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Time and Time Again: Sixteen Stories of Time Travel
Un maestro della fantascienza moderna alle prese con il più amato tema del genere, il viaggio nel tempo. Robert Silverberg ci mostra un matrimonio distrutto da un rivale capace di spostarsi tra le epoche; un essere umano che si risveglia nella mente di un'aragosta; e non può mancare la classica "sbirciatina" al giornale del giorno dopo... sedici immaginifici racconti, tutti arricchiti di nuove introduzioni dell'autore.
464 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2018
90 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
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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.
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 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 6, 2018
Robert Silverberg is widely considered one of the giants of science fiction. In this volume, he collects sixteen of his time travel stories, ranging across the length and breadth of his career from the 1950’s until he stopped writing in 2009. Time travel has always been a profoundly interesting fantasy, filled with paradoxes and conundrums. Silverberg, in these stories, explores quite a few ideas about time travel. There is a wide variety of stories here, all quite different and all fantastic. There’s not a clunker or a filler in the bunch. Even the ones that weren’t incredible at first, later turned out to be quite good. Each story is prefaced with an introduction from Silverberg explaining how he came to write each story and where it found publication. He dedicates the book to HG Wells, Lovecraft, Heinlein, and Eric Bell.
Silverberg begins with a fairly lengthy introduction about how he views time travel as completely free from boundaries of the imagination and how he consistently returned to the theme throughout his career. He discusses his early fascination with Wells’ Time Machine, Lovecraft’s Shadow Out if Time, John Taine’s Before the Dawn (Taine was apparently Eric Bell), and other early sources and inspirations.
Absolutely Inflexible is one of those early fifties science fiction stories that somehow doesn’t seem dated, although the characters in it might feel dated. It deals with a bureaucratic solution to time travelers from the past appearances appearing with all the bacteria and viruses we had since been cured of.
This is an idea that actually appears again in one of the later stories in the book, Gianni, which posits what would happen If we reached back in time and grabbed a genius from a past century. How would we go about doing it without changing the past and how would this genius adjust to modern-day life.
Needle in a Timestack deals with a concept about what if someone only wanted to make tiny changes to timestream, such as prevent a divorce or redo a conversation or meet up that didn’t go as well as it could have. And what if there are lots of people making these small changes all the time.
Other stories deal with the commercialization of time travel. Could we become tourists traveling through different times, cultures, and even dimensions.
And what if the newspaper comes two weeks early? What would we do with that information? Do we keep it secret? Do we gamble? Play the stock market ? Would the newspaper sprinkling Secrets about the future stay the same?
If we had time travel, we could be like tourists visiting the age of the 🦖 dinosaurs. But what if we met another tourist?
The idea of meeting other time tourists is also explored in the novella Sailing to Byzantium where a traveler ends up in the future where everyone is a tourist exploring constructs of ancient civilizations and meets people who appear to be visiting from other centuries. Byzantium is a fascinating piece that really explores social constructs and social mores and feeling lost in another world.
Without discussing all the stories in this volume, let’s just say it is stupendous, fascinating, and mind-blowing. Yup, It’s worth reading.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
Silverberg begins with a fairly lengthy introduction about how he views time travel as completely free from boundaries of the imagination and how he consistently returned to the theme throughout his career. He discusses his early fascination with Wells’ Time Machine, Lovecraft’s Shadow Out if Time, John Taine’s Before the Dawn (Taine was apparently Eric Bell), and other early sources and inspirations.
Absolutely Inflexible is one of those early fifties science fiction stories that somehow doesn’t seem dated, although the characters in it might feel dated. It deals with a bureaucratic solution to time travelers from the past appearances appearing with all the bacteria and viruses we had since been cured of.
This is an idea that actually appears again in one of the later stories in the book, Gianni, which posits what would happen If we reached back in time and grabbed a genius from a past century. How would we go about doing it without changing the past and how would this genius adjust to modern-day life.
