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The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg #8
Hot Times in Magma City, 1990-95
The stories in this volume were written between July of 1990 and March of 1995--the second half of the fifth decade of my career as a science-fiction writer. I don't think I could have imagined, when I began that career in the early 1950s, that science-fiction publishing would evolve the way it did over the next forty years.
Here, then, is the cream of the Silverberg output, 1990-95. I suppose I wrote more short stories in the first six months of 1957 than in that entire six-year period; but so be it. It's a different world today. I look back nostalgically on the small-town atmosphere of the era in which I began my career, and there are times when I'd be glad to 'call back yesterday, bid time return.' As Shakespeare pointed out, though, that can't be done. The one recourse is the one I have chosen, which is to soldier staunchly onward through the years, come what may, writing a story or two here and a book there, while the world changes out of all recognition around me. And so--to leap neatly from the Bard of Avon to F. Scott Fitzgerald--'so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.'
--Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction
Here, then, is the cream of the Silverberg output, 1990-95. I suppose I wrote more short stories in the first six months of 1957 than in that entire six-year period; but so be it. It's a different world today. I look back nostalgically on the small-town atmosphere of the era in which I began my career, and there are times when I'd be glad to 'call back yesterday, bid time return.' As Shakespeare pointed out, though, that can't be done. The one recourse is the one I have chosen, which is to soldier staunchly onward through the years, come what may, writing a story or two here and a book there, while the world changes out of all recognition around me. And so--to leap neatly from the Bard of Avon to F. Scott Fitzgerald--'so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.'
--Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction
408 pages, Hardcover
First published August 31, 2013
11 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
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Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 26, 2022
As he notes in the introduction to this book, the stories contained in this collection are ones from the second half of Robert Silverberg’s fifth decade as a science fiction author. By this point in his career his output has slowed, with the fourteen stories he published over the five years covered in this volume fewer in number than what he produced in a single year at the start of his career. Yet the stories themselves are from a master of his craft. Though fewer in quantity they are generally superior in quality, and have a more relaxed pacing and measured development of the plot and the characters in them.
As I read them, however, I was struck most by how for all of their diverse settings and premises they shared a perspective shaped by age. The protagonists in these stories are often mature and accomplished individuals in the later stages of their lives. These men and women are then presented with an opportunity or a situation that requires them to make a life-defining choice. Those who play it safe – as in “Hunters in the Forest” and “It Comes and Goes” – soon regret their decision, while those who take risks and embrace change – as do the ones in “In the Clone Zone,” “A Long Night’s Vigil at the Temple,” and “The Red Blaze is the Morning” – are rewarded for it. Even when the person taking the risk faces consequences for doing so – as the protagonist does in “Crossing into the Empire” – the possibility remains at the end for a better outcome. Through it all, the common theme of hope stands out: hope for the best, and the possibility of good things that can come from embracing it. It’s an outlook that often seems lacking in science fiction lately, and seeing it in so many of the stories in this collection made me realize that it’s one of the primary reasons why I enjoy Silverberg’s work.
As I read them, however, I was struck most by how for all of their diverse settings and premises they shared a perspective shaped by age. The protagonists in these stories are often mature and accomplished individuals in the later stages of their lives. These men and women are then presented with an opportunity or a situation that requires them to make a life-defining choice. Those who play it safe – as in “Hunters in the Forest” and “It Comes and Goes” – soon regret their decision, while those who take risks and embrace change – as do the ones in “In the Clone Zone,” “A Long Night’s Vigil at the Temple,” and “The Red Blaze is the Morning” – are rewarded for it. Even when the person taking the risk faces consequences for doing so – as the protagonist does in “Crossing into the Empire” – the possibility remains at the end for a better outcome. Through it all, the common theme of hope stands out: hope for the best, and the possibility of good things that can come from embracing it. It’s an outlook that often seems lacking in science fiction lately, and seeing it in so many of the stories in this collection made me realize that it’s one of the primary reasons why I enjoy Silverberg’s work.
