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The Edge of Space: 2
In Phyllis Gotlieb's Galactic Federation City, the crimson cats Khreng and Prandra consult the mysterious talking brains-in-a-bottle to help solve an outbreak of strange deaths. Read it in "The King's Dogs."
The hero of Glenn Chang's "In the Blood" is the youngest of his "father's" clones--and hence the one whose duty it is to investigate the old man's death.
Mark J. McGarry's protagonist in "Acts of Love" is engaged in a hunt for the source of a devastating intergalactic power that blew a hole through the Earth's crust at a place that used to be called Omaha.
Acclaimed science fiction writer and editor Robert Silverberg, who compiled this anthology, believes that it is in the novella that the sci-fi write is best able to develop both ideas and character. And in these haunting tales, three young authors demonstrate how their contrasting styles make the most of a common theme.
The hero of Glenn Chang's "In the Blood" is the youngest of his "father's" clones--and hence the one whose duty it is to investigate the old man's death.
Mark J. McGarry's protagonist in "Acts of Love" is engaged in a hunt for the source of a devastating intergalactic power that blew a hole through the Earth's crust at a place that used to be called Omaha.
Acclaimed science fiction writer and editor Robert Silverberg, who compiled this anthology, believes that it is in the novella that the sci-fi write is best able to develop both ideas and character. And in these haunting tales, three young authors demonstrate how their contrasting styles make the most of a common theme.
- GenresShort Stories
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 19, 1979
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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January 24, 2020
This collection contains three novellas. The first is by Phyllis Gotlieb (1926-2009), a well-regarded Canadian (Toronto) science fiction author. The novella, "The King's Dogs," is in her Star Cats series which is comprised of four novellas followed by two novels.
Unfortunately, "The King's Dogs" is the second novella. It's not impossible to jump right in here and figure out what is going on, but it's challenging. Gotlieb's writing style is already challenging enough on its own. I strongly recommend reading the first novella of the series before tackling this one. Twenty pages in, I realized too much was flying over my head. So I stopped and located a copy of the earlier novella, "Son of the Morning." After reading through that I then resumed my reading of "The King's Dogs."
"Son of the Morning" is easy to locate. A free copy can be had on Internet Archive. The story also saw print in the June 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and in Gotlieb's story collection, Son of the Morning and Other Stories (1983), which isn't expensive as a used book.
"Son of the Morning" was an extremely weird story. Two extraterrestrial beings who look like red leopards travel to Earth only to find themselves shunted off via time travel to nineteenth century Poland where they wind up involved in a pogrom and other domestic local Jewish politics. Odd as the story is, it serves as an important introduction to the same characters that start "The King's Dogs," which refers back to events that happened in "Son of the Morning". Again reading "Son of the Morning" is not crucial to being able to understand "The King's Dogs, "nevertheless it enriches the reading of the second story.
"The King's Dogs" turns into an odd story as well, though not as idiosyncratic as "Son of the Morning." This is because Gotlieb had to write "The King's Dogs" to fit into Silverberg's premise for his anthology, which was to combine a science fiction story with a murder mystery. Therefore, someone gets murdered, and it's up to our two intrepid protagonist red leopard-like aliens to figure out who, how, and why. In the meantime, Gotlieb is filling in the details of a future Earth called Sol Three and the Galactic Federation that governs it. This universe is peopled with very interesting aliens of all sorts of shapes, sizes, features, and cultures that intermix with our own protagonist alien couple.
Gotlieb is a top-notch writer. She explains none of this via long passages of narrative. Instead, you pick it all up through the eyes of the female, ESP-powered half of our alien protagonist couple as it happens. Gotlieb does not believe in babying her audience either. Her prose is realistic and maturely as well as smartly written. It's an incredible ride brought to us by an even more amazing imagination. Gotlieb is my new, favorite science fiction writer.
The next novella in Silverberg's anthology is "In the Blood" by Glenn Chang. I have read a Glenn Chang short story before, I just now recall, "Dancing in the Dark" from Chrysalis 9. In fact, I liked that story so much it prompted me to purchase this Silverberg anthology several years ago.
"In the Blood" was a good story, but not as strong as Chang's later-written "Dancing in the Dark." In keeping with Silverberg's premise it was a murder mystery. This time the person murdered was a scientist who had cloned himself at least three times. All three clones were very different people, both from each other, and also from their progenitor. Chang has long passages of info dump and narrative here that by "Dancing in the Dark" he had learned to eschew. This knocked the story down from four stars to three and a half for me. I can't go lower because the characters and plot really are appealing. It turns into an exciting, suspenseful mystery with a lot of science fiction elements including some interesting chemistry thrown in.
"Acts of Love" by Mark J. McGarry was a frustrating story I had to read twice in order to properly understand. The effort was worth the while though and I give this story four stars. It had some elements to it I've never seen in other science fiction stories. I will probably remember this details of this one the longest.
