Silverberg as Editor

Silverberg has edited lots of books. Here's a list of some.

Alpha 1 (1970)

In the early 1970s, Silverberg edited a series of nine anthologies called Alpha. They featured many stories by new (at the time) writers who would go on to make significant contributions to science fiction (Philip K Dick, J G Ballard, Thomas Disch), as well as some by older writers whose work was not mired in the nostalgia and cliches of "classic" science fiction (Poul Anderson, Cordwainer Smith, Jack Vance).

Alpha 2 (1971)

Contents:

1. "Call Me Joe" Poul Anderson
2. "Goodbye Amanda Jean" Wilma Shore
3. "A Man of the Renaissance" Wyman Guin
4. "Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night" Algis Budrys
5. "Faith of our Fathers" Philip K Dick
6. "That Share of Glory" C M Kornbluth
7. "The Men Return" Jack Vance
8. "The Voices of Time" J G Ballard
9. "The Burning of the Brain" Cordwainer Smith
10. "The Shaker Revival" Gerald Jonas

Alpha 3 (1972)

Contents:

1. "The Gift of Gab" Jack Vance
2. "Beyond Lies the Wub" Philip K. Dick
3. "Nine Hundred Grandmothers" R. A. Lafferty
4. "Total Environment" Brian W. Aldiss
5. "Day Million" Frederik Pohl
6. "Aristotle and the Gun" L. Sprague DeCamp
7. "Under Old Earth" Cordwainer Smith
8. "The Shadow of Space" Philip Jose Framer
9. "Come to Venus Melancholy" Thomas M. Disch
10. "Rescue Party" Arthur C. Clarke

Alpha 4 (1973)

Contents:

1. "Casablanca" Thomas M Disch
2. "Dio" Damon Knight
3. "Eastward Ho!" William Tenn
4. "Judas Danced" Brian M Aldiss
5. "Angel's Egg" Edgar Pangborn
6. "In His Image" Terry Carr
7. "All Pieces of a River Shore" R A Lafferty
8. "We All Die Naked" James Blish
9. "Carcinoma Angels" Norman Spinrad
10. "Mother" Philip Jose Farmer
11. "5,271,009" Alfred Bester

Alpha 5 (1974)

• PB: Ballantine, 1974, 267 pages, ISBN 345-24140-1

Contents:

1. Introduction, Robert Silverberg
2. "The Star Pit" Samuel R Delaney
3. "Baby, You Were Great" Kate Wilhelm
4. "Live, from Berchtesgaden" George Alec Effinger
5. "As Never Was" P Schuyler Miller
6. "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" Philip K Dick
7. "Yesterday House" Fritz Leiber
8. "A Man Must Die" John Clute
9. "The Skills of Xanadu" Theodore Sturgeon
10. "A Special Kind of Morning" Gardner Dozois

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire (1972)

The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels (1980) (with Martin Greenberg)

• PB: Arbor House, 1980, ISBN: 0-87795-295-7

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. "Beyond Bedlam" Wyman Guin
3. "Equinoctial" John Varley
4. "By His Bootstraps" Robert A Heinlein
5. "The Golden Helix" Theodore Sturgeon
6. "Born with the Dead" Robert Silverberg
7. "Second Game" Charles V De Vett and Katherine MacLean
8. "The Dead Past" Isaac Asimov
9. "The Road to the Sea" Arthur C Clarke
10. "The Star Pit" Samuel R Delany
11. "Giant Killer" A Bertram Chandler
12. "A Case of Conscience" James Blish
13. "Dio" Damon Knight
14. "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" James Tiptree, Jr
15. "On the Storm Planet" Cordwainer Smith
16. "The Miracle Workers" Jack Vance

Beyond Control

Beyond the Gate of Worlds (1991)

PB: Tor, 1991, 280 pages, ISBN 0-812-55444-2 From the cover blurb: Beyond the Gate of Worlds lies a land where history has run on a different track than our own. A world where the Black Death killed, not one quarter of Europe's population, but more than half. A world where the Ottomans became the most powerful empire on the planet, and a great playwright named Shakespeare wrote in Turkish; where no Spanish came to the lands of Moctezuma; where Africa took the hand of Islam and Timbuctoo still flourishes. It is Lion Time in Timbuctoo--the Emir of the Songhay lies dying in the cruel summer heat. The imminent funeral of the ruler of the greatest empire in Africa has drawn ambassadors from every corner of the earth, from China to Peru...and where politicians gather, political power will be at stake. Meanwhile, in the city of Krakow, the enemies of Russia are plotting also. The Czar is coming to his vassal states in Eastern Europe. He intends to reassure the people of his benevolence, but in looking west, he has taken his eyes off the Orient. Should Czar Nicholas have an...accident..all Asia will go up in flames. At the same time, the True Inca of Peru has learned that his rebellious cousin has gained the aid of the Turks in his war for the throne. The True Inca, too, must find allies from across the seas; and if the rumors of upheaval in Russia are true, then perhaps the leaders of Japan and Maori would be interested in making new friends. But it will require courage such as has never been seen for any ship of the Inca's to cross the great Western Sea.

