Robert Silverberg's "Cronos" is a collection of three short novels that capture his different visions of time travel. Silverberg is a master of science fiction, with an easy-to-read style that paints clear pictures of his worlds, without techno-clutter. Silverberg's work, as usual seems unremarkable when you start reading, but it's impossible to put down. Each of his three novellas chooses a different time-travel focus.

The first, "Letters From Atlantis," details Roy's journey back through time to ancient Atlantis. In this 109-page work, time travel is possible only through projection of the traveler's mind through time. Roy lands in the mind of an Atlantean prince, and through his eyes discovers the magic and secrets of Atlantis. The entire story is written via Roy's letters to his beloved, also travelling in the same time period. This technique does become a little tiresome, as the whole story is detailed through one voice. The ending is somewhat predictable, but the story is enjoyable nonetheless.

In Project Pendulum, a 135-page novella, twin brothers travel through time in a series of offsetting jumps. The first jump sends one brother 5 minute ahead in time, while sending the second 5 minutes backward. Each succeeding jump sends each brother in the opposite time direction in geometrically increasing leaps. Their ultimate destination - 95 million years into the future and into the past. Silverberg paces the novella wonderfully, and the reader feels the brothers' emotional whiplash at being sent from one time to the next. The story is a delight for anyone interested in the concept of time paradoxes.

The final novella, "The Time Hoppers," is the oldest, longest, and the best. Silverberg paints a suffocating 25th Century world as only he can do. It centers on time-hoppers traveling illegally back through time, and the struggling CrimeSec whose job it is to catch the people sending them back. Part time travel story, part detective story, it shows Silverberg's early promise as a writer.

A good addition to any sci fi library.

I don't know what is it about modern science fiction, but I haven't read a fantasy or a science fiction book in a quite while which gave me this feeling of wonder. If you don't know what I mean, try reading the "Time Machine" by H.G. Wells.

Nevertheless, this book somehow managed to capture this long lost feeling - and not only once, but three times! Time Travel stories have always been a favorite of mine, so I was delighted to find a collection of three medium sizes time travel stories.


The first story, "Letters from Atlantis" tells about Roy, who is sent 20,000 years back in time. However, Roy does not travel physically - only his mind makes the journey. Upon getting to the past he finds himself inside the mind of the prince of Atlantis (which hasn't been destroyed yet) - and what he sees greatly surprises him... I'm not going to reveal any of the plot, just that it's a good story - even though it's my least favorite of the three.


The second story, "Project Pendulum", is definitely my favorite one. It tells about twin brothers who are sent to a journey through time. However, since matter has to be preserved, whenever one is in the future, the other must be exactly in an identical "amount of time" in the past (So, for example, when the first brother is 50 years in the future, the other brother is exactly 50 years in the past). The way their journey works, is that they increase their interval by 10. The first brother is being sent 5 minutes forward, when the second brother is sent 5 minutes backward, and then the first brother goes 50 minutes forward, and so on: 500 minutes, 5000 minutes, 50,000 minutes, etc. This interval goes to 90 million years in the future and in the past, which is when their journey ends. As you can imagine, since the brothers explore a myriad of timelines, every jump is a story of its own. Robert Silverberg really managed to do it well - he kept every jump interesting while still not repeaeting himself.


The third story, "The Time Hoppers", has a definite Asimovian feel to it. If you liked Isaac Asimov's "The End of Enternity" you will definitely love this story. The story tells about Quellen - a lowly crime investigator living in the 25th century. Appaerntly, the 25th century turns into quite a dystopia. Too many people and too few jobs cause most people to live unemployed and in quite bad conditions. Many have found that the best way to escape this is to jump into the past. However, the government isn't all too happy about this, so assigns Quellen to investigate how this is accomplished and put a stop to this.

Three different stories, all quite different, but all good - I recommend this book to all time travel lovers, and even if you're not really a fan of this sub-genre, you will still probably like these stories.

