In Another Country and Other Short Novels (Five Star Speculatvie Fiction) [Hardcover]

Robert Silverberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With the simultaneous publication of four collections of short novels by some of the genre's leading writers, Five Star Publishing introduces a new series intended to highlight significant contributions to short sf and fantasy. The author of such hard-science masterpieces as Eater, Benford excels at short fiction as well, from a tale of courage in the aftermath of nuclear war ("To the Storming Gulf") to a thoughtful commentary on human and primate interaction in his title novella. Resnick's (The Outpost) volume features a quatrain of tales ranging from the title story, in which human predators become prey as their quarry proves deadlier than they, to "Redchapel," an alternate story focusing on the infamous Whitechapel murders. Sargent's (The Golden Space) three short tales explore the definition of humanity ("The Renewal"), the price of freedom ("Behind the Eyes of Dreamers"), and the meaning of "otherness" ("Shadows"). The four tales by sf grand master Silverberg demonstrate his command of place, from the 20th century West Coast ("In Another Country") to an America changed by alien occupation ("The Way to Spook City") to a pair of tales set on distant planets ("They Hide, We Seek" and "This Is the Road"). Libraries looking to augment their short story or sf collections with works by classic authors should consider some or all of these volumes.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Five Star (ME); First Edition edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786238763
• ISBN-13: 978-0786238767
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,206,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read., June 19, 2003

By 

David Rasquinha (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Another Country and Other Short Novels (Five Star Speculatvie Fiction) (Hardcover)

The short novel or novella format is a favorite of Silverberg and this book showcases his skills. Novellas give the author enough scope to develop an idea without the detailed structure that a full book would require. So it is with the 4 stories in this book. First of is the title story, "In Another Country" a mark of tribute to C. L. Moore, whose works Silverberg has long admired. A time traveling tourist from the far future faces a classic dilemma. While he understands the need to be a passive bystander in the "past" lest he alter history by an inadvertent action, can he stand inactive when he knows an imminent tragedy will kill his lover? Written somewhat in parallel with Moore's classic "Vintage Season", "In Another Country" has some of Moore's Vintage Season characters playing minor roles in a nice touch. The second story, "The Way to Spook City" looks at an Earth that has been invaded by peculiar beings from space who have seized a wide swathe of the United States where they now live. The population of the earth, devastated by an ineffectual resistance to the invasion is totally ignored and left to its own devices. Shorn of the stage setting, this story is a nice probing look at emotions and relationships across species. The final two stories are very different in that they are set on distant worlds with little or no explicit link to earth. "They Hunt, We Seek" looks at a Universe with 6 races (one of them being humanity) in a balance of power, till a seventh one, vastly more powerful, is discovered by happenstance. Finally, "This is the Road" is an intriguing look at a future on a different world, where life forms of a single species have specialized to a point where each specialization is a different physical form as well as social caste; yet they all retain their species links. Faced by a common threat, 4 different life forms flee for sanctuary through a maze of perils, encountering major challenges on the way. Aside from the perils, the life forms have to settle their own inter-se quarrels which seemed to me to be a close metaphor for our own Earth, riven by differences of race, religion and economic power, yet fundamentally one people. An excellent read.