La nueva atlántida

by Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe

Introducción de Robert Silverberg
1/ la nueva atlántida de uesula K. Le Guin
2/ La sombra de Gene Wolfe
3/ Un momento de pura esencia de James Triptee Jr.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Book Club, Science Fiction Fantasy

221 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1975

About the author

There are many authors in the database with this name.

Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Todos los trabajos, a su manera, raros por una u otra razón.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro La nueva Atlántida (publicación original: The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction, 1975), con selección e introducción de Robert Silverberg, es una antología con un relato largo y dos novelas cortas de ciencia ficción.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three misses from authors who have done much much better elsewhere.

Wolfe's "Silhouette" follows an officer with unclear responsibilities and relationships on a long-range exploratory/colonization star ship orbiting above a harsh jungle planet. The ship's computer is mad, the crew is plotting mutiny, and our protagonist has developed a relationship with his own shadow that gives him the ability to astrally project. A few moments of good weirdness in shipboard culture are overshadowed by the complete collapse of the plot.

Le Guin's "The New Atlantis" features a woman living in a failing American Empire, where infrastructure is breaking and totalitarian cops are everywhere. Her mathematician husband is suddenly released from the gulag, where he completes a theorem allowing for miraculous solar energy before being retaken. Meanwhile, new continents rise from below the ocean, in long passages written from the point of view of angler fish. It feels like a draft for several of her better stories.

The meat of the book is Tiptree's "A Momentary Taste of Being", another long range starship story. This one is better, with some delicious intrigues between factions of the crew and encounters with strange aliens, but I just finished Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, and this remains my least favorite Tiptree; a long story of despicable characters that closes on a disappointing shaggy dog of a moral.

To repeat a lesson from my "read all the Hugos for best novel" project, 70s scifi was bleak.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of several anthologies that Silverberg edited which contained three original novella-length science fiction stories. The LeGuin story was good, but felt a little incomplete or fragmentary. The Wolfe is a nice space story that I'm not quite sure I completely understood. (I was never sure that I completely got what Wolfe was doing. I don't believe anyone ever always got what Wolfe was doing.) I enjoyed it anyway. The best in the book, I thought, was A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree, Jr. It's one of her most under-appreciated stories.

[Wekoslav Stefanovski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hindsight is a funny thing.

This is a collection of novellas where some fresh new authors are showcased by an enterprising editor, established in the genre. What's common about them is that their prose is quite mature, as all of them started writing relatively late in life. Actually, all three authors are actually older than the editor, and as of writing, the editor is the only one living.

Those three authors are Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin and James Tiptree Jr., each of them legendary in their own right, and the editor is Robert Silverberg, himself a legend of SF - so the selection is stellar, at the very least :)

The stories themselves are a mixed bag. I liked the paranoia and confusion of Silhouette, but the story itself has not aged too well. The New Atlantis is a great example of LeGuin's voice but it's either too short or too long, and A Momentary Taste of Being is a tour-de-force, albeit being a very uncomfortable read.

[Bart Everson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains three long stories by three different authors. The Tiptree story is one of my all-time favorites. The Wolfe I still don't understand and the LeGuin I don't recall, but the Tiptree is worth the price.

[Nathan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall: 4.5

For the month of September, I've made the decision to read nothing but short fiction, and with the momentum I've been building with New Wave Sci-Fi over the past month or so, the anthologies I plan on reading will largely be from that era and genre. (with a couple exceptions). The New Atlantis is a collection I've had sitting on my shelf for about a couple years now-- I picked it up at a local used bookstore for a few bucks, noticed it had Wolfe AND Le Guin in it and instantly grabbed it. Tiptree (aka Alice Sheldon) has also been a big curiosity for me, and this is my first jump into her work.

To kind of give an overview of the collection, what I can surmise is that the linking theme across the three stories is that of (however vague it might be) communication with inhuman life, of hidden civilizations or alien populations. The three definitely feel like they belong together, and the pedigree/skill on display is top-tier. Now for a brief discussion of the shorts themselves...

Silhouette by Gene Wolfe: 5/5

I'm no stranger to Wolfe-- he's undeniably my favorite author of all time, and Silhouette has certainly climbed its way into my favorite short stories... not only of Wolfe's but of all time. A dizzying, paranoid and purposefully aimless exploration of being isolated in space and of demonic and occult underpinnings. Phenomenal.

The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin: 4.5/5

Perhaps the most subtle in the way it relates to the 'theme' I've surmised from the collection, but nevertheless a fantastic and beautifully written (as always) story that takes a dive into progressive politics, criticism of power structures and the nature of communication.