Stories by Sturgeon inspired movies, episodes of Star Trek, & even the New Twilight Zone. I'm not a Sturgeon fan, but I'm baffled by how an award winning author (indeed an author with an award named for him) who had links to the media is disappearing. Talking about the author is Very relevant since this & other such collections are about keeping his work in print. Anyway this a mixture of fantasy, SF, horror & Mainstream. The standouts are said to be the title peace (Killdozer! is mentioned a lot in MST 3K's early seasons) "Abreaction", "The Chromium Helmet", & "Mewhu's Jet". This collection gives you a good feel of this stage of Sturgeon's career. If you like Sturgeon or just have an interest in older science fiction & fantasy this is worth trying out

This is the third volume of the serieis and I'm reading the fourth now and I have to say that if you have ANY passing interest in science-fiction, literature, basically anything related to writing and the art of the short story, you owe it to yourself to hunt down these volumes, they're about the best service the publishing industry has done for one of its writers in years. You won't get genius each time but each volume has its own gems to treasure. This one has of course the masterful Killdozer among other things, the stories are branching out more here, most are touching in some way but all are at the very least entertaining, my favorite might just be the unpublished "August Sixth, 1945" which distills brilliantly the thoughts of a generation realizing the power they had with atomic energy and coming to grips with just what it meant. You can see a shift in his stories at that point and especially with the later "Thunder and Roses", as with most science fiction writers, the future was now and it wasn't all rosy and they felt they had a duty to show that it could be good that the shining stuff they showed in their stories could come true. Sturgeon believed that because he believed in people and he loved everyone and nothing shows that better than his stories. Read them and you come to know the man. And he's worth knowing.

Most of us have come across the shadowy figure of "Prester John" in our readings on medieval history. In essence, a mythical, all-powerful, Christian king, his kingdom was located somewhere beyond the pale of "well known" (Western) Christian countries. Sited initially in central Asia, his domain kept shifting westward, until finally settling on Ethiopia -- this despite the fact that the rulers of Ethiopia disavowed using the title "Prester John." The author does a good job tracing the sources and history of this myth. He explains why, despite its many preposterous elements, the myth took strong root. He proposes the theory that the fuel propelling the myth was the need of a powerful Christian ally during the Crusades against Islam.

The book is well written, but a graphical timeline would help. Also the exploration of alternate geneses for the myth would make the book more complete.

All in all, an excellent introduction.

After finishing Umberto Eco's "Baulolino", I hit the library looking for books on the Prester John myth and came across one. It was extremely interesting and well written. Only the first 150-200 pages cover the history relevant to Eco's book and they were all I originally planned on reading, but the information about the Portuguese exploring Ethiopia fascinated me as well so I entered up reading the entire book. Quite worthwhile and highly recommended.

This version of legends is divided into three parts, if you search for Robert Silverberg you can find it in one volume for about the same price, so that you get all three parts together for about a third of the price
As to the book,I can only review the second part (I made the mistake of ordering legends 2 thinking that it was all 11 stories, but it was really just three.) The three stories that were in it were:Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin
and Runner of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey
Of the three I read, The Hedge Knight was definitely the best, it has alot of action and the grimly real, but exciting story that only Martin can provide. It is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Martin's excellent series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
Debt of Bones was good, and it showed me what type of a writer Goodkind is,(I haven't read anything by him but that, but it got me interested and I bought the first book in his series, The Sword Of Truth.
Runner of Pern was probably the one I least liked, I knew nothing about Anne McCaffrey, and it was okay, but not nearly as good as The Hedge Knight.
Be sure to buy the edition with all 11 stories, I have just ordered the full edition, Most all of the writers in the 11 stories, I have read before and it is interesting to have a short work to read by them, about a different part of their world. This will also help you get aquainted with writers you havn't read before, see their writing style, and decide if you want to read more of them.

