Silverberg is very inconsistent and I can't say I like any of his latest books, such as "Starborne" or "A Hot Sky at Midnight". Luckily, "Star of Gypsies" appears to be one of his earlier works, and it is quite good. Not quite like "Lord Valentine's Castle", but still great. Adventures of Yakoub, the King of Gypsies, and the worlds they take him to are varied and wondrous, and Yakoub himself is quite a character. This is definitely a book worth reading!

Reading Those Who Watch, you wonder how many days Silverberg used to write it; and yet I liked this book. It is easy to read, but so are Asimov's books, and it brings back some of that old sense of wonder that you felt when you started reading SF. The book is a pageturner: you sympathize with humans and aliens alike, and you keep hoping for a happy ending. This is not a very original book, but it's exciting in its own quaint way. It's definitely a book for all those who need a break before plunging into the deep waters of Blue Mars (if ever they had the stamina to finish the first two).

To me, TLA is not just the average sci-fi story, it is set in the future (at least the future, as Silverberg saw it in the sixties), but that is merely a help to let the story unfold, as the transplanting of people's mind was not quite possible (yet?) The story primarily focuses on the Kaufmann family, and their greatest enemy Roditis, whom all want the mind of a deceased multinational, it is really about greed and power, about human nature, and it is very interesting at that.

After Silverberg's first "retirement," he returned to science
fiction with this book--constructed out of a series of novelettes
published by Fred Pohl in _If_. It is colorful, almost gaudy
science fiction; in a way, it seems to bridge Silverberg's pulp
work of the 50's with his more thoughtful work of the later 60's
and early 70's.

As is the case with most science fiction, it appears dated in
places. During the years 1964-65, when this book was written,
some of the concerns with mysticism and trancendence embedded in
the social unrest of the later 60's were already clearly in
evidence. Silverberg shows his awareness and sympathy for these
trends in this early book.

While the themes of the book are very much of its time, the
pure inventiveness points farther back, to works like
Alfred Bester's _Tyger! Tyger!_ (aka, _The Stars My
Destination_). The "Electromagnetic Litany: Stations of
the Spectrum_" is clever and funny and ingenious enough
in its own right to sway me in the book's favor.

The quality of the writing is more than competent, and sometimes
a great deal better than that. Silverberg, for all his excellent
novels (e.g., _Dying Inside_, _The Book of Skulls_, _Downward
to the Earth_), often seems to me happier at the novelette to
novella length. Thus a mosaic novel such as this one shows
him at his best advantage.

At the same time, despite its several excellences, the book
is not devoid of a certain immaturity by later Silverberg
standards. There are a few stock characters, as well as stock
reactions here. During the ten years after this book, Silverberg
showed us how much better he could do.

Still, all in all, I'm fond of this book. I *do* think it's
good entertainment of a high order. I'd really like to give
it 3.5 stars, because it isn't a masterwork. But it is diverting
reading, even if one isn't a devoted reader of Silverberg.

While trying to avoid the dangers of the Afterworld, Gilgamesh seeks out his closest friend. Along the way he interacts with various historical characters who, like himself, are caught up in a never ending cycle of death and rebirth.

There are twenty stories collected in Universe 1, only two of which (by Francis Valery and K. Hernandez-Brun) are unreadable. Most of the remaining eighteen are provocative, enjoyable, amusing, moving, or all of the above - a remarkably high success rate for any anthology.

Some particular standouts:

"The Translator" by Kim Stanley Robinson. A human is forced to use an inaccurate translating machine to avert a war between two alien cultures. A deft portrayal of cunning deception, and the loose translations generated by the machine show Robinson to be herself a master of language.

"One Night in Television City" by Paul DiFilippo. The story itself is rather blah, but DiFilippo creates a narrative voice that is very Raymond Chandler-esque while advancing the slang and idioms a few hundred years. The word choices and the language that ensues is a fine example of a technical mastery of the written word (it is just unfortunate that the substance does not live up to the technique).

"Alimentary Tract" by Scott Baker describes a world where gluttony is punished by allowing the glutton to gorge himself; all calories are diverted to needy families in Southeast Asia. An intriguing idea played to out to wonderful comedic and insightful effect.

"The Songs the Anemone Sing" by Grania Davis is a powerful, moving tale of inter-species (platonic) love. Davis' ability to evoke powerful emotions in fifteen pages is astonishing.

"Love Is a Drug" by Leah Alpert is, perhaps, the highlight of the book. In Alpert's society, couples must undergo drug therapy before they can be divorced. Occasionally, though, the therapist injects the wrong drug! Wildly entertaining, and a pure pleasure from the opening line to the satisfying ending.

Amidst such excellent stories, Ursula K. LeGuin's contribution, "The Shobie's Story" is the only actual disappointment. Which isn't to say that the Shobie's story is a dull one; it's just that one expects perfection from the author of The Left Hand of Darkness and perfection isn't present here.

One final observation, several of the stories are post-apocalyptic, which is somewhat surprising given the stories were written in 1989/1990 when the Cold War seemed to be coming to an end and world-wide optimism was high. Once upon a time science fiction was the literature of the hopeful; not for several of these writers.

Overall, Universe 1 is a very worthwhile collection, one that should be appreciated by not only science fiction fans, but also fans of good literature in general.

An enjoyable enough romp, if a little directionless at times. I felt the book was trying to make some form of social commentary on a variety of issues, including:

- the effect being utterly driven has on those around us
- the distinction between natural/un-natural/synthetic/organic life
- the need to attach a (perhaps religious) significance to criteria we don't understand.

I count three or four main themes throughout the book, but I felt it ended without making significant commentary or statement about any of them.

Simeon Krug is the king of the universe. A self-made man, he is the Bill Gates of the era, having built a mega-commercial empire on the backs of his products: "androids", genetically-engineered human slaves. Having amassed incredible wealth, his next major goal is to communicate with aliens living in an uninhabitable world, sending a mysterious signal. This requires building a mile-high tower in the arctic tundra.

The androids want civil equality with humans, but are divided on the best means to the goal, political agitation or religious devotion to Krug, their creator. And Krug's son, Manuel, is reluctant to step into his role as heir to his father's empire.

Silverberg has created an interesting universe with many fascinating, but uncompelling, characters. Activity builds up to a crescendo, but collapses into an appalling mess. In some ways, he daringly leaves many questions open. (was there any significance to the shift in the aliens' signal?) In many other ways, it just plods along until its conclusion.

A very good story of ambition and perceptions. None of the themes are particularly unique, but their particular incarnation and use are powerful. I disagree heartily with one of the previous reviewers who stated that no significant commentary was made on the themes of the book. I think this is only true if you are expecting Lazarus Long to pop out whack you on the head with the author's views. The commentary is very present through the character's views and actions, particularly as defined by social class and generation. It is, to put a finer point on it, implicit not explicit. And it requires, I think, an understanding of the minutia of (fairly) modern class distinction. Manuel's love of the thin, high breasted woman compared to his father's love of full figured, rapacious peasant women is a great point of contrast, one of many that together illuminates a lot about the Manuel-Simeon relationship. Not just that, but all father-son and self-made vs. money-born relationships. Maybe I enjoy Manuel and Simeon simply because they remind me of so many real, relatively affluent families I have known.

The android/creator/god story had a bit more of a conventional SF approach, but was rendered poignantly and painfully. There was a certain lack-of-conclusion, but in this case I find that a positive. To have extended the story much beyond the conclusion would have risked tacking on indeterminate chapters of boring resolution, the sort of stuff that makes you want to throw an otherwise fine book across the room in frustration.

However, I don't think this is nearly Silverberg's best books. Though better than the meandering Nightwings, it is not nearly as good as _Dying Inside_ (Highly recommended. One of the best books ever written) and I don't think quite as good as _Up The Line_, though I'm torn on that.

The ambitious plans Silverberg works out in the introduction turn out to become a real bore. Most stories are sedatives rather than stories, above all Silverberg's own contribution. It is not so much that I miss action, but if there are contemplative passages they have to be interesting and discuss themes of interest and relevance. Good science fiction always has to mirror reality and its problems in a way, and doing so it must not just play with a given subject, but has to involve the reader and take sides. And of course, stories need real plots - and some action after all. But telling most of these stories Scherazade would have been killed right after the first night.
There are some exceptions, though. Ursula Le Guin's yarn is quite good, but we have seen better stories from her. The same is true for Frederik Pohl's story. Dan Simmons wrote an acceptable tale, but those three are not worth laboring through 577 long and slow pages.

Robert Silverberg returns with a new anthology, similar in form to 1998's well-received Legends. While the previous book featured eleven stories by well-known fantasy writers, working in their famous "worlds", this volume features eleven stories by well-known science fiction writers, again working in their famous "worlds".

I have some mild misgivings about the concept behind these books, really just a personal thing. I tend to think that we do well to encourage writers to branch out in new directions, to invent new universes. A book like this guarantees that the writers will be rehashing somewhat familiar territory. I also like to see anthologies feature a mix of established talent and new writers: partly because I'm interested in seeing what new voices have to say, and partly because I think it helps new writers to have venues in which to publish their work which will be promoted, as it were, by the presence of big names alongside them. But I emphasize that these are quibbles, and that despite all that a book like this is an attractive package, and that most of the series involved have plenty of room for interest further explorations.

That said, I was mildly disappointed by the final results. Most of the stories are pretty good, but not a one of them quite bowled me over, though the Simmons and Le Guin pieces came close. Dan Simmons' entry, "Orphans of the Helix", is set in the universe of his Hyperion Cantos. Some centuries following the events of that series, a "spinship" carrying frozen colonists looking for a new world to settle detects a distress signal. A few of them are wakened, and they deal with a desperate problem involving an ancient colony of "Ousters" (space adapted humans) and some unusual aliens. The plot is not the interesting part of this story: Simmons is having fun with a passel of big, "Space Opera", ideas. Simmons' reputation is as a somewhat "literary" writer, and I think this obscures his impressive Sfnal imagination at times. This story considers Ringworld-sized forests, some very odd humans indeed, some interesting political speculation, aliens living inside a sun, a really big, really scary spaceship, and several more sense-of-wonder inducing ideas. Le Guin's story, on the other hand, is much quieter in tone. It's another story set on Werel, the setting of her collection of linked novellas, Four Ways to Forgiveness. "Old Music and the Slave Women", like the previous Werel stories, treats of the revolution against the long-established slave-owning societies on Werel. The protagonist, called Old Music, is a Hainish diplomat, that is a representative of the interstellar organization called the Ekumen. As war rages, the Ekumen has been prevented from gaining information about conditions on Werel, and Old Music jumps at a chance to speak to the rebels. But he is betrayed, and ends up at a compound of slaveholding loyalists. As the war rages back and forth across this area, he learns at first hand a great deal about this culture. It's a fine story, and it fits in very well with the other stories in its series, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised to see Le Guin reissue her collection including this story: Five Ways to Forgiveness, anyone?

Many of the other stories are enjoyable but minor: in the nature of things they tend to be sidelights to the existing series of which they are parts. There are two outright stinkers, Orson Scott Card's wish-fulfillment story "Investment Counselor" about how Ender meets Jane (the latter character one of my least favorite characters ever), and Anne McCaffrey's awful "The Ship That Returned".

the book is a collection of stories by known SF writer, which are based on sequels series of books written by this writers. the collection is good mostly for people who are not familiar or didn't have the power to read this sequels, and would like to taste some of the writing. it also intended to the fanatic SF readers whow will read every thing about their sequel series.

the stories were not so apealimg to me, since i haven't read most of this books, and the impression i got is that i didn't missed most of them.

anyway, it look likes a lot of effort was put in this book by the editor SILVEBERG, and his fellow writers, but the outcome is a litle dissapointing.

I couldn't figure out why Silverberg's Majipoor was included among the series that were lauded in the Legends Anthology that Tor put out a few years ago. While the others were all unmistakably fantasy series, Majipoor is clearly science fiction. On top of that, despite being an old timer, Silverberg himself is no legend, except in his own mind. Seeing him with the likes of King and Jordan was laughable. Then I looked more closely and realized he was the editor. AHhhhhhhh.

The same sort of this shines here. A once decent, if not remarkable, series is being plumbed again, in the hope that it will produce another gusher. Sadly, the well is dry. This promises to be the conclusion, and I can only hope that it is, but the ending was amateurish at best, and I can't really say I will miss the world.

I've seen too often now where writers decide that their favorite world of their creation was not adequately explored in their original trilogy, so they decide to embark on second and third installments of their now-epic sagas. (Yes, Stephen Donaldson and Katherine Kurtz--I'm looking at you.) That's the kind of thing we find here.

Silverberg produced a respectable trilogy back in the day when he fired up with "Lord Valentine's Castle". (Technically, this is a science fiction series, but it can also be read just as well from a fantasy standpoint.) There, he introduced the world of Majipoor and its governmental structure of the Pontifex, Coronal, Lady of the Isles, and the King of Dreams, along with the myriad races that have come to call the planet home. It was pretty good stuff. I doubt many people would call Silverberg a master of characterization, but he's great at big ideas and setting up seemingly simple, almost archetypical, plots that take a few interesting twists and turns along the way. So with the original set of books, you got a solid and entertaining tale of one man's journey back to himself. Arguably, it's a minor classic of the genre.

Then, much later, Silverberg bumped out the curious and pointless "Mountains of Majipoor" as a fourth volume (with its slim page count and irrelevant arc, it's pretty much just Majipoor Helper), and not satisfied with that, evidently decided to go for broke and churned out a second trilogy, set in an earlier time. The first book of the new trilogy was interesting enough, the second was somewhat less so, and the creative juices have pretty much dried up by the third.

Not a lot remains to be said, but the author persists in saying it, and at times it feels like we're very slowly traveling across the vast surface of Majipoor with the heroes, slogging wearily along with every footstep they take. From the original series, we already know that we'll see the introduction of the Fourth Power, the King of Dreams, so all of the sturm und drang leading up to that seems like a lot of empty noise. Meanwhile, minor characters take up undue stage time for no substantial payoff later. And the villains are grotesquely villainous without any hope of redemption. Silverberg does take some time to delineate Mandralisca, but basically only to conclude "Boy, he sure likes evil."

Ultimately, the books plods to its climax and then drops in its tracks right at the very denouement. It's as if the author ran out of sheets of paper, or realized he'd hit his contractual page count. We're hoping for a big emotional and dramatic payoff, but instead we get "Everyone is hit by a two-ton truck. The End."

Very frustrating. Everything after "Chronicles of Majipoor" really is only recommended for the purists who want to fill out their collections. Otherwise, there's just not anything compelling about the later material.

I am a long time fan of all the Majipoor novels and as such I had been anxoiusly waiting for this one. Now I read it, and although I enjoyed it I just do not know what to think about it, especially because of Prestimion. Throughout the story his very valid concerns about the state of government and the attack on his closest family members seem to be no more than mere tantrums of an oldish king - although in truth they are very far from that, not to mention that Prestimion is not that old at all... (and Dekkeret is not that young...)

Finally I felt the conclusion too sudden and too rash. A war was fight and won, major characters died, a fourth power of the realm was established - which is one of the biggest changes in Majipoor's history - without clear answers on Prestimion's concerns as if he was a minor character in the story without real importance.

Silverberg's forte is science fiction and Longest Way Home (LWH) is classified as such. In essence however, it is a story of a youth coming of age, albeit on a very different planet, peopled with exotic species. The setting is somewhat of a benevolent feudal system, where the native species (several of whom possess sentience in varying degree, yet are all technologically backward) were first subjugated by colonial settlers from Earth, who in turn as they settled into pastoral somnolence (Folk), have been subjugated by a second wave of better educated and technologically superior settlers (Masters), again from Earth. The end result is a rather feudal system with large agri-business estates owned by quasi-aristocratic families of Masters and overseen by others of the same Master class, while the labor is performed by the Folk who reside in separate quarters on the estate. Inevitably, no matter that the feudalism is relatively benign, the Folk chafe under the yoke of the Masters, yearning for their lost days of freedom. In a well planned revolt on a continent of the planet, the Folk of various estates rise up, destroying their overlords. In the midst of the uprising is trapped Joseph, an adolescent Master visiting an Estate far from his own family. Saved from the carnage by a retainer of his dead hosts, Joseph's only way out is to make the long trek back to his own family's estate, dodging as he goes the Folk who are on the alert for any survivors. On one level, following Joseph's trek, this book is a fascinating tour of the planet, encompassing creatures exotic in form and culture. On a deeper level, it is Joseph's own awakening and realization that his privileged position which he has never before questioned, is built on the foundation of near slavery. Silverberg relates excellently how each new experience changes Joseph; sadly he ends just with Joseph returned home resolved to implement his learning, but with little indication of what exactly he will do. Not one of Silverberg's best, but a good read all the same.

Personally, I thought this was a wonderful book, and I had a terrible time trying to put it down...I read anything I can find by Silverberg (with the exception of any of the Majipoor novels, which I think any fantasy hack could have spit out) because I think his character development is a notch or two above most other scifi writers. The main character in this one wasn't as richly drawn as in other novels though, and I got the impression at some points that Silverberg wasn't sure himself where the story was going. But those moments are few, and the story picks up quickly. This is definetly worth reading, it's a story that stays with you.

I'm puzzled by the mixed reaction to this novel. Perhaps some readers were expecting more of the "epic" Silverberg of the new Majipoor trilogy and Alien Years. However, many long-time Silverberg fans feel that his very best novels, published between 1967 and 1976, were-like this one-short, tight, and intense. This book is an enjoyable and entertaining read, yes, but it also feels more personal and philosophical than those vast volumes that the market seems to pressure Silverberg to produce. I for one hope he skips the sequels and epics from now on out, and produces more novels of this length and excellence.