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Vintage Season/In Another Country
Vintage Season; novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (Sep 1946):
It's the most beautiful Spring the great metropolis has seen in modern memory. the sun-drenched air seems full of hope, of promise for a better tomorrow. But across the river, in the suburb on the ridge that overlooks the city, Oliver Wilson is perplexed. Who are those elegant, perfectly-poised, almost exotic people to whom he's rented his house? What impending event has drawn them here, to this sleepy suburb, as if it were the best seat in the house for the greatest show on Earth?
In Another Country by Robert Silverberg:
For time-traveling tourists, the rule about affairs with the locals is clear--look but don't touch. To flout that rule is to invite endless paradoxes and complications--as the well-meaning Thimiroi finds out to his dismay, in this all-new tale by SF master Robert Silverberg, written especially for the Tor Doubles as a companion to C.L. Moore's famous original.
It's the most beautiful Spring the great metropolis has seen in modern memory. the sun-drenched air seems full of hope, of promise for a better tomorrow. But across the river, in the suburb on the ridge that overlooks the city, Oliver Wilson is perplexed. Who are those elegant, perfectly-poised, almost exotic people to whom he's rented his house? What impending event has drawn them here, to this sleepy suburb, as if it were the best seat in the house for the greatest show on Earth?
In Another Country by Robert Silverberg:
For time-traveling tourists, the rule about affairs with the locals is clear--look but don't touch. To flout that rule is to invite endless paradoxes and complications--as the well-meaning Thimiroi finds out to his dismay, in this all-new tale by SF master Robert Silverberg, written especially for the Tor Doubles as a companion to C.L. Moore's famous original.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
2,365 books1,611 followersThere 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 8, 2025
This is Tor Double #18, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas. Unlike most of the volumes in the series, this one is not bound tête-bêche (back-to-back and inverted). There is only one cover. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither review should be considered “primary." But they should definitely be read in the order of publication, as they appear in the book.
second read – 4 September 2025 – My Rating 5/5.
first read – 3 March 1990 – My Rating 4/5.
Vintage Season, by C. L. Moore (1946). My Rating 5/5.
Within my recent focus on the Golden Age of SF, with its Campbellian emphasis on scientific plausibility and involving characters as compared to the earlier Pulp Era, it was still refreshing to re-read this short popular classic novella that hones heartbreak to a fine art. Vintage Season was originally published in the September 1946 edition of Astounding Science Fiction, as by “Lawrence O’Donnell” – actually a pen-name for a collaboration of Catherine L. Moore and Henry Kuttner. C. L. Moore was the primary author, and it is sometimes credited solely to her. It has been included in a large number of anthologies.
Oliver Wilson is a 1940s American man, curious about the three mysteriously perfect people temporarily renting his old mansion. He finds that one of them, Kleph, has advanced technology in her room, and concludes that they are time travelers from the future. The time travelers plan to move on after entertaining themselves with a meteorite that is known to be impacting nearby, and initiating a plague. Can Oliver change history and avert disaster? Such a sense of wonder!
In Another Country, by Robert Silverberg (1989). My Rating 4/5.
This is a companion story to Vintage Season, and was originally published in the March 1989 edition of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It was written in homage to that classic, and reflects the sensibility of it quite accurately.
In counterpoint to Vintage Season, it features Thimiroi, a time traveling man from the same party of future thrill seekers come to 1940s America to witness the deadly meteor strike. But once there, he falls in love with a contemporary piano-playing woman and tries to find a way to save her.
second read – 4 September 2025 – My Rating 5/5.
first read – 3 March 1990 – My Rating 4/5.
Vintage Season, by C. L. Moore (1946). My Rating 5/5.
Within my recent focus on the Golden Age of SF, with its Campbellian emphasis on scientific plausibility and involving characters as compared to the earlier Pulp Era, it was still refreshing to re-read this short popular classic novella that hones heartbreak to a fine art. Vintage Season was originally published in the September 1946 edition of Astounding Science Fiction, as by “Lawrence O’Donnell” – actually a pen-name for a collaboration of Catherine L. Moore and Henry Kuttner. C. L. Moore was the primary author, and it is sometimes credited solely to her. It has been included in a large number of anthologies.