I read Legends in one piece, so please bear with me reviewing here. Legends (and Far Horizons) as well, were a brilliant move. Short stories about the worlds you know and love, in one book with yet unexplored worlds... it's awesome, both from the fan's and the publisher's point of view.

The quality of the stories was high. King's story was beautiful and enchanting, I am not a great fan of Pratchett, though, Feist and Goodkind's stories were entertaining enough, if not a little predictable.

I felt myself also highly attracted to Williams' story for some reason. And I havent even read the series. Still gotta find the first book somewhere. :)
Jordan's story, as a WOT fan, was nice enough. It was nice to be back in the WOT world again (this was during the wait for book 9). For me, it grabbed hold and didnt let go. Although I agree that it might be a little vague and incomprehensible for the people who are not familiar with the Wheel of Time.
The big thing about Legends though, has got to be the Hedge Knight. It got me to reading Martin's work, and it had got me to favoring Martin above Jordan as soon as I was done with the series.

Legends did what it was made for - introduce fans into worlds they havent explored yet, and show them a little bit more of the worlds they know and love. So yes, Legends was brilliant.

Wow.

My dad got me this as a gift a few years ago, and i have been consistently re-reading it since. All of the stories are masterpieces, even more so in that they are all less than a few hundred pages, yet still present a rich, textured world, unique to each story. This book has led me to 5 different series, 3of which i have completed again and again (I just can't seem to find the rest of the other 2). All of the stories are exquisite.

New Spring, by Robert Jordan, last story in the book, has affected me the most. It was one of the last stories I read, not just for being last, but I have read the 7000+ page series again and again in the last few years.

I have not read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, but the story by Tad Williams is very complex; it took me a few readings to get the full plot. A great older read.

The Earthsea story isn't really connected to the other books, but they are good. And Ms. Le Guin has also written a few kids books.

The Hedge Knight, by George R.R. Martin, is most likely my favorite story. I haven't gotten around to reading the series yet, but it's on my list. Wonderful storytelling and action.

King, as always, is absolutely stunning. Leaving no violence or sex out, this serves as a wonderful intro or stand-alone. The Little Sisters of Eluria is a #1 first story choice.

The Feist story was a bit wierd, and kind of unfufilled. The Seventh Shrine was the last story I read. I think i was a bit put off by its length. It was worth the time, and i still have yet to pick up a book of the series.

And I won't settle for subliminal messages: BUY AND READ THE BOOK! NOW!!

Oops, I seem to have left out the Card story. It is funny, and linked to a wonderful series whose depth so far is rarely equaled in my reprtoire. The Ender series, also by the same author, is much more famous, and about par, on a totally different subject. a very funny yarn, when the rest of the series is slightly more somber.

Science fiction? Hardly...more like sexual fiction. Would have been fine if I was looking in the adult fantasy section. Didn't find a single thing in this book that grabbed me - except boredom. Forget about continuity or connected segments.

Save your money (. . .)

I normally don't give such a poor rating on anything, but there always has to be a first time. I think the author of this book needs some serious mental therapy. He promotes man as being future gods, there is too much explicit sex and he goes off on wild tangents. I think he and Carlos Castenega would hit it off real well, they could swap notes. I would have to sum this book up with a simple sentence: "Don't waste your money, like I did."

One of the books that opened my perceptions to wonder when I first read it some 20 years ago. Silverberg at his most psychedically powerful stride. Along with "Nightwings" this is a must read for any fan of the Sci-Fi genre.

A terrible pitty that it is not available for my Macintosh or Palm.

This collection offers the reader a very mixed bag. Pulling off an anthology like this is extremely difficult because the stories threaten to be repetitious, tedious, or both. Robert Price has only moderate success here.

The stories are remarkably varied; Price has taken a good cross-section of stories about the Necronomicon and has avoided the repetition problem for the most part. Despite this, some of the stories are quite predictable.

The strength of this collection indeed lies in its variety. When was the last time you read a Mythos story by John Brunner? His story is one of the best of the book. For that matter, Silverberg and Pohl are not well known for Mythos contributions, but they make contributions to this volume.

