Customer Reviews

Thorns

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was well written and quite interesting with a good, solid premise and believable, dynamic characters. So, why didn't I like it? First of all, I didn't really like any of those characters, no matter how well-developed and genuine they were. The premise, which is that an unbelievably fat, disgustingly rich emotional vampire pairs up two very damaged people so that he can get a thrill off it when their relationship implodes, made me mildly queasy. The world-building was excellent, probably the best part of the book, but each of the disparate scenes (a low-rent tenement, a high-class restaurant built on the outside of a dome, the South Pole resort, the Moon Carnival, the high-class hotel on Titan) seemed cold and sterile, despite being imaginatively described. All in all, not Silverberg's best.

1968, Best Novel Hugo Award Nomination; 1968, Best Novel Nebula Award Nomination

Silverberg's brooding, post-utopian, rumination has the makings of a great science fiction novel. This horrifically dark vision follows two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. The cracks in the work's delivery appear about a third of the way through when the two characters meet -- the uncanny edge of the situation and its players loses some of its precision and verges into a somewhat soap opera infused interplanetary meandering which reveal the tensions and growing dislike between the main characters. There's nothing wrong with this per se since it's definitely the object of the book to pastiche (somewhat) Beauty and the Beast, but, the first third is definitely superior in every regard. I also found the heavy "sleaze" undercurrents that crop up every now and then frustrating and distracting...

Brief Plot Summary

Minner Burris, a spaceman, returns to Earth after captivity among a group of aliens -- whose motives are never uncovered -- horribly disfigured and modified. His body chemistry has been changed, he has extra joints, peculiar eyes, a tentacle attached to his hand... He hides in his room afraid that the world might see his face.

Lona Kelvin, a 17-year old young woman, is psychologically scarred after a fertility experiment (I guess in the 60s in vitro fertilization was a shocker) that made her a mother of one hundred children yet still a virgin. She never sees her children... After the brief media sensation she retreats away from the world and attempts to commit suicide.

Enter, Duncan Chalk, a massively obese man who peddles pleasure and pain for the entertainment of millions. He arranges for the two characters to meet and fall in love -- bribing each with vague promises: Burris will receive a new body and Lona will have at least some of her children back.

Final Thoughts

The first third of the novel is masterful. And the rest, well, somewhat laborious. It's inevitable that the relationship will eventually fracture -- the characters are so drastically different from each other. Lona acts like a child. Burris, a 40-year-old man, definitely wants an intellectual equal. However, what is so impressive is that Silverberg never indulges in the more obvious sorts of clichés. The visceral realism of the relationship is maintained throughout.

My main complaint is a rather minimal one. Duncan Chalk's role in peddling their suffering to the populace is never made explicit. And here, I find the disturbing/creepy edge so prevalent in the first third could have been highlighted.

That said, this is a worthwhile read which rambles along a dark path... Well done.

After making his mark with a series of clever but callow science fiction novels, Robert Silverberg set out to transform his work (and, by example, the entire genre) by holding himself to higher literary standards. Thorns was the first Silverberg novel to reflect this renewed dedication, and while parts of it have aged badly -- the science behind Lona Kelvin's fertility experience is no longer novel -- it remains a bracing, hard-nosed read. The idea of using mass media to manipulate weak and vulnerable people has, if anything, become more timely with the rise of "reality" shows. A watershed novel in Silverberg's career, and a must-read for anyone interested in seeing the best SF has to offer.

Growing up, I must have read almost 30 books by Robert Silverberg who, for a long time, I considered to be one of my favorite authors. "Thorns" is one of his earliest novels, and, while I'm sure I liked it more when I read it over 20 years ago, read to me now like an author attempting to find his voice. Really, "Dying Inside," "Book of Skulls" and other Silverberg novels written several years later are much better. Nevertheless "Thorns" held my interest as a character study of the three principles: Minner Burris, Duncan Chalk and Lona Kelvin.

