Robert Silverberg – författare

A powerful novel about what happens when the magic leaves our lives.Imagine what it would be like if you could tell what the innermost thoughts and feelings of those around you were. Imagine if, as you reached middle age, you lost that ability. What would it do to you to be like everyone else?

Set in an immense world teeming with alien races and fantastic, almost magical, machinery, Valentine, an itinerant juggler, wakes up one morning with only a vague and troubled idea of who he is. He gradually discovers, through dreams and portents, that he is in fact his namesake: Lord Valentine, the Coronal, his body and throne stolen by a usurper.Across the giant world of Majipoor, Valentine sets out on a quest to win back his throne - and discover which of his enemies has the power to vanquish him so utterly from not just his throne, but his very life . . .

Rich new works by the very best known creators of fantasy fiction, each set in the special universe of the imagination that made that writer famous throughout the world.Terry Pratchett: Discworld: THE SEA AND LITTLE FISHES: Fruit, vegetables and deadly rivalry between witches.Anne McCaffrey: Pern: RUNNER OF PERN: A young Runner on her first journey, dreaming of dragons and glory.George R.R. Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire: THE HEDGE KNIGHT: A self-made knight, his honour, his horse, his squire, his luck.Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: THE BURNING MAN: Dragon’s blood and ancient hatreds on the Road of Dreams.Robert Jordan: Wheel of Time: NEW SPRING: Storm and battle in the shadow of the Blight… as the wheel turns.

From the most celebrated writers of modern fantasy fiction, the most fabulous worlds ever created. Eleven breathtaking new short novels, each set in the unique universe that brought its author world-wide acclaim, are here gathered together in one outstanding volume.Robin Hobb introduces us to another part of her Realm of the Elderlings in Homecoming.George R. R. Martin returns to an earlier era of the world of A Song of Ice and Fire to tell the tale of The Sworn Sword.The Yazoo Queen is a new story from Orson Scott Card’s world of the Tales of Alvin Maker.Diana Gabaldon gives us Lord John and the Succubus, a new Outlander tale.Robert Silverberg returns to the giant world of Majipoor for The Book of Changes.Tad Williams brings us a new tale from the Otherland: The Happiest Dead Boy in the World.Anne McCaffrey returns to Pern for Beyond Between.The Messenger, by Raymond E. Feist, is a new story from his ever-popular Riftwar.Elizabeth Hayden brings us Threshold, a fresh tale from The Symphony of Ages.With The Monarch of the Glen Neil Gaiman returns to the world of American Gods.Terry Brooks gives us Indomitable, a new Shannara story.

Rich new works by the very best-known creators of fantasy fiction, each set in the special universe of the imagination that made that writer famous throughout the world.Stephen King: The Dark Tower: THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA: Dark fantasy and icy realism, a visionary mix of magic and horror.Terry Goodkind: The Sword of Truth: DEBT OF BONES: Green fire and black magic rage between the First Wizard and Panis Rahl.Orson Scott Card: The Tales of Alvin Maker: GRINNING MAN: A step closer to the ultimate confrontation between Alvin and the Unmaker.Robert Silverberg: Majipoor: THE SEVENTH SHRINE: In the time of the most famous Pontifex of all, Lord Valentine.Ursula K. LeGuin: Earthsea: DRAGONFLY: A woman for the first time on the mage’s Isle of Roke.Raymond E. Feist: The Riftwar Saga: THE WOOD BOY: When the Kingdom had just been invaded by the Tsurani.Terry Pratchett: Discworld: THE SEA AND LITTLE FISHES: Fruit, vegetables and deadly rivalry between witches.Anne McCaffrey: Pern: RUNNER OF PERN: A young Runner on her first journey, dreaming of dragons and glory.George R.R. Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire: THE HEDGE KNIGHT: A self-made knight, his honour, his horse, his squire, his luck.Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: THE BURNING MAN: Dragon’s blood and ancient hatreds on the Road of Dreams.Robert Jordan: Wheel of Time: NEW SPRING: Storm and battle in the shadow of the Blight… as the wheel turns.

From one of the masters of SF comes this new collection of stories, all set on his most famous creation - the massive world of Majipoor.Spanning all of the world's history, these stories will illuminate and explore the remarkable setting that has enthralled so many over the years.Two of these stories were originally published in the Legends series of short story collections, and have been unavailable for some time.

In the twenty-first century, a battered world is ruled by a crafty old tyrant, Genghis II Mao IV Khan. The Khan is ninety-three years old, his life systems sustained by the skill of Mordecai Shadrach, a brilliant young surgeon whose chief function is to replace the Khan's worn-out organs. Within the vast tower-complex, the most advanced equipment is dedicated to three top-priority projects, each designed to keep the Khan immortal. Most sinister of these is Project Avatar, by which the Khan's mind and persona are to be transferred to a younger body.Shadrach makes the unsettling discovery that it is his body that is to be used. His friends beg him to flee, but he refuses to panic. Instead, and with startling composure, he evolves a dangerous plan that could change the face of the earth or, if it backfires, mean the end of life.Shadrach in the Furnace is at once a broad, sweeping novel and a harsh, abrasive, irreverent book about a life-and-death battle between two titans—one the epitome of evil, the other a paragon of idealism—in a society pushed to extremes.

