The Masks of Time

by Robert Silverberg

Vornan-19 fell from the sky, naked, and landed on the Spanish steps in Rome on Christmas afternoon toward the end of the Millennium. And for Leo Garfield things would never be the same. For he is an acknowledged expert in the time reversal properties of sub-atomic particles...and Vornan-19 claims to come from far in the future. Whether or not he is telling the truth, a nervous and edgy world accepts the charming and magnetically charismatic Vornan as some kind of messiah. Even Garfield and his fellow scientists fall under Vornan's spell. But, has he really traveled across time--or is he just a charlatan and a fraud? A compassionate and powerful novel worthy of comparison to Stranger in a Strange Land.

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections

227 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1968

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

[Tom LA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read 17 novels by Robert Silverberg, and a plethora of his short stories. "The Masks of Time" (1968) is one of the Top 3 in my list, after Dying Inside and The Book of Skulls, maybe a shared second place with The Stochastic Man.

On Christmas Day in 1998, a charismatic being in the form of a nude man materializes from a shimmering electrical field in the middle of Rome, gliding over the Spanish Steps and Via Condotti.

Calling himself Vornan-19, he claims to have traveled back in time 1,000 years to observe the cultures of primitive Earth.

Soon after, the United States government assembles a team of five scientists to escort Vornan across the nation, around the globe, even to the moon colonies, all the while studying him in an attempt to determine or debunk his authenticity.

What makes this book GREAT:

- it's very well-written, especially for being a science fiction novel from the '60s: the style is tight, concise and direct, in typical Silverberg fashion, but it's noticeably better crafted than other Silverberg novels. The choice of terms, expressions, the paragraph structure, it's all masterful. I would also add, the literary references, often present with Silverberg, are even more frequent in this book, from Dante to Goethe to Shakespeare.

- it's hard science fiction the way it should be written: SF is nothing if not a literature of ideas. Silverberg manages to pepper every page with at least 2 or 3 futuristic ideas that are BRILLIANT if we think he wrote the book in 1968. His description of a fully computerized New York Stock Exchange is stunning (NYSE technology in 1968 was really primitive, a few clunky screens). He describes the Internet, and although he wasn't the first or even the only one to do that in the '60s, I still find it impressive. (Note: prof. Harari in the popular book “Sapiens” states: “No one foresaw the internet!!”).

Other inventions go from a green goo that is used to listen into conversations (like "bugs" for a room) to a villa that is made of a series of "concentric translucent shells" that keep moving and rotating silently, giving an impression of constant transformation. "Walls formed, dissolved and were incarnated elsewhere".

- it touches on profound themes without ever getting preachy (Silverberg NEVER gets preachy), and it uses the device of the outsider's gaze to show the pettiness and stupidity of many of our human endeavors.

Now... YES, there is a lot of sex and sexual innuendo in the book, especially if we look at it from our 2022 point of view. But the reader should remember what 1968 was about: SEX! The sexual revolution was about sex. Having more sex. Normalizing casual sex. Talking more about sex. Silverberg had absorbed all that cultural zeitgeist and his book reflects this.

The ending has a couple of very satisfying twists.

From a personal standpoint, as a catholic, I see the only real limit of this novel in the fact that Silverberg (just like any other Sci-fi author of his era) is unable to distinguish between religion and irrationality / superstition. The book seems to ignore that Christianity embraces rationality, but I think Silverberg has always been much stronger in history, especially ancient history, than theology. This doesn't bother me one bit: he's one of my favorite authors, if not possibly my #1 living author, and I admire his work immensely.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had long thought that Philip K. Dick's 1964-'66 period was the most intensely productive and prolific streak that any sci-fi author of note has ever enjoyed, with nine major novels produced during those three years. But as it turns out, Robert Silverberg, seven years P.K.'s junior, has got him beat by a mile. During the three-year period 1967-'69, Silverberg somehow managed the superhuman feat of releasing no less than 15 novels--six in '67, three in '68 and six again in '69--and all of them, reportedly, of a very high and literate quality. Silverberg's fiction began to mature immensely in '67, by which time he had already released some two dozen full-length sci-fi novels since his first in 1954, and a look at the book in question, 1968's "The Masks of Time," will serve to reveal how capable a writer he had become by this point. Released in May of that year as a 75-cent Ballantine paperback, the novel deservedly garnered a Nebula Award nomination (it ultimately "lost" to Alexei Panshin's excellent "Rite of Passage") and stands as a wonderful, intelligent entertainment to this day, 45 years later.