Oliver Wilson is a 1940s American man, curious about the three mysteriously perfect people temporarily renting his old mansion. He finds that one of them, Kleph, has advanced technology in her room, and concludes that they are time travelers from the future. The time travelers plan to move on after entertaining themselves with a meteorite that is known to be impacting nearby, and initiating a plague. Can Oliver change history and avert disaster? Such a sense of wonder!
In Another Country, by Robert Silverberg (1989). My Rating 4/5.
This is a companion story to Vintage Season, and was originally published in the March 1989 edition of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It was written in homage to that classic, and reflects the sensibility of it quite accurately.
In counterpoint to Vintage Season, it features Thimiroi, a time traveling man from the same party of future thrill seekers come to 1940s America to witness the deadly meteor strike. But once there, he falls in love with a contemporary piano-playing woman and tries to find a way to save her.
May 29, 2025
This is one of the Tor Double volumes, collecting two novella-length sf stories in a single volume in the spirit of the old Ace Doubles line. They didn't use the traditional tête-bêche format on this one, where the books were printed back-to-back in opposition to one another with two separate covers, but it's still listed as part of their series. (The single cover painting is a pretty small and bland Wayne Barlowe effort.) Judgement Night has been published as a story by Moore, by her husband Henry Kuttner, as a collaboration between the two, and as by Lawrence O'Donnell, a pseudonym used by both of them, usually though not always on collaborations. Moore is most often credited as the author, as she is in this volume, though the story first appeared in the August 1946 issue of Astounding sf magazine as by O'Donnell. We'll surely never know for sure what impact, if any, Kuttner had on it. In any event, it's a true classic of the golden age of sf, and a good argument can be made for it being the first sf literary New Wave story, a couple of decades before that was a thing. It's a character driven tale of time-travel, with visitors from the far-future traveling as tourists to scenes of disaster in the distant past, a concept that Michael Moorcock (and others) made quite popular a couple of decades later. It's a really terrific and moving tale, far higher in literary quality than most of the genre stories of the time, with a twist at the end that is a real surprise and still works after all these years. As he explains in his introduction, Silverberg attempted to write a companion piece to it at the behest of the late great Martin H. Greenberg, one that follows different characters through the same period and situations, so it's not a true sequel. His is a pretty good story, though his style is far wordier than Moore's original. I first read Judgement Night in a Groff Conklin anthology a long, long time ago (though it was in this galaxy, thank you very much), and enjoyed it very much, and I read Silverberg's In Another Country when the March issue of Asimov's magazine arrived in my mailbox early in 1989, but I had never read them side-by-side until now. Moore's has more of a cosmic sweep, whereas Silverberg's is more of a depressing story of a hopeless, failed romance between two ordinary (for their different eras) people. It's not a bad story, but I didn't think it added anything to Moore's original... she did a perfect job back in 1946. I rated Moore a five and the Silverberg a three.
June 8, 2010
3.0 to 3.5 stars. This review is only for Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore as I have not yet read the Robert Silverberg story.
Classic novella about a landlord who gets some very unusual tenants during a very memorable month of May. Didn't love it as much as I was expecting too given its place among the classics but it does it have a great ending and that alone makes it worth a read.
Classic novella about a landlord who gets some very unusual tenants during a very memorable month of May. Didn't love it as much as I was expecting too given its place among the classics but it does it have a great ending and that alone makes it worth a read.
August 3, 2020
E ovako, procitavsi od Silverberga pricu In another country, koja se nalazi u jednoj od njegovih zbirki prica, tamo je u uvodu napisao da je pricu In another country napisao kao, ne nastavak, nego kao - ista prica samo prepricana iz drugih likova price koja je njemu jako draga, a to je Vintage seasons od C.L.Moore. Obzirom da me je Silverbergova prica, malo je reci odusevila, odlucio sam procitati i original.
Ok, Silverbergova je nesto bolja po stilu pisanja, ali i Moore je odlicna. Jednog dana cu sigurno ponovit obje...no sad idem nastavit sa Moore.
Ok, Silverbergova je nesto bolja po stilu pisanja, ali i Moore je odlicna. Jednog dana cu sigurno ponovit obje...no sad idem nastavit sa Moore.