June 22, 2020
This volume in the continuing series from Subterranean Press collects Robert Silverberg stories from 1990-1995. ‘Hot Times In Magma City’ opens with a general introduction in which the author fondly reminisces about the good old days when he started out writing Science Fiction. This is followed by thirteen stories, each blessed with another introduction explaining the circumstances in which they were written. It’s a nice mix of long and short fiction but as the long are generally more interesting, having more content and more space for the development of character and theme and I will deal with those first.
‘A Long Night’s Vigil At The Temple’ is about a Pope who is led to question the basis of his life’s work and religion. He’s not called the Pope, he’s called the Warder and his post is hereditary in a religion with three principal deities. These were aliens who reputedly saved Earth in its time of crisis then ascended to the stars but will return one day in glory. The religion is now thousands of years old and steeped in ancient traditions. Silverberg’s allegory is not subtle but he is sympathetic to his main character and the moral dilemma he faces. A lesser writer would have had the usual cheap shots at religion.
In ’Thebes Of The Hundred Gates’, the author takes the view, as in many other of his time travel stories, that if temporal relocation is possible at all there will be a few chaps from the future scattered through history. In some yarns, they are practically tripping over each other but, in this one, there are only three involved. As Silverberg’s non-fiction includes several books on archaeology, you can rest assured that the ancient Egyptian setting is authentically rendered but the ending may disappoint.
Alternative history is now a legitimate branch of Science Fiction and one to which Silverberg, with his aforementioned archaeological interests, is clearly drawn. Another yarn set in the past is ‘Looking For The Fountain’, narrated by Francisco de Ortega in old age. He accompanied Don Juan Ponce de Leon on his famous hunt for the fountain, whose benefits were not apparently youth itself but rather youthful vigour for men when bedtime came. The alternative bit is that the Spaniards encounter a tribe of Christian natives keen to free Jerusalem from the yoke of the Mohammedans. The story draws you in nicely but ends, to my mind, weakly. One of the shorter stories here, ‘The Red Blaze Is The Morning’, is actually set in an archaeological dig and is about a revered professional getting older and finding his work more of a struggle than he could ever have dreamed in his youth. He has an interesting liaison with another being, one so strange that he thinks he’s going mad.
Silverberg has done a few yarns set in an Earth conquered by aliens, so superior to us they treat us with absolute contempt. Sometimes they just go about their business and ignore us completely, swatting us like flies if we get in their way. Such is the case with the Spooks in ‘The Way To Spook City’. Early in the 21st century, they took over a large swathe of the USA and set up a border around it that can be crossed with some discomfort. Young men often enter the alien lands as a rite of passage and most return. Tom Demeris did not, so his older brother goes looking for him. There’s a lot of colourful scenery and some intriguing developments before the end.
The story that gives the book its title, ‘Hot Times In Magma City’, concludes the collection. Unusually for an author who often gives us far out stuff it is almost ‘tomorrow fiction’ being concerned with volcanic activity in the Los Angeles area. Our heroes are a bunch of people doing Citizens Service by acting as an emergency response team when there is a new lava eruption. Another writer or Hollywood would have shown the impact of the disaster on a nuclear family of mom, pop and two naughty but adorable children. Silverberg focuses on a bunch of alcoholics, drug addicts, drop-outs and others in recovery trying to get their lives back together with community service. Quite touching and probably the best thing in the book.
Shorter tales include ‘In The Clone Zone’, about the cloning of humans. What type of man would be keen to be cloned and able to order it done? Why a ruthless South American dictator, obviously. Silverberg delivers an interesting twist to the moral issues that cloning may generate. He takes it for granted that once it’s possible to clone men then someone will do it, regardless of international law. We may soon find out. ‘Hunters In The Forest’ is a yarn in which rich time travellers go back to look at dinosaurs and a man chooses between a safe future and one of daring bravery. It’s very clever and expertly done with a great ending. ‘It Comes And Goes’ is a downbeat fantasy about a house that vanishes and reappears mysteriously. A weak story for a writer of Silverberg’s calibre but ‘Playboy’ paid him for it.