Although there have been dozens of sci-fi books dealing with an individual's use of a time travel device to visit the past or future, in Silverberg's book, we get a look at such a visitor from the outside. The book is narrated by Leo Garfield, a California-based physics professor who is chosen by the U.S. government to be on an escort committee comprised of five other scientists. It seems that a man claiming to be from the future, and named Vornan-19, has suddenly appeared on Rome's Spanish Steps on Christmas Day 1998. Already a sensation in Europe, his imminent arrival in the U.S. has the government more than a trifle concerned. Riots have already broken out among the cultists known as the Apocalyptists, who believe the world will end on January 1, 2000, and for whom a man claiming to be from the year 2999 represents a total negation of their philosophy. But is Vornan a legitimate time traveler from the future or merely a clever and charismatic faker? That is what Leo and his five fellow academics--an historian, a biochemist, an anthropologist, a philologist and a "cosmic psychologist"--must decide, as they chaperone Vornan-19 around the country and, ultimately, the world.

"The Masks of Time" manages to be a pleasing creation on several levels. The book is exceptionally well written (Silverberg seems to have an unfailing knack for delivering just the right word or phrase), literate, fascinating and exciting. It features a wealth of well-drawn characters, and makes ample use of the newly liberated sexual attitudes of the era, as the field of sci-fi loosened up with the rest of the world. Vornan is clearly bisexual in nature, and Leo and his Arizona friends, Jack and Shirley, are avid proponents of casual nudism. This is the sort of novel that just bursts with imaginative touches on nearly every single page, be it the green-slime bugging devices, the floating pneumochairs, or the artificial life forms created by Leo's biochemist associate. Silverberg shrewdly makes some accurate predictions as to devices in the near future (such as electric cars, music cubes, a telephone answering machine, and something that forcefully suggests today's Internet), and hilariously has Vornan reveal the secret of mankind's origin on Earth (hint: It has to do with jettisoned space garbage!). His novel features one wonderful set piece after another, including one in an upstate NY mansion where a monstrous party in Vornan's honor is held. With Mobius-strip walls, moving floors and ceilings, bizarre partygoers, mechanical insect maids, et al., this psychedelic kaleidoscope of a segment is surely some bravura work from Mr. Silverberg; at least as mind-bending as anything in Dick's oeuvre, and as vividly detailed as the best of Alfred Bester. Other memorable sequences include a visit that Vornan and his guides take to the NY Stock Exchange, to a (legalized and automated) Chicago brothel, to the amusement center in the moon's Copernicus Crater (this same lunar pleasure spot was more extensively featured in the author's 1967 novel "Thorns"), and, as the cult of Vornan grows, to his reception by millions in the countries of South America. Causing problems wherever he travels, Vornan is a mystifying character, and the reader will be hard put to get a precise handle on this sexually rapacious, elusive and ambiguous man from the future. Ultimately, he causes not only worldwide upheaval, but also rifts amongst the sextet of scientists (four men, two women, significantly) and amongst Leo, Jack and Shirley, as well. Whether seen as a Christ figure or parody of Robert A. Heinlein's Valentine Michael Smith, Vornan surely spells trouble for all surrounding him. Personally, I found the story absolutely unputdownable; when I read a book at the office instead of doing the work I'm supposed to be doing, THAT'S a sure sign of a gripping page-turner!

Just two minor quibbles with what is otherwise a fantastic piece of work. First, when Leo travels from California to D.C. by plane, leaving at 10:10 AM Pacific time and arriving at 10 AM Eastern time, I get the feeling that the author has confused his time zones a wee bit. Or am I missing something here? And then, at the novel's end, when Vornan expresses his wish for a personal "crowd shield (think: protective force field), so that he might walk among the South American mobs in safety...hadn't it already been established on pg. 5 that Vornan is capable of emitting an electrical field, similar to an eel's (giving a whole new meaning to the expression "future shock"!), that would render such a device redundant? Oh, well...guess you can't play it TOO safe when a million worshippers are trying to pull you to bits! Quibbles aside, this really is some wonderful writing from Mr. Silverberg, here very plainly coming into the full flush of his considerable powers....

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel first appeared as a paperback original from Ballantine in May of 1968. It's a near-future novel (set in 1999) about a naked man named Vornan-19 who appears and claims that he's a time traveler from a thousand years in the future who's come back to study his ancient ancestors. The book has frequently been compared to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, as it deals with the themes of religion and spirituality and messianism; it can also be described as an ironic satire focusing on salvation. The story is opened from the viewpoint of Leo Garfield, a 52-year-old physicist from the University of California who's tasked with determining if the mysterious visitor is a charlatan or the real McCoy, and we meet quite a few other characters along the way, most of whom have sex with one another in various combinations and frequencies. Some of Silverberg's notions of the world of 1999 were spot on (the dominance of television and computers), others not so much (the advancement of space exploration and development of relaxed societal standards). It's a mostly thought-provoking work, though I thought the ending was a little too open-ended. It was on the final ballot for the Nebula Award for best novel of the year but somehow lost to Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. (Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar should have won, but my pick would have been for Delany's Nova, which somehow didn't make the ballot.)

