Next Stop the Stars

by Robert Silverberg

Voyagers of Time
One man with the chance to save a dark future of warring tribes, dead cities, mutants, and killer robots, all under the heels of invading giants.
One man with the chance to destroy a gentle future of childlike singers.
One man with the chance to use the past to save - or destroy - a desperate present.
Voyagers of Space
One man whose talents may make hime a psychic victim.
One man whose faults may make him a space hero.
NEXT STOP
THE STARS

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Science Fiction Fantasy

214 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

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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

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Next Stop the Stars was Silverberg's first short fiction collection. It was published as half of an Ace Double book in 1962 with a cool Ed Emshwiller giant-robot monster cover. The flipside was a Silverberg novel, The Seed of Earth, which had a cool Ed Valigursky cover. Ace reprinted both books as standalones in 1977 with introductions by the author and both had terrible covers by Don Ivan Punchatz. This one has a circus strongman looking guy punching a two-headed mutant crocodile, and the other has a crowd of people's heads with giant dandelion fluff growing out of their skulls. The book contains five stories with original publication dates of 1956 and 1957, and all from different digest-sized genre magazines of the time including Science Fiction Adventures, Science Fiction Stories, Infinity, Galaxy, and F & SF. The book leads off with a pulp-titled novella, Slaves of the Star Giants that has lots and lots of genre tropes shoehorned in. Hopper was later expanded into a novel. Warm Man and Blaze of Glory are more cerebral pieces, much closer to the type of work he would be known for in the 1970s. They're entertaining stories, above average for their time, but none of them especially memorable.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slaves of the Star Giants - 3.5/5 - Has a little bit of everything involved with 50s era science fiction: time travel, aliens, robots, and a woman throwing herself at a man who is going to be the savior. It’s a decent enough adventure if you like that sort of thing

The Songs of Summer - 1.5/5 - A man is randomly transported into a future where there isn’t much of a society. Humans are nomadic and peaceful. He decides he wants to try and rule them by ordering them to band together and create a city. I didn’t think it was very good but it was also written by Silverberg when he was in college. In that regard i give him some credit as it is better than what most people would write in that time of their life

Hopper - 3/5 - A man from the overpopulated future has finagled a way to get a home that is remote, despite the lack of legality. It’s a pretty original take on some tired tropes

Blaze of Glory - 3/5 - When a ship brings in new crew for a planet being terraformed for humans, they meet some of the local alien population. Everyone seems to be enchanted by them except for one man

Warm Man - 3.5/5 - Science fantasy story about a man who people are compelled to tell their problems to. Almost like an actual emotional vampire. I like the idea of it but I have read some stories that I felt did it a little better. The ending was also kind of a dud

[Jordyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the last story "warm man" the best but all were decent. The prose is pretty good and I would be interested in reading more of this author's later works

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Robert Silverberg's first short story collection, originally published in 1962 as the second half of an Ace Double, paired with Silverberg's novel The Seed of Earth. It was later published as an Ace standalone paperback in 1977, with a hardcover edition eventually coming from Dobson in 1979 and a Tor paperback reprint in 1986.

This marks the only appearance of the story "Hopper" in a Robert Silverberg collection, although it was also anthologized in 1980 in Science Fiction Origins, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and William F. Nolan.

Here are my individual story reviews:

"Blaze of Glory" (1957) -- A hot-headed communications officer sacrifices himself to save his ship, but was it heroism or murder?

"Warm Man" (1957) -- An empath comes to a small New York suburb. A smart social satire that shows the author's developing range. Reminded me of Harlan Ellison's "Try a Dull Knife," only more coherent and accessible.

"The Songs of Summer" (1955) -- A time traveler from New York, 1956, accidentally winds up in the 35th century, where he tries to bring back modern civilization to an agrarian society. Includes many now-familiar s/f tropes such as telepathy, group-mind or hive intelligence, and the idea we could be living inside a world of our own imagination. This was the author's first attempt at using multiple narrators and points of view within a single story.

"Slaves of the Star Giants" (1956) -- Lloyd Harkins is transported to a far future when civilization has collapsed. Small mutated humans live underground in isolation. Ancient robots left over from the Time of Cities still roam the jungles but no longer serve any useful function. Small human tribes aboveground are used for social experiments by a race of aliens known as Star Giants. Harkins hatches a deadly plan to find the Brain that can reprogram the robots in order to wage war against the alien interlopers.

"Hopper" (1954) -- Earth is overcrowded and suffering from widespread air pollution. Someone has invented time travel and is illegally sending poor people back to the 20th century. Corrupt police officer Quellen is in a quandary -- If he apprehends the criminal, he may alter the past (and who knows what the consequence will be?), but if he lets the criminal go free, the inevitable tide of history will result in the unsustainable reality in which he is living. This was one of Silverberg's first four published stories. It has a great premise, but he clearly does not have the skill to carry it through. Quellen eventually decides to escape into the past himself, only to make sure is he is not arrested for maintaining an off-the-books residence in Africa that is forbidden by law. Later expanded into the 1967 novel The Time Hoppers.

[Chris Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of silverberg, but enjoyable.

[Paul Medlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very old style SF short stories

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad as long as you go in knowing that this is a collection of short fiction stories.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stories:

Slaves of the Star Giants (1957)
The Songs of Summer (1956)
Hopper (1956)
Blaze of Glory (1957)
Warm Man (1957)

[Frank Taranto · Rating 3 out of 5]

More early Silverberg

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it whimsical at best. Not his best work nor is it representative.