Murasaki

by Robert Silverberg (editor), Poul Anderson, Greg Bear

In a major science fiction event, Nebula Award winners Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, David Brin, Nancy Kress, and Frederik Pohl join forces--under the editorship of Robert Silverberg--to create a triumph of world-building: Murasaki, a science fiction novel in six parts. Murasaki is completely based in hard science and what we know of the Murasaki star system--which actually exists.

Authors Poul Anderson and Frederik Pohl painstakingly constructed the working mechanics of a real star system, projecting the atmosphere, geology, chemistry, flora, and fauna of the two planets on which the work is set. They and four more of America's best science fiction authors--known for their "hard" speculative fiction--used Pohl and Anderson's essays (included as appendixes to this book) as source material to create this amazing story of the earliest human explorations of the twenty-third century--an epic tale of discovery, conflict, and resolution told by the masters of imaginative writing.

Murasaki, star HD 36395...where the gristmill of Darwinism produced two vastly different alien ecologies on two closely revolving planets, circling each other since scouring lightning storms stirred them to life billions of years ago. The two planets are Genji, violent and reckless, filled with a variety of winged life; and Chujo, a cooling world of ancient, crumbling cities, slowly going through its glacial death throes. Both planets are host to intelligences that are strange in ways Man can only guess at...and the planets have an eerie connection that will soon come to fruition after the first human explorers arrive. Exceeding light-speed for twenty years and decelerating by plasma exhaust drive, the first ship bearing humans arrives at Murasaki. The wealth, pride, and future of nations depend upon the outcome as the first contact team sets foot on a Murasaki-system world--while the hope of mankind, a planet capable of supporting human life, awaits the first explorer to touch the strangely colored alien soil....

Intricately detailed, epic in scope, startling in its implications, Murasaki is destined to become a classic novel of world-building--combining rousing adventure, informed speculation, and a bold prophetic vision.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy

302 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Guillermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a small wonder that there wasn't a continuation of this story past this collaboration. This is also a blemish on the ratings system on Goodreads. As of writing this review, Murasaki holds a 3.26 rating. Really? That's pretty bad.

At the tangible risk of making this a persuasive essay, let me tell you why it's not worthy of such a low score.

Murasaki is a novel that 7 Nebula award winners collaborated on:

1. Poul Anderson

2. Greg Bear

3. Gregory Benford

4. David Brin

5. Nancy Kress

6. Frederick Pohl

7. Robert Silverberg

It's a "shared world anthology" of science fiction stories set within a single conceptual framework. That framework is a real M1 star with the catalogue number HD36395. It's well below naked eye visibility and about 20 light years away. It will be named "Murasaki" for the famous Japanese writer, and its 2 habitable planets for the two main protagonists in "Genji Monogatari". "Genji"is one planet named after the hero of this novel, and "Chujo" for his friend.

In 1990, Silverberg decided to organize a thought/writing experiment based on this system. He said:

Let's pick a starsytem that's close enough to us to be feasible, with two planets in the "goldilock" zone. Where it's feasible to have water that's not permanently gaseous or solid. This star in the Murasaki system is a red dwarf; its luminosity is 1/47 Sol's. 1/3 the mass of Sol, .82 its diameter..yet 3.67 the size of Sol in our sky. A red ember that actually doesn't give off a red light. It's daytime light is " more akin to a "normally well lighted 20th century room after dark".

The two planets in the Murasaki system are facing themselves; locked to each other, one side permanently faces its companion planet, while the other side faces out into a sea of stars.

In 2219 A Japanese robot probe is sent and starts transmitting data to Earth.

2244 A Spacer ship (faction of humans living in orbital colonies around the Solar System) is sent before the Japanese could get their shit together and send their own expedition.

2245 A Japanese ship is sent, humilitated and angry with the Spacer ship that got there before them.

2265 The Spacer ship arrives in Murasaki system. Alien life is found.

2266 Japanese ship arrives in Murasaki system. Alien life is found.

2286 First reports from expeditions begin arriving at Earth.

Reading these masters of sci fi riff on 6 seperate stories found in this fictional system was a great pleasure. Each one of them brought something really unique to the table. There are three sentient species in this system, and this story just goes to prove how alien and incomprehensible aliens can really be. It was also fascinating to read about the difficulties that these people went through simply trying to explore the system, despite the fact that these planets were in a relatively hospitable zone for human habitation.

Its also fascinating how at the beginning of this "thought experiment" on the exploration of the HD36395 system (Murasaki), it was initially pointed out that it would be "extremely unfeasable" to colonize a star system so far away. Yet a couple of decades later, starships are just pouring in from the Solar System. A kindof Manifest Destiny rolled in with some nuclear proliferation-like consequences; technology like advanced propulsion drives would be akin to nuclear weapons; at first exclusive, but ultimatly attainable to even mediocre economies. Pretty soon you even had starships from the ultra religious American Southwest slingshotting a ship out there, with some pretty profound consequences (or maybe not).