As the notes make clear, Silverberg seldom seems to have much fun with his writing but there are exceptions. One such is ‘The Martian Invasion Journal Of Henry James’, in which that famed author is visiting H.G. Wells when the Martians land on Horsell Common. Some exciting adventures follow and the first person narrative, from James’ lost notebook, is expertly done in the style of the time. I also enjoyed ‘The Second Shield’ in which a man whose dreams create real but temporary objects is harassed by a bullying billionaire. This had a clever ending which showed that the author can still do great plots.
Robert Silverberg is the editor of an excellent anthology ‘Worlds Of Wonder’, which features thirteen classic science fiction stories and a long autobiographical introduction in which he tells us how he became a writer. He says that in fiction ‘a dramatic situation is proposed, displayed and resolved. The resolution, by demonstrating a return to the natural harmony of the universe, sends the audience home cleansed and calm – purged, as Aristotle said – of pity and fear. The introduction to ‘Worlds Of Wonder’ is probably the best thing a budding writer could read but Silverberg seems, on occasion, to have forgotten his own advice in later years or perhaps outgrown it. His mature writings are influenced not by pulp fiction authors featured in Science Fiction mags but by the literary greats, particularly Joseph Conrad. A few of these stories seem to me to have weak endings, which means a weak plot. Of course, plot isn’t everything and is considered almost unnecessary in some literary circles. In genre fiction, however, we still like it.
To be fair, I think I was spoiled by the last anthology I read, ‘We Are For The Dark: 1987-90: Volume Seven’, which was awesome. This collection is simply every story he wrote over a five year period. There are bound to be a few damp squibs in the output of any prolific author but there’s enough quality Silverberg here to make it worthwhile. The good stuff is concentrated in the second half of the book, so don’t be put off at the start.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
‘A Long Night’s Vigil At The Temple’ is about a Pope who is led to question the basis of his life’s work and religion. He’s not called the Pope, he’s called the Warder and his post is hereditary in a religion with three principal deities. These were aliens who reputedly saved Earth in its time of crisis then ascended to the stars but will return one day in glory. The religion is now thousands of years old and steeped in ancient traditions. Silverberg’s allegory is not subtle but he is sympathetic to his main character and the moral dilemma he faces. A lesser writer would have had the usual cheap shots at religion.
In ’Thebes Of The Hundred Gates’, the author takes the view, as in many other of his time travel stories, that if temporal relocation is possible at all there will be a few chaps from the future scattered through history. In some yarns, they are practically tripping over each other but, in this one, there are only three involved. As Silverberg’s non-fiction includes several books on archaeology, you can rest assured that the ancient Egyptian setting is authentically rendered but the ending may disappoint.
Alternative history is now a legitimate branch of Science Fiction and one to which Silverberg, with his aforementioned archaeological interests, is clearly drawn. Another yarn set in the past is ‘Looking For The Fountain’, narrated by Francisco de Ortega in old age. He accompanied Don Juan Ponce de Leon on his famous hunt for the fountain, whose benefits were not apparently youth itself but rather youthful vigour for men when bedtime came. The alternative bit is that the Spaniards encounter a tribe of Christian natives keen to free Jerusalem from the yoke of the Mohammedans. The story draws you in nicely but ends, to my mind, weakly. One of the shorter stories here, ‘The Red Blaze Is The Morning’, is actually set in an archaeological dig and is about a revered professional getting older and finding his work more of a struggle than he could ever have dreamed in his youth. He has an interesting liaison with another being, one so strange that he thinks he’s going mad.
Silverberg has done a few yarns set in an Earth conquered by aliens, so superior to us they treat us with absolute contempt. Sometimes they just go about their business and ignore us completely, swatting us like flies if we get in their way. Such is the case with the Spooks in ‘The Way To Spook City’. Early in the 21st century, they took over a large swathe of the USA and set up a border around it that can be crossed with some discomfort. Young men often enter the alien lands as a rite of passage and most return. Tom Demeris did not, so his older brother goes looking for him. There’s a lot of colourful scenery and some intriguing developments before the end.
