The Silent Invaders

by Robert Silverberg

Ace Double F-195, printed with "Battle on Venus" by William F. Temple

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

There are many authors in the database with this name.

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

[Sarah ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silent Invaders - Robert Silverberg


يتصارع عرقان فضائيان يقفان على جانبان مختلفين على الأرض وعلى البشر...

نوفيلا مسليِّة؛ كانت ستكون كوميكس مذهل، ممتعة جدًا ومسلية..

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silent Invaders, Robert Silverberg’s 1963 publication, is a very Poul Anderson kind of book.

First of all, this is a very early effort for the Grandmaster, being published when he was just 28. (Of course he published his first work when he was 19). Secondly, the theme of a secret agent operation that pits two sets of aliens on a futuristic earth would fit perfectly into Anderson’s Polesetonic series.

With the telepathic and gestalt theme this is also reminiscent of Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human.

Not one of his best but pretty good, and like so many gems from the 60s, it is a trim and neat short novel, weighing in at a welterweight 154 pages.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the 1977 Ace paperback edition I read of this novel was Silverberg's introduction. He describes how when shopping a paperback rack in Alamagordo, New Mexico, he happened upon a 1973 Ace printing of the same novel and honestly did not remember writing it. Once he started reading it he remembered it as a 1957 magazine novella that he expanded into half an Ace Double in 1962. It was that version Ace had reprinted without mentioning anything to the author. This was also the first time Silverberg's name had appeared on the story rather than that of one of his many pseudonyms of the 1950's. Silverberg spruced the book up a bit more and added the introduction for the 1977 reprint I read.

This is an alien invasion story that takes place on an overcrowded, 26th century Earth. The first landing parties of two rival species, disguised as humans, are establishing their footholds on the planet to prepare us for a coming intergalactic war. The only human characters tend to be either helitaxi pilots or hotel concierges. Many of them might be robots.

This is more of a cold war spy novel than space adventure, and our main character, a Daruuiian, undergoes a crisis when he encounters his arch enemies the Medlins and learns that he may be fighting for the wrong side. There is also a new breed of super humans in the works, a genetically advanced subspecies that could be the real hope of the universe.

I was not convinced by the Daruuiian's easy conversion to the other side, nor do I trust genetically advanced subspecies to the extent these alien races do. At the end of the novel I felt that another shoe was bound to drop but it didn't. No real complaints. There is something to be said for wrapping things up in 150 pages. Also the 1977 PB I read still had both cardboard advertising inserts. One for Kent Gold Lights (Only 8mg of tar!), and the other the order form for the science fiction book club. I always wanted to join as a kid and my parents wouldn't let me. I still enjoyed choosing my four books for a dime plus shipping and handling.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silent Invaders is an allegorical Cold War-era spy novel, set in the 26th century, with disguised alien races using Earth as their battleground. It's a fast-paced simple adventure, quite entertaining. I recall reading and enjoying it pretty much in a single sitting. It first appeared as a novella published under the pseudonym of Calvin M. Knox (wonder what the "M" stood for?) in the October 1958 issue of Infinity Science Fiction magazine (edited by Larry Shaw, the man who purchased Harlan Ellison's first story), where it was the featured cover story with a nifty Ed Emshwiller painting. Silverberg expanded it to novel length for Donald A. Wolheim a few years later and it was printed under his own name as half of an Ace Double (with another Emshwiller cover!) backed with Battle on Venus by William F. Temple, which I've not yet read. It has the societal conceits common to sf of the '50s, but if you can consider it in context, it's a fine, fast, fun read

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. You know, I didn’t hate this short novel, but it’s a waste of my time to keep reading it.

This story about an alien disguising himself as a human comes across as a crime novel or spy story thinly disguised as SF. It’s pointless.

Our hero gets roped into some plot involving humans who are mutating to a become… better humans? Stronger, faster, smarter etc. I didn’t get to the part where this phenomena is explained.

Seems like the idea of human beings spontaneously mutating to a higher form was very popular in the 50s and early 60s (this book is from 1963).

There’s not a lot going on in the plot or the writing in The Silent Invaders. Silverberg was very prolific at that time. This just feels like it was slapped together to meet an obligation. Pass on this book.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a weird little book. Well, no, it's pretty much exactly what one would expect of run-of-the-mill late-60s/early-70s SF, earlyish Silverberg. I picked this up in a stack of $1 paperbacks and enjoyed it until I got to the end with 50ish pages left and discovered a short story after. "Oh...is that it?"