The real tedium in the collection comes in the versions of the Necronomicon. There's only so much archaically-written gobbledygook a reader can stand. After a page of it, the rest looks like more of the same. Thus, "The Sussex Manuscript" and Lin Carter's contribution are of little interest to the reader. Carter's repeats the same themes again and again, showing some creativity but soon losing the reader's interest.

The value of this collection, then, is limited. Some of Price's other collections present a much more interesting read. This book is one for the dedicated Cthulhu Mythos fan.

For those of us who came early into our addiction to H. P. Lovecraft, the Necronomicon assumes a singular place as the most famous book never written. Lovecraft's non-existent volume, a treatise on magic that unlocks the dimensional barriers that seperate us from Earth's powerful and horrific former rulers, has assumed a life all its own.
The Necronomicon: Selected Stories and Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab is a wonderful compendium of lore and imagination compiled by editor Robert M. Price. The various stories, prefaced by an informative and insightful introduction by Price,
are all excellent in their own way, but rather uneven in tone. From genuinely creepy tales like "Settler's Wall" and "The Howler In the Dark" to more tongue-in-cheek offerings like Robert Silverberg's " Demons of Cthulhu," The Necronomicon offers a little bit of everything for the hardcore Lovecraft junkie.
For me, the book's real spine lies in the pseudo-scholarly articles that deal with the Necronomicon and its author, the "Mad" arab Abdul Alhazrad, as if they genuinely existed. Included here are such choice items as a biography of Alhazred, a history of the Necronomicon as written by Lovecraft himself, the John Dee Translation of the Necronomicon (an over-the-top parody so hilarious it reads like Shakespeare on acid), and a refreshingly serious , A Critical Commentary on the Necronomicon written by Robert M. Price.
If the idea of ancient tomes of forbidden magic, exotic lands, distant times and unutterably terrifying monsters appeals to you, then this book is a welcome addition to the growing body of Lovecraft studies.

If you're a die-hard fan of H.P. Lovecraft's work, and the Cthulhu Mythos that grew from it , then you MUST add this book to your collection!

The book is composed of essentially two sections. The first is a collection of stories, by various authors, concerning the Necronomicon, that blasphemous occult tome invented by HPL. The second part of the book has several versions of sections of the Necronomicon, and commentaries about the tome. Even if you do not find the stories of interest, this book is well worth having for the latter material alone! Most notably included are Fred L. Pelton's "The Sussex Manuscript," Lin Carter's "The Necronomicon: The Dee Translation," Robert M. Price's "A Critical Commentary Upon The Necronomicon," and H.P. Lovecraft's "History of The Necronomicon."

Fear not the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods! Get this book!

This book is a fantasy by one of the greatest living Science Fiction writers. In this it fails
: that is is wordy; that it over uses devices like man eating plants and strange aliens.
It has a good fairy tale plot of a prince who is unjustly deprived of his crown
by magic ( science?). The treatment of Juggling has a pop culture ring to it.
Dreams as sendings by amplified thoughts is also a popular genera.
It is still a very good book, but I found myself skipping long very wordy discriptive
passages. But not as much as the first time I read it...

I first read Robert Silverberg's amazing novel "Lord Valentine's Castle" many, many years ago, but his superbly drawn world has remained with me. Re-reading the book reminded me why I initially fell in love with it. LVC is an interesting, almost hybrid sort of novel: it is a work of science fiction that has the feel of an epic fantasy novel.

LVC takes place thousands of years in the future on the distant world of Majipoor, a gigantic world with a population of 20 billion people of many different species: humans; the three-eyed Liimans; the four-armed, "Bigfoot"-like Skandars; the planet's shapeshifting aboriginal folk; and more. Silverberg brilliantly evokes the history, geography, zoology, botany, politics, and architecture of Majipoor, a world of great strangeness and great beauty. The plot takes Silverberg's hero on an epic quest across this richly imagined world.

Along the way are some amazing sensations: a view of the crystalline Ghayrog city of Dulorn, a taste of sea-dragon milk, and more. Silverberg addresses many relevant issues: memory, bigotry, responsibility, leadership, and the terrible burdens of history. The art of juggling is a fascinating motif that distinguishes the book. And the whole story is enlivened by Silverberg's superb writing style: accessible and contemporary, yet with a timeless, classic feel. "Lord Valentine's Castle" is a triumph by a master of the fantastic.

I recently picked up "Lord Valentine's Castle" in a used book store, and was very pleasantly surprised. This book is at least as good as (although stylistically different from) the works of Robert Jordan, L.E. Modesitt, and the other leading lights of contemporary fantasy fiction. Author Robert Silverberg writes with a texture reminiscent of such diverse works as the Wizard of Oz books, Lovecraft's "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath", Zelazny's "Lords of Light", and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan". Silverberg also pays homage to Robert Heinlein with the title character Lord Valentine, whose name (among other things) is an allusion to "Stranger in a Strange Land".

If you like high fantasy, or any of the books or stories noted above, please give "Lord Valentine's Castle" a try. One sentence of caution: the protagonist begins this novel in an amnesic state of zen detachment, and his character and relationships build gradually. I put the book down after 10 pages on the first occasion I tried to read it (about a decade ago). Persevere -- it's well worth the effort. Besides, since "Lord Valentine's Castle" was written in 1979, there's already 20 years of sequels published and waiting for you!

This book expands the original short story "Nightfall" written by Asimov many years ago. Just about every science fiction aficionado agrees that the original story, based on an Emerson quotation, is one of the classics of the genre. The basic premise is a superb leap of the imagination. Picture a planet which is part of a six-sun system. The respective orbits of the planet and the six suns are so defined, that one or more of the suns is always in the sky over any part of the planet. As a result, the people of the planet have only the faintest conception of what the absence of light i.e. darkness can be. With no dark night sky, they have no idea of other stars in the universe (forget radio astronomy as an inconvenient abstraction!). As far as they know, they are the masters of the universe. Now picture an unexpected total eclipse, at a time when only one sun is in the sky: a strange and frightening darkness covers the land, and the night sky now reveals millions of stars looking down on the stunned populace. How does a society deal with so drastic a blow to its fundamental picture of itself? In sheer imagination, in boldness, in vision, this story has few equals. The skillful blending of a religious doomsday cult and its interweave with a psychologist and baffled yet striving physical scientists brings out the roles of superstition and rationalism in society. I still remember the awe that gripped me when I first read this story more than a decade ago. This collaborative book builds upon the story and introduces some interesting ideas. The use of archaeology to derive the cyclical history of the plant is both imaginative and educative. The longer book format also allows the author to develop the characters more fully than in the short story. The weakness of the book however is the ending; to be fair, the cataclysmic end portrayed in the short story cannot possibly be improved upon. All the book does is stretch out the period of rebirth, adding interesting human vignettes along the way. I withhold one star for this reason. Do not miss this book, but do try to read the short story of the same name that started it all.

Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, is set on a planet that has six suns and perpetual daylight. The plot revolves around an unlikely event: an eclipse that shrouds the world in darkness for several hours. The main characters in the story are all scientists, and they are able to predict the arrival of the eclipse, but not its results. Because people on this world have lived with sunlight for their entire lives, the darkness inflicts severe psychological trauma on the population. The book is divided into thirds, with the first section showing the discovery of the eclipse, the second section is set on the night of the eclipse, and the third shows what happens afterwards.

This is a fairly short novel, just over 300 pages, and the authors' writing is quite good. I think that Asimov does a better job with the characters and dialogue in Nightfall than he did in most of his other novels. Also, there isn't much time wasted on long descriptions or on lecturing about the novel's themes, so the novel keeps moving at a good pace. I would have liked it if a little less time was dedicated to the character's personal lives, especially since some of their actions during and after the eclipse seem a little bit absurd. Overall, the book's strongest component is the originality of the concept. The idea of a world where darkness is a catastrophe is so different from the repetitive and predictable plots of so many other SF novels that I found Nightfall hard to put down, even when reading it for the second time.