Murasaki is a great first contact novel in which we are the more "technologically advanced" species, and a wonderful specualtive treatise on the challenges of a multinational effort to become ambassadors to 3 sentient alien races that are so interwoven and so alien, that there really was no way to understand them in the end without jettisoning all human sensical thought. Because that's pretty much a fucking vestigal sense when dealing with these things.

I've uttered this catchphrase before, and I"ll utter it again with this book.

This is why I read science fiction.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murasaki is a collaborative shared-world first-contact novel edited by Silverberg, with contributions from Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, David Brin, Nancy Kress, and Frederik Pohl. The concept was to design an alien planet and have famous science fiction authors bring it to life fictionally. Murasaki has some nice touches, but the idea was much better realized in 1985 by Harlan Ellison's Medea project.

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I can't give a higher rating because: 1) the first story contained fatphobia; 2) most of the stories commented on nearly all main female characters' sexual or physical appearance without also doing so for the male characters (except for the fat character in the first story); and 3) the first 5.5 stories were tedious to get through for me. Those 5.5 stories focused on the exploration of the alien planet, which was definitely interesting, but as a reader I tend to prefer more character-driven stories. HOWEVER, by the end everything came together epically. It was like reading a mystery you didn't know was a mystery until the big reveal. All the tedious pieces from the previous stories culminated in a finale I couldn't put down until I had finished, and with masterfully constructed writing that came full circle, mirroring the full-circle events on the planets themselves. I'm so glad I stuck with the book because the end really did pay off.

[Oliver Titan Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating world, mediocre characters. Problematic characterization of women in several of the stories and the first story involved some fat-shaming. Last story was the best and provided a very satisfying conclusion. Interesting to read the appendices and see how a sci-fi writer constructs and conceives of a world and how the other writers played off of it.

[Jon Norimann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murasaki is a first contact SF novel where six famous SF writers each contribute a thirty page chapter. The science is not too far fetched but not so prominent. The plot goes in a nice straight line from a to b albeit with significant time gaps. Two or three of the contributors have fallen into the classic sf mistake of getting too close to human history, like colonialism, but overall it's a decent book. Clearly a book to read if one likes first contact science fiction.

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mind bogglingly cohesive narrative about a profoundly alien ecology.

Not without its flaws, but I think it's definitely worth reading if you enjoy stories exploring ideas. There's a section at the end detailing the scientific basis of the planets themselves. There are some illustrations, too.

The beginning is a bit rough. It's easily my least favourite story of the collection. Everyone in it is generally unlikable and the more interesting aspects of the settings have not yet entered the picture.

[Cristofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good, hard science fiction for its own sake. The authors did a great job of maintaining character consistency between their individual stories. The overarching story itself is decent, but honestly does feel a bit too much like an experiment in combined storytelling rather than being a compelling tale in and of itself. *As* an experiment in hard science fiction, I'd call it a success, and a very interesting thought experiment to be sure, but I probably wouldn't read it again.

[John Heinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collaboration by several great authors about a group of scientists who have travelled to a planet the hard way, sub-lightspeed, with plans of colonization. Only there is already a sentient life form there. The planet is slightly larger than Earth, with heavier gravity, and a large moon that also has an atmosphere.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collaborative world building experiment. In the tradition of Medea: Harlan's World. A few of the contributions are genuinely fantastic. Feels incomplete or unfinished though.

[George]

There are actual reviews here, which I recommend reading.

Me, I'm just going to say that no collaboration of six authors can be expected to work as gloriously together as this one did!

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shared World project featuring six Nebula winners. Frederik Pohl examines relationships on board a Spacer ship arriving at double planet Genji and Chujo via a woman’s dalliances with her exes. Gregory Benford follows the first Japanese expedition to the cooler planet Chujo where an incautious crew member incites violent action from the indigenous lifeforms. David Brin’s Japanese expeditioners are in the Genji lowlands where heat and 1.5g make things tough, but a banquet of native food lightens their hearts until they find out a startling fact about the animals that made up the meal. A few years later more settlers arrive. Proselytizers from a Physicist Church and a group of rationalist English settlers, who quickly are at loggerheads. Shockingly, the crewman from the original Spacer expedition, Kammer, thought dead on Genji, is found alive and modified by a living carpet of moss growing on his altered body. Greg Bear’s portion of the tale explicates the natives’ own atonement myth, and it has very little to do with Jesus. According to Poul Anderson the key to understanding all sapients is Language, and researcher Holden has followed the life stages of the native Genjians from tad to Himatid to carpet whales. And he is prepared to kill to prevent whaling by the native Ihrdizu. Nancy Kress wraps things up with an explanation of the bioloons, the mythical Masters and the real source of the periodic ecological catastrophes. Does it work as a novel? Not really, but the individual tales are pretty good, particularly the Bear, Anderson and Kress, but to be fair, they had the most background to work with. Read the appendices first!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take six of the world's best Science Fiction writers, given them two co-orbiting worlds with very alien life forms, and have them each write a chapter? BRILLIANT!!! Great reading about the same places/people but as seen through different authors' eyes. Wonderful to see different writing styles and story telling from six of the best.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been great. All top award winning authors, a good science based approach... Yet somehow it is missing something, compared to it's only real equivalent Medea: Harlan's World

[Micky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little known book, that deserves a lot more attention (which is the only reason I’m writing this). For an excellent, more in-depth review read what Guillermo wrote (be prepared for spoilers).

