Sailing to Byzantium [Paperback]

I read "Sailing to Byzantium" about six months ago. I saw a reference to it the other day and I was surprised how vividly some of the stories still stuck out in my mind. Sadly, I have read little of Silverberg's work, but this book definitely made me want to dig out more of his novellas and short stories.

The two that stuck out the most admittedly were those with ties closest to my interests: ancient history and invertebrate zoology. The novella for which the book was named, "Sailing to Byzantium", sets the stage for what becomes a selection of wildly different and surprising stories. In "Sailing to Byzantium", Silverberg does a surprisingly good job of meshing ancient history and culture clash with classic science fiction concepts and plot twists. "Homefaring", on the other hand, lays out most of the plot surprises right off and spends a great deal of time exploring the implications of the setting: a civilization of intelligent lobsters. Aside from minor evolutionary-morphological quibbles, the story was a wondrously bizarre surprise. The other three stories were equally as deft in mixing plot and setting, but possibly through my own prejudices, they don't stick nearly as well in my brain.

Silverberg discusses in his introduction that he enjoys working in the novella format and it really shows. In all five stories, Silverberg really gets the chance to sit down and enjoy the worlds that he's working in. Each have their own impressively creative spark that really make you wonder how one can come up with such ideas.

If you're looking for good, classic science fiction, then Silverberg's work is one that you should definitely pick up. If you want a good example of what the genre has evolved from in the last twenty or thirty years, it is still well worht reading. Either way, I think anyone looking to broaden their field of science fiction reading should try this book.

Charles Phillips, the 1980's New Yorker, finds himself on the 50th century Earth. But not 50th in our sense. The continents have changed their locations, so have the star constellations. Only five cities in the world are allowed to exist at the same time. Great cities of history are constantly demolished and re-created by robots. The technology has reached the level of magic. Everything is an illusion; history is reconstructed for the amusement of the small 4 million androgynous population of Earth. They are the tourists. They do whatever they want to please themselves. Death is not a factor in these people's lives. But how did Charles come to be? And who is this perfect Girl, Gioia, he is travelling with from City to City, from party to party?

"Sailing to Byzantium" is a poem by Yeats. It depicts a journey to Constantinople. Through this journey, the travellers thoughts and musings on how immortality, art, and the human spirit may converge, are explored. The plot's elderly humans are thin and frail. But there is this short-timer -- due to some genetic deviation -- a Girl named Gioia, slender-bodied, with dark and glossy eyes, wide mouth, and olive-colored skin, who ages, who is on constant move. She is a firecracker because she knows that there will be no time for him to consume. Silverberg has taken the Yeats poem to study aging and love. Only here it is the Charles who is not aging. Her belowed one, Gioia, need to learn how to sing and separate his soul from his body. But the fate of the singer is never confirmed. Her soul may never reach into eternity. At the end, they sail to Byzantium to find out.

Five (5) stars. Written in 1984, the novella won Nebula Award for Best Novella in the following year. The poem, a spiritual sailing, asks questions about what we leave behind and what we could do, if we had the choice and the means to overcome transience: the soul must sing louder than any fiber in oneself. How is Silverberg -- an elder statesman of the science fiction -- able to capture these philosophical journeys again and again? We ask, and read with great satisfaction.

"Sailing to Byzantium" gathers together five of Robert Silverberg's most accomplished novellas, accompanied by introductions describing their conception. There is not a weak story in the collection; in fact, each is so compelling that the reader will find himself chafing against the boundaries of the novella format, repeatedly asking, Why didn't Silverberg devlep this topic more? Why couldn't I see more of this character? The inclusion of the introductions allows the reader to attempt the disturbing task of reconciling Silverberg's beautiful, poetic writing with his prosaic and sometimes downright mercenary explanations of how a story came into being.

Fans of Silverberg's work should purchase this attractive (the cover features a very nice painting) anthology; fans of SF and fantasy unacquainted with his work should remedy this oversight, and this collection is a good place to start.