This was the first collection of Robert Silverberg’s short stories to be published. I bought this ACE Double in 1962 and loved it. The stories were written early in Silverberg’s career, from 1954-1957. “Slaves of the Star Giants” is pure pulp as you can tell from the over-the-top title. Lloyd Harkins finds himself mysteriously transported to a far future when civilization has collapsed. Mutated, primitive humans live underground in isolation. Ancient robots (check out the EMSH cover above) left over from the Time of Cities still roam the jungles randomly. Can a man from the Past save the Future?
From time to time, ACE would feature a Double devoted to one writer. On one side, the book would include a short novel–in this case it’s The Seed of Earth first published in Galaxy in 1962. “It’s a story of a group of individuals, selected randomly by a government-sponsored lottery, who are forced to leave Earth and establish a colony on a distant world. Once there, four of the colonists are abducted by the planet’s native inhabitants, and must put aside their differences and work together in order to survive.”
ACE Doubles in this format introduced a writer both through short stories and short novels they’d written. I had read several of Silverberg’s novels and stories before this one, but it remains one of my favorites–partly because of the cover artwork. Are you a fan of Robert Silverberg’s work? GRADE: B (for both the short stories and the short novel)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Slaves of the Star Giants • novella — 5
The Songs of Summer • short story — 48
Hopper • novelette — 66
Blaze of Glory • short story — 87
Warm Man • short story — 102
“If your number is up, you go to the stars.” Where do I register? With Putin, climate chaos, and Trump, anyplace has to be better than here. I read REVOLT ON ALPHA C in junior high, but not much else by Silverberg since then. Love those old Ace Doubles.
Fred, Robert Silverberg tells a fabulous success story in Taveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg”. http://georgekelley.org/traveler-of-worlds-conversations-with-robert-silverberg/
Silverberg developed from a prolific pulp writer to an engaging and thoughtful author. I love ACE Doubles, too!
Though as his career began as pulps were folding or otherwise changing formats–he’s proud of having place one (1) story with the last sports pulp to be published–his career was mostly a matter of digests and other formats, including some which until recently have never carried his legal by-line…
Todd, STARK HOUSE has published some of Silverberg’s “erotic” novels.
Yup. Not pulps, either. Any magazine of that ilk was running even greater chances in the late ’50s, of being busted and prosecuted, than was a book publisher…and both were constantly running afoul of mail censorship.
Todd, I was using “pulp” in the vein of pulp fiction rather than the literal pulp (paper) magazine.
Yes, totally. I’ve bought and read the 9 volumes (I think) of Silverberg’s collected stories (as much for his introductions as for the stories, as well as collections of his early pulp stories and others.
Jeff, like you, I enjoy Silverberg’s wonderful introduction to his stories. He gives a detailed picture of the publishing world at the time of the story/novel and the demands of the editors he worked with. Plus, Silverberg provides background to how his story/novel came about.
This Ace double must be somewhere in my library in Germany, so from here in Hungary I can’t see it – but I really, really like those doubles, often went to the second hand bookshops and market stalls in the 70s to find some.
i also liked the Solverberg stories but what he later wrote and published in Astounding/Analog was often a bit strange. You know who influenced him there …
Well, Wolf, he was following his own path by his later ANALOG stories…and even in such early stories as “The Road to Nightfall”…though “Hawksbill Station” the novella and novel expansion (the first adult sf novel I read that wasn’t by a long-dead classic writer such as Wells or Bellamy) were alread seen as moving toward the kind of work he wanted to write.
Todd, there’s a story that Fredrick Pohl, editor of GALAXY, IF, and WORLDS OF TOMORROW, told Silverberg he could write whatever he wanted and he would buy it.
Yup, Frederik Pohl was definitely trying to lure Silverberg back to fiction-writing in the early-mid ’60s, when the latter was mostly keeping a hand in writing book reviews for Cele Goldsmith Lalli’s AMAZING: FACT AND SCIENCE FICTION…his nonfiction books, on archaeology and the like, had really taken off, and as with Asimov only more so, that where most of his writing efforts were concentrated…till “Hawksbill Station”….