A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree Jr.: 3.75/5

Arguably the weakest of the lot, but when compared to Le Guin and Wolfe, the consummate stylists that they are, it's likely to exaggerate the jump in quality between them; It's still very well written. However, I feel that taking up roughly half of the entire book's length, it overstays its welcome just a bit for being a novella, and it doesn't quite feel as confident as the other two. There's still some undeniably intriguing things happening within it as it pertains to deconstructing masculine ideals and I definitely plan on getting more into the author's work in the future.

[Alien · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 Novellen, 3 Frühwerke bekannter Autoren.
Die von Gene Wolfe (Silhouette (Silhouette)) und Ursula K. LeGuin (Das neue Atlantis (The New Atlantis)) sind recht mysteriös und surreal (oder sowas).

Ausgerechnet die dritte Novelle, die von James Tiptree Jr. (Ein flüchtiges Seinsgefühl (A momentary Taste of being)) ist eine klassische Science Fiction - Ideenstory. Mit etwas Horror-Touch.
Diese Story gefiel mir mit Abstand am besten. Leider war der Aufbau nicht optimal. Es zieht sich zu lange hin. Nachdem der Action-Höhepunkt vorbei ist, hätte die Story zügig zu Ende gebracht werden sollen. Stattdessen geht es noch seitenlang weiter, das fand ich ungeschickt gemacht.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This triptych collection of novellas was published in 1975. Coincidentally, each of the three works and the collection received nominations for the 1976 Locus awards which Le Guin won for Best Novelette. They also received several nominations for the Nebula and Hugo awards.

Introduction by Robert Silverberg

The three stories in this book have never before been published in any form. They are the most recent works of three of the most gifted and exciting writers to enter the field of science fiction in the last decade ...

Silhouette by Gene Wolfe

"I wouldn't intrude for anything, but you don't strike me as someone who enjoys life a great deal ... You don't have many friends, do you?"

Lieutenant Johann is aboard an exploration ship far from Earth, searching for a life-sustaining planet, when he begins to notice strange anomalies. While there could be an alien presence on board, it's also possible that he's hallucinating. Johann must find the answer before a mutiny destroys the ship. This is a surreal story with a ghostly and mysterious atmosphere.

The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin

Where did they come from, those dim, slow, vast tides? What pressure or attraction stirred the deeps to these slow drifting movements? We could not understand that; we could only feel their touch against us, but in straining our sense to guess their origin or end, we became aware of something else: something out there in the darkness of the great currents: sounds. We listened. We heard.

Le Guin made me cry and then laugh within a few lines in this piece. Two future storylines, one a satiric chronicle of a hapless Portland couple and the other a dreamy reverie about the resurrection of a hidden city from the sea, are studies in both contrasting and complementary narratives on a common theme.

A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree Jr

A golden jackpot rushes uncontrollably up through some pipe in Aaron's midbrain. Is it really there at last? After all the gruelling years, after Don and then Tim came back reporting nothing but gas and rocks around the first two Centaurus suns — is it possible our last chance has won?

This is the longest of the three novellas and follows the interstellar ship Centaur which has been tasked with finding a new planet which can support human life, as the overpopulated earth is becoming uninhabitable. The ship has been travelling for ten years and a planet has just been discovered that seems perfect. However there is only a single female scientist who has seen the new planet (which is two years distant) and has returned from the scouting mission to report the discovery. There is now a tension between the general excitement among the crew about this discovery and trepidation by others who are worried that the planet may not be as perfect as they have been told.

A complicating detail is that an alien life form has been brought back from the scouting mission and remains sealed in the scout ship. They want to study it. It does not go smoothly. This is the best story of the bunch. Be ready for a mind trip.

[Tom Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

CUE UP
Funkadelic’s 1971 “Maggot Brain"

Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time
For y'all have knocked her up
I was not offended
For I knew I had to rise above it all
Or drown in my own shit

My book club chose Le Guin’s "The New Atlantic" novella for our last read, which is a bit hard to find on its own. It was initially included in this 1975 collection with the same name containing previously unpublished stories by three authors. I was lucky to track it down used for $6 and it’s very doubtful I would have ever read the two other stories otherwise—which would have been a bummer because there's a funky-funk-funk '70s cohesive charm to the collection. It’s a musty, earthy, time-traveling mid-70s relic (and the cyanotype photo montage cover—damn!).

Whether by chance, or editorial design, the unifying theme is an Earth in ruin.

Gene Wolfe’s “Silhouette” and James Tiptoe, Jr.’s “A Momentary Taste of Being” are really similar to each other—so much so that a week after reading them I’m getting confused about what happened in what story. Both take place on starships on missions to find a suitable planet for humans to colonize. Both have shaggy carpet, bourbon-sloshing, turtleneck-wearing, partner-swapping vibes (it’s the ‘70s!). Both have supernatural and/or extraterrestrial protagonists. And both felt masculine*. Wolfe's writing was a bit more sterile and hard to follow and access though. Tiptree’s was more humane and playful (despite a jarring incest plot element). The final twist was intriguing and satisfying—it puts mankind’s sense of self-importance in its (speculative) place. I’m glad I read both but I enjoyed Tiptree more.