August 24, 2008
Vintage Season is a classic story about one man trying to figure out what is up with his tenants and why another is trying so hard to put herself into the same house. The tenants are odd to say the least with perfect clothes, mannerisms, and even speech that shows an elegance that no one else can match.
The writing is wonderfully smooth marred only my my own irritation with male-female relationships as portrayed in science fiction (though it does further the story in this case. I have just been reading too much old style science fiction where the relationship are always stylized). The story is short though it doesn't seem that way. It is complete and just great.
Robert Silverberg was charged with writing a "sequel" to Vintage Season (published in 1946). The idea of approaching a classic so many years later (he published In Another Country in 1989) is a bit blasphemous but Silvererg gave it a shot.
But it is an amazing story. Silverberg didn't try to make a sequel (which would be quite impossible) but instead wrote a story that is a companion to the first. It is the same story but from another's perspective. This follows a Traveler and how he views the world he is visiting. Many of the odd bits that the character from the first story sees are explained.
The writing is excellent. The main character of this story is the brooding type but that really helps explain and show the viewpoint. Just great, same as the first.
The writing is wonderfully smooth marred only my my own irritation with male-female relationships as portrayed in science fiction (though it does further the story in this case. I have just been reading too much old style science fiction where the relationship are always stylized). The story is short though it doesn't seem that way. It is complete and just great.
Robert Silverberg was charged with writing a "sequel" to Vintage Season (published in 1946). The idea of approaching a classic so many years later (he published In Another Country in 1989) is a bit blasphemous but Silvererg gave it a shot.
But it is an amazing story. Silverberg didn't try to make a sequel (which would be quite impossible) but instead wrote a story that is a companion to the first. It is the same story but from another's perspective. This follows a Traveler and how he views the world he is visiting. Many of the odd bits that the character from the first story sees are explained.
The writing is excellent. The main character of this story is the brooding type but that really helps explain and show the viewpoint. Just great, same as the first.
August 13, 2020
I happened to stumble on this duo of science fiction novellas just from one of my recommendations for another book I was reading. I’m glad it came to my attention because I thoroughly enjoyed both stories.
The first, “Vintage Season”, is a fascinating work of science fiction that speculates on time travel. It’s a tough one to write too much into without giving away too much, but it opens with a mysterious group of strangers renting a place from a man named Oliver. These strangers have an odd way about them that Oliver can’t seem to pinpoint or figure out. There’s almost sort of a dream-like quality to Oliver’s point of view as he learns more and more about his visitors. One of the most effective methods by author C.L. Moore is slowly revealing information bit by bit as we progress in the story. I think this adds an element of intensity and awe and tension in the story’s final pages. This builds to a very haunting conclusion and final sentence.
“In Another Country” by Robert Silverberg is a companion piece to “Vintage Season,” and, while not a true sequel (as the front cover of this book suggests), Silverberg attempts to take Moore’s story, give more intricate details, and fill in some of the other perspectives from various characters. It is sort of an updated version of “Vintage Season.” I thought Silverberg did an excellent job in this one. I liked how he dug deep into the perspectives of the time-traveling characters. For instance, there is a moment when one of the main characters,Thimiroi , is talking a walk in the city among the hustle and bustle of this new foreign place and can’t help reflecting and comparing it to other places knowing what is to come. Little examples like this show the attention to detail that Silverberg delivers, and I think this gives the story an added dimension.
I really thought each story complimented the other one so nicely, and both have a haunting, reflective element that you might not see in a science fiction type read. I noticed that music seems to be one of the prominent symbols within the stories, and this adds to a sort of dream-like quality at times. It was a great reading experience and both stories really make one think about time travel, and the repercussions and consequences of strangers inhabiting places and time periods that are not their own.
I’m really interested in reading more of these two authors, particularly Silverberg, and have already purchased “Dying Inside”, one of his more popular books.
A very fascinating reading experience for the fans of science fiction.
The first, “Vintage Season”, is a fascinating work of science fiction that speculates on time travel. It’s a tough one to write too much into without giving away too much, but it opens with a mysterious group of strangers renting a place from a man named Oliver. These strangers have an odd way about them that Oliver can’t seem to pinpoint or figure out. There’s almost sort of a dream-like quality to Oliver’s point of view as he learns more and more about his visitors. One of the most effective methods by author C.L. Moore is slowly revealing information bit by bit as we progress in the story. I think this adds an element of intensity and awe and tension in the story’s final pages. This builds to a very haunting conclusion and final sentence.
