Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

SciFi Summer

Hot enough for you? I’m counting on the heat still being a predominant if subliminal influence this first week of August. As I often do this time of year, I find myself reaching for science fiction for my reading matter. Whether I get to the beach or not, I find SF and fantasy somehow cooling, even if demanding at times. Surely there are those of you who will shake your heads and wonder why I would waste my time with nonsense like this, and so, as a life-long apologist, you might say, for the field of imaginative literature, I will try to explain.

In one name, there is Robert Silverberg, a very successful writer of the stuff and yet fairly invisible to the mainstream reading public. He has written nearly 100 books; mostly under his own name but well over a dozen under pseudonyms (Alexander Blade, Calvin Knox, etc.), and as of the late 1960s and early ’70s, the one man probably more responsible for fixing science fiction firmly into the foundations of the very best of, say, post-post modern American literature. I last wrote of him here two years ago, I think, and quoted the novel of his I had been reading at the time, Hot Sky at Midnight, and for very similar reasons: I was inspired by summer heat, turned to science fiction (a joy of many youthful summers), and asked myself, ‘What will not waste my time?’ The answer is, very quickly, Silverberg.

Looking around my shelf (the stuff not in storage), I see that I have four of his books. Here is Roma Eterna, a series of novellas and novelettes originally published in magazines like Asimov’s that are a kind of outline of history of a fictional Roman Empire that never fell. The book spans 2000 years and comprises ten stories, a series of narratives that taken together form a record of an alternate history. One, among several remarkable aspects of this timeline, is a pivotal non-event: the Hebrews never leave Egypt. No Moses, no Diaspora, no Jesus, no Christianity. To say the resulting history is interesting says nothing; it is quietly profound. Mohammed is there, right where he should be, as Mahmud, but not for long. He is a minor irritant to the Romans and is dealt with by a gay, ex-patriot Hero of the Empire in a story by that title.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I have here his best-selling, award-winning first volume of a fantasy series, Lord Valentine’s Castle, which I have not read due to my resistance to epic fantasy of this sort. Of what sort? There is no sort of anything as sophisticated and consistently literate as Silverberg’s fiction (think Roth, Bellow, Updike, and Burgess — I’m sure Burgess must have read him and loved him); and so I keep it, and I may start it today by setting aside this Julian Barnes novel, Arthur & George. It’s far too hot for 19th-century England right now.

Next to Valentine is the space opera Star of Gypsies, in which the King of Rom, that is, the Gypsies, pilots a galactic quest to return all children of Rom to their home star. If this does not sound ostensibly like deliciously rotten pulp, I don’t know what does; but this character, this character...

“We Rom have always loved gold. In the old days our women used to festoon themselves with gaudy masses of gold coins, threading them on golden chains and letting them dangle down over their lovely, jiggling bosoms like so much braided garlic. You practically needed a hacksaw to get through the gold to their breasts.... And we men — oh, what tricks we played with our gold back there in Hungary and Romania and all those other forgotten places of lost Earth! The roll of gold napoleons wrapped up in a handkerchief and stuffed into your pants to make a bulge, so you’d look like you were hung like an elephant!”

I am looking forward to “traversing mysterious kingdoms and blasted landscapes, braving ghosts and monstrous apparitions” when I begin Kingdoms of the Wall, a highly ambitious looking tome even for Silverberg. I am confident this 1992 novel will see me through the dog days ahead.

In my own SF novel, Empire’s Horizon, I included — with his permission — Silverberg’s name to a list of writers who are remembered thousands of years in the future. Two others are Saint Exupéry and Shakespeare. This may seem a little excessive: Saint Exupéry is there in keeping with the novel’s imagery and atmosphere and Shakespeare and Silverberg for the joy of language.

Why spend this space in what appears to be blatant promotion of a relative? The answer would be in a previous column, in a kind of mission statement: I said something to the effect that I am hardly Mister Friday Night and more of the kind of guy one would ask, “What should I read over the weekend?” And while I have no intention of recommending books on anything like a weekly basis, I think, after this first week of August, I would be remiss if I did not at least point you toward Robert Silverberg.

I will probably read both Lord Valentine’s Castle and Kingdoms before the summer is out; and while I rarely go on single-author binges, here is an August-indicated exception. One need not ration out Silverberg titles to oneself (I do this with Graham Greene, for example), as he has been extremely prolific for decades while sacrificing no quality. My ticker, liver, and/or lungs will give out before Silverberg’s gifts are exhausted.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Marcos Harvest Fest, The Distinct Modernism of San Diego

Events October 13-October 16, 2024
Next Article

San Diego Reader Best of 2024

A world-class museum, best drinking, best eating, best shops, ups and downs of Del Cerro, parent-friendly playgrounds, peaceful, eaze-y feeling

Hot enough for you? I’m counting on the heat still being a predominant if subliminal influence this first week of August. As I often do this time of year, I find myself reaching for science fiction for my reading matter. Whether I get to the beach or not, I find SF and fantasy somehow cooling, even if demanding at times. Surely there are those of you who will shake your heads and wonder why I would waste my time with nonsense like this, and so, as a life-long apologist, you might say, for the field of imaginative literature, I will try to explain.