As if history and nature had not provided wonders enough, through the ages humans themselves have contrived more marvels to deceive one another. Sometimes they have concocted evidence when none was available to prove pet theories; sometimes their intention has been to impress or defraud; sometimes they have acted merely for sport. Robert Silverberg tells the stories of a baker's dozen of these scientific hoaxers in a lively, good-humored book that ranges through time and across continents. Here are perpetual-motion machines and space rockets, men on the moon and serpents in the sea. The rogues' gallery is a varied one: Dr. Mesmer, who cast his hypnotic spell on eighteenth-century Paris; Charles Dawson, whose Piltdown Man challenged evolution; Dr. Cook, with his tale of "discovering" the North Pole; and many others. These are fascinating stories and more than just entertainment. The author explains the scientific background against which the hoaxes appeared and the detective work that led to their exposure. The schemers teach us to be alert, to challenge the evidence, and to appreciate the healthy skepticism that characterizes the scientific method.

The peaceable Pueblo Indians seemed an unlikely people to rise emphatically and successfully against the Spanish Empire. For eighty-two years the Pueblos had lived under Spanish domination in the northern part of present-day New Mexico. The Spanish administration had been led not by Coronado's earlier vision of god but by a desire to convert the Indians to Christianity and eke a living from the country north of Mexico. The situation made conflict inevitable, with devastating results. Robert Silverberg writes: "While the missionaries flogged and even hanged the Indians to save their souls, the civil authorities enslaved them, plundered the wealth of their cornfields, forced them to abide by incomprehensible Spanish laws." A long drought beginning in the 1660s and the accelerated raids of nomadic tribes contributed to the spontaneous revolt to the Pueblos in August 1680.How the Pueblos maintained their independence for a dozen years in plain view of the ambitious Spaniards and how they finally expelled the Spanish is the exciting story of The Pueblo Revolt. Robert Silverberg's descriptions yield a rich picture of the Pueblo culture.

In Illinois, the one-hundred-foot Cahokia Mound spreads impressively across sixteen acres, and as many as ten thousand more mounds dot the Ohio River Valley alone. The Mound Builders traces the speculation surrounding these monuments and the scientific excavations which uncovered the history and culture of the ancient Americans who built them.The mounds were constructed for religious and secular purposes some time between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., and they have prompted curiosity and speculation from very early times. European settlers found them evidence of some ancient and glorious people. Even as eminent an American as Thomas Jefferson joined the controversy, though his conclusions-that the mounds were actually cemeteries of ancient Indians-remained unpopular for nearly a century.Only in the late 19th century, as Smithsonian Institution investigators developed careful methodologies and reliable records, did the period of scientific investigation of the mounds and their builders begin. Silverberg follows these excavations and then recounts the story they revealed of the origins, development, and demise of the mound builder culture.

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced through the ghost towns that dot the western landscape to this day, from the camps of California’s forty-niners to the twentieth-century ruins in the Nevada desert. These abandoned towns mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gunslinging and hell-raising. Those who have seen the Old West movies sometimes think that the legends of the Wild West were invented by screenwriters. The ghost towns remain, and their battered ruins testify that the legends are true. Behind the tall tales is a history where a fortune could be made in a week and lost over the course of an evening.With a historian’s attention to fact and a novelist’s gift for dramatic storytelling, celebrated science fiction author Robert Silverberg brings these adventures back to life in the rowdy splendor of their heyday in Ghost Towns of the American West. History and travelers’ tales are woven together with clarity and wit to create a lively account of a fascinating era in our history. Lorence Bjorklund’s illustrations, rich in detail, portray the ghost towns in their glory and in their dusty decline.

One of the most persistent legends in the annals of New World exploration is that of the Land of Gold. This mythical site was located over vast areas of South America (and later, North America); the search for it drove some men mad with greed and, as often as not, to their untimely deaths.In this history of quest and adventure, Robert Silverberg traces the fate of Old World explorers lured westward by the myth of El Dorado. From the German conquistadores licensed by the Spanish king to operate out of Venezuela, to the journeys of Gonzalo Pizarro in the Amazon basin, and to the nearly miraculous voyage of Francisco Orellana to the mouth of the Amazon River, encountering the warlike women who gave the river its name, violence and bloodshed accompanied the determined adventurers. Sir Walter Raleigh and a host of other explorers spent small fortunes and many lives trying to locate Manoa, a city that was rumored to be El Dorado-City of Gold. Celebrated science fiction author Robert Silverberg recreates these legendary quests in The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado.

From the intense and brooding Magellan and the glamorous and dashing Sir Francis Drake; to Thomas Cavendish, who set off to plunder Spain’s American gold and the Dutch circumnavigators, whose numbers included pirates as well as explorers and merchants,  Robert Silverberg  captures the adventures and seafaring exploits of a bygone era.Over the course of a century, European circumnavigators in small ships charted the coast of the New World and explored the Pacific Ocean. Characterized by fierce nationalism, competitiveness, and bloodshed, The Longest Voyage: Circumnavigators in the Age of Discovery  captures the drama, danger, and personalities in the colorful story of the first voyages around the world. These accounts begin with Magellan’s unprecedented 1519–22 circumnavigation, providing an immediate, exciting, and intimate glimpse into that historic venture. The story includes frequent threats of mutiny; the nearly unendurable extremes of heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; the fear, tedium, and moments of despair; the discoveries of exotic new peoples and strange new lands; and, finally, Magellan’s own dramatic death during a fanatical attempt to convert native Philippine islanders to Christianity.Capturing the total context of political climate and historical change that made the Age of Discovery one of excitement and drama, Silverberg brings a motley crew of early ocean explorers vividly to life.