But the reason I read this collection is Le Guin. The main story doesn’t take place on a spaceship like the other two stories. It takes place on a very degraded earth run by a fascist government with ridiculously absurd (though effective) laws. It’s told in a straightforward way. It’s amusing and has potential, though it feels a bit derivative (Orwell, etc.) and underdeveloped. Luckily this narrative is intertwined with another—a depiction of the re-awaking at the bottom of the sea of a “New Atlantis” consciousness of some sort. The two sections relate to each other but how is up to the reader. My take is the New Atlantis section depicts the protagonist’s reoccurring dream and/or willed fantasy of an emancipating future—the proverbial Shangra La. I loved this writing. It was beautifully descriptive and very evocative. From formless darkness we slowly rise and eventually break through; breathless and beautiful.

I would have loved to see "The New Atlantis” developed into a more satisfying novel (or at least a more meaty novella). But maybe Le Guin was busy finishing up on The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia.

*Fooled me! In 1977 it was officially revealed that Tiptree was the pen name for Alice Sheldon. Even her friend LeGuin didn’t know! (presumably, they had never met face-to-face).

[Ellie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this vintage collection of ‘70’s sci-fi, and I think the separate vibes complemented one another well, though le Guin’s stands apart from its bookending novellas in its theme, setting, and clarity.
- “The New Atlantis” by Ursula le Guin (my love, my light) is a demonstration of compact, clever storytelling and it’s also absolutely devastating! Yay!
- James Tiptree, Jr.'s "A Momentary Taste of Being" is a novella that drags quite terribly at the beginning and middle and, I think, attempts only a little to build up necessary suspense. In spite of this and the incest plotline (literally wtf, man?!), the story's completion is very good and terrifying. I'd love to see it adapted into a horror movie. Reminiscent of "Annihilation," a little.
- “Silhouette,” by Gene Wolfe, is a disorienting, alternately vivid and muddled piratical mutiny in space. I found the general vibe of this novella funky enough to be intriguing, but I’m put off by the lack of structure and strange, male-gazey descriptions of the surprisingly many female characters. This might be Wolfe’s attempt to get in his MC’s head and not his own style, but… still a little disconcerting.

[Scott Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three novellas by three of the best authors Sf has produced. I actually didn't care for the title story by Ursula K. Le Guin that much. I liked the premise, but the monologues that are interspersed throughout the story left me cold. But since this story won a number of awards, I am clearly in the minority here. The other two stories are a fascinating study of contrasts. They both have almost the same plot (a spaceship sent from a dying Earth finds a planet that might be suitable for colonization) but the stories are as different as night and day. Looking at the other reviews here, it seems like many people were less than enthralled by the Gene Wolfe story ("Silhouette"). But as a Wolfe fan, I loved it. It is a classic Wolfe story, with lots of action and a resolution that isn't entirely explained. But the real star of the book is the James Tiptree, Jr. 90 page story, "A Momentary Taste of Being." To be honest, it did drag a little, but the payoff was so powerful that I can't hold its pacing against it. Absolutely essential reading.

[Ginny · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story in this book grossed me out. I really didn't care for the way female crew members were forced to provide sex to the males on a schedule. The whole story felt vaguely misogynistic. The second story was my favorite, although the "Atlantis" interludes were kind of confusing. Le Guin's vision of the future was thought-provoking as always, though. The third story I liked until the incest reveal. I feel like Tiptree was trying to make a point about human nature but I just couldn't get past it. Ick.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three very weird stories, of which I thought Le Guin's was the best. All of the stories were written quite early in the authors' careers, and my edition was published when these three authors were still relative newbies. The first story was quite dated and sexist with some moderately interesting ideas but ramshackle execution. The second story gave intriguing half-caught glimpses into a world I wanted to know more about and had that great LeGuin flavor. The third was...pretty gross. Interesting concept, but I have to wonder what was going on in some of these writers' heads during the 70s.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the author bios was pretty funny. Since my edition was published in 1976, they are all treated as new authors, and it was funny to read about their promising careers with 40 years of hindsight.
I liked the Le Guin story the best, although the Tiptree story was a close second. I found the Wolfe story more dated than the other two.

[Cuauhtemoc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains three novellas by Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, and James Tiptree Jr. with an introduction by Robert Silverberg. Out of the three novellas the last one, "A Momentary Taste of Being", by Tiptree was my favorite. Overall, it is a good book; however, I do not think it was the best work of Le Guin or Wolfe.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent trio of old school sci fi! I love that two of the authors are women, even though the editor at the time didn't realize. The intro for Tiptree's story actually calls her a "man of middle years" and I just about died laughing.