Contents: Introduction, Robert Silverberg "Lion Time in Timbuctoo" Robert Silverberg "At the Sign of the Rose" John Brunner "An Exhaltation of Spiders" Chelsea Quinn Yarbro This is a revisitation of the world of The Gate of Worlds, with Silverberg inviting two other writers to share the interesting possibilities with him. The stories focus mainly on political intrigues, and are pretty well summed up by the cover blurb (for once!).

Deep Space

• HB: T Nelson, 1973, 223 pages

Earth Is the Strangest Planet

• HB: T Nelson, 1977, 189 pages

Earthmen and Strangers

• HB: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1966

The Ends of Time (1970)

• HB: Hawthorne, 1970, 225 pages
• PB: Award, 1970?, 188 pages

Contents:

1. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" Cordwainer Smith
2. "The Awakening" Arthur C. Clarke
3. "Twilight" John W. Campbell, Jr.
4. "Guyal of Sfere" Jack Vance
5. "At the End of Days" Robert Silverberg
6. "Epilogue" Poul Anderson
7. "When the Last Gods Die" Fritz Lieber
8. "Last" Fritz Lieber

Eros in Orbit

• 1973

Far Horizons (1999)

• HB: Avon, 1999, ISBN 0-380-97630-7

Contents:

1. Introduction, Robert Silverberg
2. Old Music and the Slave Women, Ursula K. Le Guin (an Ekumen story)
3. A Separate War, Joe Haldeman (a Forever War story)
4. Investment Couselor, Orson Scott Card (an Ender story)
5. Temptation, David Brin (an Uplift story)
6. Getting to Know the Dragon, Robert Silverberg (a Roma Eterna story)
7. Orphans of the Helix, Dan Simmons (a Hyperion story)
8. Sleeping Dogs, Nancy Kress (a Sleepless story)
9. The Boy Who Would Live Forever, Frederik Pohl (a Heechee story)
10. A Hunger for the Infinite, Gregory Benford (a Galactic Center story)
11. The Ship That Returned, Anne McCaffrey (a Ship Who Sang story)
12. The Way of All Ghosts, Greg Bear (a story of The Way)

Like Legends, a collection of stories by prominent writers set in some of their most famous universes.

Four Futures (1970)

Galactic Dreamers

• HB: Random House, 1977, 275 pages

Infinite Jests

• HB: Chilton, 1974, 231 pages

Invaders from Space

• HB: Hawthorne, 1972, 241 pages

Legends (1998)

• HB: Tor, 1998, 608 pages, ISBN 0312867875

Contents:

1. "The Little Sisters of Eluria" Stephen King
2. "The Sea and Little Fishes" Terry Pratchett
3. "Debt of Bones" Terry Goodkind
4. "Grinning Man" Orson Scott Card
5. "Dragonfly" Ursula LeGuin
6. "Runner of Pern" Anne McCaffrey
7. "The Seventh Shrine" Robert Silverberg
8. "The Hedge Knight: A Tale of the Seven Kingdoms" George RR Martin
9. "The Wood Boy" Raymond E Feist
10. "The Burning Man" Tad Williams
11. "New Spring" Robert Jordan

With this big collection, Silverberg invited well-known fantasy writers to revisit their best known worlds with short novels. Given the names enlisted, it's no real surprise that the book is getting rave reviews and selling quite well, making its mark on nearly every bestseller list. More than one of the stories has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award.

Go here for Claude Lalumière's review, which is not so raving. Or here for a more positive view.

Buy it at Powell's.

Men and Machines

• HB: Meredith, 1968, 210 pages
• PB: Award, 1968, 219 pages

Contents:

1. "Counter Foil" George O Smith
2. "A Bad Day for Sales" Fritz Lieber
3. "Without a Thought" Fred Saberhagen
4. "Solar Plexus" James Blish
5. "The Macauley Circuit" Robert Silverberg
6. "But Who Can Replace a Man?" Brian W. Aldiss
7. "Instinct" Lester del Rey
8. "The Twonky" Lewis Padgett
9. "The Hunting Lodge" Randall Garrett
10. "With Folded Hands" Jack Williamson

Mind to Mind

• HB: T Nelson, 1971, 270 pages

Murasaki (1992)