[Apocryphal Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an SF novel on the classic theme of 'enlightened visitor from the past/other planet/other dimension visits us' and naturally it reminded me of other similar novels I've read. This one falls somewhere between Heinlein's Stanger in a Strange Land, and Tevis' The Man Who Fell to Earth, maybe with some shades of Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Bros.

In this novel, our viewpoint character is a physicist named Leo Garfield who is studying the quantum mechanics of moving back in time. The year is 1999 (which is 30 years in the future of when the book was written - it's not our 1999, but it's strikingly familiar in many ways), and in this year a tourist named Vornan-19, who claims to be from the Earth of the far future, arrives in Europe and announces himself.

Naturally, the American Government puts together a team of 'professionals' to escort this man through the States (and later abroad) and, you know, show him a good time. Vorlan-19 himself is not a scientist, or a politician, or really any kind of person except maybe a hedonist dilettante (and as such, a man very much familiar to Silverberg fans).

Naturally, given his area of study, Leo Garfield is assigned to this team of babysitters, with the hope that he'll be able to learn something from future-man about time travel, and any other useful techs of course. He's got his work cut out for him!

I found that the novel unfolded quite nicely and leaves us with an appropriate, not altogether surprising but ambiguous end. Along the way get get some dashes of futurism, a lot of Silverberg-type hedonism (and I felt it was rather more nuanced in this novel than others I've read) and some 'sticky situations'. Silverberg likes to look at the shadier sides of society, and I often get the feeling he's looking at it with a sense of admiration, but the wishful thinking in this novel is at least balanced now and then by a look at the cons, too. But even so, it must be said the viewpoint is definitely male.

I rather liked the book. Not everyone will, but I think most fans of vintage SF (with all it's vision and all its blind-spots) will probably also like it.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vornan-19 has travelled back in time to the present day (the late 90s, as imagined in the early 70s). His mission is to warn vaguely about an impending millennial catastrophe and have sex with a lot of people.

It transpires that there's some doubt about whether he's really a time-traveller. But there's no doubt at all about the sex.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want the 3 star rating to indicate that I didn't think this book was all that bad. I liked it while I was reading it. I could see that it provided an opportunity for Silverberg to make observations about society on the verge of chaos, especially considering the time the book was written. I also enjoyed the story itself. Think of a visitor from 1000 years in the future visiting our time now. Now consider that visitor isn't a deep thinker, a historian, or a scholar. Instead, he's a vapid guy who wants to get laid a lot. That's the novel in the simplest synopsis. Imagine a youtube or instagram influencer traveling back in time to 1000 years ago. If they don't get killed outright, imagine how little they would know of the era they're visiting and the sort of things they'd want to do. So yes, there is a lot of fun ideas and satire in this book. It did run a bit long however, and the ending is about what you'd expect. But it's worth reading if you're a fan of 60's science fiction.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' which showed an 'innocent' Messiah transforming human society and creating chaos, Silverberg presents us with a much more structured and indeed literary examination of Humanity's need for faith, and what a double-edged sword that may be.
The setting is 1999, or at least it begins on Christmas day 1998 when Vornan-19, a visitor from the far future, manifests naked in a public square in Rome.
The date is symbolic for the purposes of the novel, since although the visitor claims no knowledge of Christ or the date of his birth, many people see his coming on this day as a religious sign whereas there is the subliminal suggestion to the reader that he may be the antichrist.
Earth at this time is gripped by a new religious mania, an apocalyptic cult who believe that the world will end at the turn of the century. they are destructive and Bacchanalian, seeing sex and rioting as the preferred activities with which to fill one's time in the final months before destruction.
Vornan, of course, stands in the face of their beliefs, since if he is indeed from the future, then the world is not going to end.
The novel is the journal of scientist Leo Garfield who has been conducting experiments in how to send subatomic particles into the past. His assistant, Jack Bryant, appears to be on the verge of discovering how to produce limitless free energy, and in a possible crisis of conscience quits his job to live a self-sufficient life in the desert with his wife. This becomes an occasional retreat for Garfield, until he is recruited by the government to be one of a group of scientists assigned to accompany Vornan-19 on his exploration of the US.
From the outset Vornan undermines (as does Valentine Smith in SIASL) the moral codes of society. He finds our need to cover our nakedness amusing and is happy to have sex with male or female with no sense of guilt or shame. Religions are a mystery to him and he explains later in the novel that life on earth emerged through aliens in the area having dumped some of their organic waste on a sterile earth, from which our biosphere eventually emerged. In one way or another he manages to obliquely destroy the lives of several individuals.
Beliefs are destroyed just as casually since Vornan (having already dropped the bombshell that the future does not know who Jesus is) goes on to confirm that religion, capitalism, sexual fidelity and the concept of money are unknown to people of the future.
It's a vastly underrated novel and deserves to be reappraised as not only one of Silverberg's best works, but one of the best SF novels of the 60s.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read, enjoyed, and given positive reviews to enough Silverberg novels that I am comfortable with writing this one off as boring.

