TABLE OF CONTENTS:

In his INTRODUCTION, Robert Silverberg writes about why he prefers to write Science Fiction in the novella format over short stories (he’s written over 400 of them) and novels (he’s written over a 100 of them).

These six novellas are presented in chronological order so you can see Silverberg’s development as a writer from the 1950s to the 1990s.

“The Valley Beyond Time” presents a group of humans and aliens kidnapped from across the Galaxy and held on an unknown planet by The Watcher. “How It Was When the Past Went Away” shows what happens when people lose their memories. “Going” follows a composer who is a hundred and thirty-six years old in a Future where population control encourages older people to “Go.”

The title story, “This is the Road” is a harrowing story of a small group of people trying to escape from an invading army. “Lion Time in Timbuctoo” concerns a Future set in an alternate history where the Black Death of 1348 devastates Europe, leaving Western civilization too weak to colonize Africa.

“In Another Country” is the best-known story in this collection. It was written as a “sequel” to C. L. Moore’s “Vintage Season” and published as TOR Double #18. Time travel is tricky…

If you’re a Robert Silverberg fan, you might already have all of these novellas in other collections. But, if you’re a reader who wants to explore the excellence of Robert Silverberg, This is the Road is the perfect book to do that. GRADE: B+

Laser-Focused Science Fiction (Foreword by John Shirley) — vii
Introduction by Robert Silverberg — ix
I. Valley Beyond Time (1957) — 1
II. How It Was When the Past Went Away (1969) — 41

III. Going (1971) — 99

IV. This is the Road (1973) — 147

V. Lion Time in Timbuctoo (1990) — 203

VI. In Another Country (1990) — 267

About the Author — 337