B - Short Works
Cunningham is a computer genius working on a Department of Defense project. In his spare time, he simulates angels in his home computer, giving them the powers and responsibilities allotted them in Catholic tradition. But even a genius sometimes finds it difficult to control his creations (the classic Frankenstein problem), and Cunningham's angels are no exception.
At a fairly early point in Batman's career, a large charity masquerade event takes place at Wayne Manner. Bruce Wayne (wearing a red devil outfit) is surprised when an unknown guest arrives wearing, of all things, a Batman costume. Then the lights go out, jewels disappear, and the chase is on. This is the only media tie-in I can think of that Silverberg has been involved with.
This is a portion of the novel The Alien Years, the part involving the successful assassination of a powerful alien conqueror by a very strange young man.
A lot of people seem to think that Blacks and Whites can't get along and never will, so what we need to do is live apart. In this future, White flight from the inner cities has left them the exclusive territory of Blacks. This story gives us a peek at what New York might be like from a Black perspective, good points and bad.
John Murchison is a spacer with a nasty temper. The Service keeps him on because he's a wizard with gadgets. When he comes up against a planet full of peaceful aliens, sparks fly.
The first part of To Open the Sky. In 2077, the Earth is a horribly crowded place, with billions of people struggling for survival. There are colonies on Mars and Venus, but space travel is too expensive for large numbers to leave the home world. In the midst of this, a new religion has sprung up, started by Noel Vorst. It is a secular religion, based more on science than the supernatural, and its symbol is the blue glow of a cobalt reactor.
This story concerns Reynolds Kirby, a non-Vorster functionary at the UN. It is his job to baby-sit the new Martian ambassador and secure a trade pact to prop up Earth's sluggish economy. The man from Mars is a boor who wants to see all the decadent wonders of Earth, including the strange new religion.
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| Written
for a special Silverberg issue of F&SF. Winner
of a Nebula Award
for best novella, 1975. In the 1990s, doctors have discovered how to "rekindle" dead people, re-animating the bodies and minds. But the "deads" are different, aloof, unconcerned with the matters of "warms"--those still alive--and mostly keep to the Cold Towns. Jorge Klein finds that he cannot let go of his dead wife Sybille, and seeks her out obsessively, following her around the globe. This is just not done, but Jorge can't stop himself. One interesting scene involves an African preserve set aside for vacationing deads, where they must leave the native animals alone and hunt instead genetically recreated extinct species--aurochs, ground sloth, quagga, passenger pigeon, dodo. Many aspects of the situation are explored, including the attitudes people of different cultures have towards death. Definitely one of the high points of Silverberg's career and the culmination of his "intense and intimate" writing of the 1970s. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Science Fiction has a number of listings dealing with "Born with the Dead". |
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This is one of a set of stories written in the early 70s when Silverberg was really trying to reach beyond conventional storytelling. After reading the entertaining and interesting narrative, you are left with little idea what "actually" happened. There is not a plot in the everyday sense (A happened, then B, etc). Breckenridge is a successful New York stockbroker who was born in 1940 and is going through an existential crisis of the "Is this all there is to life?" variety. He's also exploring a far-future wasteland with a group of archeologists, searching for a lost city. There are numerous interlocking themes in common between the two lines of action, many of which are stated explicitly in charts in the text. The richness of detail in both stories is fascinating, and the wasteland setting could easily be revisited in other stories.
In this relatively distant future, inter-species marriage has become popular, but that's not why Paul Clay married Landy, who is Suvornese. They're genuinely attracted to each other in spite of the physical differences. Of course it will take more than imagination and agility to overcome the cultural and ethical differences, and luckily it's only the standard six-month contract.
There are two points of speculation in this story: the creation of a race of synthetic humans (not unlike those in Tower of Glass) to perform drudge work, and the construction of a gigantic wall to protect land-dwelling people from the dangerous monsters inhabiting the oceans. The origin of these monsters is not dealt with in the story, which follows the experiences of a synthetic whose job is to guard a section of the wall. Micah-IV watches the sea for encroaching creatures, inspects the wall for flaws, and guides tourists who visit. Nothing prepared him for the possibility that a visitor might intentionally jump off the wall.
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Last updated October 21, 2002
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