Book of Silverberg

Dust jacket illustration by Tomasz Maronski

For nearly sixty years, Grandmaster Robert Silverberg has been a significant presence in the world of science fiction. As prolific as he is gifted, Silverberg has amassed a body of work unique both in its richness and its variety. That work has influenced generations of other writers and has enriched the lives of untold numbers of devoted readers.

In The Book of Silverberg, editors Gardner Dozois and William Schafer have assembled a tribute anthology fully worthy of the Master himself. The book begins with a pair of affectionate appreciations from Greg Bear and Barry Malzberg, and continues with a series of wonderfully original stories that inhabit and extend some of Silverberg’s most memorable creations. In “In Old Pidruid,” the late Kage Baker turns to the world of Majipoor in a humorous and moving tale of rivalry and reconciliation. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Voyeuristic Tendencies” shows us the world of the 1972 novel Dying Inside from a wholly different perspective. Nancy Kress’s “Eaters” provides a bleak and harrowing conclusion to the classic short story “Sundance.” In “Silverberg, Satan, and Me or Where I Got the Idea for My Silverberg Story for This Anthology,” the incomparable Connie Willis offers what might be the only plausible explanation for the whole Silverberg phenomenon. And elsewhere in the anthology, some of today’s most notable writers—Mike Resnick, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear, James Patrick Kelly, and Tobias S. Buckell—ring equally brilliant changes on a number of Silverberg’s signature fictions.

Funny, tragic, provocative, intelligent and always richly imagined, the stories in The Book of Silverberg are all notable accomplishments in themselves. Together, they comprise an exhilarating—and altogether fitting—celebration of one of science fiction’s indisputable masters.

Limited: 250 numbered copies, bound in leather, signed by all contributors but Kage Baker
Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition

Table of Contents

• Greg Bear—A Tribute
• Barry Malzberg—An Appreciation
• Kage Baker—In Old Pidruid
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch—Voyeuristic Tendencies
• Mike Resnick—Bad News from the Vatican
• Caitlin R.Kiernan—The Jetsam of Disremembered Mechanics
• Connie Willis—Silverberg, Satan, and Me…
• Elizabeth Bear—The Hand is Quicker
• Nancy Kress—Eaters
• James Patrick Kelly—The Chimp of the Popes
• Tobias S. Buckell—Ambassador to the Dinosaurs

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“In this provocative collection, a dozen authors pay homage to Robert Silverberg, one of the giants of the science fiction field… these stories stand on their own, with no prior knowledge of the source material required. This is a real treat for any science fiction reader, and especially for Silverberg’s many fans.”

From Library Journal:

“Standouts include Connie Willis’s adorably weird ‘Silverberg, Satan, and Me or Where I Got the Idea for My Silverberg Story for this Anthology’ and Elizabeth Bear’s bleak future of false facades ‘The Hand is Quicker.’ …These stories will resonate most with readers familiar with Silverberg’s work, often being playful riffs on his famous stories or novels, but the tales can be enjoyed on their own merits as well.”

From Locus:

“It opens with a contribution from the late Kage Baker: ‘In Old Pidruid’, set on Majipoor. I always thought Baker’s very enjoyable fantasy The Anvil of the World owed a fair amount to Silverberg’s Majipoor stories (and of course in turn to Jack Vance’s Big Planet ), so she seems a natural for this setting, and she doesn’t disappoint, with a story of competing Entertainments (parade floats, sort of), particularly one operated by a young woman named Palmene and her eccentric brothers. There’s romance, of course, and false dealing, and local color, and aliens…fun stuff.

“That’s the opening story. The closer is Tobias Buckell’s ‘Ambassador to the Dinosaurs’,  sequel to ‘Our Lady of the Sauropods’, here featuring a somewhat resentful reconstructed Neanderthal woman pushed to dealing with the intelligent, telepathic, and rather violent dinosaurs who have also been reconstructed, then banished to a space station. This is strong, smart stuff as well.”