First, there's Minner Burris, an astronaut who, having been captured by an advanced alien race with his two colleagues, is inexplicably transformed into something grotesque, which the aliens "perfected" after killing his two friends while attempting the same transformation. In typical Silverberg fashion, the author leaves it to our imagination why the aliens did this, why they let him go, or even whether they meant to help Burris in some inexplicable fashion. The Burris character is quite compelling and well conceived.

Not nearly as interesting or believable though, are the other two other central characters Duncan Chalk and Lona Kelvin. The extremely obese and wealthy Chalk is described as a psychic vampire who feeds on other people's pain; but really, he seemed to me to be nothing more than what any producer of so-called "reality" shows is like these days. We've seen those shows where two people, obviously not meant for each other, are paired up in some dating scenario, to the obvious merriment of the watching audience. Here, Chalk finds a way to bring Burris together with Lona Kelvin, a 17 year old waif of a girl, who "they" (the government? privately funded scientists?) took 100 viable eggs from, paired it with sperm from a single donor, and brought the fetus' to term, using either surrogate mothers or artificial wombs.

The Kelvin character seemed terribly out-dated to me. Since we now obviously have the technology to do this (other than the artificial womb part), this "experiment" seemed kind of silly, especially since Lona is so completely ordinary (wouldn't "they" at least want an exceptional man and woman paired?). And, of course, they have forgotten about Lona and left her an emotionally empty husk who feels robbed of her children, until Chalk sees a viewing bonanza and sets Minner and Lona up.

The scene at the end between the three principles strikes me as an author who was looking for that blockbuster ending which ultimately made absolutely no sense in light of what led up to to it. Even so, I enjoyed re-reading "Thorns" after all these years, if nothing more, than as an interesting example of late 1960s science fiction from one of the masters of the genre.

I read Robert Silverberg's Dying Inside at the age of 19 in 1983, followed closely by Thorns, and to state it as simply as possible, these two books changed me from an adolescent to an adult. Up to that point in time I could only see the world from a surface point of view. I basically believed that everyone is basically the same, so I enjoyed books about characters I could identify with. When I came across a book with characters I didn't understand, I thought the writer was an idiot. I didn't realize that the problem was with ME!

But Dying Inside and Thorns took me on a voyage into the minds of human beings who were TOTALLY unlike me, yet TOTALLY understandable. I could LITERALLY feel my mind expanding as I read these books. It was as close as I have ever come to having a 'spiritual' experience. By the time Silverberg was through with me, I was not the same dumb kid. I suddenly saw that people are all DIFFERENT, not alike! I was able to read authors I hadn't appreciated before, because now I could accept not only that people are different, but actually take pleasure in trying to see the world from their point of view!

I didn't read many other Silverberg books after that, sad to say. The simple fact is, these two books were a bit sad for me. The characters and situations are VERY depressing, as well as brilliantly rendered. But I will always be appreciative of the gift reading these books gave to me: The simple ability to imagine the world from someone else's point of view, without judgement.

The world is packed full of people who have yet to learn this lesson, perhaps because they don't read anything that challenges their status quo. They see themselves as the standard of perfection, and feel justified to hate and distrust anyone who thinks differently, goes to a different church, or votes for a different political party. I think this basic lack of imagination and empathy is the core cause of most human suffering.

Just in case Robert Silverberg ever happens to read this review, I'd like to thank him for making me a better person.

I heartily recommend these novels to dumb young kids who need a kick in the brain

This is the only book by Silverberg that I've read but I will move on to others after this one. There are plot devices here that I haven't seen before, and I'm curious to know if this is true of his other works as well. Very interesting character development initially, although I found that my interest flagged towards the end. Silverberg has created his characters well, only to have half of them promptly shift to two dimensions once Lona and Minner begin their relationship. It seems that more could have been done with the materials Silverberg has assembled. I give the book three stars for this reason, but it's worth reading if only to get to know the two main characters, who have been beaten up by life in ways that most of us will never experience. Their courtship and arguments seem very familiar to me, however. Perhaps one moral of the story is that we're all alien in some respect, and the damage we bring to the table will always present challenges to forming truly nurturing relationships.