World's Fair 1992

Regan #2

by Robert Silverberg

Bill Hastings was one in a million. He was the winner of a planet-wide contest, and the prize was a chance to spend a year working at the 1992 World's Fair. For the young xenobiology student, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Fifty thousand miles above the Earth, a gigantic satellite moved in its elegant orbit. It would be Bill's home for a year, and host to hundreds of thousands of visitors. The 1992 World's Fair was to be an orbital extravaganza, and Bill Hastings thought that his dreams had come true. He had a lot to learn.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

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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.

Reviews

[Tom LA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clean, straight-forward and light-hearted science fiction fun. This would make such a great Spielberg movie. I loved how Silverberg unveiled some aspects of this fictional future world at exactly the right time.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

World's Fair, 1992 is a sequel to a novel that Silverberg wrote in 1963 called Regan's Planet, a humorous YA book that was published in 1964 to coincide with the New York World's Fair. It was set at the near-future World's Fair of 1992, which was to be held in outer space and to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus discovering America. Obviously, times have changed a lot since 1963, just as much as they have since 1968 when this sequel was written or 1970 when it appeared, and perceptions as to what and how things should be celebrated have changed, too. Like exhibiting Martians... (On the other hand, in the second half of this one, Bill Hastings goes to the planet Pluto, which is as it should be.) This is also a YA novel (though at the time it was of course called a "juvenile," just as the Heinlein, Norton, and so many others were), in which Bill wins an essay contest, and the prize is a year-long apprenticeship in orbit at the Fair, though he ends up with a far grander sequence of adventures. This one didn't have a mass market edition until a dozen years after the Follett hardbound version appeared for some reason, so of course some of the events and developments were out-of-date before the book was presented to a wide audience. It's a fun book, full of youthful enthusiasms and sense-of-wonder, without any real antagonist, but it's engaging and fun.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happened here? Silverberg hints at a brewing philosophical (and maybe even physical) conflict throughout the whole book, and it never happens.

The introduction describes “World’s Fair 1992” as a juvenile novel, which it is, but where is it written that a novel for young adults needs to be devoid of conflict?

This novel is almost identical to Arthur C. Clarke’s novel “Islands in the Sky”, where a young adult wins a contest to spend time on a space station. That’s about it.

Skip with extreme prejudice.

[Ted Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, old-fashioned space fiction. Minimal plot, plenty of gee-whiz. Huge lightweight fun.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: Against the night sky, the nearly completed World's Fair Satellite gleamed like a shiny new penny. You could see it even with low-powered field glasses as it moved in its stately orbit around the Earth: a giant copper-hued globe, the biggest space satellite ever constructed. The Fair's opening day--October 12, 1992--was only some six weeks away. And in very much less time than that, Bill Hastings was going to be up there to begin his year in space.

Premise/plot: Bill Hastings won an essay contest and his prize is a year in space. The year? 1992/1993. The job? He'll be an assistant working on the Mars Pavilion of the World's Fair. There are six or seven scientists--slightly different specialties--working there maintaining the exhibit. There are a handful of "Old Martians" on display. Some of the scientists are unhappy with the circumstances. But do the ends justify the means? Perhaps. (The ends being greater research opportunities. The means being "kidnapping" Martians from Mars and putting them on display for tourists to the World's Fair.) Hastings makes friends with the scientists. His essay topic was about possible life on Pluto.

My thoughts: If my summary seems odd, then there's a good reason. This book is a bit odd. The main conflict is one of ethics. Bill Hastings is observing other scientists wrestle with this dilemma. As they seek to colonize other planets. (And by colonize, I mean visit. I don't necessarily mean visit with the goal of setting up colonies....at least not right away). Perhaps I mean explore not colonize? (Colonization is such a loaded topic, a word with a lot of baggage--for better or worse. And this fair is celebrating Christopher Columbus "discovering" America and establishing colonies. So in part, I think there's a definite intention to address this topic. Hastings was not involved in any way with the decision to bring living Martians to the World's Fair to be exhibited. But he is involved when the powers-that-be decide to go to PLUTO and seek out "alien life" on Pluto to bring back to set up as an exhibit. And this is where the book, for me, starts to lose its way. The first half is a dull-ish read set on the World's Fair Satellite. There were conversations about Mars, Martians, science, etc. But essentially, dulls-ville. The second half is when Bill becomes a member of an exploring team on a mission to Pluto--the first manned mission to Pluto. The book ends soon after he returns. Bill has become disenchanted with the World's Fair by that point.