Needle in a Timestack deals with a concept about what if someone only wanted to make tiny changes to timestream, such as prevent a divorce or redo a conversation or meet up that didn’t go as well as it could have. And what if there are lots of people making these small changes all the time.
Other stories deal with the commercialization of time travel. Could we become tourists traveling through different times, cultures, and even dimensions.
And what if the newspaper comes two weeks early? What would we do with that information? Do we keep it secret? Do we gamble? Play the stock market ? Would the newspaper sprinkling Secrets about the future stay the same?
If we had time travel, we could be like tourists visiting the age of the 🦖 dinosaurs. But what if we met another tourist?
The idea of meeting other time tourists is also explored in the novella Sailing to Byzantium where a traveler ends up in the future where everyone is a tourist exploring constructs of ancient civilizations and meets people who appear to be visiting from other centuries. Byzantium is a fascinating piece that really explores social constructs and social mores and feeling lost in another world.
Without discussing all the stories in this volume, let’s just say it is stupendous, fascinating, and mind-blowing. Yup, It’s worth reading.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
January 4, 2019
It's ok. Having read some of these in past decades, it was interesting to see them all together in one spot. Some are way, way back from the late 1960's and others far more current.
But I was perplexed in that so many themes remained nearly identical, despite having such imaginative and differentiating characterizations and circumstances.
And from the trailer, I did think that some of the stories would be from peers of those eras. No, they are all Robert Silverberg.
You know, I have become jaded for this field of copy. Sci. Fiction genre can go nearly anywhere- but I find that the "eyes" are not as varied as I thought they were. Not even in time travel for a subject among many authors (despite all the paradox situations it can evolve) or in one author's work across many sci. fic. themes- are there as much true "variety" as I thought when I was younger.
Honestly, my favorite time travel stuff has far more cultural or individual nuance than the technical. And this isn't it. But the first story is tops. Karma encapsulated in "self". Superb!
But I was perplexed in that so many themes remained nearly identical, despite having such imaginative and differentiating characterizations and circumstances.
And from the trailer, I did think that some of the stories would be from peers of those eras. No, they are all Robert Silverberg.
You know, I have become jaded for this field of copy. Sci. Fiction genre can go nearly anywhere- but I find that the "eyes" are not as varied as I thought they were. Not even in time travel for a subject among many authors (despite all the paradox situations it can evolve) or in one author's work across many sci. fic. themes- are there as much true "variety" as I thought when I was younger.
Honestly, my favorite time travel stuff has far more cultural or individual nuance than the technical. And this isn't it. But the first story is tops. Karma encapsulated in "self". Superb!
November 22, 2018
Time and Time Again is an anthology of sixteen time-travel short stories by Robert Silverberg. That is a completely true statement that fails to capture the vastness of this book at all. Silverberg is a prolific science-fiction writer known for his fascination with time travel, so a collection of his short stories makes perfect sense. He writes short introductions to the stories that put them in the context of his life and writing career, including his work with editors and publishers. The stories go forward and backward in time and do so with far more nerve and imagination than we could imagine.
After all, what if we could travel in time, not bodily, but by projecting our psyche, and we showed up in the body of a lobster? Or what if we figured out how to send incorrigible prisoners back so far in the past we don’t have to worry about them killing a butterfly? What if someone left the house one day on his usual commute and drove back in time without even trying? What would you do if your daily paper arrived a week early?
While I enjoy some science fiction, I am only familiar with a few authors and Silverberg was new to me. Now I feel like I have found a huge trove of what will surely be great books. I like his writing, it’s active and disciplined. He can create a scene quickly, situate you in time and place and create suspense and tension with such ease that he makes it all look easy. His imagination is wild and uninhibited. There’s a humanity that suffuses his writing and makes his characters real and credible, even ones that are completely out of our experience.
I enjoyed this book and savored it, reading just one story at a time so I could save their individual creativity. Each scenario was so new and fresh that I did not want them to run together. If you like science fiction at all, I am certain you will love Time and Time Again.
