A Son of the Rock

Atheneum, 1990, 144 p.

By means of a neural net Roy Colton’s senses have been sent back to 18,862 BC, a time when the last Ice Age is in the process of retreating. He inhabits the mind of Ramifon, the Crown Prince of Athilan (Atlantis,) in a glittering city lying beneath Mount Balamoris. The letters of the title are sent by Colton to his girlfriend Lora who has also been sent back and is similarly ensconced in an Athilantan official in Naz Glesim, somewhere in the wilds of Poland at the edge of the ice sheets. The pair never actually get together in the book, however, and are restricted to slow long range communication only.

To Colton’s surprise the Athilantans, as they are called, are technologically advanced, with steam engines and electricity, in marked contrast to the Dirt People (their phrase) who inhabit the rest of Earth. Yet through Colton’s filter, Silverberg endows his Athilantans with nobility and forbearance as his – and the King’s, shared with the Prince in the course of the book – knowledge of the impending tragedy still many years hence when Balamoris will explode and destroy Athilantan civilisation colours his perceptions.

The novel is clearly intended for a young adult readership. The absence of any sexual content – something of a staple of Silverberg’s work for adults – would have been enough to signal this even without the lucid explanatory nature of the prose. This and the book’s epistolary form mean we have only one point of view and one narrator. Sometimes that can be refreshing.

Silverberg is a master with this sort of material. He could probably knock it off in his sleep. The setting offers him the chance to describe Athilantan life and rituals in all its (to Colton) glory and magnificence, which he does with economy and ease. The most important ritual involves Romany Star, a sun of great significance to Athilan culture. Silverberg does, though, have Colton use the phrase “lay low” no less than three times. Oh dear.

Colton is, of course, supposed to keep his presence in the Prince’s mind from revealing itself but as the story goes on he finds this increasingly difficult. As this is the only source of conflict in the scenario this is perhaps just as well. Also, we never get to see the gritty side of Athilantan life as this is not really the purpose of Colton’s mental expedition. That might have been more interesting, but from what we do see the Athilantans seem rather a placid lot.

The importance of Romany Star (which is also prominent in Silverberg’s novel Star Of Gypsies) is the point at which credulity begins to be stretched. The suggestion of what will happen to the remnants of the Athilantans after they will flee their exploding island, though – whom they will become – is agreeably subtle as it is never made explicit but rather left to the reader to infer.

The book also contains some excellent illustrations by Robert Gould and the cover admirably conveys the impressions of Athilan and its serenity, as given in the book.

Not a major SF work by Silverberg, then, (there hasn’t really been one of those since his heyday in the late 60s and the 70s) but readable as ever, even though not primarily aimed at adults.