“In Another Country” by Robert Silverberg is a companion piece to “Vintage Season,” and, while not a true sequel (as the front cover of this book suggests), Silverberg attempts to take Moore’s story, give more intricate details, and fill in some of the other perspectives from various characters. It is sort of an updated version of “Vintage Season.” I thought Silverberg did an excellent job in this one. I liked how he dug deep into the perspectives of the time-traveling characters. For instance, there is a moment when one of the main characters,Thimiroi , is talking a walk in the city among the hustle and bustle of this new foreign place and can’t help reflecting and comparing it to other places knowing what is to come. Little examples like this show the attention to detail that Silverberg delivers, and I think this gives the story an added dimension.
I really thought each story complimented the other one so nicely, and both have a haunting, reflective element that you might not see in a science fiction type read. I noticed that music seems to be one of the prominent symbols within the stories, and this adds to a sort of dream-like quality at times. It was a great reading experience and both stories really make one think about time travel, and the repercussions and consequences of strangers inhabiting places and time periods that are not their own.
I’m really interested in reading more of these two authors, particularly Silverberg, and have already purchased “Dying Inside”, one of his more popular books.
A very fascinating reading experience for the fans of science fiction.
January 17, 2015
I was mesmerized, truly awed and humbled by C.L. Moore' Vintage Season, she being a writer I didn't even knew existed! Something to correct, definitely. There's the saying that nothing ages as badly as the future (as imagined in science-fiction tales, that is), but this "novelette", originally published in Astounding Science Fiction in the distant year of 1946 could very well have been written last week. And the writing is simply peerless in its elegance. To say nothing of plot and character, obviously...
Robert Silverberg accompanying piece is, amazingly, up to the challenge. In his words on the matter: "There is perhaps an aspect of real lese-majeste in all of this, or maybe the word I want is hubris. Readers of my autobiographical anthology, Science Fiction 101, will know that C.L. Moore is one of the writers I most revere in our field, that I have studied her work with respect verging on awe. To find myself now going back over the substance of her most accomplished story in the hope of adding something to it of my own was an odd and almost frightening experience. I suspect I would not have dared to do any such thing fifteen or twenty years ago, confident though I was then of my own technical abilities. But now, when my own science-fiction-writing career has extended through a period longer than that of Moore’s own, I found myself willing to risk the attempt, if only to see whether I could bring it off.
It was an extraordinary thing for me to enter Moore’s world and feel, for the weeks I was at work at it, that I was actually writing, if not Vintage Season itself, then something as close to it as could be imagined. I was there, in that city, at that time, and it all became far more vivid for me than even my many readings of the original story over a 40-year period had been able to achieve. I hope that the result justifies the effort and that I will be forgiven for having dared tinker with a masterpiece this way. And most profoundly do I wish that C.L. Moore could have seen my story and perhaps found a good word or two to say for it." Quite.
Some phrases and concerns of Silverberg made me remember very strongly Alberto Cairo's poetry. Namely in: “So terribly solemn. So philosophical. Brooding about the rise and fall of empires on a glorious spring day like this. Standing here with the most amazing sunlight pouring down on us and telling me in those elocution-school tones of yours that empires that don’t even exist yet are already swept away and forgotten. How can something be forgotten that hasn’t yet even happened? And how can you even bother to think about anything morbid in a season like this one?” She moved closer to him, nuzzling against his side almost like a cat. “Do you know what I think, standing here right this minute looking out at the city? I think that the warmth of the sun feels wonderful and that the air is as fresh as new young wine and that the city has never seemed more sparkling or prosperous and that this is the most beautiful spring day in at least half a million years. And the last thing that’s going to cross my mind is that the weather may not hold or that the time of prosperity may not last or that great empires always crumble and are forgotten." And: "She was surprised that he knew so little about them, and asked him what kinds of insects and trees and animals they had in his own country."
Absolutely brilliant piece(s) of literature.
