Silverberg, Robert Books - Page 4

Time of the Great Freeze

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great First-Time Science Fiction for Teens 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I first read Time of the Great Freeze as an assignment in my 6th grade English class over 20 years ago. I recently purchased a used copy through Amazon so my own 6th grader would have the opportunity to read it, and we read it together.

I still believe it's the best sort of SF for readers who are just beginning to explore the genre. It's a quick read, easy to follow and understand, and filled with tension and drama. It's also a hopeful novel.

Engulfed in a futuristic ice age, people are living in huge underground cities where they have become isolated, stagnated, and suspicious. When seven men are ordered to leave one of the underground cities on charges of treason for contacting another city via radio, they must learn to exist in the "real" world.

I would recommend this book to everyone. And if you, like me, read it as a kid, buy it for your own kids. It's well worth it and superior to much of the material for teens that's available now.

A Great Introduction to Silverberg 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

In 1979 I was given a book report assignment. Having not been much of a reader, I went aimlessly looking through my school library for a book with a cool picture on it. It must have been fate that put this book in my path. Twenty years and over fifty Silverberg books later, I credit it for showing me the possibilities that exist in science fiction.

The book is written on a fifth or sixth grade level and is chock-full of adventure and intrigue. (I remember staying up late at night just to read as much as I could!) It tells the story of an underground city which submerged to live through a world-wide glacial event. Seven men make radio contact with another city and are expelled as this is against the law. The men must make their way across the ice covered land to find shelter in another underground city. But they find that there is much more than just ice going on in the world.

I loved this book and would reccomend it to anyone (especially children) who want to become science fiction readers or just readers in general.

Downward to the Earth (S.F.Masterworks)

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Classic Silverberg 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Synopsis: The world in this book has two seemingly distinct intelligent beings living on it. One is elephant-like, the other large hairy ape-like beings. They have no technology but they have language. At one time the Earth controlled the planet and used these beings to work for them. A few years after relenquishing control, a man who was once a manager there (Gunderson) returns to atone for his sins against the native beings. This story is about his quest for that atonement through a native ritual called rebirth.

This book is classic Silverberg. It reminds me a lot of "Son of Man", my favorite book, also written by Silverberg. This book was written a year or two before SOM and contains a lot of the same abstractness and originality that I like, just not as much. You can definitely see the idea of SOM forming throughout this book. It is well written and the world that he creates in this book is as diverse as our own. It is full of fantastic and deadly creatures. He does a great job developing the cultures of the two native intelligent beings living on the planet. He does a fantastic job of portraying Gunderson's inner journey. If you like SOM, you'll like this book; and vise versa. Even though it's not as good as SOM I still give it 5 stars. If you like great science fiction, READ BOTH OF THESE BOOKS!

Editorial Review:

One man must make a journey across a once colonised alien planet. Abandoned by man when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient, the planet is now a place of mystery. A mystery that obsesses the lone traveller Gundersen and takes him on a long trek to attempt to share the religious rebirthing of the aliens. A journey that offers redemption from guilt and sin. This is one of Silverbergs most intense novels and draws heavily on Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It puts the reader at the heart of the experience and forces them to ask what they would do in the circumstances.

Lord Prestimion (Prestimion Trilogy)

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

YAWN... Very boring.. the worst of the series thus far. 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Well, even though this book was quite long, not much actually happened in it. The storyline at the end of this one hasn't really changed much at all since the last book. Basically this whole novel was centered around the Procurator of Nimoya's escape from Prestimion and the Coronal's efforts to locate him.. The spreading madness on Majipoor was emphasized but nothing was ever done about it be Prestimion.. Most of the book was taken up by descriptions of the landscape and fauna of the places that Prestimion journeyed through.. Nothing really exciting or surprising happened at all. Yawn.. Wouldn't reccomend this one. I guess I'll go ahead and read the last of the series since I've already come this far, but I don't really have high hopes for it..