I received a copy of Time and Time Again from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Time and Time Again at Three Rooms Press
Robert Silverberg author site
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
After all, what if we could travel in time, not bodily, but by projecting our psyche, and we showed up in the body of a lobster? Or what if we figured out how to send incorrigible prisoners back so far in the past we don’t have to worry about them killing a butterfly? What if someone left the house one day on his usual commute and drove back in time without even trying? What would you do if your daily paper arrived a week early?
While I enjoy some science fiction, I am only familiar with a few authors and Silverberg was new to me. Now I feel like I have found a huge trove of what will surely be great books. I like his writing, it’s active and disciplined. He can create a scene quickly, situate you in time and place and create suspense and tension with such ease that he makes it all look easy. His imagination is wild and uninhibited. There’s a humanity that suffuses his writing and makes his characters real and credible, even ones that are completely out of our experience.
I enjoyed this book and savored it, reading just one story at a time so I could save their individual creativity. Each scenario was so new and fresh that I did not want them to run together. If you like science fiction at all, I am certain you will love Time and Time Again.
I received a copy of Time and Time Again from the publisher through LibraryThing.
Time and Time Again at Three Rooms Press
Robert Silverberg author site
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
March 13, 2022
A really good collection of time travel stories.
December 13, 2018
** Full disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review**
I have to admit, time travel is not my favorite story theme, in fact, it usually ends up annoying the bejeezus out of me because it's so easy to “cheat” and just handwave away conflicts and problems with timey wimey stuff.
Which makes it odd that I requested this as an early review book, but I did so on purpose, I was curious how I would like time travel stories written but such an experienced author.
And the end results are mostly mixed. I find all short story collections tend to work that way though. One or two stories I really liked, there was only one I pretty much hated and had to push myself to finish, though I felt that was more his technique and not the theme.
I am not going to review each story but I will say that Homefaring was my favorite, it was an interesting take on something that could easily have become cheesy and cheap and instead engaged me so much I didn't want it to end.
My least favorite was Breckenridge And The Continuum, his use of myths and storytelling within the story just pissed me off and I skimmed through most of his characters storytelling sections. I'm not even sure what he was saying with this one or if the main character was just insane vs. actually traveling through time.
I did find some of the stories kind of old-fashioned, writing styles have changed so much that not all of the stories have aged well, but besides the one story I really hated I found them all interesting to read and I loved the variety of different takes he had on time travel.
If you find older writing styles hard to read this might not be for you but it is a solid collection that challenged my views on time travel as a sub-genre.
I have to admit, time travel is not my favorite story theme, in fact, it usually ends up annoying the bejeezus out of me because it's so easy to “cheat” and just handwave away conflicts and problems with timey wimey stuff.
Which makes it odd that I requested this as an early review book, but I did so on purpose, I was curious how I would like time travel stories written but such an experienced author.
And the end results are mostly mixed. I find all short story collections tend to work that way though. One or two stories I really liked, there was only one I pretty much hated and had to push myself to finish, though I felt that was more his technique and not the theme.
I am not going to review each story but I will say that Homefaring was my favorite, it was an interesting take on something that could easily have become cheesy and cheap and instead engaged me so much I didn't want it to end.
My least favorite was Breckenridge And The Continuum, his use of myths and storytelling within the story just pissed me off and I skimmed through most of his characters storytelling sections. I'm not even sure what he was saying with this one or if the main character was just insane vs. actually traveling through time.
I did find some of the stories kind of old-fashioned, writing styles have changed so much that not all of the stories have aged well, but besides the one story I really hated I found them all interesting to read and I loved the variety of different takes he had on time travel.
If you find older writing styles hard to read this might not be for you but it is a solid collection that challenged my views on time travel as a sub-genre.
November 11, 2018
Few subjects boggle the mind as much as the concept of time, especially when it comes to time travel and all the paradoxes it entails. Put the subject in the very capable hands of Robert Silverberg and you have a great read. This collection of short stories is fantastic and deals with time in various ways. Some of the stories are simply set in a different time period and not necessarily focused on time travel but a couple are about the paradoxes involved in time travel and in my opinion are the best of the stories. Regardless, Silverberg is a great writer and all of the stories are good.