Robert Silverberg accompanying piece is, amazingly, up to the challenge. In his words on the matter: "There is perhaps an aspect of real lese-majeste in all of this, or maybe the word I want is hubris. Readers of my autobiographical anthology, Science Fiction 101, will know that C.L. Moore is one of the writers I most revere in our field, that I have studied her work with respect verging on awe. To find myself now going back over the substance of her most accomplished story in the hope of adding something to it of my own was an odd and almost frightening experience. I suspect I would not have dared to do any such thing fifteen or twenty years ago, confident though I was then of my own technical abilities. But now, when my own science-fiction-writing career has extended through a period longer than that of Moore’s own, I found myself willing to risk the attempt, if only to see whether I could bring it off.
It was an extraordinary thing for me to enter Moore’s world and feel, for the weeks I was at work at it, that I was actually writing, if not Vintage Season itself, then something as close to it as could be imagined. I was there, in that city, at that time, and it all became far more vivid for me than even my many readings of the original story over a 40-year period had been able to achieve. I hope that the result justifies the effort and that I will be forgiven for having dared tinker with a masterpiece this way. And most profoundly do I wish that C.L. Moore could have seen my story and perhaps found a good word or two to say for it." Quite.
Some phrases and concerns of Silverberg made me remember very strongly Alberto Cairo's poetry. Namely in: “So terribly solemn. So philosophical. Brooding about the rise and fall of empires on a glorious spring day like this. Standing here with the most amazing sunlight pouring down on us and telling me in those elocution-school tones of yours that empires that don’t even exist yet are already swept away and forgotten. How can something be forgotten that hasn’t yet even happened? And how can you even bother to think about anything morbid in a season like this one?” She moved closer to him, nuzzling against his side almost like a cat. “Do you know what I think, standing here right this minute looking out at the city? I think that the warmth of the sun feels wonderful and that the air is as fresh as new young wine and that the city has never seemed more sparkling or prosperous and that this is the most beautiful spring day in at least half a million years. And the last thing that’s going to cross my mind is that the weather may not hold or that the time of prosperity may not last or that great empires always crumble and are forgotten." And: "She was surprised that he knew so little about them, and asked him what kinds of insects and trees and animals they had in his own country."
Absolutely brilliant piece(s) of literature.
December 15, 2018
Quite possibly my favourite book. I return to it time and again and cannot recommend it highly enough.
January 6, 2016
I read Vintage Season by C.L. Moore.
This story has left my mind numb. Haunted.
Oliver, a home owner in an unnamed city, is seeing new tenants into his house as the story begins. Their strangeness of manner and speech is immediately noticeable, but the characters explain it away as a simple difference in custom/culture. The tenants have booked the house for the month of May, and ideally want Oliver out of the house, but he chooses to remain. It soon becomes apparent that the house is extremely sought after, with Oliver and his fiancée Sue receiving purchase offers far above the house's value.
This story is an interesting exploration of time travel from the perspective of one who meets time travellers. In particular, it discusses the view that one should not change events in the past as any changes will affect the future. We find that the "foreigners" (time travellers) are a selfish bunch who would rather maintain their way of life, and they therefore travel to observe the past purely for pleasure - even as they acquire ringside seats to the destruction of many lives in the past, as they do in this story.
I did enjoy this story. The characterisations are compelling and interesting. The novelty is definitely the time travellers. Oliver and Sue are almost cardboard characters, drab and uninteresting, while the visitors are vibrant, gay, light-hearted and frivolous. But that's probably at least half the point. The frivolous taking such a steeped interest in the supposedly mundane (until destruction arrives, that is). That said, I personally wouldn't place this amongst the greatest time travel or science fiction stories I've read. But an excellent read and one I don't regret.
This story has left my mind numb. Haunted.
Oliver, a home owner in an unnamed city, is seeing new tenants into his house as the story begins. Their strangeness of manner and speech is immediately noticeable, but the characters explain it away as a simple difference in custom/culture. The tenants have booked the house for the month of May, and ideally want Oliver out of the house, but he chooses to remain. It soon becomes apparent that the house is extremely sought after, with Oliver and his fiancée Sue receiving purchase offers far above the house's value.