Editorial Review:

Prestimion should be jubilant. As the new Coronal Lord of Majipoor, the Starburst Crown is his at lost. But the victorious lord is burdened with a great secret: he gained the throne through a bloody civil war -- a war no one remembers! With the aid of a phalanx of sorcerers, Prestimion dropped the awesome Spell of Oblivion over his people to heal his war-torn land. Forgotten now are the betrayals, the intrigues, and the slaughter. Only Prestimion and two of his surviving comrades-in-arms know anything happened at all.

Yet Prestimion must still account for his world's devastation and do the impossible: bring to justice the kinsman who languishes in the dungeon because no one can recall his unforgivable crime. And in his hour of triumph, Prestimion will face a threat to his kingdom for more insidious than war -- a twisted madness that cannot be controlled....

In Another Country/Vintage Season (Tor Doubles, No 18)

Robert Silverberg, C. L. Moore

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The World Inside

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Explicit in its condemnations 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Most of the text of this review is from a post I made in the science fiction forum. As long as I have taken the time to write it out, I thought I might as well submit it as a review.

I read "The World Inside" years ago, as a teenager. Even then, when I wasn't as averse to violence or sex in media as I am now, the book made me a little uncomfortable. I don't think it is supposed to be a comfortable read or that it glorifies sex in any way, even if it is explicit. Most of the main characters are unhappy with their life regardless of how much sex they have. I thought it was an interesting look into a future where society has unsuccessfully convinced itself that sex can be completely divorced from emotion. That is, after all, the way our society is going. What 1984 did for invasion of privacy, I think this book did for casual sex. Well, not just sex. There is a notion in society now that everyone should be able to live how they want to. Nothing should be censored. I think that this book also takes a poke at that idea in its handling of sexual relations.

While well-written and thought-provoking, I'm giving this book 3 stars as it is not my cup of tea. (Tea is not my cup of tea, either.) I did not exactly enjoy the book. For perhaps a strange comparison, I can appreciate this book in the same way I might appreciate a movie like "Crash" that explores darkly human themes. I found that movie joyless, but I understood it. The same goes for this book.

Editorial Review:

Earth 2381: The hordes of humanity have withdrawn into isolated 1000-story Urbmons, comfortably controlled multicity-buildings which perpetuate an open culture of free sex and unrestricted population growth. Nearly all of Earth's 75 billion live in the hundreds of monolithic structures scattered across the globe, with the exception of the small agricultural communes that supply the Urbmons with food. When a restless Urbmon computer engineer begins to think unblessworthy thoughts of making a trip outside, he risks being labeled a flippo, for whom there is only one punishment.

Isaac Asimov Science Fiction 6 ne (Asimov, Isaac//Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good Short Science Fiction Stories 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Supermen (Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction #3). The unique and sometimes powerful stories included in this multi-authored collection of short stories are, as the title suggests, tales of men that could be considered to be supermen. This anthology contains a number of good stories and some excellent ones about human beings that are in some way superior to ourselves. There are 12 tales from some of todays better known science fiction writers.

'What Rough Beast' by Damon Knight is an excellent story about a man who can twist time and events. He can create wealth, heal the sick, and change the world in an infinite number of ways. This was a very entertaining story with an intriguing concept.

'Worlds To Kill' by Harlan Ellison is a very good story about a man who destroys entire worlds for a living.

'In The Bone' by Gordon R. Dickson tells the intriguing tale of one man searching for new worlds and equipped with the best technology that man can provide. He begins to feel godlike until he meets a technology just little better.

Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Dean R. Koontz, A. E. van Vogt, Roger Zelazny and Robert Silverberg are some of the other writers that contributed to this above average collection of short stories. I first bought this collection back in the eighties. It sat, for some unknown reason, on my bookshelf collecting dust. Finally, craving some short science fiction stories, I read this book. I found it to be a very enjoyable book. Like any short story collection certain stories are better than others. However, there are enough varied ideas and concepts that everyone should find something that they like in this book.

Smart Dragons Foolish

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Wonderful Collection of Short Stories 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This collection of short stories is absolutely wonderful. It includes Sci/Fi stories about Hell, Trolls, and the absolute worst wish ever imagined. I've read this book a number of times and it never fails to make me burst into laughter.

Killdozer!: Volume III: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The streak continues 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is the third volume of the serieis and I'm reading the fourth now and I have to say that if you have ANY passing interest in science-fiction, literature, basically anything related to writing and the art of the short story, you owe it to yourself to hunt down these volumes, they're about the best service the publishing industry has done for one of its writers in years. You won't get genius each time but each volume has its own gems to treasure. This one has of course the masterful Killdozer among other things, the stories are branching out more here, most are touching in some way but all are at the very least entertaining, my favorite might just be the unpublished "August Sixth, 1945" which distills brilliantly the thoughts of a generation realizing the power they had with atomic energy and coming to grips with just what it meant. You can see a shift in his stories at that point and especially with the later "Thunder and Roses", as with most science fiction writers, the future was now and it wasn't all rosy and they felt they had a duty to show that it could be good that the shining stuff they showed in their stories could come true. Sturgeon believed that because he believed in people and he loved everyone and nothing shows that better than his stories. Read them and you come to know the man. And he's worth knowing.

Editorial Review:

Included here are the title story and the classic "Mewhu's Jet." Published for the first time are "Poor Yorick," "Crossfire," "Bulldozer Is a Noun," and "August Sixth 1945.

The Gate of Worlds (Ibooks Science Fiction Classics)

Robert Silverberg

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very well written 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Gate of Worlds takes place in 1985 in an alternate world in which the Black Death killed 3/4 of Europe (instead of 1/4) in 1348. As a result, the Turks could easily conquer Europe, leaving them in no position to colonize the New World, or anywhere else, for that matter, and non-Western civilizations all over the world were allowed to develop. But technology is almost a century behind.
This is the story of Dan Beauchamp, an 18-year-old Englishman who emigrates to the Aztec Empire, which takes up all of Central America and eastern North America. Europe is poor, but Mexico is a very rich country. I won't tell you how it ends, but it is very interesting, very realistic, and leaves you begging for a sequel.

Editorial Review:

In this alternate history novel, the Bubonic Plague sets the stage for a world where the West is powerless. After the Black Death has wiped out most of the European population, there is little defense against Turkish invasion and expansion, and by the 1980s, the major world powers are the Russians, the Turks, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Japanese.

However, the Turks have lost much of their territory, leaving England to self-rule in a delayed Industrial Revolution. Dan Beauchamp, a young Englishman whose heart longs for fortune and adventure, travels to industrial Mexico and discovers that he has a lot to learn. From the city of London—better known as New Istanbul—to the untamed wilderness of North America, here is a high adventure in an alternate history that is not to be missed.

Sailing To Byzantium

Robert Silverberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Beautiful prose from the master of short science fiction works 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The other short works here, I'm not going to review. This is because "Sailing to Byzantium" is worth reading and owning on its own. I re-read this novella from time to time just to remind myself how WELL Robert Silverberg crafts this genre of story.

The story centers around Charles, a time-traveling visitor from 1984 to the 50th century. Life is one long vacation, with immortal "citizens" traveling from one Disney-esque recreation of history to another. Asgard, Rio, Timbuctoo, Chang-An, Alexandria and Mohenjo-daro (a prehistoric brick walled city in what is now Pakistan) are all destinations for a leisure-loving and careless group of people who now sparsely populate a very changed Earth. Charles, however, is disturbed by the casualness of life, the lack of depth and he finds love with a very different citizen, Gioia, who lacks the placid ease of the friends in her set and for a tragically secret reason. The entire work is based on the poem by the same name of Yeats, a beloved work often quoted by other writers. (No Country for Old Men, for example.) Well worth reading, and one of my favorite books by Silverberg, along with the hauntingly depressed "Born with the Dead" and "The World Inside." (Neither in this volume.)

Editorial Review:

The world's most distinguished author of fantasy presents his most extraordinary stories of world lost and dreams fulfilled.