More speculative fiction by Robert Silverberg
Beyond Armageddon — (1988-1989) Publisher: Millions of years in the future, a small tribe of humans emerge from an underground cocoon to reclaim the planet for themselves.


Collision Course — (1958) Publisher: The crew of the XV-ftl was looking forward to shore leave, vacation, and a chance to see their families after a month in space. But once they brought back the news that they had discovered aliens, they were doomed to another, and longer, journey. Accompanying them on the return were several technical experts, who seemed to be more interested in squabbling with each other than meeting the first alien race in the history of humankind. But face to face with the blue humanoid Norglans, everyone began to realise just how important these first meetings could be — for they could make the difference between peaceful coexistence in space and interstellar war!
The Silent Invaders — (1958) Publisher: The story involves an alien race who have surgically altered themselves in such a way as to pass for human. They are infiltrating Earth with plans to take it over. But gradually the hero, one of the alien spies, finds that he is becoming more and more human. Eventually he goes native, and the invasion fizzles out. Silverberg is a good enough writer to almost convince you that an alien can become a human when he looks and acts like a human. But he does not completely persuade.
Stepsons of Terra — (1958) Publisher: What do you do when your planet is under threat from aliens, you have travelled light years to make contact with Earth (after 500 years of silence) and you then find no-one cares? A classic novel by the Hugo and Nebula award winner.
Aliens From Space — (1958) Publisher: It started off like an ordinary day for Dr. Jeffrey Brewster, assistant professor of psycho-sociology at Columbia University. He’d been six weeks old when the first crude satellites were flung into space back in 1957. During his childhood there had been Moon rockets and the space stations — then the joint American-Russian-manned expedition to the Moon in 1965, right after the collapse of the Soviet dictatorship. Mars and Venus had been reached as he grew up and a permanent base was established on the Moon in 1973. Now the day’s papers reported that an expedition was ready to leave for Callisto, moon of Jupiter. But Dr. Brewster had a class to make and he was late. That was when the telephone rang and Mari, his wife, said, “Long distance from Washington.” The caller was Colonel Chasin of Unsecfor — United Nations Security Force, the global and international army that policed the world in these days of relative peace and harmony. Chasin explained that a serious matter had come up, something …
The Planet Killers — (1959) Publisher: In The Planet Killers, the Security Computers of Earth Central determine that the frontier world of Lurion will launch an all-out attack on Earth in 67 years, sending Agent Roy Gardner to the rough-and-tumble planet to ensure that doesn’t happen — even if it means blowing Lurion to interstellar dust! In The Plot Against Earth, agent Lloyd Catton must work with skeptical, suspicious alien agents to bust a hypnojewel racket, unveiling a multi-planet conspiracy threatening the Earth itself! In One of Our Asteroids is Missing, independent miner John Storm discovers an impossible asteroid rich with fabulously valuable metals and minerals, only to find his claim stolen, along with all computer records indicating that he had ever existed! Never before reprinted since their original appearances and with a new introduction by the author, these three novels of science fiction adventure blaze back onto the scene, revealing early masterworks of one of the genre’s most gifted and celebrated storytellers!

Lost Race of Mars — (1960) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Are the Old Martians really a lost race — just withered mummies lying in dark caves? Or are they still alive — somewhere on the red planet? Sally and Jim must find out. They must help their father discover if the Old Martians still exist. His life work as a scientist is at stake! But it’s not easy. They are only visitors to the Mars colony in this year 2017. And no one really wants them there.

Regan’s Planet — (1964) Publisher: In 1492, Colombus discovered America. In 1992 Claude Regan had to make it happen again! The US needed a shot in the arm as the twentieth century entered the last decade. And a World’s fair celebrating five hundred years of American civilisation might just do the trick. Regan was the trickiest, most ruthless promoter in the country. And the first thing he realized was that Earth wasn’t big enough to hold the kind of fair he wanted So he built a new world!
Conquerors from the Darkness — (1965) Publisher: A thousand years in the future, the earth has been conquered by an alien race and covered by a single sea. Dovirr Stargan, who is disgusted with the servility of his life on the floating city of Vythain, longs to become one of the Sea-Lords, who roam the sea as powerful protectors of the cities. Dovirr gets his wish, but the return of the alien race brings unexpected and critically dangerous crises to his new life as he learns the real, sometimes terrible, significance of power.

The Gate of Worlds — (1967) Publisher: In this alternate history novel, the Bubonic Plague sets the stage for a world where the West is powerless. After the Black Death has wiped out most of the European population, there is little defense against Turkish invasion and expansion, and by the 1980s, the major world powers are the Russians, the Turks, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Japanese. Dan Beauchamp, a young Englishman whose heart longs for fortune and adventure, travels to industrial Mexico and discovers that he has a lot to learn.