This story is an interesting exploration of time travel from the perspective of one who meets time travellers. In particular, it discusses the view that one should not change events in the past as any changes will affect the future. We find that the "foreigners" (time travellers) are a selfish bunch who would rather maintain their way of life, and they therefore travel to observe the past purely for pleasure - even as they acquire ringside seats to the destruction of many lives in the past, as they do in this story.
I did enjoy this story. The characterisations are compelling and interesting. The novelty is definitely the time travellers. Oliver and Sue are almost cardboard characters, drab and uninteresting, while the visitors are vibrant, gay, light-hearted and frivolous. But that's probably at least half the point. The frivolous taking such a steeped interest in the supposedly mundane (until destruction arrives, that is). That said, I personally wouldn't place this amongst the greatest time travel or science fiction stories I've read. But an excellent read and one I don't regret.
November 4, 2015
Review for Vintage Season (spoilers): this novelette was in a collection of short stories I stumbled upon; I was pretty taken with it. The writing, the descriptions, the insights were all exceptional. The theme of the story was both dated and yet prophetic, almost Orwellian.
"[he] was astonished at how many of these people from the future must have gathered here in the past weeks. He could see quite clearly now how they differed from the norm of his own period. The physical elegance was what one noticed first - perfect grooming, meticulous manners, meticulously controlled voices. But because they were all idle, all, in a way, sensation-hunters, there was a certain shrillness underlying their voices, especially when heard all together. Petulance and self-indulgence showed beneath the good manners."
What I like best about this piece is how it does not idealize people from the future. Their technology, their fashion and sense of luxury, their manners are all impeccable. But underneath, they're quite savage, voyeurs. I thought it was a good representation of what it might look like if our generation could travel back to the colonial period in America: on the outside we might look rather distinguished and advanced; beneath the surface, our principles have devolved and we have become lovers of pleasure, lovers of self.
The ending is what took the story down a notch. unanswered questions. "Blue Death"? Caused by what? It was a meteor, not nuclear war, right? I don't know, it just felt a little to clichéd at the end, a little too space age.
Altogether, I really enjoyed the mystery and the prose of this little story.
"[he] was astonished at how many of these people from the future must have gathered here in the past weeks. He could see quite clearly now how they differed from the norm of his own period. The physical elegance was what one noticed first - perfect grooming, meticulous manners, meticulously controlled voices. But because they were all idle, all, in a way, sensation-hunters, there was a certain shrillness underlying their voices, especially when heard all together. Petulance and self-indulgence showed beneath the good manners."
What I like best about this piece is how it does not idealize people from the future. Their technology, their fashion and sense of luxury, their manners are all impeccable. But underneath, they're quite savage, voyeurs. I thought it was a good representation of what it might look like if our generation could travel back to the colonial period in America: on the outside we might look rather distinguished and advanced; beneath the surface, our principles have devolved and we have become lovers of pleasure, lovers of self.
The ending is what took the story down a notch. unanswered questions. "Blue Death"? Caused by what? It was a meteor, not nuclear war, right? I don't know, it just felt a little to clichéd at the end, a little too space age.
Altogether, I really enjoyed the mystery and the prose of this little story.
March 1, 2025
I’m not sure when I first read “Vintage season”: the 1960s? The 1970s? Long enough ago, but still long after it was published in 1946 (before I was born). The story is a firm classic, and a rare jewel from a period when most sf was primitive.
The attitudes and assumptions about male and female are somewhat dated, but not as badly dated as they might have been. The author had a forward-looking imagination and did what she could to attempt timelessness. On the whole, the story lasts well, though you should bear in mind that it was written in another era. It still makes a real impact.
The companion piece by Robert Silverberg, “In another country” (1990), boldly attempts to slide another simultaneous plot into the same story. It’s a tough undertaking to improve on a classic, but I’d say he manages it: his story is even more moving and disturbing than the original, while having the advantage of a somewhat more modern outlook. Moore was born in 1911, Silverberg in 1935, and he wrote his piece some 44 years after hers.
I give this book only four stars mainly because both stories are tragedies, and I prefer fiction to have a happy ending. But they are fine tragedies and I was moved by them. The other problem is that the original story is unavoidably somewhat dated, and even Silverberg’s story feels slightly dated because (a) he remains faithful to the feel of the original and (b) even 1990 is in the past by now.