The story that gives the book its title, ‘Hot Times In Magma City’, concludes the collection. Unusually for an author who often gives us far out stuff it is almost ‘tomorrow fiction’ being concerned with volcanic activity in the Los Angeles area. Our heroes are a bunch of people doing Citizens Service by acting as an emergency response team when there is a new lava eruption. Another writer or Hollywood would have shown the impact of the disaster on a nuclear family of mom, pop and two naughty but adorable children. Silverberg focuses on a bunch of alcoholics, drug addicts, drop-outs and others in recovery trying to get their lives back together with community service. Quite touching and probably the best thing in the book.
Shorter tales include ‘In The Clone Zone’, about the cloning of humans. What type of man would be keen to be cloned and able to order it done? Why a ruthless South American dictator, obviously. Silverberg delivers an interesting twist to the moral issues that cloning may generate. He takes it for granted that once it’s possible to clone men then someone will do it, regardless of international law. We may soon find out. ‘Hunters In The Forest’ is a yarn in which rich time travellers go back to look at dinosaurs and a man chooses between a safe future and one of daring bravery. It’s very clever and expertly done with a great ending. ‘It Comes And Goes’ is a downbeat fantasy about a house that vanishes and reappears mysteriously. A weak story for a writer of Silverberg’s calibre but ‘Playboy’ paid him for it.
As the notes make clear, Silverberg seldom seems to have much fun with his writing but there are exceptions. One such is ‘The Martian Invasion Journal Of Henry James’, in which that famed author is visiting H.G. Wells when the Martians land on Horsell Common. Some exciting adventures follow and the first person narrative, from James’ lost notebook, is expertly done in the style of the time. I also enjoyed ‘The Second Shield’ in which a man whose dreams create real but temporary objects is harassed by a bullying billionaire. This had a clever ending which showed that the author can still do great plots.
Robert Silverberg is the editor of an excellent anthology ‘Worlds Of Wonder’, which features thirteen classic science fiction stories and a long autobiographical introduction in which he tells us how he became a writer. He says that in fiction ‘a dramatic situation is proposed, displayed and resolved. The resolution, by demonstrating a return to the natural harmony of the universe, sends the audience home cleansed and calm – purged, as Aristotle said – of pity and fear. The introduction to ‘Worlds Of Wonder’ is probably the best thing a budding writer could read but Silverberg seems, on occasion, to have forgotten his own advice in later years or perhaps outgrown it. His mature writings are influenced not by pulp fiction authors featured in Science Fiction mags but by the literary greats, particularly Joseph Conrad. A few of these stories seem to me to have weak endings, which means a weak plot. Of course, plot isn’t everything and is considered almost unnecessary in some literary circles. In genre fiction, however, we still like it.
To be fair, I think I was spoiled by the last anthology I read, ‘We Are For The Dark: 1987-90: Volume Seven’, which was awesome. This collection is simply every story he wrote over a five year period. There are bound to be a few damp squibs in the output of any prolific author but there’s enough quality Silverberg here to make it worthwhile. The good stuff is concentrated in the second half of the book, so don’t be put off at the start.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
April 5, 2017
As always, Silverberg is worth reading. The title story is the L.A. disaster story that you've always wanted but Hollywood has never given you. But, really, why stop there?
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August 23, 2022This is the penultimate volume of the Collected Stories by Robert Silverberg, spanning the years from 1990 to 1995. I am reading those in order, and it is very nice to follow Silverberg's development as a writer - not just regarding his authorial skill but, thanks to his introduction to each of the stories, also his career biography, which in turn allows some fascinating glimpses into the market for SFF literature over the last few decades.