Across a Billion Years — (1969) Publisher: A brother’s “message cubes” to his twin sister relate the unusual adventures of the archaeological expedition he accompanies into space in the twenty-fourth century.

Three Survived — (1969) Publisher: Tom Rand, a practical engineer, and two other men are the only survivors of a spaceship explosion. Marooned on a hostile planet, they are being held captive by a group of “aliens.” Their one slim chance of survival is to reach a rescue beacon placed on the planet years before by men from Earth. Can the three survivors escape what seems like certain, immediate death? And if they do, can they make their way through a jungle filled with untold dangers and reach the beacon in time?

World’s Fair 1992 — (1970) Publisher: Bill Hastings was one in a million. He was the winner of a planet-wide contest, and the prize was a chance to spend a year working at the 1992 World’s Fair. For the young xenobiology student, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Fifty thousand miles above the Earth, a gigantic satellite moved in its elegant orbit. It would be Bill’s home for a year, and host to hundreds of thousands of visitors. The 1992 World’s Fair was to be an orbital extravaganza, and Bill Hastings thought that his dreams had come true. He had a lot to learn.
Lord of Darkness — (1983) Publisher: Set in the 17th century and based on a true-life historical figure, this novel is a swashbuckling tale of exotic lands, romance, and hair-raising adventures. Andrew Battell is a buccaneer on a British ship when he is taken prisoner by Portuguese pirates. Injured and ailing, Andrew is brought to the west coast of Africa where his only solace is Dona Teresa, a young woman who nurses him back to health. Once his health is restored, Andrew’s only hope to return home is to first serve his Portuguese masters, but it is a hope that dwindles as he is pulled further and further into the interior of the continent, into the land of the Jaqqa — the region’s most fierce and feared cannibal tribe — overseen by the powerful Lord of Darkness. Survival means becoming one with the Jaqqa; if he can endure their gruesome rites and initiations. Originally published in 1984, this story by a master of science fiction and fantasy demonstrates the timelessness of any great adventure and will provoke thought in a new audience on the determination to persevere at any cost.
Gilgamesh the King — (1984) Publisher: We’re used to hearing about the latest tell-all memoir from one of today’s sports figures, political insiders, or celebrity wannabes. But what if we discovered that one of history’s greatest heroes had written his life story? That’s the premise behind Robert Silverberg’s amazing novel Gilgamesh the King. The journey begins when six-year-old Gilgamesh’s father dies. As he grows to manhood and eventually ascends to the throne, he faces many challenges along the way: political intrigue, war, the burden of leadership. But none are as difficult as his intense internal struggles against loneliness and his own mortality. Weaving together historical data, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and his own fertile imagination, Silverberg creates a rich and compassionate portrait of a man who lived about 2500 B.C.
Tom O’Bedlam — (1985) Publisher: “I know more than Apollo. Fort oft when he lies sleeping I behold the starts at mortal wars And the wounded wekin weeping.” –Tom O’ Bedlam’s song. Tom, like the medieval Tom O’Bedlam, can’t decipher the meaning of the images plaguing his mind. Much like the wondering and mad Tom of the medieval ballad, the Tom O’ Bedlam of 2103 doesn’t know what to make of the images that keep cluttering his mind. To preserve the last shred of his sanity and keep these never-ending wonders a secret, he feigns insanity. But then a probe that has traveled over four light years away transmits the very pictures that have been haunting Tom’s dreams. In this post-industrial world on the verge of a total collapse, Tom has become humanity’s spokesperson to the distant planet that may be his world’s salvation.
To the Land of the Living — (1989) Publisher: Set in an Afterworld — where everyone who has ever lived reawakens when they die to live again and die again, seemingly for ever — this novel tells of the warrior-king Gilgamesh’s journey in search of a gateway to the land of the living. Based on the author’s novella “Gilgamesh in the Outback”.
The Mutant Season — (1989) With Karen Haber. Publisher: Starting in the 1400s, children with gold-colored eyes and strange abilities — telepathy, telekinesis, and the like — began to be born into the world. For centuries, these “mutants” kept themselves hidden for fear of persecution, but in the latter part of the 20th century, they found more and more acceptance among the rest of society. But now, in 2017, the murder of a prominent politician brings the “mutant” population into direct conflict with “normal” people, and the outcome will forever change the planet.
Letters from Atlantis — (1990) Publisher: It was a legendary island, a fantastic island. Atlantis. Or as its prince called it, Athilan. Roy had traveled through time with his partner, Lora, to find it — and now he was tantalizingly close to its shore. Time travel allowed Roy’s consciousness to enter the mind of the heir to Atlantis’ throne, and what he found disturbed him. Strange dreams. Impossibly futuristic inventions and machines. How could such an advanced city exist at this time? The rest of the world was, as Lora witnessed in her travels, a dark, barbaric land still thawing from the ice age. Roy had been preparing for the odd isolation of time travel, but nothing had prepared him for his final arrival on Atlantis — a shimmering city far beyond his imagination! Roy knew this island’s fate. According to legend, it would vanish into the sea. Roy also knew he had a limited amount of time to decipher the strange message in the Prince’s mind — visions of cataclysmic events, mysterious rites to a faraway star. If Roy was in an Atlantis unlike anything the researchers had predicted, then what were its secrets? And when would it be destroyed? 