January 26, 2022
As a child, I was a voracious sci-fi and fantasy reader. I leaned more into fantasy, especially Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, and JRR Tolkien, but would also read some Asimov and Bradbury and Heinlein. One day when I was perusing the stacks at the Eastham Library, I came across a colossal book that looked like it was going to be amazing, and it was! That book was "Lord Valentine's Castle," and it was my first introduction to Robert Silverberg. Whenever I needed a break from fantasy, I would return again and again to Silverberg, so a recent trip to the library, where everything I was looking for seemed to be checked out, I stumbled across this collection.
Time and Time Again is an anthology of Silverberg exploring what may have been his favorite theme as a Sci-Fi author, time travel. His introductory essay is almost like a mini-memoir and worthwhile alone for hardcore fans, and every story he gives a background on where he was in his writing or what it was that stirred up the idea that led to the tale.
Not every story was perfect or even good, but so many were great, that it is worth reading even if you drop some stories part way in. The opening story, "Absolutely Inflexible" was amazing and I am surprised it has not been made into a movie. "Needle in a Timestack" felt the same, definitely should be a movie about a jealous ex manipulating time to change the present. "Trips," "Sailing to Byzantium," and "The Far Side of the Bell Shaped Curve," all play with themes of being time traveling tourists and the implications of that.
My favorite by far was "Homefaring," in which the protagonist is sent forward into the future and ends up sharing the body of an enlightened lobster who undertakes a pilgrimage because of the visit he receives from the man of the land. A close second was "Dancers in the Time Flux," in which Silverberg envisions a future world that is fantastic and drops a 16th century Dutch explorer into it.
I recommend this for fans of time traveling stories, Sci-Fi shorts, and of course anyone that loves Robert Silverberg.
Time and Time Again is an anthology of Silverberg exploring what may have been his favorite theme as a Sci-Fi author, time travel. His introductory essay is almost like a mini-memoir and worthwhile alone for hardcore fans, and every story he gives a background on where he was in his writing or what it was that stirred up the idea that led to the tale.
Not every story was perfect or even good, but so many were great, that it is worth reading even if you drop some stories part way in. The opening story, "Absolutely Inflexible" was amazing and I am surprised it has not been made into a movie. "Needle in a Timestack" felt the same, definitely should be a movie about a jealous ex manipulating time to change the present. "Trips," "Sailing to Byzantium," and "The Far Side of the Bell Shaped Curve," all play with themes of being time traveling tourists and the implications of that.
My favorite by far was "Homefaring," in which the protagonist is sent forward into the future and ends up sharing the body of an enlightened lobster who undertakes a pilgrimage because of the visit he receives from the man of the land. A close second was "Dancers in the Time Flux," in which Silverberg envisions a future world that is fantastic and drops a 16th century Dutch explorer into it.
I recommend this for fans of time traveling stories, Sci-Fi shorts, and of course anyone that loves Robert Silverberg.
October 6, 2018
Robert Silverberg is one of the first Science Fiction authors I remember reading as a young adult. His stories always seemed to contain that special quality… that euphoria I get when a story sweeps you away. No doubt that is why he is considered among the masters in the field of Science Fiction.
In this anthology of time travel stories, Silverberg explores various problems and contradictions that time travel could cause. Despite being a collection of sixteen stories, each story is unique in some way. I think that is one of the reasons I have always loved his works, he has never failed to impress with his unending imagination. This collection served to further reinforce my feelings.
It is not feasible to write a synopsis of each story. However, I will tell you that Silverberg has written a short introduction to each story that explains how he came to write the story and where and when it appeared. I actually liked this addition information and it did shed light on his thought processes. Therefore, I am glad the publisher had the foresight to include the introductions.
In addition to the story introductions, there is a lengthy introduction to the collection that I found interesting. Silverberg, among other things, talked about those that influenced him in his career. Because I have not read much about Silverberg himself, I found it intriguing.
My favorite story of the batch was Gianni. I was intrigued just from the introduction where Silverberg explained about his desire to be published in Playboy and how the editor at the time insisted that he change the story. In the story a musical genius that died at a young age from TB is brought forward in time from the 18th century where now he is cured but suffers from, shall we say, excesses. At the heart, the story is suggesting that karma follows a person even in time travel.
I highly recommend Time and Time Again to all lovers of Science Fiction. This is a fantastic assembly of time travel stories from one of the best writers of our time.
I received an ARC from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my blog at www.thespineview.com.
In this anthology of time travel stories, Silverberg explores various problems and contradictions that time travel could cause. Despite being a collection of sixteen stories, each story is unique in some way. I think that is one of the reasons I have always loved his works, he has never failed to impress with his unending imagination. This collection served to further reinforce my feelings.
It is not feasible to write a synopsis of each story. However, I will tell you that Silverberg has written a short introduction to each story that explains how he came to write the story and where and when it appeared. I actually liked this addition information and it did shed light on his thought processes. Therefore, I am glad the publisher had the foresight to include the introductions.
In addition to the story introductions, there is a lengthy introduction to the collection that I found interesting. Silverberg, among other things, talked about those that influenced him in his career. Because I have not read much about Silverberg himself, I found it intriguing.
My favorite story of the batch was Gianni. I was intrigued just from the introduction where Silverberg explained about his desire to be published in Playboy and how the editor at the time insisted that he change the story. In the story a musical genius that died at a young age from TB is brought forward in time from the 18th century where now he is cured but suffers from, shall we say, excesses. At the heart, the story is suggesting that karma follows a person even in time travel.
I highly recommend Time and Time Again to all lovers of Science Fiction. This is a fantastic assembly of time travel stories from one of the best writers of our time.
I received an ARC from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my blog at www.thespineview.com.
October 12, 2018
I loved this collection of short stories. Silverberg is a master of sci-fi so I had high expectations.
All my expectations were met.
Highly recommended to sci-fi lovers.
Many thanks to Three Rooms Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
All my expectations were met.
Highly recommended to sci-fi lovers.
Many thanks to Three Rooms Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
December 12, 2018
A great collection of stories about the dangers & joys of traveling on time stream. Grand Master Robert Silverberg indeed.
December 17, 2018
Enlightening on three levels; as a sampling of time travel stories, as an overview of Robert Silverberg’s oeuvre, and as a history of the trends and markets of late 20th century science fiction.
July 25, 2019
A very good collection of time travel stories from across Silverberg’s long career. Several have surprises or twists at the end, but many don’t. And I found them as worthwhile or more so. They are each thorough and satisfying explorations of an idea and don’t need a surprise ending, just a consistent thinking through and a skillful telling.
January 3, 2019
Very entertaining. There's a nice range of styles too (then again, he's been writing stories for about 65 years!)
January 10, 2019
Wonderful anthology of short stories and novellas by Robert Silverberg. Not all are equally outstanding, but if you have any interest in the themes of time travel and alternate realities, there's bound to be a couple stories in here that'll scratch that itch.
July 29, 2020
Loved this book. Great stories about time travel from different eras and from different angles.
A really good collection. If you enjoy time travel, check it out.
A really good collection. If you enjoy time travel, check it out.
May 21, 2020
Up to now I've read very little Robert Silverberg. Not for any good reason, I just haven't gotten around to it. The obnoxiously vibrant cover of Time and Time Again leapt off the shelf at the book shop and insisted that I take it home, and who was I to say no? Of the sixteen stories contained within, (all of which are time travel stories, or time travel adjacent), there were only a couple I didn't like. I didn't hate them, I just didn't like them. Those were Jennifer's Lover, and The Far Side of the Bell Shaped Curve. Maybe I didn't like them because they didn't have happy endings, and these days happy endings are a valuable commodity.
The rest of the stories ranged from good, to great, to wow! I especially liked Homefaring, about intelligent lobster-like creatures a billion years in the future, Sailing to Byzantium, an odd look at an odd humanity fifty thousand years from now, and Hawksbill Station, about a political prison camp set in the late Cambrian. Each story in the collection treats time travel from a different perspective. This isn't like Poul Anderson's Time Patrol, or Mike Flynn's Stone Eagle stories. Silverberg never wants to do the same thing twice.
For the most part Silverberg seems interested in his characters' reaction to being cast adrift in time. As such he seldom shows interest in the mechanics of time travel. The means by which the characters move around in time varies from story to story; in some cases it is never described at all, in others it is given only a few brief sentences. It is the affect on the travelers themselves, tourists, prisoners, hapless castaways, that is the meat and potatoes of these stories. This may explain why I've so seldom read Silverberg. I tend strongly toward the harder end of science fiction, this isn't that. It is, however, good, and I can recommend it. By Goodreads' ranking, I give it between 3 and 4 stars.
The rest of the stories ranged from good, to great, to wow! I especially liked Homefaring, about intelligent lobster-like creatures a billion years in the future, Sailing to Byzantium, an odd look at an odd humanity fifty thousand years from now, and Hawksbill Station, about a political prison camp set in the late Cambrian. Each story in the collection treats time travel from a different perspective. This isn't like Poul Anderson's Time Patrol, or Mike Flynn's Stone Eagle stories. Silverberg never wants to do the same thing twice.
For the most part Silverberg seems interested in his characters' reaction to being cast adrift in time. As such he seldom shows interest in the mechanics of time travel. The means by which the characters move around in time varies from story to story; in some cases it is never described at all, in others it is given only a few brief sentences. It is the affect on the travelers themselves, tourists, prisoners, hapless castaways, that is the meat and potatoes of these stories. This may explain why I've so seldom read Silverberg. I tend strongly toward the harder end of science fiction, this isn't that. It is, however, good, and I can recommend it. By Goodreads' ranking, I give it between 3 and 4 stars.
August 22, 2022
'What we Learned from this Morning's Newspaper' was my favourite short story, from this collection. It reminded me of Dino Buzzati's short story 'La giacca stregata', or the Mads Mikkelsen movie 'Die Tür'. How wonderful to be gifted a glimpse into the future, and then be able to change your life. It also feels ever so slightly more realistic than most time travel stories, in that you're not using a time a machine, a marvellous contraption, to travel in time, you're simply awarded an accidental peek, which of course, you must take advantage of.
"Entropy you know is the natural tendency of everything in nature to come apart at the seams as time goes along."
Honourable mention: 'Jennifer's Lover', the novella 'Sailing to Byzantium' for the fascinating concept, and the wonderful descriptions of the cities, 'Hawksbill Station' a story about a penal colony banished to the Late Cambrian, an era exclusively comprised of invertebrate sea life, and finally, 'Against the Current' a story about a man who travels back in time in his car, and a wonderful finale to the collection.
"Entropy you know is the natural tendency of everything in nature to come apart at the seams as time goes along."
Honourable mention: 'Jennifer's Lover', the novella 'Sailing to Byzantium' for the fascinating concept, and the wonderful descriptions of the cities, 'Hawksbill Station' a story about a penal colony banished to the Late Cambrian, an era exclusively comprised of invertebrate sea life, and finally, 'Against the Current' a story about a man who travels back in time in his car, and a wonderful finale to the collection.
November 1, 2022
Una ricchissima raccolta di racconti a tema viaggio nel tempo, che coniuga il tema in tutti i modi possibili immaginabili, in storie brevissime o abbastanza lunghe e articolate, con spunti a dir poco geniali, altri un po' meno nelle mie corde ma non per questo meno originali. Con una produzione così vasta il rischio è di andare un po' in overdose, non per niente ho impiegato diversi mesi a finirlo, leggendolo a piccole dosi, intervallato da altre letture completamente diverse, e il mio consiglio è proprio questo, di evitare la full immersion (altrimenti il rischio è di esaurire l'interesse per l'argomento a tempo indeterminato!). Molto interessanti anche le introduzioni ad ogni racconto, che collocano la scrittura nel tempo in cui l'autore l'ha creata, offrendoci una prospettiva temporale tra l'epoca in cui ogni racconto è stato scritto (si va dal 1955 al 2009) e la relativa prospettiva da cui si immaginava il futuro, rendendo alcune di queste storie ancora più affascinanti.
March 15, 2019
Enjoyed reading this book, both stories and little personal anecdotes preceding them.
October 21, 2019
Some very odd stories.
May 29, 2023
Finally done with this one! This is twice the length of my usual translation. So it took me longer than usual as well.
It's also the first shorts collection I've translated, so it's hard to rate it. I decided to be generous with it since I did work with it.
There are some very interesting and intriguing pieces in the collection. But some of them can be repetitive and the writer's fascination with the ancient world didn't vibe with me. I'm just not that into ancient times.
The thing that bothered me the most is that you can easily tell how outdated the stories are because of the blunt misogyny. I know Sci-fi and High Fantasy genres are still very misogynistic to this day, but it just shocks me how flat and 2-dimensional the female characters are. Every single female character in this collection sounds like the same person, beautiful with a supple body and dreams of leaving their husband. And all of their male counterparts are worried about being cheated on by them. This is so incel-coded I had to roll my eyes HARD.
I really hope male sci-fi writers would read more women's literature before even attempting to write women characters. The cringiness almost beats any pleasure we can get from reading these stories.
It's also the first shorts collection I've translated, so it's hard to rate it. I decided to be generous with it since I did work with it.
There are some very interesting and intriguing pieces in the collection. But some of them can be repetitive and the writer's fascination with the ancient world didn't vibe with me. I'm just not that into ancient times.
The thing that bothered me the most is that you can easily tell how outdated the stories are because of the blunt misogyny. I know Sci-fi and High Fantasy genres are still very misogynistic to this day, but it just shocks me how flat and 2-dimensional the female characters are. Every single female character in this collection sounds like the same person, beautiful with a supple body and dreams of leaving their husband. And all of their male counterparts are worried about being cheated on by them. This is so incel-coded I had to roll my eyes HARD.
I really hope male sci-fi writers would read more women's literature before even attempting to write women characters. The cringiness almost beats any pleasure we can get from reading these stories.
April 2, 2021
(4,5*) Det er vanskelig å anmelde novellesamlinger, de er av natur ujevne beist. Dog er dette en av de mer solide jeg har lest og det var vel egentlig kun én novelle her jeg ikke var spesielt begeistret for; resten var jevnt over meget bra. Skulle jeg trekke frem noen favoritter så måtte det vel være "The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve", "Hawksbill Station" og "The Man Who Floated in Time"
Denne samlingen tror jeg spesielt dro fordel av at jeg leser slike samlinger over tid (jeg leser en novelle mellom hver roman jeg leser); jeg mistenker at jeg ville blitt mektig lei tidsreiser om jeg skulle lest hele samlingen i ett kjør.
Denne samlingen tror jeg spesielt dro fordel av at jeg leser slike samlinger over tid (jeg leser en novelle mellom hver roman jeg leser); jeg mistenker at jeg ville blitt mektig lei tidsreiser om jeg skulle lest hele samlingen i ett kjør.
November 7, 2022
"An Infinite Summer" by Christopher Priest: 8
- A bit too precious for the fun scenario Priest builds and slowly, impressively divulges, mixing in just the smallest tinge of malevolence. STORY: future time tourists can trap past people in motion for their own ogling, sort of time photographs, with seemingly little care for the fact that this literally freezes the life of people in the past, sometimes for upwards of decades. This is exactly what happens to our narrator here and the girl he’s-a curtin’, only to wake up 30 years later in the middle of the blitz.
- A bit too precious for the fun scenario Priest builds and slowly, impressively divulges, mixing in just the smallest tinge of malevolence. STORY: future time tourists can trap past people in motion for their own ogling, sort of time photographs, with seemingly little care for the fact that this literally freezes the life of people in the past, sometimes for upwards of decades. This is exactly what happens to our narrator here and the girl he’s-a curtin’, only to wake up 30 years later in the middle of the blitz.