The biggest mistake McGarry made in this story was mixing the chronology all up. I wish my first reading had not been straight through as it was written. For my second reading, I read the story in internal chronology order, which then made it a great story. The first half, in other words the story line with the earlier events, was a much better story--maybe why McGarry chopped it up--because it was a love story that featured both of the major characters. The last half got overly descriptive and long. McGarry's wonderful ending saves it though.
The premise of the story is that Earth has been given a portal technology by aliens that allows us to go to other planets by using these portals. Earth has to pay a high price to use this technology though and there is a faction that believes traveling at near light speed is a preferable option. Another faction wants to take over use of the portals from the aliens by military force in order to avoid payments, especially after we run out of material by which to make the payments. The internal dynamics and politics of these factions, the sides the individuals in our couple find themselves, and the aspect of long-distance and time travel all maturely and realistically told make for a truly wonderful story.
Unfortunately, "The King's Dogs" is the second novella. It's not impossible to jump right in here and figure out what is going on, but it's challenging. Gotlieb's writing style is already challenging enough on its own. I strongly recommend reading the first novella of the series before tackling this one. Twenty pages in, I realized too much was flying over my head. So I stopped and located a copy of the earlier novella, "Son of the Morning." After reading through that I then resumed my reading of "The King's Dogs."
"Son of the Morning" is easy to locate. A free copy can be had on Internet Archive. The story also saw print in the June 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and in Gotlieb's story collection, Son of the Morning and Other Stories (1983), which isn't expensive as a used book.
"Son of the Morning" was an extremely weird story. Two extraterrestrial beings who look like red leopards travel to Earth only to find themselves shunted off via time travel to nineteenth century Poland where they wind up involved in a pogrom and other domestic local Jewish politics. Odd as the story is, it serves as an important introduction to the same characters that start "The King's Dogs," which refers back to events that happened in "Son of the Morning". Again reading "Son of the Morning" is not crucial to being able to understand "The King's Dogs, "nevertheless it enriches the reading of the second story.
"The King's Dogs" turns into an odd story as well, though not as idiosyncratic as "Son of the Morning." This is because Gotlieb had to write "The King's Dogs" to fit into Silverberg's premise for his anthology, which was to combine a science fiction story with a murder mystery. Therefore, someone gets murdered, and it's up to our two intrepid protagonist red leopard-like aliens to figure out who, how, and why. In the meantime, Gotlieb is filling in the details of a future Earth called Sol Three and the Galactic Federation that governs it. This universe is peopled with very interesting aliens of all sorts of shapes, sizes, features, and cultures that intermix with our own protagonist alien couple.
Gotlieb is a top-notch writer. She explains none of this via long passages of narrative. Instead, you pick it all up through the eyes of the female, ESP-powered half of our alien protagonist couple as it happens. Gotlieb does not believe in babying her audience either. Her prose is realistic and maturely as well as smartly written. It's an incredible ride brought to us by an even more amazing imagination. Gotlieb is my new, favorite science fiction writer.
The next novella in Silverberg's anthology is "In the Blood" by Glenn Chang. I have read a Glenn Chang short story before, I just now recall, "Dancing in the Dark" from Chrysalis 9. In fact, I liked that story so much it prompted me to purchase this Silverberg anthology several years ago.
"In the Blood" was a good story, but not as strong as Chang's later-written "Dancing in the Dark." In keeping with Silverberg's premise it was a murder mystery. This time the person murdered was a scientist who had cloned himself at least three times. All three clones were very different people, both from each other, and also from their progenitor. Chang has long passages of info dump and narrative here that by "Dancing in the Dark" he had learned to eschew. This knocked the story down from four stars to three and a half for me. I can't go lower because the characters and plot really are appealing. It turns into an exciting, suspenseful mystery with a lot of science fiction elements including some interesting chemistry thrown in.
"Acts of Love" by Mark J. McGarry was a frustrating story I had to read twice in order to properly understand. The effort was worth the while though and I give this story four stars. It had some elements to it I've never seen in other science fiction stories. I will probably remember this details of this one the longest.
The biggest mistake McGarry made in this story was mixing the chronology all up. I wish my first reading had not been straight through as it was written. For my second reading, I read the story in internal chronology order, which then made it a great story. The first half, in other words the story line with the earlier events, was a much better story--maybe why McGarry chopped it up--because it was a love story that featured both of the major characters. The last half got overly descriptive and long. McGarry's wonderful ending saves it though.
The premise of the story is that Earth has been given a portal technology by aliens that allows us to go to other planets by using these portals. Earth has to pay a high price to use this technology though and there is a faction that believes traveling at near light speed is a preferable option. Another faction wants to take over use of the portals from the aliens by military force in order to avoid payments, especially after we run out of material by which to make the payments. The internal dynamics and politics of these factions, the sides the individuals in our couple find themselves, and the aspect of long-distance and time travel all maturely and realistically told make for a truly wonderful story.
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