Some people have complained that the authors' attitude towards religion is insulting, but I disagree. I don't think that they intended to bash all religions. They were, rather criticizing fanatiscism and cult-like behavior. And while some people might not agree with Asimov's rigid insistance on following science and logic at all costs, that shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying the book as a good work of science fiction.

Another superb work by the Grand Master of the genre, co-written by another great author, namely Robert "Where Silverberg goes today Sci-Fi goes tomorrow" Silverberg. An ingenius plot, with seemingly unmatched detail. A six-sun world, where not a second is without the glow of light from at least one of the gleaming suns. Except one day where in a matter of hours the vail of darkness envelops the world of these sun-shoned creatures. Struck by sudden madness they tear their world apart, dooming civilization. The depth of thought and vision needed to contribute to the world of litterature in the way this book has done, is what makes Asimov the GRAND Master of Science Fiction.

I was grasped by it when I read it the first time and I have enjoyed every single moment the other five times I've read it! Intense excitement and suspense makes it a worthy equal to "Nightfall": The short story, not to mention many other great works by this and the other masters of the genre.

Moby Dick meets Homer's Odyssey in this sci-fi adventure by Robert Silverberg. The planet Hydros is almost completely covered by water, and given the lack of sufficient metals to support a technological civilization, there is no escape. Our hero is Dr. Lawler, a respected healer and voice of reason, whose tiny collection of Earth-made artifacts ties him to the dreams of a lost past on a distant home world. Captain Delagard is the irrationally motivated merchant prince who uses his dreams of greatness to justify the most disreputable sort of means. Tricked into a seemingly endless voyage to nowhere, the ragtag crew of human survivors faces terrible dangers before deciding if they want to maintain their essential humanity, or trade it in for the possibility of something far greater.

From a sci-fi perspective, the best part of this novel is the dazzling array of bizarre alien life forms, but most are just one-shot threats, and only the island-building Gillies are really developed to any extent. There are long sections where Silverberg seems to be more interested in the psycho-social dynamics of the ship's crew than in the voyage itself, a tactic that only emphasizes how wooden and one-dimensional these characters are to begin with. Our perspective being such that only the doctor is really important to us, none of the others are sufficiently realistic, complex, or engaging to sustain the kind of psychological thriller that Silverberg seems intent on creating. So while this book is not a bad read, there are too many long stretches where the writer seems to be killing time before the next alien attack. And after the long journey's end, the grand conclusion we were waiting for is based on one of the more tired clichés in science fiction. Silverberg's fans will surely enjoy this book, but given his prodigious output, casual readers would be better advised to pick one of his better novels over this substandard effort. I personally suggest the beautiful and delicate Nightwings, or the monumental The World Inside.

My guess is that Silverberg's intention with this novel was to take the Campbell/Heinlein/Golden Age paradigm of man mastering his environment and turn it on its head. The end, which I won't spoil for you Silverberg fans intent on reading it, strikes this individualist as the most philosophically corrupt ending he has ever read. That said, the book is written with Silverberg's usual intelligence and skill; he brings a hellish world to horrifying life.

Robert Silverberg's novel, The Face of the Waters, is one of his better novels. I believe that the soul of the novel lies not in the characters themselves, but in their reactions to the situations presented. If I were to pick one character which Silverberg has developed, it would be the Doctor. He is pretty much the only character that Silverberg chooses to develop well, but this does not detract from the novel. Instead, it gives the reader insight enough to understand the implications and strength of the end of the novel. Without the Doctor's inclination to be a loner, yet his desire to fit in, the ending could not have the impact it does.