But the main point of interest here are of course still the stories; and at this point in his writing life Silverberg has reached a level where he probably could not write a boring story even if he tried to. None of the stories and novellas in Hot Times in Magma City may be among his best work, but they are consistently of very high quality, and always entertaining. And Silverberg seems to be himself aware of how good a writer he has become - there is a relaxed quality about everything in this collection, not exactly like he was resting on his laurels, but as if Silverberg was comfortably looking back on all his achievements and decided he could take things easy from here on. Which one really cannot complain about (after all, his acievements are considerable) and this laid-back attitude almost certainly contributes to how unfailingly enjoyable these stories are - but at the same time, they are lacking somewhat in urgency. Even as the characters in these stories struggle for their lives, one never feels that the narrative stakes are very high and the reader (this reader, anyway) while being hugely entertained also remains strangely unaffected.
Even so, like the previous seven volumes, Hot Times in Magma City has been a fun read, and I'll be tackling volume nine before too long.
But the main point of interest here are of course still the stories; and at this point in his writing life Silverberg has reached a level where he probably could not write a boring story even if he tried to. None of the stories and novellas in Hot Times in Magma City may be among his best work, but they are consistently of very high quality, and always entertaining. And Silverberg seems to be himself aware of how good a writer he has become - there is a relaxed quality about everything in this collection, not exactly like he was resting on his laurels, but as if Silverberg was comfortably looking back on all his achievements and decided he could take things easy from here on. Which one really cannot complain about (after all, his acievements are considerable) and this laid-back attitude almost certainly contributes to how unfailingly enjoyable these stories are - but at the same time, they are lacking somewhat in urgency. Even as the characters in these stories struggle for their lives, one never feels that the narrative stakes are very high and the reader (this reader, anyway) while being hugely entertained also remains strangely unaffected.
Even so, like the previous seven volumes, Hot Times in Magma City has been a fun read, and I'll be tackling volume nine before too long.
May 20, 2021
Another good volume from Silverberg of stories I hadn't encountered before, mostly because I didn't (and don't) read Playboy, Omni or Asimov's.
The real winner to me was "Hunters in the Forest," a terrific and energetic tale of time travel to the dinosaur era. How this one is not better known is a mystery to me.
"The Way to Spook City" was another powerful one, dealing with a guy trying to make sense of an alien culture that has come to earth. That and "A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple" were interesting in that they were about thinking instead of action.
"Thebes of One Hundred Gates" and "Crossing into the Empire" gave off splendid ideas like sparks from a Roman candle.
Glad I read this. Working through Silverberg's Collected Stories is a great project.
The real winner to me was "Hunters in the Forest," a terrific and energetic tale of time travel to the dinosaur era. How this one is not better known is a mystery to me.
"The Way to Spook City" was another powerful one, dealing with a guy trying to make sense of an alien culture that has come to earth. That and "A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple" were interesting in that they were about thinking instead of action.
"Thebes of One Hundred Gates" and "Crossing into the Empire" gave off splendid ideas like sparks from a Roman candle.
Glad I read this. Working through Silverberg's Collected Stories is a great project.
September 11, 2020
Silverberg, kao i obicno ponese sa svojim pricama.
Pogotovo:
Thebes of the Hundred gates
It comes and goes
The Red Blaze is the Morning
Death do us apart
Pogotovo:
Thebes of the Hundred gates
It comes and goes
The Red Blaze is the Morning
Death do us apart
September 4, 2025
Most of the stories were just not what I usually read. Bordering on fantasy or set in ancient times.
May 28, 2024
13 stories:
In the Clone Zone (1991)
Hunters in the Forest (1991)
A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple (1992)
Thebes of the Hundred Gates (1992)
It Comes and Goes (1992)
Looking for the Fountain (1992)
The Way to Spook City (1992)
The Red Blaze Is the Morning (1995)
Death Do Us Part (1996)
The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James (1996)
Crossing Into the Empire (1996)
The Second Shield (1995)
Hot Times in Magma City (1995)
In the Clone Zone (1991)
Hunters in the Forest (1991)
A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple (1992)
Thebes of the Hundred Gates (1992)
It Comes and Goes (1992)
Looking for the Fountain (1992)
The Way to Spook City (1992)
The Red Blaze Is the Morning (1995)
Death Do Us Part (1996)
The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James (1996)
Crossing Into the Empire (1996)
The Second Shield (1995)
Hot Times in Magma City (1995)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews