Alvaro Zinos-Amaro conducted hours of interviews with Robert Silverberg and the result is this wonderful Traveler of Worlds volume. I’ve been reading Robert Silverberg’s work for almost as long as he’s been writing science fiction: 60 years. Silverberg talks about writing his first stories in the 1950s. Silverberg left the SF field and had a successful writing career producing non-fiction books. Fredrik Pohl lured Silverberg back to SF in the late Sixties and in the 1970s Silverberg wrote a staggering number of award-winning stories and novels. In the 1980s, Silverberg turned to writing the Majiapoor series starting with Lord Valentine’s Castle. In terms of sales, Majipoor books became the best selling books Silverberg wrote.
In addition to talking about his long and successful career as a writer, Silverberg talks about his travels, his book collection, and his health. Silberberg is 80-years-old and suffered a heart attack. I was moved by Silverberg’s candid comments on his health and his mortality. Robert Silverberg is a giant in the Science Fiction field and this book shows why. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Gardner Dozois
◾The Vividness of Landscape
◾Aesthetics
◾In the Continuum
◾Enwonderment
◾Libraries
◾Potpourri
◾After the Myths Went Home
◾Afterword: Travels With Bob by Karen Haber
I always look forward to a Silverberg anthology–his forwards and introductions are often as good as the stories he’s writing about. I’m adding this book to my tbr right now.
Deb, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in TRAVELER OF WORLDS. Silverberg’s work over the decades changed and–in my opinion–improved. His thoughts about writing and publishing fascinated me. Are your daughters all moved in at LSU?
Moved in on Friday–my husband and I were back home by noon. I had a few tears, but the girls were so excited about starting college, I tried to keep it together. Of course, within a day they had a list of things they’d “forgotten”!
Deb, we had the same reaction when we dropped Patrick and Katie off at their Colleges for the First Time. It gets easier. And, believe it or not, your daughters might experience some “home-sickness” in a few weeks.
Ah. I’ll be picking my copy up at the library today.
Like you and Deb, I love Silverberg’s introductions and prefaces. Sometimes they’re as interesting as the stories. I’ve bought his collected stories and have read all of them (obviously, that is far from all of his stories) and have a few of the novels on the shelf waiting to be read. He’s done some good time travel stuff too.
Jeff, I have plenty of Robert Silverberg’s books to read and reread. I included MASKS OF TIME in my TIME TRAVEL week in 2015. And, over the years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve reviewed about a dozen Silverberg works. More to come!
I also fondly remember Silverberg’s introductions and prefaces and his monthly column – forgot which of the SF magazines they were in.
And some of his novels really moved the field of SF forward!
A question:
wiki says that in 1959 the market for SF( in the USA) collapsed – does anyone know why?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg
Wolf, Robert Silverberg has written essays on SF and publishing for several magazines over the years. Currently, Silverberg is writing for ASIMOV SF. The collapse of the SF digest magazines happened for a number of reasons. The market collapsed because there were too many SF magazines (over 30). Television was reducing the audience for reading. And the audience that remained preferred paperback books to magazines.
Thanks, George!
The wiki article says generally “In 1959, the market for science fiction collapsed, and Silverberg turned his ability to write copiously to other fields, from historical non-fiction to softcore pornography.”
But maybe they got it wrong and it wqas only the magazine market as you suggest.
Btw searching I found the wiki for ACE Books – also very interesting!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Books
Ah, those were the days!
Wolf, the digest magazine market collapsed and Silverberg was burned out from writing 2 million words per year! Silverberg turned to the non-fiction market for a few years (very successfully) until Frederik Pohl lured Silverberg back to SF.
I knew you’d like this one.
Bill, I enjoyed every page of TRAVELER OF WORLDS. Silverberg has a lot to say about publishing and writing and living. I also ordered Silverberg’s only western. The author of BUCHANAN ON THE PROD died and Silverberg was asked to finish writing the novel. I thought I had a copy of BUCHANAN ON THE PROD around here somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. So, I ordered another copy online. I’ll probably review it for OWLHOOT.
I understand Silverberg wrote at least one other western, FRONTIER LAWYER as “Lawrence Blaine.”
Jerry, I’ll have to track down a copy of FRONTIER LAWYER.
There was a period of time from the about 1965 to 1980 when Silverberg turned out a large quantity of first rate work. Just recently reread A Time of Changes and The Dying Inside. Great books.
Steve, I totally agree. Silverberg had a winning streak of great stories and novels for over a decade. Like you, I need to go back and reread some of them.
I read DYING INSIDE a couple of years ago. Really good. This year it was THE BOOK OF SKULLS.
Jeff, Stephen Baxter considers THE BOOK OF SKULLS Silverberg’s best book. http://www.sfwa.org/2015/04/stephen-baxter-my-favorite-robert-silverberg-novel/
Also recently enjoyed his Up the Line. Have his collected stories from Subterranean and need to dip into these more.
Steve, I really liked UP THE LINE when I read it decades ago. I have the Subterranean volumes of Silverberg’s short stories. Wonderful books!
OK, I ordered UP THE LINE.