[Bryan Thomas Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling, inspiring, thoughtful and challenging. My favorite Silverberg after Lord Valentine's Castle and the first two Prestimion books. Truly powerful and stands the test of time. A must read.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack is a young physicist on the cusp of an infinite energy from atoms revelation; Leo is an older physicist who is his mentor; and Shirley is Jack’s beautiful partner. When Jack flees his doctorate with Shirley to an isolated homestead in Arizona, Leo suspects it has something to do with the arrival of the mysterious Vornan-19, who claims to be from the year 2999! Vornan’s cryptic musings and his electrical abilities lend credence to his story but his refusal to answer even simple questions about his world paradoxically engenders doubt. His excuse of ignorance could be true - or he could be concealing things. Leo is seconded to a five person group assigned to mentor and monitor Vornan hoping to glean some data one way or another. Robert Silverberg has crafted an odd novel of human foibles and hypocrisy, where the answers to the big questions are not as important as asking them. Is Vornan-19 a visitor from the future or a hoax, and will the cult of personality surrounding him be a force for good or evil? Thought-provoking.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will say this with every review. I will always pick up a Silverberg book as I will be entertained. I love his settings and his characters. However, quite a few of his books just narrowly miss the mark for me.

I think in this one there was a lot of potential to explore some of the ideas a little more and flesh out some of the interplay between characters. Moreso than some of his other books, this one just felt rushed in its run up to the end.

Not sorry I got it for $2 at the used bookstore or that I read it, but it won't stick with me like Time of Changes or even Nightwings. It eeked out 3 stars at best.

[Luis Loyola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novela de ciencia ficción escrita en los sesenta sobre un visitante del futuro que llega del año 2999 al año 1999 en pleno cambio de siglo, nos muestra una visión muy optimista del autor sobre los progresos que se lograrían hasta el año 2000 y para eso crea este visitante del futuro llamado Vernon que es un tipo superficial y hedonista que busca solo divertirse , novela bastante floja que deja muchos cabos sueltos, no entra mucho en detalles tecnicos lo que por lo menos facilita la lectura.

[PetSch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schwächerer Roman von Silverberg.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I've changed or this is just one of Robert Silverberg's duds. Once upon a time I loved Robert Silverberg--in all of his 1960s-era, free-love, hippie-culture weirdness (Dying Inside, anyone?). But The Masks of Time seems over the top to me--at least now. Maybe the teenage/college age me still would have loved this one. The 40ish/middle-aged me....not so much.

So...what we have here is time travel. We begin with Professor Leo Garfield, a physicist, who has spent his career searching for the answers to time travel. At the time of the story, he's figured out how to send a few particles back in time--only to have them explode from the effort. And he's feeling depressed and like his life's work has been a waste of time (no pun intended). So, he takes a break from his work to stay with his friends. The husband is a former colleague who gave up physics when he was on the verge of a discovery that would revolutionize power supply. He's still struggling with his decision to suppress his findings. It also happens to be the end of the century--late 1990s. And the world has gone crazy with Apocalyptic fears. The world is going to end, you know. One happy crew from the individuals we meet to the world at large.

Into all this drops (quite literally--from the sky) Vornan-19, a man claiming to be from 1,000 years in the future....and whose main goal in this time travel trip seems to be to sleep with as many people from the past as possible. Wait, no, that's not what he says. He's here on a sight-seeing tour; gathering up information about his backward ancestors to take back to the folks in the future. Yeah, that's it. And everywhere he goes he creates upheaval of one sort or another--from riots to straight up property damage. Garfield and a team of intellectuals (from historians to anthropologists to psychologists) are called on by the US Government to escort Vornan-19 around the good ol' USA--as ambassadors of a sort, but also to keep an eye on him and to try and figure out if he really is a man from the future or just a particularly adept con artist.

This read was a major disappointment for me. As I mentioned above, I used to love Silverberg (and perhaps I still do--if the book is right). But this just seemed like an excuse for a lot of free love and folks running around nude--because, hey, it's absolutely okay, you know. But, seriously, if the culture is okay with it, why do we still call it fornication? And then, there's the whole struggle that Jack (Garfield's friend) has over his power supply discovery. Like it would be a bad thing to come up with a solution to the world's power problems and, oh, incidentally, maybe solve the problems of hunger and crime and other social ills while we're at it? Oh and the ending is a bit of a let-down as well. I'm afraid that this is one time that Silverberg just hasn't sold me on his story--and that's been a rare thing over the years. I'll have to give him another try. But, in the meantime, two stars for this outing. Barely.