I think the setting and initial premise had potential. I'm not sure it works as a novel written from one point of view. I could see it working as a shorter novella or even short story. Or I could see it working as a collection of short stories set at the World's Fair Satellite--stories with many perspectives or points of view. I could see it working as a mystery or thriller. For example, if the "evil" billionaire genius was the focus of an assassination, or assassination attempt. Or maybe if it was about Bill Hastings discovering something horrible about the World's Fair and working to bring it to light.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Against the night sky, the nearly completed World's Fair Satellite gleamed like a shiny new penny."

Bill Hastings wins first place in an essay contest about the likelihood of finding more aliens on distant planets. His prize is the chance to travel to the 1992 World's Fair, which is being hosted on Claude Regan's low orbit man-made space station…

He is embedded with researchers at the Mars Pavillion studying the gnomish Old Martians that Regan abducted from their home world…

He strikes up a budding romance with teenage heiress Emily Blackman, but their fireworks get interrupted when scientists discover proof of Bill's theory about the evolution of silicone-based crystalline life forms…

Now Bill is aboard mankind's first nuclear starship to the planet Pluto as part of an expedition to discover if life really exists in its frozen methane oceans. If so, he must capture a few specimens and bring them back to save the financially strapped World's Fair…

By 1968, Robert Silverberg had leaped the divide between pulp-adventure juveniles and adult-oriented literary sci-fi with a pair of breakout novels, Thorns and To Open the Sky. However, he dipped back into the YA subgenre to pen this sequel to 1964's Regan's Planet.

Both books in the series are inspired by the works of Robert Heinlein. The first is, depending on your point of view, a loving homage to--or a shameless ripoff of--"The Man Who Sold the Moon". This sequel is more akin to Space Cadet, but it is still squarely aiming for the same juvenile market that Heinlein had outgrown a decade earlier.

This is not Silverberg's best work. It is not even his best juvenile. Fortunately, Silverberg (like his good friend Isaac Asimov) seems incapable of writing a bad book. He balances adventure with healthy dollops of scientific extrapolation:

Can we use constant acceleration to get a ship near light speed?

What different branches of xenobiology will develop if we discover extraterrestrial life in our solar system?

How can you defend a satellite from an Earth-bound terrorist attack?

Can life can be sustained near temperatures of absolute zero? If so, what would it look like?

4 stars

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/worlds-fair-1992-by-robert-silverberg/

A somewhat unexpected YA novel from Robert Silverberg, who I did not realise had written for that group of readers (but he has written so many books in many genres and sub-genres, and I should not have been surprised). It’s about our young hero who is brought to stay on the largest space station in history as a prize in an essay competition. it’s very reminiscent of Heinlein’s juveniles – there are intelligent but alien Martians, and an expedition to Pluto – but I was interested in the character of Claude Regan, the visionary billionaire who funds the space station and other projects; if the book had been written today, we’d see him as a portrayal of Elon Musk, and I wonder if Musk read this book (he’d have been 11 when it came out in 1982). Not spectacular, but an inter4esting snapshot of the time.

[Ben Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young adult scifi. But even for YA it's pretty bad. RS raises several possible moral dilemmas but then never pursues them. There's no antagonist. Several possible antagonists are introduced but then Silverberg never creates a true conflict. The majority of the book is exposition vs storytelling and the characters are flatter than cardboard.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

YA, lots of good science, fairly simplistic plot line, no one in any real danger, high school age hero.

[Harding Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claude Regan must have been a major inspiration for Elon Musk. Next stop? Pluto!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining 'juvenile' (although I would class it more as YA) science fiction novel. Bill is the winner of a high school essay contest for which the prize is to work for a year at the 1992 World's Fair in the Martian Pavilion. The Fair is being held this year on a space station 50,000 miles up from Earth. There are real Martians in the Pavilion. Bill's essay suggested there might be life on Pluto, and explained what that might look like. Bill wants to be a xenobiologist when he grows up.
Despite the fact that, as of 2008, there are no Space Station Worlds Fairs, live Martians, or anything resembling nuclear space ships, this is a very believable work. It was written in 1963, just following the moon landing, when just about everybody believed that these things would all come to pass in the near future (besides, maybe, the live Martians thing).
The plot is enjoyable and Bill is a quite relatable character, although he does seem more intelligent and mature than your average 17 year old. I found the ending to be slightly abrupt and just a tad bit disappointing, so I would really enjoy reading reading more about Bill and what happens next with both the Martians and the Plutonians.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when I was maybe 13 or 14 -- some 40 years ago. About a decade ago I wanted to find and reread it, but since I couldn't remember the title, only the author and general subject matter, it took me ages to find it. I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of the Heinlein juveniles - interestingly, Silverberg himself compares it to those books in his introduction. A very enjoyable read.

[Daniel Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the date in the title fool you. It's still future, maybe 2192 or 2292 would work.

Entertaining YA sci-fi. This book has remained in my personal library for over 30 years.