The attitudes and assumptions about male and female are somewhat dated, but not as badly dated as they might have been. The author had a forward-looking imagination and did what she could to attempt timelessness. On the whole, the story lasts well, though you should bear in mind that it was written in another era. It still makes a real impact.
The companion piece by Robert Silverberg, “In another country” (1990), boldly attempts to slide another simultaneous plot into the same story. It’s a tough undertaking to improve on a classic, but I’d say he manages it: his story is even more moving and disturbing than the original, while having the advantage of a somewhat more modern outlook. Moore was born in 1911, Silverberg in 1935, and he wrote his piece some 44 years after hers.
I give this book only four stars mainly because both stories are tragedies, and I prefer fiction to have a happy ending. But they are fine tragedies and I was moved by them. The other problem is that the original story is unavoidably somewhat dated, and even Silverberg’s story feels slightly dated because (a) he remains faithful to the feel of the original and (b) even 1990 is in the past by now.
December 14, 2020
I’m not generally a fan of time travel stories, because they tend to get caught up in theory rather than story, but this is great. I like that the time travel itself was an off-screen element, and really just set up a very small personal interaction, that made the story feel immediate. I was going to give this 5 stars, until right at the end a new character arrived and spouted off about “lines of probability” and “new patterns” and “physiotemporal course” and “time-world” and “temporal travel.” Barf. This story was brilliant and neither the protagonist nor the reader needed that jargon to understand what was happening in the story. It’s practically a throw away moment and shouldn’t detract, but I have my pet peeves.
I didn’t read the second story by Silverberg.
I didn’t read the second story by Silverberg.
August 4, 2025
Picked this one upon from a bookshop in downtown Boston just past the old state capitol
The first half of this book might be the worst I've ever read actually. The whole thing is written in two parts and the first author is pretty terrible IMO. I just didn't feel compelled by any of the characters it just felt like a weird tangent that went no where.
Robert Silverburg clutched up in the second half with a. believable romance that had an emotional ending that actually meant something. Sometimes just picking up a random book doesn't work out.
The first half of this book might be the worst I've ever read actually. The whole thing is written in two parts and the first author is pretty terrible IMO. I just didn't feel compelled by any of the characters it just felt like a weird tangent that went no where.
Robert Silverburg clutched up in the second half with a. believable romance that had an emotional ending that actually meant something. Sometimes just picking up a random book doesn't work out.
September 27, 2017
I'm not hugely into scifi although I enjoy watching it. But a while ago I read somewhere that SF is just modern fairy tales. This short story really carried that forward tbh. I felt like I was reading modern day Sidhe with all their terrible wondrous inhumanity. Haunting and awful and so immersive.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2023
Rating for Vintage Season only.
December 15, 2023
2 novellas:
***** Vintage Season (1946) • C. L. Moore
**** In Another Country (1989) • Robert Silverberg
***** Vintage Season (1946) • C. L. Moore
**** In Another Country (1989) • Robert Silverberg
December 26, 2024
Rating is for Vintage Season by C.L. Moore. Beautifully poetic and infinitely tragic.
Read
August 11, 2011C L Moore's classic time travel novella from 1946,with a companion novella from Robert Silverberg,written in 1989.Moore's original seems very modern,and I'd never have guessed how old it was. Silverberg's companion piece fits the original perfectly,in themes and execution.If you enjoyed this,you might enjoy other time travel classics,including Wilson Tucker's The Lincoln Hunters,Michael Bishop's No Enemy But Time,and Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man.Also Jack Finney's Time and Again.Silverberg's short novels would also be of interest.
January 20, 2011
Silverberg wrote his piece intentionally to be paired with Vintage Season by C.L. Moore. I hadn't read either of them before, or even heard of C.L. Moore. So I had some trouble understanding the reverence with which Silverberg described Moore and her work. But the pairing of the two pieces was enjoyable -- like reading about the same event from two different perspectives.
September 22, 2018
vintage season only
July 25, 2012
It was good, could have been better.
September 9, 2016
Only "Vintage Season"; novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (Sep 1946) *3.5 stars.
December 6, 2017
Only read Vintage Season. An interesting spin on time-traveling, how it is its own little industry to the aliens.
tbr-recommended
September 11, 2018Another recommendation from Sue Kreitzman
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