[WayBackWhen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rather good book. Surprisingly well written for an older SF book and Silverberg's prose, similar I would say to Jules Verne's, lends itself to inherent technical, psychological, and philosophical anylsis of the situations and characters. The story while dated (silverberg even states though written in the 60's, that in the 2000's it still holds merit despite its innaccurate predictions) is entertaining and I really enjoyed the main character. A lot of reviews (shame on me for reading people's terrible woke opinions) complain about the overt sexuality of the book but considering its an adult book and the main character is an adult and the man from the future holds such wolfish desires, the topic of sex will undoubtedly arise and its on what appears to be a younger audience to not take it at face value, such as delusions of misplaced softcore elements (which it isn't) and see the deeper reasoning behind Silverberg's use of sexual "taboos". I do think the book could have been longer to flesh out more, the ending feels a bit rushed, and of course a 60's version of 1999 is too technologically romanticized, but overall this is a damn fine read and I'm glad Silverberg was finally able to write what he has always wanted.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.

The flaws are many. Where to begin? Well, there’s the ridiculously hackneyed 1960s-SF-guy way of talking about sexuality. For people who could push the imagination so far you’d think that they might have been able to ponder some very basic questions about gender and sexuality. But no.

Also, one of the central driving premises is the absolute terror expressed by two main characters (which is treated as if it’s so obvious that it doesn’t even merit explaining) that their scientific work might...gasp...produce efficient, clean, and safe energy. But, but, but...they fear, that would end the system of MONEY. It would be almost communist!!!111oneone

Finally, Silverberg had apparently never met any actual human beings because he appears to have no understanding of how they speak to one another. I know that’s a standard cliche about SF writers of this era, but this is a particularly overwhelming example, I can assure you.

To summarize: this is a very bad version of Stranger in a Strange Land. And bear in mind that I HATED Stranger in a Strange Land.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

while the insights into how the future might look are interesting, this is very obviously written by a man. The female characters in the book ate defined by their level of sexuality and painted as either frigid and unwelcoming, teasing, or overtly sexual. none of them have any real depth. the men on the other hand are given actually personalities, interests and characteristics. This served to make it wholly unrealistic. The 2 stars are for the accurate representation of mass hysteria and religious fanatics.

[Eddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book very disappointing. I many unanswered questions, the protagonist (not the first person narrator) basically ruined everything and then never answered any questions. I kept waiting for them to resolve something, but it never happened. Additionally, I would say I thought it was overly sexualized, not explicit (mostly) but nearly everything revolved around it. By the time I realized it wouldn't just be a little, I wanted to see it through to resolution, which I felt never happened. Didn't love it.

[Philip Am · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los pocos libros que leí de un tirón (La carretera de Cormac McCarthy fue otro de ellos). Para mí un clásico.

[Sergio Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entre 1967 y 1972, Silverberg rara vez decepciona.

"Las máscaras del tiempo" es una novela de 1968 que le supuso su segunda nominación al premio Nebula de la categoría (tras "Espinas" el año anterior). Parece pertenecer a un pequeño subgrupo de narraciones que especulaban sobre el viaje temporal, iniciado en 1967 con "The time hoopers" y prolongado en 1969 con "Por el tiempo").

La historia tiene lugar en 1999, con la irrupción en la esfera pública de Vornan-19, un autoproclamado turista temporal, procedente del año 2999. El momento no puede ser más delicado. La sociedad del futuro está enferma, enfrentada al pánico milenarista, que se manifiesta en una serie inconexa de cultos apocaliptistas que preconizan el fin del mundo para el 1 de enero del año 2000 y que son la fuente de numerosas orgías y desórdenes públicos.

Pese a que no revela absolutamente nada sobre su época (e incluso las autoridades políticas y científicas son incapaces de validar o refutar su procedencia), Vornan-19 se convierte en una especie de mesias para las masas carentes de propósito. Un mesías, eso sí, críptico, que solo se preocupa por asombrarse ante el peculiar mundo medieval al que ha llegado y divertirse lo máximo posible (provocando a menudo desastres con su proceder descuidado).

La historia nos la narra uno de sus "apóstoles" (designado por el gobierno de los EE.UU. para hacer de niñera/acompañante durante su visita), Leo Garfield, un físico mediático que lleva décadas intentando resolver el aparentemente imposible problema del viaje en el tiempo (un solo electrón).
Por supuesto, como ocurre con todas las historias de viajes en el tiempo, lo que está examinando Silverberg es su época, ya no solo vista con los ojos de un hombre de (supuestamente) otra, sino proyectada hacia un futuro que en esa época estaba treinta años por delante. El que hoy se haya convertido en un pasado alternativo dejado atrás hace veinte tan solo añade otra capa más al juego de espejos, que convierte, si cabe, en más fascinante el ejercicio.