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cool concept! And the story could have just been gimmicky, but instead was incredibly well-thought-out with excellent integration of stories between authors.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that stayed on my to-be-read shelf for way too long. Very interesting collaboration with all very good and some great sections.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Around a nearby star, a pair of twin planets orbit a point in space, as though each are the moon of the other. And because both planets support life, it's only natural for Humanity to send expeditions. This is the case of the star christened Murasaki, and the planets Genji and Chujo, and Murasaki tells a series of stories about humanity's explorations of these planets and what they learn about the inhabitants, and themselves.

Take two classic SF authors known for hard science fiction. Tell them to design a planet, or in this case, two, following science as much as possible, and create alien races for that planet. Then, open the world up to other authors, specifically, authors who have won the Nebula award (given by other SF writers and editors). Each writer reads the stories that came before them, then writes their own in that same, shared universe. It's a daring experiment... not the first of its kind, but worthy of attention nonetheless. If nothing else, it can be a fascinating look at elements of the process of writing science fiction that can often be behind the scenes.

The book ends with appendixes... these are essentially the outline of the world and aliens that the authors all worked from, as they originally saw it. You could either read them at the end, or skip ahead and read them first... I decided to go with option B, which will necessarily effect how I related to the rest of the stories but I'm not entirely sure I can evaluate how. Still, the appendixes were dry but interesting at the same time, and you can see the fun authors have in creating details. They may have made too many, though... although certainly the other writers added their own ideas, they may have felt somewhat constrained by the extensive details set out in advance. It's a mixed blessing, at the very least.

The alien races were fascinatingly designed and with a keen awareness that aliens aren't created in isolation but rather are part of an ecology, with animals and plants that don't seem out of place with each other (at least, no more than Earth creatures, and when you have platypuses and oak trees sharing the same planet, there's room for a lot of variation). There are also (at appropriate times in the stories themselves, rather than the appendices) actually drawings of many of these creatures, which shouldn't be necessary in a SF novel but is a really cool treat nonetheless, and helped the world come alive.

But enough about the skeleton of the book, what's important is the story... and, unfortunately, here's where it didn't entirely connect for me. The stories were, for the most part, okay. Some were dated in a few aspects, or the relationships between people didn't ring true, but they were okay... yet, they didn't draw me in. Any number of factors could have gone into this... and again, I read the appendices first, so it's possible that I was simply a little bored by the stories gradually setting up details that I was already well aware of. Or it could be something as simple as me being more distracted by outside concerns than I usually am, while I was reading it. I can't say for sure. All I can say is, most of the stories didn't entirely connect, and I sometimes found myself skimming through one story or another, picking out cool bits rather than being immersed.

The last two stories got me more involved, and I can't say whether it's because they're better story or because, by then, I'd bought into the world, but I felt more in those two stories than in the rest of the book, even if some of the plot elements weren't what I like in science fiction. The last, "Birthing Pool" by Nancy Kress exemplfies this, when I read it I thought, "Oh, I wish the 'mystery' didn't go in THAT direction, but, well, I enjoyed that story enough regardless." Even the last two stories, though, while they were good, they weren't among the greater short stories I've read.

In the end, it's an interesting experiment, and may well be worth reading for that alone, and as a textbook example of worldbuilding in action. But for sheer enjoyment? I'd put it between two and three stars, probably settling more towards the "okay" end rather than "I liked it." I liked it a little, and I'm glad I read it, but I wanted to like it much more than I did.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for The Tale of Genji, you'll be disappointed; this has nothing to do with the author of the world's first novel. What it is is actually a multi-author collaborative novel, with each subsequent author building all the previous work. It's a sort of scaled-up campfire serial story, and just about as uneven as you'd expect, but it's consistently readable and inventive, and it's certainly interesting to see how different authors bend and twist the same basic world and riff on each other's characters.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I've complained about not enough background work in novels, this collection is proof that you can have too much. Because of the nature of the work, a series of poorly connected short stories, each short has much of the world data extensively extolled. It really violates the 'show me don't tell me' school of writing and suffers badly for it. If each of the shorts were a novel with the same amount of background spread through them, they would probably be much better since the authors would be able to spend time on action and character development. Mediocre stories by award winning authors.

[KitCat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like science fiction and found this one to be really cool. I love the interactions between 3 life forms outside of humanity. The book highlights how much humans want to control even when they really have no influence.

[L · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to like this, given the amount of plotting and planning and the ambitious goals, but twas not enjoyable. And by following the editor's advice and reading the Appendices first, I had spoilers going into Kress' finale.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benford and Brin short stories are pretty good.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book. Inspiring to anyone with a passion for writing.