We Are for the Dark
The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Seven
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
The stories collected here, written between August of 1987 and May of 1990, demonstrate that I still believe in the classical unities. Of course, what seems to us a unity now might not have appeared that way when H.G. Wells was writing his wonderful stories in the nineteenth century. Wells might have argued that my 'To the Promised Land' is built around two speculative fantastic assumptions, one that the Biblical Exodus from Egypt never happened, the other that it is possible to send rocketships to other worlds. But in fact we've sent plenty of rocketships to other worlds by now, so only my story's alternative-world speculation remains fantasy today. Technically speaking the space-travel element of the plot has become part of the given; it's the other big assumption that forms the central matter of the story.
--Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
SFWA Grand Master Silverberg wrote these 10 stories between 1987 and 1990. In "The Dead Man's Eyes," a jealous husband goes on the run after the thoughtless murder of his wife's lover. Anorexia is the means to a computer-obsessed boy's end in "Chip Runner." Hugo-winner "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another" and "A Sleep and a Forgetting" explore the issues that might arise if scientists created the technology to recreate famous men from history. Alternate history is also represented; "To the Promised Land" considers what the 20th century would be like if the Roman Empire hadn't fallen, and "Lion Time in Timbuctoo" examines a world where the Black Death has completely changed the fortunes of the world's great empires. Most of the stories were intended for theme anthologies, and readers with an interest in SF history will appreciate both Silverberg's skills and the intriguing glimpse of the industry in the late 1980s.