In one name, there is Robert Silverberg, a very successful writer of the stuff and yet fairly invisible to the mainstream reading public. He has written nearly 100 books; mostly under his own name but well over a dozen under pseudonyms (Alexander Blade, Calvin Knox, etc.), and as of the late 1960s and early ’70s, the one man probably more responsible for fixing science fiction firmly into the foundations of the very best of, say, post-post modern American literature. I last wrote of him here two years ago, I think, and quoted the novel of his I had been reading at the time, Hot Sky at Midnight, and for very similar reasons: I was inspired by summer heat, turned to science fiction (a joy of many youthful summers), and asked myself, ‘What will not waste my time?’ The answer is, very quickly, Silverberg.

Looking around my shelf (the stuff not in storage), I see that I have four of his books. Here is Roma Eterna, a series of novellas and novelettes originally published in magazines like Asimov’s that are a kind of outline of history of a fictional Roman Empire that never fell. The book spans 2000 years and comprises ten stories, a series of narratives that taken together form a record of an alternate history. One, among several remarkable aspects of this timeline, is a pivotal non-event: the Hebrews never leave Egypt. No Moses, no Diaspora, no Jesus, no Christianity. To say the resulting history is interesting says nothing; it is quietly profound. Mohammed is there, right where he should be, as Mahmud, but not for long. He is a minor irritant to the Romans and is dealt with by a gay, ex-patriot Hero of the Empire in a story by that title.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I have here his best-selling, award-winning first volume of a fantasy series, Lord Valentine’s Castle, which I have not read due to my resistance to epic fantasy of this sort. Of what sort? There is no sort of anything as sophisticated and consistently literate as Silverberg’s fiction (think Roth, Bellow, Updike, and Burgess — I’m sure Burgess must have read him and loved him); and so I keep it, and I may start it today by setting aside this Julian Barnes novel, Arthur & George. It’s far too hot for 19th-century England right now.

Next to Valentine is the space opera Star of Gypsies, in which the King of Rom, that is, the Gypsies, pilots a galactic quest to return all children of Rom to their home star. If this does not sound ostensibly like deliciously rotten pulp, I don’t know what does; but this character, this character...

“We Rom have always loved gold. In the old days our women used to festoon themselves with gaudy masses of gold coins, threading them on golden chains and letting them dangle down over their lovely, jiggling bosoms like so much braided garlic. You practically needed a hacksaw to get through the gold to their breasts.... And we men — oh, what tricks we played with our gold back there in Hungary and Romania and all those other forgotten places of lost Earth! The roll of gold napoleons wrapped up in a handkerchief and stuffed into your pants to make a bulge, so you’d look like you were hung like an elephant!”

I am looking forward to “traversing mysterious kingdoms and blasted landscapes, braving ghosts and monstrous apparitions” when I begin Kingdoms of the Wall, a highly ambitious looking tome even for Silverberg. I am confident this 1992 novel will see me through the dog days ahead.

In my own SF novel, Empire’s Horizon, I included — with his permission — Silverberg’s name to a list of writers who are remembered thousands of years in the future. Two others are Saint Exupéry and Shakespeare. This may seem a little excessive: Saint Exupéry is there in keeping with the novel’s imagery and atmosphere and Shakespeare and Silverberg for the joy of language.

Why spend this space in what appears to be blatant promotion of a relative? The answer would be in a previous column, in a kind of mission statement: I said something to the effect that I am hardly Mister Friday Night and more of the kind of guy one would ask, “What should I read over the weekend?” And while I have no intention of recommending books on anything like a weekly basis, I think, after this first week of August, I would be remiss if I did not at least point you toward Robert Silverberg.

I will probably read both Lord Valentine’s Castle and Kingdoms before the summer is out; and while I rarely go on single-author binges, here is an August-indicated exception. One need not ration out Silverberg titles to oneself (I do this with Graham Greene, for example), as he has been extremely prolific for decades while sacrificing no quality. My ticker, liver, and/or lungs will give out before Silverberg’s gifts are exhausted.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Clikatat Ikatowi returns to the Casbah for October 8 show

Venue saw the band’s last performance over a quarter century ago
Next Article

Experience Hendrix, Falling Doves, Peter Sprague, Sandi King, Clikatat Ikatowi

Tributes, listening parties, and screenings in Kensington, Carlsbad, La Mesa, Little Italy, and downtown
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader