Showing results by author "Robert Silverberg" in All Categories

The year is 2381. The place is Urban Monad 116 of the constellation Chippitts. The population of this one-thousand storey super-structure is 800,000+ and always growing. After two centuries of ruthless, selective breeding, the essence of life is to be blessworthy and to multiply; to afford one's neighbours any type of sexual fulfilment and, above all, to avoid the evil of frustration. But, within this seemingly blissful vertical world there are individuals who feel such perverse desires as a longing for privacy, a wish to descend from the heights, to walk on earth and bask in the sunshine.

Join the last vestiges of Humanity and their alien allies (the reptilian Thrynn, the insectoid Velox, and the plant-based Elowan) as they attempt to carve out their own territory in a sector of space filled with wondrous opportunity and deadly threats. Brave explorers seek out new worlds to colonize while merchants cruise from starport to starport, their holds laden with exotic goods. Not all in this futuristic setting have noble intent. For every prospector and trader attempting to make a difference, a dozen pirates, smugglers, and mobsters engage in all manner of criminal enterprise.

Who better to narrate today's best science-fiction stories than today's favorite science-fiction stars? This exciting collection features many.

What if... Vikings had already carved out a thriving civilization on the East Coast of America when Columbus arrived? ... John F. Kennedy defied fate and survived the assassination attempt, changing the course of history? The power of "what if" lies in its ability to ignite curiosity, challenge perceptions, and spark endless possibilities. What If... is a thrilling anthology of speculative fiction short stories that dares to explore alternate realities, twist history, and reimagine the world as we know it.

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced in the ghost towns - from the camps of California's forty-niners to the 20th-century ruins in the Nevada desert. They mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gun-slinging and hell-raising. We who have seen too many Western movies sometimes think that the legends of the Wild West were invented by scriptwriters - but the ghost towns remain.

It’s 2059 and Jud Elliott—former law clerk and failed Harvard history student—is at loose ends. Having left his previous job out of boredom, he finally takes a position as a Time Courier showing tourists around medieval and ancient Byzantium. Maybe that unfinished Masters degree will come in handy after all … Jud is careful and he (mostly) plays by the rules, not wanting to get on the wrong side of the Time Patrol. But, on one trip up the line, he meets and falls in love with his great-great-multi-great grandmother and suddenly the rules don’t seem as important anymore.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Their hotel was beautifully situated, high on the northern slope of the huge artificial mound known as the paneium that was sacred to the goat-footed god. From here they had a total view of the city: the wide noble boulevards, the soaring obelisks and monuments, the palace of Hadrian just below the hill, the stately and awesome Library, the temple of Poseidon, the teeming marketplace, the royal lodge that Mark Antony had built after his defeat at Actium.

Captured by pirates and brought to the west coast of Africa, young British seaman Andrew Battell longs for his home in seventeenth-century England. His only hope of returning is to work hard and be awarded freedom by his Portuguese captors—a freedom he is consistently denied. As he is moved farther and farther inland, away from the coast and any hope of a boat back to England, Battell’s dreams of freedom begin to dwindle. Finally, taking matters into his own hands, he escapes and takes sanctuary among the Jaqqas, a tribe of cannibalistic warriors lead by the sinister Lord of Darkness.

One of the most renowned and respected literary artists in the field of science fiction, Robert Silverberg transports us once again to a spectacular, deftly conceived world in transition and propels us on a remarkable odyssey of survival and self-discovery.

Yakoub was once the legendary king of the Rom, the Gypsy race that has evolved from the days of caravans into lords of the spaceways - the only pilots capable of steering ships safely between the many worlds of the galaxy. Weary and proud, Yakoub has relinquished his power and lives in exile on a distant, icy world. In his absence, chaos fills the vacuum of power. The fate of the entire galactic empire hangs in the balance.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

From one of the most prestigious literary science fiction writers in modern times, Robert Silverberg's Hunters in the Forest explores a distant future where vacationers travel back to the time of dinosaurs; one such traveler finds himself questioning whether to return to civilization. Browse more Silverberg.

It was a legendary island, a fantastic island. Atlantis. Or as its prince called it, Athilan. Roy had traveled through time with his partner, Lora, to find it - and now he was tantalizingly close to its shore. Time travel allowed Roy's consciousness to enter the mind of the heir to Atlantis' throne, and what he found disturbed him. Strange dreams. Impossibly futuristic inventions and machines. How could such an advanced city exist at this time? The rest of the world was, as Lora witnessed in her travels, a dark, barbaric land still thawing from the ice age. Roy had been preparing for the odd isolation of time travel, but nothing had prepared him for his final arrival on Atlantis - a shimmering city far beyond his imagination! Roy knew this island's fate. According to legend, it would vanish into the sea. Roy also knew he had a limited amount of time to decipher the strange message in the Prince's mind - visions of cataclysmic events, mysterious rites to a faraway star. If Roy was in an Atlantis unlike anything the researchers had predicted, then what were its secrets? And when would it be destroyed?

Set in the distant future, when human beings populate a variety of planets, A Time of Changes examines the society of Borthan. For thousands of years, Borthan has been ruled by a covenant that teaches that the self is to be despised. The baring of personal thoughts and feelings represents the most heinous crime. Kinnall Darival has always outwardly observed the covenant. But inwardly, he commits a grave offense when he falls in love with his bondsister, Halum.

An anthology of short stories of spaceships, aliens, and the outer worlds by classic Science Fiction authors, from the Golden Age to the New Wave Era. This compilation includes stories by William Bender, Jr., Ray Bradbury, G. Gordon Dewey, Charles E. Fritch, Edward W. Ludwig, James V. McConnell, Stanley Mullen, Robert Silverberg, Jerry Sohl, Henry Slesar, and L.J. Stecher Jr.

From Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, here are the best stories of 2002, written by four of the most respected writers of our day: Robert Silverberg, James Patrick Kelly, Ian Watson, and Gregory Benford. Also try The Best of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002.

Fascinating “What If?” stories from Hugo and Nebula award-winning masters of alternate history! What would the world be like if Teddy Roosevelt had fought in World War I? If the space race started during World War II? If Joseph McCarthy had been elected President? These and other questions are answered in this collection of alternate histories. As these stories suggest, the world as we know it might have turned out different than it is today, if only one minor—or major—change had occurred in history.

The strange beings on World Nine, System XG, could enter into a man's brain at will and make certain changes in the cells, changes to suit their ruthless purpose. Visit this strange planet with award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, as he reads A Cry for Help by Robert Silverberg.

Demons of Cthulhu by Robert Silverberg, set in the infamous Cthulhu Mythos, takes listeners on a chilling journey into the depths of cosmic horror. Mike Vendetti's narration style proves to be an excellent choice for capturing the grim atmosphere and otherworldly ambiance that pervades the novel. His deep, resonant voice and skilled delivery brought the sinister tale to life. Silverberg's writing, though not as well-known for his contributions to the Mythos as H.P. Lovecraft himself, is a commendable addition to the canon.