T - Short Works
One of the "Roma" stories. (Check out the Themes entry for details.) Early during the Second Roman Republic, two children meet a mysterious old man hiding in a ruined imperial hunting lodge in the Teutonic provinces.
Chapter 1 of Majipoor Chronicles. I don't know of any other publication.
Long before the time of Lord Valentine on Majipoor, when the non-human races are just starting to arrive and Narabal is just a scrappy frontier town, there lives a woman named Thesme. She reaches a crisis in her life after a series of unhappy love affairs and the realization that life in Narabal is not likely to get better for her. So she packs a few things and heads into the forest to be by herself. She learns to survive and comes to enjoy the solitude. Then one day she comes upon a Ghayrog, one of the alien colonists, injured near her hut. She takes him in and nurses him back to health, discovering in the process that maybe she's had enough solitude. She also finds many of her cherished beliefs about her life and her self falling apart.
Isaac Asimov invented the setting for this story and the others in the book. There are six spacefaring species in the galaxy, and each one of them has very different requirements in a planet: humans like oxygen-rich worlds of a certain gravity; the insectoid Locrians prefer neon and low oxygen content; the winged Crotonites like a thick atmosphere poisonous to humans; and so on. This situation leads to an uneasy peace between the species. Silverberg's story concerns Captain Hayn Wing-Marra of the research vessel Achilles, who stumbles into a very unusual situation: a colony of Crotonites on a barren, airless moon which should be of no interest to them at all. What he and his crew discover there will change the balance between the Six Races forever. The rest of the stories in this book (by David Brin, Robert Sheckley, Poul Anderson, and Harry Turtledove) and the other books of the series concern the aftermath of this discovery. It really is a fascinating universe, full of interesting possibilities.
This story became Chapter 9 of Majipoor Chronicles.
Inyanna Forlana is a woman of about thirty who is not looking forward to spending the rest of her life as a small-time shopkeeper in the mountain town of Velathys. Then one day two men bearing the seal of the Pontifex arrive and inform her that she has inherited a great mansion in the vast city of Ni-moya. She sells all her belongings to make the lengthy trip, only to arrive and discover she has been conned. Desperate for a livelihood, she joins the official thieves of the Grand Bazaar. This is a recognized and respected position and not considered crime there, though it is at odds with her old shopkeeper's instincts. In her new profession, Inyanna learns much about herself and her world, preparing her for a destiny she little imagines. Probably my favorite story in Majipoor Chronicles, along with "The Desert of Stolen Dreams".
This is one of Silverberg's best stories of the 70s, though one often overlooked. It's a far-future tale (not unlike Nightwings) with a morphologically diverse human race. There's Leaf, a Pure Stream (apparently an unmodified human), Shadow (a delicate, sensitive furry woman), Sting (a small, nervous man with the ability to get places fast), and Crown (a large, strong man from Dark Lake). These four characters are traveling in Crown's palatial floating wagon, drawn by four nightmares (intelligent horse-like creatures controlled telepathically), fleeing the invasion of the Teeth (a cannibalistic barbarian tribe). On their way they meet various other denizens of this strange Earth (including Invisibles, Tree Companions, and Snow Warriors) and a combination of advanced and primitive technology.
In the Introduction to The Feast of St Dionysus, Silverberg calls it "a slice of a view into a strange and colorful world, which I probably should have explored at greater length in a sequel or an expansion, now never to be written." I for one would not object if he broke his word on this...
The complete story is available for reading on line at Event Horizon.
Written for an original anthology of stories on a theme suggested by Lester Del Rey: a miraculous event gives mankind certain knowledge of the existence of God. Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson also contributed. The premise of this novella leads in many directions at once, which seems quite reasonable. It's not surprising that not everyone on Earth is overjoyed at the sudden manifestation of God's existence. The established religions are thrown for a major loop, many search vainly for non-supernatural explanations, many blame Satan, chaos stalks the land.
An American scientist goes to Jerusalem to track down rumors of an ancient mushroom-cult surviving to the present day. Is his interest really scholarly, as he takes great pains to tell everyone, or is he really in search of personal transcendence, something to bring together his mess of a life? Like "The Pope of the Chimps", a fairly religious story for an atheist to write.
I believe this was a shorter version of the juvenile novel of the same name.
Expanded into Starhaven.
This story is Chapter 2 of Majipoor Chronicles.
Majipoor is a big planet that has been settled by humans, forcing aside the native inhabitants. The natives, called Piurivar or Shapeshifters, don't take the intrusion lightly, but the increasing number of humans with superior technology drives them into hiding to take up guerilla tactics, aided by their ability to mimic humans. Then along comes Lord Stiamot, the Coronal who decides to put an end to the problem once and for all. This story gives us a picture of Stiamot's campaign from the viewpoint of one of his regional commanders, who has to face up to the consequences of his leader's tactics.
