Sailing To Bysantium, 1985 --novella : 1986 Hugo --novella : 1986 Nebula W --novella : 1986 Locus /2 --novella : 1986 SF Chronicle /3 "Schwartz Between The Galaxies" ©  Stellar #1, ed. del Rey, 1974 The Feast of St. Dionysus, 1975 --short story : 1975 Hugo --short story : 1975 Locus /3 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Sea Of Faces" © Universe # 4, 1974 Capricorn Games, 1975 "The Silent Colony" © Future, Oct 1954 Godling, Go Home! 1964 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 --/ cool sf story "The Sixth Palace" © Galaxy, Feb 1965 Needle In A Timestack, 1966 "Slaves of the Star Giants" © Science Fiction Adventures, Feb 1957 Next Stop The Stars, 1962 --/ cool sf novella "Something Wild Is Loose" © The Many Worlds of SF, ed. B.Bova, 1971 also in - Mind To Mind, 1971 Earth's Other Shadow, 1973 Sundance & other stories, 1974 "Sound Decision" (with Randall Garrett) © Astounding, Oct 1956 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 ---------------------------------------------- "Space Traveller's Revenge" (as by Ivar Jorgensen) © Imaginative Tales, July 1956 ---------------------------------------------- "The Still Small Voice" © Amazing, May 1960 "Stress Pattern" © Astounding, Jan 1960 The Shores of Tomorrow, 1976 "Sundance" © F&SF, Jun 1969 The Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1970 Sundance & other stories, 1974 --short story : 1999 Locus All-Time Poll /24 (tie) --/ cool sf story "Sunrise on Mercury" (as by Calvin M. Knox) © Science Fiction Stories, May 1957 Parsecs and Parables, 1970 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award "Sunrise On Pluto" © 1985, The Planets Pluto In The Morning Light, 1992 --short story : 1986 Locus /13 --/ cool sf story "A Thief in Ni-Moya" (Majipoor Chronicles series) © IASFM, Dec 1981 Majipoor Chronicles, 1982 --novelette : 1982 Locus /28 "To Be Continued" © Astounding, May 1956 Moonferns And Starsongs, 1971 "To Open the Sky" (nv) (also as "Open the Sky") (Blue Fire series) © Galaxy, Jun 1966 Ballantine Books, 1967 --/ fourth place sf novel --/ wonder award --/ style award "To The Dark Star" © The Farthest Reaches, ed. J.Elder, 1968 The Cube Root of Uncertainty, 1970 Earth's Other Shadow, 1973 "Traitor Legion" © Imaginative Tales, Jan 1958 "Trips" © Final Stage, ed. E. Ferman, 1974 The Feast of St. Dionysus, 1975 --/ cool sf story "Twelve Hours To Blow!" © Imaginative Tales, May 1957 "The Unknown Soldier of Space" © 1958, Imaginative Tales "Vanishing Act" (as Robert Randall) (with Randall Garrett) © Imaginative Tales, Jan 1958 "Vault Of The Ages" © Amazing Stories, Aug 1956 russ. as "Khranilische vekov" --/ cool sf story "Waiting For The Earthquake" (Medea Series) © OMNI SF 2, 1982 Medea: Harlan's World, 1985 The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party, 1984 --novelette : 1982 Locus /19 "The Warriors Of Light" (Blue Fire series) © Galaxy, Dec 1965 To Open The Sky, 1967 --/ cool sf story "Where The Changed Ones Go" (Blue Fire series) © Galaxy, Feb 1966 To Open The Sky, 1967 --/ cool sf story "The Wind And The Rain" © Saving Worlds, ed. R. Elwood, 1973 Unfamilliar Territory, 1975 "The Woman You Wanted" © Future Stories, Apr 1958 --/ cool sf story ---------------------------------------------- "The World Inside" (nv) © Nova 1, ed. Harry Harrison, 1970 also in Galaxy, 1970-1971 novel: 1971, Doubleday --novella : 1971 Hugo ("The World Outside") --novel : 1972 Hugo (withdrawn) --novel : 1972 Locus/6 --/ fourth place sf novel --/ wonder award --/ style award Welcome to the year 2381. Things are perfect: very, very perfect. Everyone is happy, everyone is satisfied within the towering blocks of the Urban Monads -- monster monoliths of humanity towering hundreds of floors, and thousands of feet, above the surface of the planet. If there is one rule, one overriding philosophy of the people living in the monads -- beyond their pathological satisfaction with the state of the world and their lives -- it’s “be fruitful and multiply.” Each monad is made up of 25 cities, each existing within their own sections of 40 floors. Urban Monad 116, the setting of Robert Silverberg’s The World Inside, has a population of 800,000 happy, happy people, with the world population at 75 billion people … and climbing. There have been many books about the horrors of overpopulation, most notably, Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room, which you might know better as "Soylent Green" when it made it onto the big screen. But The World Inside is unique and powerful: a nightmare dipped in a super-sweet glaze, a hell made of smiles and sex. The residents of Urban Monad 116 -- the musician, the bureaucrat, the rebel, and all the other characters that rotate onto the novel’s stage -- don’t know they are living in a nightmare of bodies, bodies, and more bodies. For them, births -- and huge families -- are not just the norm but the ultimate desire of every citizen. To encourage this population explosion, the male residents roam their tower, falling into every available woman’s bed, each carnal encounter a possibility for -- joy, joy -- even more life. The World Inside is, itself, a seduction. Because the reader follows each character, we first see their world as they see it: a bountiful celebration of humanity, a sensual monolithic rave. But then the glaze, the smiles, and the sex begin to wear thin for both the reader as well as the people of Urban Monad 116 we are following, and the book begins to show the horrifying isolation, the hollow monolith that is their building as well as their life. As with most everything Robert Silverberg has written in this period, The World Inside is a literary treat: vivid and kaleidoscopic, richly textured but also smoothly told. It’s far too easy to read a book like The World Inside and forget the awe-inspiring literary skill and storytelling mastery that’s going on right before your eyes. The World Inside is a book that shouldn’t just be read but re-read and re-read and re-read: once for the pure enjoyment of this unique and powerful story, again to enjoy Silverberg’s magnificent talent as a writer, and yet again to enjoy the story's careful weaving of plot and story and theme. The World Inside is a perfect example of a master storyteller’s craft: a timeless book and an eternal warning of substituting quantity for quality. A bit of trivia: It was nominated for a Hugo in 1972 for best novel, but withdrawn by Silverberg in favor of A Time of Changes, which was also nominated that year. Review by author M. Christian Original stories that make up this novel: A Happy Day in 2381 © Nova 1, ed. Harry Harrison, 1970 In the Beginning © Science Against Man, ed. Anthony Cheetham, 1970 The Throwbacks © Galaxy, Jul 1970 The World Outside © Galaxy, Oct 1970 We Are Well Organized © Galaxy, Dec 1970 All the Way Up, All the Way Down © Galaxy, Jul 1971 ----------------------------------------------

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