The Face of the Waters — (1991) Publisher: Silverberg, winner of four Hugos and five Nebulas, presents a riveting tale of an epic voyage of survival in a hostile environment. On the watery world of Hydros, humans live on artificial islands and keep an uneasy peace with the native race of amphibians. When a group of humans angers their alien hosts, they are exiled — set adrift on the planet’s vast and violent sea.
Kingdoms of the Wall — (1992) Publisher: The village of Jespodar nestles in the foothills of a world-dominating mountain known to all as “The Wall.” Poilar Crookleg has grown up in Jespodar training hard and hoping that he will be chosen for the annual Pilgrimage, a group journey to the top of the mountain from which no pilgrim has ever returned both alive and sane. The pilgrims seek to replicate the legendary journey of a distant ancestor who scaled the mountain and, so the story goes, met with the gods. The Pilgrimage is a a life journey, an overwhelming challenge and a sacred honor and Poilar feels blessed when he is finally chosen to lead it. But not all is as it first seems. Along the journey lie hazards of all kinds, both vilently dangerous and seductively beguiling and to triumph in the climb is to confront a revelation so surprising and so disturbing that none, not even the smartest and best prepared, are likely to survive. What belief and what devotion leads so many to hope for such a challenging task and what will be the ultimate result of such dedication? Only The Wall itself can reveal the destiny for those who undertake the Pilgrimage.
Thebes of the Hundred Gates — (1992) Publisher: Edward Davis, a rookie of the Time Service, has already made several successful jumps to the past. Now he is given his most important mission. Two members of the Service have disappeared in ancient Egypt and Edward Davis’s assignment is to locate and rescue them. But is he ready for all that Egypt has to offer and for the surprising truths he discovers as he explores this ancient land of myths and mysteries — truths that jeopardize his own mission and return back to the future?
Hot Sky at Midnight — (1993) Publisher: Several decades into the future, the long series of corporate and government decisions has left the Eath in a state of disaster, almost uninhabitable. The icecaps have melted. The ozone layer is destroyed. A few areas are livable with the help of breathing masks and injections to protect the skin. The only true refuge, for all who can afford it, has become the near-space orbital colonies built and run by private companies and open only to those who are willing and able to pay. Valparaiso Nuevo is one of these colonies. Run by a shadowy dictator known only as the Generalissimo, it exists as a haven for hustlers, conspirators and people looking for an edge. Victor Farkas, operative of the megacorporation Kyocera-Merck Ltd., is blind but gifted with hypersensitive “blindsight.” He comes to Valparaiso Nuevo in search of a renegade geneticist of legendary skill. Back on Earth, Nick Rhodes, head of Samurai Industries, which attempts to breed humans that can thrive in the horrendous conditions on Earth, struggles with his conscience as he manipulates genetic structures and lives. Paul Carpenter works for a Japanese mega-corporation, seeking promotion and survival, but loses his job as a ship captain after a mutiny. As these men’s lives intersect with Jolanda — a talented sculptor, a passionate lover and a secret plotter — they find themselves embroiled in a scheme to take over Valparaiso Nuevo. Their goals may be individually motivated but the deadly combination of ambition, distrust, greed, stupidity, and lust leads toward a dramatic conclusion. In HOT SKY AT MIDNIGHT, a bleak picture of future Earth and a complex plot peopled with dark, rich characters, come together as one of Silverberg’s finer novels.
Starborne — (1995) Publisher: Is utopia a death sentence for mankind? Does living in a perfect world destroy all that makes us human? Fifty men and women, living prefect lives, decide to give it all up to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Equipped with enough genetic material to populate a new planet, these fifty set out to travel to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, with their only link to home a fragile telepathic bond between a blind crew member and her sister back home. Starborne is a thoughtful, introspective look by one of the Grand Masters of science fiction at what it means to be human and to live a life of meaning.
The Realm of Prester John — (1996) Publisher: The famous science fiction writer pieces together the life history of the myth of Prester John, the Christian potentate of the East, Emperor of Ethiopia… a romantic and fabulous tale ‘As exotic and complex as a mosaic in a Coptic chapel’ San Francisco Chronicle.
The Alien Years — (1998) Publisher: It Was The Worst of Times… Fifteen feet tall, the Entities land in cities across Earth. Ignoring humankind, they wall themselves in impenetrable enclaves, enslaving a few willing collaborators with their telepathic PUSH. Then they plunge humans into a new Dark Age without electricity, allowing us to live — but no longer as a dominant species. But a few refuse to submit to fate, including the Carmichael family, whose patriarch, an aging colonel devoted to resistance, will inspire a daring new generation of dissidents. United in spirit, these diverse rebels — an aging hippie, a cold-blooded Muslim assassin, a prodigal son, and a renegade hacker — will carry on the colonel’s legacy as they attempt to kill the mysterious Prime Entity and free the planet.
Shadow on the Stars — (2000) Publisher: A THRILLING ADVENTURE that ranges across time and space, pitting one man against a invading alien horde that threatens a colony world, and against a hidden conspiracy to conquer Earth. Blair Ewing must battle Klondi hordes, Sirian plotters, the forces of history, and the nature of time itself. It’s a lot to ask of one man — but supposing there were more than one? This classic early Silverberg novel folds an exploration of time-travel paradoxes into the story of one man’s fight to save two worlds at once.