HB: Bantam Spectra, 1992 PB: Bantam Spectra, 1993, 377 pages, ISBN 0-553-56187-1 Contents: Introduction, Robert Silverberg "The Treasures of Chujo" Frederik Pohl "World Vast, World Various" Gregory Benford "Genji" David Brin "A Plague of Conscience" Greg Bear "Language" Poul Anderson "Birthing Pool" Nancy Kress "Appendix A: Design for Two Worlds" Poul Anderson "Appendix B: Murasaki's Worlds" Frederik Pohl

This shared-world "Novel is Six Parts" was an official project of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and all of the participants are Nebula award winners. It is based on the technical concepts invented by Anderson and Pohl. Silverberg outlined the general plot, then passed it off to the other writers in turn. This is notably different from most shared-world books, since it was conceived from the start as a single story rather than a series of individual stories in the same setting. All in all, it holds together quite well, and is a very enjoyable read. Anderson's appendix on world-building is a real kick, showing just how much thought and knowledge goes into these things. All of the sections are well-written (how could they not be, with this bunch?) and build to a moving conclusion. This project is similar to Harlan Ellison's Medea creation.

The New Atlantis (1976)

• PB: Warner, 1976

Contents:

1. Introduction, Robert Silverberg
2. "Silhouette" Gene Wolfe
3. "The New Atlantis" Ursula K Le Guin
4. "A Momentary Taste of Being" James Tiptree, Jr

New Dimensions 3 (1973)

• PB: Signet, 1974, 183 pages

Contents:

1. Introduction, Robert Silverberg
2. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Down There, Damon Knight
4. How Shall We Conquer? W. Macfarlane
5. They Live on Levels, Terry Carr
6. The Girl Who Was Plugged In, James Tiptree Jr.
7. Days of Grass, Days of Straw, R.A.Lafferty
8. Notes Leading Down to the Conquest, Barry N. Malzberg
9. At the Bran Foundry, George Alec Effinger
10. Tell Me About Yourself, F.M.Busby
11. Three Comedians, Gordon Eklund
12. The Last Day of July, Gardner R. Dozois

New Dimensions 4 (1974)

• PB: Signet, 1974

Contents:

1. "After the Dreamtime" Richard A Lupoff
2. "The Bible After Apocalypse" Laurence M Janifer
3. "Outer Concentric" Felix C Gotschalk
4. "The Examination" Felix C Gotschalk
5. "The Colors of Fear" Terry Carr
6. "Ariel" Roger Elwood
7. "State of the Art" Barry N Malzberg
8. "Among the Metal-and-People People" David R Bunch
9. "Animal Fair" RA Lafferty
10. "Strangers" Gardner R Dozois

As a companion or counterpoint to the Alpha series off previously published stories, Silverberg edited twelve New Dimensions anthologies of original stories. The goal was to push beyond the old cliches of the genre, and the result was a wide variety of quality work from veterans and newcomers alike.

No Mind of Man (1973)

PB: Manor, 1973, 182 pages, ISBN 0-532-15220-7 Contents: "The Winds at Starmont" Terry Carr "The Partridge Project" Richard A Lupoff "This Is the Road" Robert Silverberg

Other Dimensions

• HB: Hawthorne, 1973, 178 pages

Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction (1987)

• HB: Warner, 1987, 352 pages, ISBN 0-446-51369-5

Contents:

1. Foreword, Robert Silverberg
2. Introduction: "The Making of a Science Fiction Writer" Robert Silverberg
3. "Four in One" Damon Knight
4. "Fondly Fahrenheit" Alfred Bester
5. "No Woman Born" CL Moore
6. "Home Is the Hunter" Henry Kuttner
7. "The Monsters" Robert Sheckley
8. "Common Time" James Blish
9. "Scanner Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
10. "Hothouse" Brian W Aldiss
11. "The New Prime" Jack Vance
12. "Colony" Philip K Dick
13. "The Little Black Bag" CM Kornbluth
14. "Light of Other Days" Bob Shaw
15. "Day Million" Frederik Pohl
16. "For Further Reading" Robert Silverberg

In addition, each of the stories is accompanied by a commentary by Silverberg, some of them quite lengthy and detailed. I recommend this book highly for anyone with aspirations of writing science fiction. Not only is it a collection of extraordinary stories, but Silverberg provides clear insights into what makes them great, how they work, and how they affected his work.

From the Introduction:

What you have here is actually three books in one. It's an anthology of some of the finest short stories in the history of science fiction; it's a series of essays on the art and craft of writing science fiction; and it's a collection of reminiscences by someone who has spent--or misspent, some might argue--more than forty years of his life reading the stuff and nearly as much time writing it.

