I - Short Works
A novella written at the suggestion of Martin H Greenberg, who edited a series of Tor Doubles which contained a classic novella from the Golden Age and a modern novella written to go with it. Silverberg chose his favorite work by CL Moore, a writer he admires greatly, and wrote a complementary story (not a sequel, as the book cover proclaims).
Moore's story concerned Oliver Wilson, an average guy living in an American city (which shall remain nameless) in the latter half of the twentieth century. He owns a house. Not an especially wonderful house, but suddenly he finds it to be highly sought-after. Three people have rented it for the month of May under mysterious circumstances and for quite a bit more than it's worth. Then he gets an offer to buy the house, also for well above the market value. But the contract for the rental is signed, and he can't get out of it. Unless... He decides to stay in the house for the month and make such a nuisance of himself that the renters will leave. When they show up, he finds them to be a strange bunch. Elegantly dressed in unidentifiable fabrics, speaking English extremely properly, moving like trained dancers. Where are they from? Why are they here?
Silverberg's story is told from the other side. It turns out Oliver's visitors aren't the only strangers in town that May, and they are the focus of "In Another Country". Without giving much away (it's really a very good story, and so is Moore's--you should read them yourself), there are some points of similarity with "The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve".
A good story about a telepathic man whose consciousness has become unstuck in time so that he does not experience things in order. His quest is to cure the disorienting condition. As befits the subject, the story is told in a very fragmented manner. The setting is pretty far future, with thousands of planets colonized and FTL canals connecting them.
This story became Chapter 3 of Majipoor Chronicles.
Majipoor is a really big planet, and its three continents are crowded into one hemisphere, leaving the other hemisphere to the Great Sea. No one has ever crossed it. But it is a time of great exploration (long before Valentine's era), and Captain Sinnabor Lavon decides he will be the one to do the impossible and circumnavigate Majipoor. All goes well until the fifth year out, when they encounter a mass of strange writhing seaweed which challenges their resolve.
In a future where monogamy is considered an aberration, poor Murray deals with his feelings of exclusivity for Kay. The Group is a set of twelve people who engage in a kind of virtual sex: one couple has intercourse while wired to machines, and the rest experience it vicariously wherever they are in the world. Fairly explicit, but not down-and-dirty. There's also some unexplained kind of teleportation in this medium-future setting.
The House of Double Minds is a place where children are trained to become Oracles. Promising candidates are chosen from the population at large and have the connection between the right and left hemispheres of their brains severed. They are taught to function in this state, and those that don't go crazy become Oracles, who are highly regarded, though their exact function is society is unclear. There's a lot of emphasis placed on the functional differences between the sides of the brain, and some of the story seems to be based on case studies of people who have had the two separated in brain traumas.
Although the story is quite intriguing, and the characters believable and well-developed, the lack of a background bothers me some. The society outside the House appears to have some high technology, but I just feel I need more justification for such extreme practices as are commonplace here. This, written in November of 1973, was the very last short story Silverberg wrote before his hiatus of the 1970s.
I could swear this one was an episode of Outer Limits. The members of the Carmichael family are all overweight, and would like to thin down a bit, so Mr Carmichael splurges on the newest model robot cook. The roboservitor can be programmed for any kind of diet they want. Twenty pounds in three months? Put the numbers in, it'll figure out the meals to reach the goal. It may mean toast and coffee for breakfast, plain lettuce and tomato salad for lunch with a hard-boiled egg, and steak with peas and coffee for dinner. And there's no telling what it might do if you try to cheat.
Ishmael is a dolphin employed by the vapor collection plant on St Croix. He can communicate with humans, and he can use computers. He finds humans very strange and perplexing, but he's fallen in love with one of them. This "story" is his resume, dictated into a computer, pleading for her affections. Quite an enjoyable read.
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Last updated October 21, 2002
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