The Longest Way Home — (2002) Publisher: One of the most renowned and respected literary artists in the field of science fiction, Robert Silverberg transports us once again to a spectacular, deftly conceived world in transition — and propels us on a remarkable odyssey of survival and self-discovery. The Longest Way Home. The Folk were first to arrive on this faraway planet, pushing aside the docile, intelligent aboriginal races they encountered. The ‘Masters “followed to subjugate the careless, complacent fellow humans who preceded them here. And so it has remained for ages... Fifteen-year-old Joseph Master Keilloran has known only privilege, respect, and civility. Born to take over the reins of House Keilloran when he comes of age, he awakens one night in the Great House of distant relatives to the thunder of battle — a terrifying din that has not been heard on this peaceful world since the original Conquest. All around him are devastation and death, as the local Folk rise up to wreak vengeance on the unsuspecting, unprepared Masters. With the aid of a stillfaithful servant, Joseph barely escapes with his life. But now he is stranded and alone 10,000 miles from his home.Damned by his birth and class — surrounded by enemies who would kill him if they found him — Joseph must now embark on a journey of unimaginable distance toward a home that may also already be in ruins. His odyssey will be more terrible — and more wondrous — than he ever imagined, as a world he was kept sheltered from comes alive before him. Venturing deep into the lives and cultures of remarkable Indigene peoples — driven to hunt, scratch, and scheme for his survival — a resourceful young Master mill be created anew as he is forced to reassess his homeworld and his place in it. Despite what is waiting for him at the finish, nothing here will ever be the same again. And Joseph will become a man before his long journey ends.
Roma Eterna — (2003) Publisher: No power on Earth can resist the might of Imperial Rome, so it has been and so it ever shall be. Through brute force, terror, and sheer indomitable will, her armies have enslaved a world. From the reign of Maximilianus the Great in A.U.C. 1203 onward through the ages — into a new era of scientific advancement and astounding technologies — countless upstarts and enemies arise, only to be ground into the dust beneath the merciless Roman bootheels. But one people who suffer and endure throughout the many centuries of oppressive rule dream of the glorious day that is coming — when the heavens themselves will be opened to them… and the ships they are preparing in secret will carry them on their “Great Exodus” to the stars.
When We Went to See the End of the World — (2012) Publisher: Before The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, brought apocalyptic fiction into the mainstream, there was science fiction. No longer relegated to the fringes of literature, this explosive collection of the world’s best apocalyptic writers brings the inventors of alien invasions, devastating meteors, doomsday scenarios, and all-out nuclear war back to the bookstores with a bang.The best writers of the early 1900s were the first to flood New York with tidal waves, destroy Illinois with alien invaders, paralyze Washington with meteors, and lay waste to the Midwest with nuclear fallout. Now collected for the first time ever in one apocalyptic volume are those early doomsday writers and their contemporaries, including Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Robert Sheckley, Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Nolan, Poul Anderson, Fredric Brown, Lester del Rey, and more. Relive these childhood classics or discover them here for the first time. Each story details the eerie political, social, and environmental destruction of our world.
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