The Science Fiction Bestiary (1971)

PB: Dell, 1974, 251 pages Contents: Introduction, Robert Silverberg "The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast" Theodore Sturgeon "Grandpa" James H Schmitz "The Blue Giraffe" L Sprague de Camp "The Preserving Machine" Philip K Dick "A Martian Odyssey" Stanley G Weinbaum "The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch" Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson "Drop Dead" Clifford D Simak "The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out" R Bretnor "Collecting Team" Robert Silverberg

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 (1971)

• PB: Avon, 1971

Contents:

1. Introduction, Robert Silverberg
2. "A Martian Odyssey" Stanley G Weinbaum
3. "Twilight" John W Campbell
4. "Helen O'Loy" Lester del Rey
5. "The Roads Must Roll" Robert A Heinlein
6. "Microcosmic God" Theodore Sturgeon
7. "Nightfall" Isaac Asimov
8. "The Weapon Shop" AE van Vogt
9. "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" Lewis Padgett
10. "Huddling Place" Clifford D Simak
11. "Arena" Frederic Brown
12. "First Contact" Murray Leinster
13. "That Only a Mother" Judith Merril
14. "Scanners Live in Vain" Cordwainer Smith
15. "Mars Is Heaven!" Ray Bradbury
16. "The Little Black Bag" CM Kornbluth
17. "Born of Man and Woman" Richard Matheson
18. "Coming Attraction" Fritz Leiber
19. "The Quest for Saint Aquin" Anthony Boucher
20. "Surface Tension" James Blish
21. "The Nine Billion Names of God" Arthur C Clarke
22. "It's a Good Life" Jerome Bixby
23. "The Cold Equations" Tom Godwin
24. "Fondly Fahrenheit" Alfred Bester
25. "The Country of the Kind" Damon Knight
26. "Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes
27. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Roger Zelazny

The stories in this volume were chosen by a vote of the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. While Silverberg was the president, the organization decided to recognize those stories from the era before its founding (1964). Silverberg exercised a small amount of editorial discretion, but by and large these are the all-time winners from the pre-Nebula history of SF.

Strange Gifts

• HB: T Nelson, 1975, 206 pages

Three for Tomorrow

• HB: Meredith, 1969, 204 pages

Time Gate (1989) (with Bill Fawcett)

• PB: Baen, 1989, 275 pages, ISBN 0-671-69850-8

This is a set of connected stories based on the idea in "Enter a Soldier...": realistic simulation of historical figures in VR.

Contents:

1. "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another" Robert Silverberg
2. "The Resurrection Machine" Robert Sheckley
3. "Statesman" Poul Anderson
4. "The Rose and the Scalpel" Gregory Benford
5. "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" Pat Murphy

Time Gate 2: Dangerous Interfaces (1990) (with Bill Fawcett)

• PB: Baen, 1990, 296 pages, ISBN 0-671-72017-1

Contents:

1. "The Eagle and the Cross"Gregory Benford
2. "The Simulated Golem" Christopher Stasheff
3. "Simul City" Robert Sheckley
4. "The Murderer" Matthew J Costello
5. "Pedigreed Stallion" Anne McCaffrey
6. "Simbody to Love" Karen Haber

The shared world continues from the first volume. The credit on the cover reads "Created by Robert Silverberg...A Bill Fawcett Production" and Silverberg wrote brief connecting interludes commenting on the various stories.

To the Stars

• HB: Hawthorne, 1971, 255 pages

Tomorrow's Worlds

• HB: Meredith, 1969, 234 pages

Trips in Time

• HB: T Nelson, 1977, 174 pages

Voyagers in Time

• HB: Meredith, 1967, 243 pages
• PB: Tempo, 1970, 208 pages

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. "The Sands of Time" P Schuyler Miller
3. "...And It Comes Out Here" Lester del Rey
4. "Brooklyn Project" William Tenn
5. "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" Alfred Bester
6. "Time Heals" Poul Anderson
7. "Wrong-Way Street" Larry Niven
8. "Flux" Michael Moorcock
9. "Dominoes" C M Kornbluth
10. "A Bulletin from the Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Research at Marmouth, Massachesetts" Wilma Shore
11. "Traveler's Rest" David I Masson
12. "Absolutely Inflexible" Robert Silverberg
13. The Time Machine (excerpt), H G Wells

Windows into Tomorrow

• HB: Hawthorne, 1974, 197 pages

Worlds of Maybe (1970)

• HB: T Nelson, 1970, 256 pages
• PB: Dell, 1974, 208 pages

Contents:

1. "Sidewise in Time" Murray Leinster
2. "Sail On! Sail On!" Philip Jose Farmer
3. "Slips Take Over" Miriam Allen deFord
4. "All the Myriad Ways" Larry Niven
5. "Living Space" Isaac Asimov
6. "Translation Error" Robert Silverberg
7. "Delenda Est" Poul Anderson

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Last updated October 21, 2002