A tropical vacation turns into a strange encounter with a mysterious man with the apparent ability to see the future.
This story presents a version of extreme longevity that's a bit different than most (Heinlein's Lazarus Long and so on). Gaius Titus Menenius was born a Roman citizen, but realized early in his life he was not like other people. He grew up very slowly, less than a tenth the speed of normal people. So it isn't until the 1950s that he becomes sexually mature and able to father children. Now all he needs is an appropriate mate.
This sequel to "Nightwings" and "Among the Rememberers" (Part 3 of the novel) was nominated for Nebula Award for best novella, 1969.
Finding himself again Guildless, Tomis leaves Perris, this time accompanied by the treacherous Olmayne, former Rememberer and murderer of her husand. They are bound for the holy city of Jorslem, and join the Guild of Pilgrims, wearing masks and taking on certain religious duties (Olmayne reluctantly and not very sincerely). Along the way, they meet a Surgeon in a village dying from a mysterious crystallization disease which is inevitably fatal. They do their best to comfort the unfortunates and travel on. Once they arrive in Jorslem, they apply for Redemption, a process whereby aging humans may regain their youth if they are found worthy. Tomis meets his old companion Avluela the Flier, who tells him of a great new destiny awaiting him after he is Renewed. This brings the story of Third Cycle Earth to a marvellous and satisfying close.
Part five, the climax of To Open the Sky. The year is 2164, about a hundred years after the founding of the Vorster church. The plans of Noel Vorst are nearing fruition, but it won't be easy to get his devoted followers to agree to the final step--reunion with the heretic Harmonist sect. By the way, the title refers to opening the sky to space travel, here accomplished by having a group of telekinetics repeatedly teleporting the ship in stages to its destination. For some reason not explained, more conventional methods of space travel outside the Solar System have proven unworkable.
As punishment for his antisocial behavior, a man is sentenced to a year of invisibilty. People can still see him, but they are required by law to have nothing to do with him--no conversation, no contact, nothing. There is a fun side to being invisible--he goes to movies for free, walks into women's locker rooms, and so on, but doctors are not exempt from the law, so when he gets sick, no one will treat him. An interesting concept, this modern version of shunning, though it's hard to see how doctors could reconcile it with their Hippocratic Oath.
I love the opening line of this story: "We came to the dark star, the microcephalon, the adapted girl, and I, and our struggle began." Three scientists travel to observe the last moments of a dying star, but the personal and professional conflicts between them make research impossible. I found their petty bickering quite annoying in some ways, but the characters were so fascinating I put up with it. In typical Silverbergian fashion, the scientific aspect of the situation is almost completely ignored to focus on the people.
One of the "Roma" stories. (Check out the Themes entry for details.) 4000 years after the failed Exodus, the few remaining Hebrews in Egypt plan a new Exodus, to space, and recruit a historian to write their tale. The historian, Nathan ben-Simeon, though Jewish by heritage, is by no means a religious man, so when Moshe, leader of the Exodus project, contacts him, skepticism is the main result.
Eitel is a dealer in fine art. He makes a handsome living selling paintings and sculptures to wealthy aliens. The catch is that it's illegal. After all, Earth has only so many Leonardos, and when they're all sold off-worl, what do we have left? As a further complication, in addition to being a connoisseur of artworks, Eitel is a connoisseur of fine women, which leads a simple deal with a Centauran for an obscure painting into places he never would have imagined.
Manipulating primitive races isn't easy. Especially when the race in question is Homo sapiens of Earth. When an agent of the Hethivarian Network returns to Earth 50 years after trying to maneuver human history out of premature space travel, he finds that things are not the way he expected them to be. Throw in the existence of variant parallel Earths, and it gets messy real fast.
Chris Cameron is a very restless man. Fortunately for him, he can travel. I mean really travel, hopping from one version of Earth to another, quickly sussing out the differences and seeing what there is to see. Here's a world where FDR died early and the US never entered World War II, so Germany overran Europe. Here's a world where Asians, not Europeans, colonized North America. Here's a world that's a radioactive slagheap. In each world, Cameron looks up Elizabeth Dudley, his wife in his world. Not all Elizabeths love him. After many trips, he returns to his own world, his own Elizabeth. Or does he?
There is no explanation of the mechanics of inter-dimensional travel. It does not seem to require any sort of device, and the transition is very quick. It was written specially for Final Stage, which is a collection of "ultimate" stories (the "ultimate" time travel story, the "ultimate" robot story, etc), and fulfils the role of "ultimate" alternate world story quite nicely.
Sempoanga is a beautiful resort world with one little problem: a nasty venereal infection which requires anyone who catches it to remain quarantined there for the rest of his or her life. Scientists are working diligently to find a cure, but without success. So when you're on Sempoanga, you should be careful whom you sleep with. But of course, those kinds of things only happen to someone else.
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Last updated October 21, 2002
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