Silverberg estaba en plena forma cuando escribió "Las máscaras del tiempo". Sus personajes son ricos y complejos (los coetáneos a Leo Garfield, que Vornan-19 no deja de ser un misterio), buscando además hacerlos verdaderamente distintos, tanto en actitudes como en principios, a los ciudadanos de 1968. Las dudas y miedos existenciales de la humanidad, sin embargo, son constantes, y si bien algunas de las ideas expresadas resultan como poco chocantes hoy en día (sobre todo el dilema moral de un estudiante de Garfield, inventor de un proceso para obtener energía ilimitada, que se resiste a publicar su trabajo porque eso trastocará el orden mundial), la idea central, la necesidad que tenemos los seres humanos de adorar ídolos huecos, es hoy tan pertinente como lo era entonces.

Vornan-19, a la postre, constituye meramente el elemento ajeno que desestabiliza un equilibrio ya de por sí precario; un catalizador que pone de manifiesto las contradicciones de nuestra sociedad (específicamente, la de 1968) forzando inesperadamente el statu quo más allá de su punto de ruptura. El caos se alza a su paso, aunque él mismo no deja de ser un agente aparentemente inocente (de mesianismo, porque sí que alberga en su interior una vena traviesa y una absoluta falta de moral).

[Lior · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silverberg is one of my favorite SF authors, or actually THE favorite if you judge favoritism by just number of books of his that I read. The fact he has been very prolific also helps. Masks of Time, also called Vornan-19 in some territories, is another winner by the esteemed Mr. Silverberg, written all the way back in 1968 and takes place in the year 1999. A man simply materializes out of nowhere on Christmas day at the Spanish Steps in Rome, and declares his name is Vornan-19, and that he's come from year 2999. The mechanism of his arrival is never disclosed. He does not arrive in a bubble of energy like in Terminator (although he IS naked), nor is he travelling via a DeLorean car or some other contraption. He's not there one second, and then he is. Is he even for real or just making up an elaborate story? That is an intriguing question threaded through the novel. But once Vornan's effect on the minds of the feeble humans, hungry for meaning and a new messiah, reveals its ugly face, the question of whether Vornan is a real time traveler or not becomes almost moot. It's the reaction he's getting from the people of 1999 that is more of concern here and Silverberg makes it clear. Through first person narration by Leo Garfield, a scientist escorting Vornan on his travels all over the world, we get a look at an alternative 1999 to the one we have experienced ourselves. In that, we have a very different perspective than that of the readers of this book when it originally came out. "Our" 1999 did not have crazy Apocalyptics, but there was concern about Y2K, a concern that never came to pass. I'd say that as a whole, humans turned out better than the ones portrayed in this novel. We did not let hysteria consume us at the turn of the century and it all went relatively well. What would we do if a prophet-like figure came among us from the year 2999? I don't know. But I have a feeling that there, too, the response would not be on a global scale. However, Silverberg raises important questions about independence of thought and the scary way people can simply project their fears and longings on another human being in what quickly becomes a cult. What would you be willing to do if someone promised you absolution? Would you prefer to sin just so you could receive said absolution? But the novel is not heavily religious with its themes, it's all under the surface and very cleverly in the subtext. It starts whimsical and turns pretty dark towards the final act. a tale well told by a master.

Be aware, though, that the book deals with sex in a very open way that might feel gratuitous or even exploitive to modern audiences. Even I thought that we could've done with less scenes of people walking around naked. It's not said outright, but if you wish, you might look at nakedness as representing vulnerability, and certainly Leo's "hippie" friends who live in the desert, while exposing their bodies, also conceal their feelings under layers of suppression and fear, with regrettable results. The fact that Vornan will sleep with almost any woman that crosses his path and seems to have no inhibitions whatsoever, with no regard to people's feelings, only to later become sacred and holy in the eyes of his followers, is ironic indeed
that crosses his path, only to later become sacred in the eyes of his followers, is ironic indeed.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 3 out of 5]

On Christmas Day in 1998, a charismatic being in the form of a nude man materializes from a shimmering electrical field in the middle of Rome. Calling himself Vornan-19, he claims to have traveled back in time 1,000 years to observe the cultures of primitive Earth.

Soon after, the United States government assembles a motley team of five scientists to escort Vornan across the nation, around the globe, even to the moon colonies, all the while studying him in an attempt to determine or debunk his authenticity. Yet, Vornan offers little more than nebulous scraps of information about the future and evades direct questions about the mechanics of time travel, asserting ignorance about all matters scientific and technical.