Yes, the journey/plot sometimes lags, but one has to admire the richness of Silverberg's world of Hydros. Many other authors simply leave it at the fact that the world is an alien one and that it's different form Earth. Silverberg, on the other hand, shows the biodiversity of Hydros (which is a key aspect of the novel).

Overall, Silverberg creates a rich world teeming with alien life and infested with the few humans who live on Hydros. In my opinion, he develops well the only character who matters and creates a great story. Unlike some of his other books (namely The Stochastic Man and To Open the Sky), Silverberg does not let his apparent fatalism, cynicism, and pessimism influence the novel too much, leaving the reader with just the right combination of all three, with even a bit of optimism thrown in. In general, I think Silverberg did a wonderful job in writing this novel, and, unlike another reader, I'm going to keep it and not return it to the second-hand bookstore.

Mankind is threatened by an alien that strips us of our free will. We can't communicate with these aliens, so we can't fight or appease them. Our only hope is Dick Muller, who, in mankind's first contact with an alien race, was permanently maimed and cannot live with humans anymore. However, it is precisely this injury that gives him the opportunity to let the aliens know we are a thinking race. The only question is-will he reject the human race that previously rejected him?

This modern retelling of the myth of Philoctetes is short, sweet, and to the point. It doesn't pause for discursive considerations of the maning of life or the nature of the human beast; that would belabor a subtle point and lose the larger meaning. The whole piece is a careful consideration of the limits of the human animal, and what makes it possible to live with one another.

This silver-age SF gem presaged such Silverberg classics as Dying Inside, a more careful meditation on the same themes. It also dovetails neatly into the New Wave of science fiction, in which the great source of speculation isn't scientific advancement, but the limits of the human being. All in all, it becomes a forward-thinking insight using a framework as old as time. Though imperfect, it belongs to a class of book that just doesn't get written anymore.

After an encounter with an alien race that leaves him with a strange 'disease', Richard Muller exiles himself to Lemnos, a place famous for a vast, deadly maze that was built there long ago. He alone succeeded in getting to its center; now, veteran Charles Boardman, the one who convinced Muller to go on that ill-fated mission, and the young Ned Rawlins, whose late father was Muller's friend, must get Muller out of the maze and back to Earth for one last, heroic task (to do so, they, too, must master the maze). Getting through the maze won't be as difficult as it will be to actually convince Muller to follow them; thus, a psychological battle plays out during most of the book. In my mind, this isn't as fascinating as are all the different paths leading to different sorts of knowledge: in the first third of the work, Boardman's crew uses robots programmed to replicate the information that was saved during earlier, unsuccessful tries to get through the maze - that way, human lives are saved while the crew can afford to lose dozens of robots; some of the maze's sections are easier for the robots to go through, because they can more easily doubt their sense perception, whereas humans must close their eyes so that they won't be confused by appearances; meanwhile, Muller, having lived nine years in the maze and thus knowing it better than anyone, is still speculating about its possible origin, hidden secrets and traps. The only limitation to the various speculations is, plainly... death.

it is some 18 years since I heard this book broadcast as a series on "Morning Book Reading" on ABC Radio back in the days when it was heard at 9a.m. it has remained fresh in my mind ever since, it is an enthralling tale which kept me listening day after day and waiting for the next episode. It always struck me as being an ideal book to be turned into a film but, as far as I know it hasnt been-yet!
The tale involves an astronaut who has been 'infected' by aliens in a manner which makes it impossible for anybody to be close to him without feeling psychological pain. Taking himself off to an uninhabited planet which has been arranged into a deadly maze by previous aliens, he defeats the maze and lives comfortably, on his own - until Earth needs him.
An expedition is sent out to bring him back and the book deals with the efforts of the Earth crew to also beat the maze and make contact. The maze has a whole series of grizzly traps, which keep the reader guessing as to what will be next.
The astronaut returns to Earth fixes up the problem and in doing so is 'cured' but prefers to return to his planet instead of remaining on Earth.
A super good story. I will be reading it again