All three are excellently written and convey a sense of unease, focusing on the human need to control our environment and how useless we are at it.

[Deedee · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Silhouette" by Gene Wolfe (Novella)

"The New Atlantis" by Ursula K. LeGuin (Novelette)
Nominated Best Novelette 1976 Hugo
Nominated Best Novelette 1976 Nebula

"A Momentary Taste of Being" by James Tiptree, Jr. (Novella)
Nominated Best Novella 1976 Nebula

[PyranopterinMo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories are from 1975. They are more or less future dystopias. The longest, last, and best story is by James Tiptree (Alice B. Sheldon.)

[Edmond Porcuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 Estrellas

Me ha parecido una lectura interesante, a la par que tediosa.
No me he enganchado a ninguna de las 3 novelas cortas, una pena.

[Carl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short but to the point the Le Guin story is really good the other two I didn't finish .

[Jill VanWormer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn’t really my genre, so maybe I’m not the best person to review this one. I liked the spaceship setting (for 2/3 stories). I thought they were all decent enough stories, but you were just dropped into these dystopian worlds, in the middle of the story, with little explanation. None of the stories really had a beginning or an actual ending. I was actually starting to like the Tiptree story (Obviously trying to ignore the incest here.) until the ending. The last like 10 pages were just rambling nonsense to me. The italicized (in my copy anyway) parts of the Le Guin story also made little sense. I skimmed through them, because I didn’t see how they lent anything to the story. Overall, I was just confused for 200 pages.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/5 (collated rating: Very Good)

Utopian dreams. Demonic spaceship cults. Grotesque cosmic pollination. Robert Silverberg’s edited original collections of novellas and novelettes strike gold again! See reviews of Triax (1979) (Keith Roberts, Jack Vance, James E. Gunn) and to a lesser degree The Crystal Ship (1976) (Marta Randall, Joan D. Vinge, Vondra McIntyre).

A few weeks ago I promised to read more of James Tiptree, Jr.’s fiction. With this in mind I rooted around my unread collections and found one of her stories in The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction, ed. Robert Silverberg (1975). This review pushed many others to the back [...]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

[Kurazaybo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this book three stars because the firs two stories "The New Atlantis" by Ursula K. Le Guin and "Silhouette" by Gene Wolfe are not that compelling nor interesting to read and too much is open to interpretation. Normally that is a good thing but in this case the stories feel roughly drafted.

However "A Momentary Taste of Being" by James Tiptree Jr. is worth the book. A very solid and evocative piece which will fill your imagination. It is also the longest story in this compilation, taking more than half of the volume. So I guess overall I would recommend the book, just skip the first two stories.

[to'c · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was cleaning off my bookshelves (hint: never get new carpet installed, move into a house with new carpet instead) and ran across this little gem. I grabbed it because of the Ursula K. Le Guin story (one of my three favorite authors) but James Triptree and Gene Wolfe are always a treat.

This is an old book and these stories reflect speculative fiction as it was in the 60s and 70s. And it was pretty different from what you'll read these days. My favorite is, of course, Ms. Le Guin's tale of politics and rebirth.

Anyway, grab a copy. It's a quick read despite my dates read. I took each story one at a time and put the book down for weeks between each. That's just the way I roll.

[Justin Covey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three fabulous tales from three sci-fi masters. Wolfe's is, surprisingly, almost a straight forward golden age style space yarn, but with enough wrinkles to make it unpredictable and delectable. Le Guin's is a typically lyrical little yarn, not much of a story but plenty of emotion and imagery. Like a musical interlude. To my surprise the Tiptree story was the real standout. At first it seems another classic space yarn, but slowly reveals itself to be something more unsetelling, closer to a Junji Ito than Asimov or Clarke.
Fabulous way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

[Marie Michaels · Rating 3 out of 5]

I totes did not get "Silhouette." I'm sure it was good, but it was very dense and I am absolutely certain that I completely missed whatever Thing ran through the disparate happenings. LeGuin was great as always; "The New Atlantis" would be a great starting point for a longer novel. It's one of those stories that ends on an abrupt and unsatisfying note, but you know, on purpose. I'd already read the Tiptree story, "A Momentary Taste of Being," and enjoyed it immensely.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful set of short stories! Delightful and dark.

Especially worth it for the introduction, which describes Le Guin and Wolfe as "impressive new writers."

I love reading old things.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three novellae in this science fiction collection are by some of the better writers in the genre.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's great to read a 33-year-old paperback with brown pages and a flaking cover. Three timeless spaceship-setting novellas. Easy to throw in a pack -- took it hiking this summer.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 sf novellas:

***** Silhouette (1975) • Gene Wolfe

**** The New Atlantis (1975) • Ursula K. Le Guin

***** A Momentary Taste of Being (1975) • James Tiptree, Jr.