Rather, Vornan admits to being little more than a bored dilettante from the future seeking to amuse himself by partaking in the sexual customs of “underdeveloped” humans. He reveals only that he hails from a land known as the Centrality and that poverty, starvation, even death have been eliminated, somehow, during the 1,000 years between our time and his.

Among Vornan’s cadre of guardians is Leo Garfield, a middle-aged physicist stymied in his current academic career and in need of a distraction. It is his through Garfield’s point of view that we experience the escapades of Vornan-19, for it is with Garfield that Vornan forms the closest bond.

Vornan’s habitual venery not only extends to the female scientists of the group, but almost any random woman, or man, he happens to encounter in his travels. Despite Garfield’s attempts to keep him in check, Vornan manages to leave chaos and frustration in his wake wherever he goes. Whether that is intentional or a merely the result of being a stranger in a strange land is anyone’s guess.

His popularity in the media rapidly escalates, to the chagrin of a cult known as the Apocalyptists, who believe that the world will end on January 1, 2000. Their public protests and orgies become more fervent as they rail against Vornan, even while he amasses a rabid following of his own. To desperate millions around the world, this prophet from the future brings hope and wisdom. He becomes their new messiah.

Is Vornan-19 merely a simple observer from the future seeking an escape from ennui and indolence, or is he a sham taking advantage of a gullible and “underdeveloped” humanity?

The Masks of Time was published in 1968, during the Vietnam War and a period of violent civil unrest in the United States. People sought hope, equality, peace, but most of all meaning, and many of them looked to various new-age religions and cults to find it. Robert Silverberg deftly adopted all of these elements into the tale of Vornan-19.

While the story opens with the amusing and engaging arrival of Vornan in Rome, the second chapter is loaded down with exposition during Garfield’s initial visit with his friends Jack and Shirley in Arizona. From there, the pacing remains uneven, but the story held my attention to the end.

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Robert Silverberg’s earlier novels, The Masks of Time was written in 1968 and set in a speculative future 1999. Read now, a quarter century later yet, some aspects of that so-called future seem quite prescient (global computer network, electric cars, electronic stock trading), some seem innovative (green goo paparazzi bugs, crowd shields, genetically engineered lifeforms) and others patently ridiculous. Among the most ridiculous, is the extrapolation of sexual attitudes beyond the 1968 baseline. There is casual nudity, commonplace extramarital sex, and even public sex. Young women wearing outfits consisting only of silver paint, or frolicking in wine fountains. I was reminded of the trivialized sexual ornamentation of Ron Goulart. But I persisted in reading, and somewhere in the middle Silverberg makes a change in his portrayal. No longer trivial, the behaviors of the main characters reveal that their sexuality or lack thereof is very meaningful.

In the story, Vornan-19 is an alleged time traveler from the year 2999 who appears suddenly in Rome. Leo Garfield is a middle-aged physicist, drafted to be part of a team of specialists charged with determining whether he is legitimate, and mining him for useful information about future history or science. To deal with the stresses of his life, Leo has found he needs periodically to seek refuge with his long-time friends Jack and Shirley in the Arizona desert, and this continues during his engagement with Vornan. Vornan is personally appealing, and while cannily avoiding disclosure of any of the sought-after information, he begins to accumulate followers. Somewhat similarly to Valentine Michael Smith in Heinlein’s 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land, Vornan is ready to sweep up the population of Earth with a new religion they thirst for.

Silverberg’s writing here is more complex and profound than it at first appears. I wound up enjoying the novel and even appreciating the ambiguities of the resolution. If you’re looking for a strong counter-example to the 50-page test, this would be it. By the way, it was nominated for Nebula Award in 1969.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Science-Fiction-Roman aus dem Jahre 1968 - den man auch heute noch lesen kann (und das lässt sich wahrlich von den wenigsten der alten Schinken dieses Genres behaupten!)
Robert Silverberg steht hiermit erneut unter Verdacht, einer der Grossen der Science-Fiction-Literatur zu sein; das ist zwar erst der zweite seiner Romane, die lese - der andere war der farbenprächtige "Lord Valentine" - aber auch hier wieder vermag er seine überbordende Fantasie mittels ernsthafter Gedanken in eine gültige Form zu giessen; er kreiert eine Vision der zukünftigen Menschheit, die Hand und Fuss hat und in der man durchaus ein Abbild unserer heutigen Welt entdecken kann.
Silverberg schält dabei in interessanter Weise Kernthemen der menschlichen Gesellschaft heraus, die allgemein und leider offenbar zu jeder Zeit gültig sind: Der Drang, von Ideologien an die Hand genommen und geführt zu werden.
Daneben schneidet er eine Fülle weiterer interessanter und zum Teil brisanter Themen an.

