G - Short Works
A short little story about a man who visits the distant (or maybe not so distant) future in his sleep, and finds that it is not much to his liking.
This story is set in a future almost diametrically opposite from "Schwartz Between the Galaxies": the entire world has become one large city, and it's divided up into millions of small communities, each as self-contained as they can make themselves, with their own governments, customs, and ways of life. Contact between the communities is limited and often hostile. All of them rely heavily on computers and automation for day-to-day functions, and when Ganfield Hold's master program is stolen, things start to deteriorate quickly. The climate-control systems break down and can't be repaired, garbage collection gets hung up on a malfunction in the compactors, and robot security units go inactive. The man whose "month-wife" (a term never fully explained) stole the program is sent to bring it back. His journey across the communities of Conning Town, Hawk Nest, and Kingston is fraught with danger and strangeness. A frightening but unlikely future by 90s standards. The Schwartz scenario seems more likely to me, but that takes nothing from the enjoyment of this one.
A story in the Roma Eterna series.
Giovanni Pergolesi is one of the lesser-known geniuses of music. He wrote prolifically in his short life, then died in 1736 at the age of 25. Some high-minded scientists in 2008 use a machine to pluck the composer from just before his death into the future so they can allow his talents to develop as if he had lived longer. Then Gianni discovers pop music... After all, in his day, opera was pop music.
This is a good story, kinda fun. The dominant musical genre in 2008 is a style called Overload, which seems to be a kind of techno-industrial, full-body, highly rhythmic sound, and it is associated with a drug called slice. The Overload groups mentioned in the story are Booth Wilkes John, Shining Orgasm Revival, Thug, Holy Ghosts, Ultrafoam, Scissors, Toad Star, and Bubblemilk. (Need a name for your band, anyone?) Aside from the music technology, there's mention of anti-gravity (though honestly it could be a colloquial term for something other than actual anti-gravity), and something called pluggie intensifiers which enhance the music at a club called The Quonch. As a cultural note, when Gianni goes modern he dyes his hair red and decks himself out with mood-sensing jewelry that makes noises. Silverberg's evocation of pop-music business and culture is maybe a little off, but hey, we're talking 2008 here, not 1999.
Winner of Hugo Award for best novella, 1987. Nominated for Nebula Award for best novella, 1986. The legendary king finds himself in a different kind of afterworld than he expected. This novella comprises Chapter 1-5 of the novel To the Land of the Living.
The agents of Earth's Extended Cultural Enrichment and Development Expediting Corps journey from planet to planet throughout the galaxy, contacting primitive races and giving them some of the precious gifts of civilization, spurring their desire to better themselves, to advance as humans have. It's a noble and dangerous job, but (of course) things are not what they seem.
Based on a scenario by Isaac Asimov. R.A. Lafferty, Harry Harrison, and Alexei Panshin also contributed to Four Futures.
Medical advances lead to longer and longer lives, but babies are still being born. As part of a philosophy of population control, a kind of ritualized suicide (complete with counseling and final requests) called "Going" is favored by people who feel they've done enough for one lifetime. They willingly depart, making room for the next generation. It's 2095, and composer Henry Stuant, at a well-preserved 136, suddenly decides it's time to Go. He's written his last string quartet, published his last commentary, traveled everywhere he ever wanted to go, done everything he could want to do. But when it comes down to it, why can't he let go? A moving story, rather unlike Silverberg's more usual avoidance-of-death scenarios, which deserves to be counted among his best work of the 70s.
An odd little story about an AI programmed to treat people with mental disorders. The trouble is, it seems to have developed one of its own... Shoulda been a Twilight Zone episode.
Winner of the Nebula Award for best short story, 1971. "Ever since I read Baron Corvo's Hadrian the Seventh in 1955 I have entertained the desire to become the Pope--an ambition complicated to some degree by the fact that I am not in holy orders, nor a Roman Catholic, nor even a Christian at all. As my friends know, I duly submit an application whenever a vacancy occurs in Rome, but as of this date [1975] the Church has not seen fit to make use of my services." From Silverberg's introduction in The Best of Robert Silverberg. The story concerns the election of a robot Pope, but Silverberg gives no background or explanation for the phenomenon of robot faith, so for me there are more questions than answers. Still, it's a fun little story.
This story was Robert Silverberg's first published work of fiction.
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Last updated October 21, 2002
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