SF Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times (viii)
Posted in Robert Silverberg, Science Fiction, Ursula Le Guin at 12:00 on 25 October 2020
This week contribution to Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times started by Judith and taken up by Katrina.
This shelf is full of SF books by Robert Silverberg.
He is my second favourite SF writer. (Ursula le Guin is my favourite but due to the way my books are shelved hers are not to the fore.)
The photo is a crop of the one I featured on 16/8/20. As a result it’s a bit blurry.
There’s stuff here from Silverberg’s glory days; Thorns, Nightwings, The Man in the Maze – the one that persuaded me to persevere with SF when I was on the point of stopping reading in the genre – Tower of Glass, A Time of Changes – “My Name is Kinnall Darrival and I mean to tell you all about myself. Obscene! Obscene!” – Dying Inside. Then there’s the much later Kingdoms of the Wall (see my take on its first paragraph here.)
Looking at the photo I see the books aren’t quite shelved im my usual order system, probably due to them getting mixed up a bit in the house move – six and a half years ago now. Time flies.
Tags: A Time of Changes, Bookshelf Travelling, Bookshelf Travelling For Insane Times, Dying Inside, Kingdoms of the Wall, Nightwings, Robert Silverberg, Science Fiction, SF, The Man in the Maze, Thorns, Tower of Glass, Ursula K Le Guin, Ursula Le Guin
tracybham
26 October 2020 at 20:35
I read some books or short stories by Silverberg when I was younger (late 1960s or early 1970s I think) but too long ago to remember which ones. Would you recommend all the books you named here?
I enjoyed your post on beginning paragraphs.
jackdeighton
26 October 2020 at 20:49
tracybham,
It’s a long time since I read these but, yes, the ones I mentioned – along with “Son of Man” – are possibly Silverberg’s best. (“Kingdoms of the Wall” maybe less so; despite its opening paragraph.)
You could maybe add “Across a Billion Years” and “Downward to the Earth” to the list as well.
San
24 November 2020 at 19:52
> It’s a long time since I read these
Oh
> He is my second favourite SF writer
jackdeighton
24 November 2020 at 22:41
San,
Le Guin, Silverberg, Zelazny, Dick. Most SF writers since have come nowhere near to them, except for maybe Ian McDonald.