Der Plot: 1999 verbreitet sich auf der Erde die Ideologie vom bevorstehenden Weltuntergang. In den allgemeinen Irrsinn hinein erscheint - buchstäblich aus heiterem Himmel - ein Besucher der Erde des Jahres 3000, der die Untergangsszenarien Lügen straft, aber den Samen für eine neue Ideologie auslegt.
Der Witz an der Geschichte: Der Besucher ist kein "Ueber-Wesen", sondern ein ausgemachter, selbstsüchtiger Dummkopf...
Bisweilen etwas sperrig, aber insgesamt sehr gut geschrieben; die Lektüre lohnt sich durchaus.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I thought this book was going to be a 5-star. Just like Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange World, we are introduced to the same type of intriguing main character, Vornan-19, fraud or time traveler, and he starts out by doing and saying really interesting things. If only Silverberg could have sustained the interest he generated in his premise. After the introduction to the main character (9 pages), we don't see him again for 80 pages, almost 40% of the way into the book. Instead, we get to see who the welcoming committee will be. Yawn.

When we finally do meet Vornan-19 again, the action picks up only to then be slowed down by tortuous, slow description. Page 105-107, three paragraphs. Page 108 is its own paragraph, as is page 109. Add to all the description the novelty (at least if you're a late 60s flower child) of free love and the glorification of uninhibited nudism and you have a recipe for the tritest titillation imaginable.

Despite all the 1960s period-centered mishandling of his premise, Silverberg is too good a craftsman in his writing to ruin the story altogether. He does manage to keep the reader wondering what Vornan-19 will do next all the way to the end. I just wish Silverberg could have risen above the time period in which he wrote this novel to truly do the concept justice.

[Dalibor Dado Ivanovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovo je Silverbergov odgovor na Heinlanov kultni roman. Ovdje radnja ide puno brze i Silverberg se dosta posvetio karakterizaciji likova i njihovim odnosima. Od kojih su mi super odnos Lea, Shirley i Jacka - ona njihova sloboda u izolaciji i hodanje goli po kuci, bez nekakvih seksualnih gluposti.
A sami Vornan 19 mi je super, pa naravno da se bilo tko vrati u neko doba, iste stvari bi htio isprobavati, jer sam je rekao "Dosao sam uciti, a ne da Vas ucim"
A eto i Apokaliptici su mi zanimljivi, kako od uvijek ima takvih skupina koji vjeruju da k"Kraj dolazi". Kako se radnja knjige zbiva kraje 1999. pa eto sjecanja me vuku u to doba, kako sam isto onako imao potajni neki strah da ce biti smak svijeta...Vornana 19 nije bilo, barem ne u mojoj zemlji...i eto nas 21g nakon, neki jos uvijek najavljuju da je kraj blizu.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading through Silverberg because MAN, when he hits he hits. This one is maybe about a 70% success, in my opinion.

Basic plot: A guy who seems to possess futuristic tech/knowledge appears & says he's basically a time traveler tourist, that there have been others but they're usually going incognito. The book then subtly starts pointing out the horrors of late-stage capitalism while mostly staying an intriguing glimpse into the ramifications of his appearance on a small set of scientists/etc. accompanying him.

All the parts are good, I just didn't feel like it ever gelled completely as a whole. Still, thoroughly enjoyable read.

[lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is both a fascinating look into what the 1960s predicted for our future and the ramblings of a sexually repressed author. Why every woman had to be defined based, in large part, on their looks and sexual prowess was beyond me (and great laughing stock for my friends and I). The plot, however, was engaging and the concepts intriguing. Vornan’s characterization as a nobody from the future opened some great commentary on technological advancement alongside the fact that, at our core, we are still creatures that don’t know very much. I enjoyed this retro futuristic version of the late 90s that never quite came to fruition.

[Francesco Crapuzzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

No esperaba nada de este libro, ya que era de la biblioteca de mi padre y lo tomé sólo por curiosidad, realmente es una historia que no da ninguna solución a las preguntas que se generan a lo largo de la misma. El desarrollo de personajes me pareció flojo y en muchos casos tedioso, además de una fijación con el sexo cada dos páginas. Creo que es un excelente ejemplo de lo que fue la ciencia ficción a mediados del siglo XX, llena de imaginación y argumentos que suenan científicos pero que no son más que desvaríos del autor.

[Francisbrosseauhotmail.Com · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a interesting book. It’s a Robert Silverberg’s Book, very humane, all about relations and not a lot of actions. A little bit patriarchal, but Robert Silverberg always are.

It’s not his best book. But it’s new in the time travel genre. He proposed in this book a new projection for the future. At the end, we don’t know what to think, it’s ambiguous. Vornan, the man from the future, is so irresponsible and unpredictable. He’s not a time travel’s common character. Very interesting.