Todd, the late Sixties and early Seventies saw Silverberg produce a bunch of great SF stories and novels:—
Major Awards —
Hugo Awards — for SF/F works, voted by members of annual World Science Fiction Convention
(29 nominations; 4 wins)
2017:Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg (by RS & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro) (Fairwood) — related work — nomination
1998:Reflections and Refractions: Thoughts on Science-Fiction, Science, and Other Matters (Underwood Books) — related book — nomination
1990:“Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another” (Asimov’s Jun 1989; Time Gate) — novelette — winner
1988:“The Secret Sharer ” (Asimov’s Sep 1987) — novella — nomination
1987:“Gilgamesh in the Outback” (Asimov’s Jul 1986; Rebels in Hell) — novella — winner
1986:“Sailing to Byzantium ” (Asimov’s Feb 1985) — novella — nomination
1981:Lord Valentine’s Castle (F&SF Nov,Dec 1979, Jan,Feb 1980; Harper & Row) — novel — nomination
1981:“Our Lady of the Sauropods ” (Omni Sep 1980) — short story — nomination
1977:Shadrach in the Furnace (Analog Aug,Sep,Oct 1976; Bobbs-Merrill) — novel — nomination
1976:The Stochastic Man (F&SF Apr,May,Jun 1975; Harper & Row) — novel — nomination
1976:professional editor — nomination
1975:“Born with the Dead ” (F&SF Apr 1974) — novella — nomination
1975:“Schwartz Between the Galaxies ” (Stellar #1) — short story — nomination
1975:professional editor — nomination
1974:professional editor — nomination
1973:The Book of Skulls (Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1973:Dying Inside (Galaxy Jul/Aug,Sep/Oct 1972; Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1973:“When We Went to See the End of the World ” (Universe 2) — short story — nomination
1972:A Time of Changes (Galaxy Mar,Apr,May/Jun 1971; Signet) — novel — nomination
1972:The World Inside (Doubleday) — novel — nomination
1971:Tower of Glass (Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1971:“The World Outside” (Galaxy Oct/Nov 1970) — novella — nomination
1970:Up the Line (Ballantine) — novel — nomination
1970:“To Jorslem” (Galaxy Feb 1969) — novella — nomination
1970:“Passengers ” (Orbit 4) — short story — nomination
1969:“Nightwings” (Galaxy Sep 1968) — novella — winner
1968:Thorns (Ballantine) — novel — nomination
1968:“Hawksbill Station ” (Galaxy Aug 1967) — novella — nomination
1956:most promising new author — winner
Nebula Awards — for SF/F works, voted by SF & Fantasy Writers of America professional membership
(22 nominations; 5 wins)
1990:“Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another” (Asimov’s Jun 1989; Time Gate) — novelette — nomination
1988:“The Secret Sharer ” (Asimov’s Sep 1987) — novella — nomination
1987:“Gilgamesh in the Outback” (Asimov’s Jul 1986; Rebels in Hell) — novella — nomination
1986:“Sailing to Byzantium ” (Asimov’s Feb 1985) — novella — winner
1984:“Homefaring ” (Amazing Stories Nov 1983) — novella — nomination
1983:“The Pope of the Chimps ” (Perpetual Light) — short story — nomination
1977:Shadrach in the Furnace (Analog Aug,Sep,Oct 1976; Bobbs-Merrill) — novel — nomination
1976:The Stochastic Man (F&SF Apr,May,Jun 1975; Harper & Row) — novel — nomination
1975:“Born with the Dead ” (F&SF Apr 1974) — novella — winner
1973:The Book of Skulls (Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1973:Dying Inside (Galaxy Jul,Sep 1972; Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1973:“When We Went to See the End of the World ” (Universe 2) — short story — nomination
1972:A Time of Changes (Galaxy Mar,Apr,May/Jun 1971; Nelson Doubleday) — novel — winner
1972:“Good News from the Vatican ” (Universe 1) — short story — winner
1971:Tower of Glass (Galaxy Apr,May,Jun 1970; Scribner’s) — novel — nomination
1970:Up the Line (Amazing Stories Jul,Sep 1969; Ballantine) — novel — nomination
1970:“To Jorslem” (Galaxy Feb 1969) — novella — nomination
1970:“Passengers ” (Orbit 4) — short story — winner
1969:The Masks of Time (Ballantine) — novel — nomination
1969:“Nightwings” (Galaxy Sep 1968) — novella — nomination
1968:Thorns (Ballantine) — novel — nomination
1968:“Hawksbill Station ” (Galaxy Aug 1967) — novella — nomination
Wolf, I couldn’t resist any of the ACE Doubles I found as a kid. Today, they’re hard to come by…
FWIW, gang, None of the stories published in NEXT STOP THE STARS was published in a literal pulp, much less any more useful (let’s be kind and put it as) “colloquial” abuse of the term:
Next Stop the Stars • collection by Robert Silverberg
5 • Slaves of the Star Giants • (1957) • novella by Robert Silverberg, in SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES (which, admittedly, was a digest after the former PLANET STORIES readers–which was damned near the last sf pulp for a good reason, in terms of quality–as was STARTLING)
48 • The Songs of Summer • (1956) • short story by Robert Silverberg, in SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, Robert Lowndes’s digest
66 • Hopper • (1956) • novelette by Robert Silverberg, in INFINITY SF, Larry Shaw’s other magazine, his attempt to rival GALAXY and F&SF
87 • Blaze of Glory • (1957) • short story by Robert Silverberg, in GALAXY, in the period where Frederik Pohl was back-stopping H. L. Gold, and not all that pulpy, no
102 • Warm Man • (1957) • short story by Robert Silverberg, in Anthony Boucher’s very unpulpish F&SF
Todd, although the digest magazines you mention–SF ADVENTURES, SF STORIES, GALAXY, F&SF–the actual stories had a very pulpish feel to them.
Well, he was a very young writer…and the early stories tended to be derivative…
Todd, you can see the development of Silverberg’s writing as his stories got better and better!
oh wow, I love reading classic scifi, but didn’t know this author, thanks!
Silverberg was one of the few authors whose stories appearde in all magazines -Analog, F&SF, Galaxy, etc. That says a lot about the broad spectrum of his writing etc. That says a lot about the broad spectrum of his writing – he really was great!
He’s still with us, but writing nonfiction pretty much exclusively again.
Todd, I agree with Silverberg’s decision not to write any more fiction. You have to know when to leave the Party…
Wolf, like you I admire Silverberg’s talent and versatility.