June 29, 2021
A big solid book of 16 stories -- a few novella length -- covering the six decades of Silverberg's fiction career and all concerning time travel in some way. I especially enjoyed his short introductions to the stories, putting them in context with his life and career and the book's theme. I know I read a few of them before, perhaps decades ago, but they were fun on second reading.
April 6, 2022
It started so well, but then it took a turn for the worse. Disappointing. I bought this book after watching the movie 'Needle in a timestack' (idea: ++, execution: --). That indeed was the best story in this collection. The other ones are ranging from mediocre to bad. He has a problem with properly ending his stories.
August 7, 2023
Table of Contents:
- Introduction (by Silverberg)
- Absolutely Inflexible, 1955
- Needle in a Timestack, 1982
- Trips, 1973
- Many Mansions, 1972
- Homefaring, 1983
- What We Learned from this Morning's Paper, 1972
- Hunters in the Forest, 1990
- Jennifer's Lover. 1981
- Sailing to Byzantium, 1984
- Breckenridge and the Continuum, 1972
- The Man who Floated in Time, 1981
- Gianni, 1981
- The Far Side of the Bell-shaped Curve, 1980
- Dancers in the Time-flux, 1982
- Hawksbill Station, 1967
- Against the Current, 2006
All of these stories are retreads and have been published either individually, in earlier collections, or magazines. Two of these stories were published in Playboy and one in Penthouse. I didn't even know these magazines published science fiction!
Some of the stories were better than others. Two were novellas. As you can see from the table of contents most if not all of these stories are rather dated. Sliverberg states he got his inspiration for writing about time travel from H G Wells and some other early science fiction writers. One of the issues with Silverberg's writing is that he greatly exaggerates what scientific advances will be available in 10 to 20 years so that when you read these today, they are ridiculously dated; that said, there are some good ideas here.
Silverberg provides a nice introduction to each story describing what he was doing prior to writing the story, how it was published, etc.
- Introduction (by Silverberg)
- Absolutely Inflexible, 1955
- Needle in a Timestack, 1982
- Trips, 1973
- Many Mansions, 1972
- Homefaring, 1983
- What We Learned from this Morning's Paper, 1972
- Hunters in the Forest, 1990
- Jennifer's Lover. 1981
- Sailing to Byzantium, 1984
- Breckenridge and the Continuum, 1972
- The Man who Floated in Time, 1981
- Gianni, 1981
- The Far Side of the Bell-shaped Curve, 1980
- Dancers in the Time-flux, 1982
- Hawksbill Station, 1967
- Against the Current, 2006
All of these stories are retreads and have been published either individually, in earlier collections, or magazines. Two of these stories were published in Playboy and one in Penthouse. I didn't even know these magazines published science fiction!
Some of the stories were better than others. Two were novellas. As you can see from the table of contents most if not all of these stories are rather dated. Sliverberg states he got his inspiration for writing about time travel from H G Wells and some other early science fiction writers. One of the issues with Silverberg's writing is that he greatly exaggerates what scientific advances will be available in 10 to 20 years so that when you read these today, they are ridiculously dated; that said, there are some good ideas here.
Silverberg provides a nice introduction to each story describing what he was doing prior to writing the story, how it was published, etc.
November 26, 2020
Classic Silverberg
Robert Silverberg has of way of making the impossible entertaining. Some classic shorts and some I had never read. Enjoyed the ride.
Robert Silverberg has of way of making the impossible entertaining. Some classic shorts and some I had never read. Enjoyed the ride.
February 3, 2021
Great entertainment.
October 30, 2021
Always enjoy reading Silverberg. A good mix of stories from his writings over decades.
Some were a bit repetitive but overall, a very enjoyable read.
Some were a bit repetitive but overall, a very enjoyable read.
December 29, 2022
A few stores are absolutely brilliant (What We Learned from this Mornings Newspaper) But most are kind of same-y.
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