It's not bad! It's...fine? More a novella than anything. Could easily be expanded or not expanded. Conceptually interesting. Characterization a little weak. Regardless, couldn't put it down.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was serialized and presented weekly by the StarShip Sofa Podcast. The narration was well done by Thomas Pipkin. The Silent Invaders was an interesting short science fiction story by a young Robert Silverberg published in 1963. In the book two groups of disguised-as-human alien races threaten, plot against, and sometimes use odd weapons on each other on a future earth (described as a green ball by the aliens as they approached (hee hee!)). Early 1960s science fiction tropes abound. It was a fun listen.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You can stand there and tell me that I'm falling in love with a lot of fake female flesh lathered over a scrawny and repulsive Medlin body? Hah!"

Two vaguely humanoid alien races--the Darruui and the Medlin-- send undercover operatives disguised as humans to Earth to persuade us to enter a galactic conflict. This pulp adventure story focuses on two agents who would normally be arch-enemies but find themselves strongly attracted to each other in their new human bodies.

The author weaves a compelling, at times oddly personal melodrama amidst what would normally be a rather trite sci-fi backdrop.

There is an interesting twist involving the future of human evolution. The Medlin are protecting a group of mutants and their children in the belief that Earth is about to give rise to a new super-race of telepaths. The Darruui are not a fan of this strategy:

"Supermen represent super-dangers. The universe was a precarious enough place as it was, without standing by complacently while new races came into being. Those that existed now were well enough balanced, strength for strength, in an uneasy but oddly comforting stalemate. Only madmen would allow for an X factor to enter the situation -- and only very deranged madmen indeed would actually help bring the X factor about."
 
This plot point provides the protagonists with higher stakes than a simple tale of star-crossed love. However, it was hardly innovative even in 1958. It had been used by Arthur C. Clarke in Childhood's End and Isaac Asimov in Foundation and Empire, and maybe Heinlein as well.

This novel was published in 1963. It is an expansion of a 1958 short story (the original story is still currently in print in the collection Hunt the Space-Witch!)

The author's changes are minimal, mostly just expanding passages for the purposes of characterization. Examples include the Darruui agent Abner Harris née Aar Khiilom reminiscing about the vineyards and wine festivals back on his home world (Chapter 5) and his telepathic connection to the Medlin provocateur Beth Baldwin (Chapter 9). There is also an extended finale that emphasizes the bittersweet choice Abner is forced to make.

The author's lively introduction, originally written for a 1976 reissue edition, provides some commentary and context about the writing process.

[Rob Archer · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the first science fiction novels I ever read as a kid. I recently found an early edition paperback in a used bookstore that's going out of business and bought it for a few cents. It's as pulpy as I remember it.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Those of us who know way too much about science fiction literature know Robert Silverberg as one of its most literary authors thanks for poignant portrayals of middle age like in *Dying Inside* or captivating explorations of extraterrestrial life like in *Downward to the Earth*, and if you've only read from the main Silverberg canon (which is from 1968-1973, I believe?), it might be hard to imagine that at one point he was just a pulp writer who wrote things that didn't exactly push any boundaries. In fact, *The Silent Invaders* seems very happy existing within the boundaries of pulp SF, and I really don't have much nice to say about it even if it wasn't *bad* or disenjoyable at the end of the day. A bit of a weird experience, but... we'll cross those bridges when we come to 'em.

*The Silent Invader* is about an alien of the Darruui race who's been modified to look like a human and have human hormonal glands in order to infiltrate society and make sure that Earth, a formidable space-faring power in this future, picks the Darruui side in the upcoming conflict between the Darruui and their archenemies the Medlin. He infiltrates Earth as a "Major Harris," and on his first night in town wanders across a beautiful woman who he's not attracted to. They spend a nice night together but before it can move into the bedroom, he gets called by his Earth contact. He meets this contact - Carver - and is told that the Medlin infiltration of Earth is worse than he feared, and that there are already Medlins altered to be like humans, including none other than the woman he had a fancy dinner with. He confronts her and she paralyzes him and brings him to a location to meet with her, another converted Medlin, and a human man who supposedly represents a subset of superhumans who are evolving on Earth. She says that the Medlins want to protect these superhumans (whose genes are starting to percolate through family trees), and that they don't want the Darruui war to stop their growth. Harris agrees to murder his fellow Darruui and turns to tell Carver about what happened. But he's got his doubts, so when he's sent into the Medlin base to kill them all, he hesitates and after knocking everyone out convenes with a superwoman's unborn fetus ("The Voice") who represents humanity's future. It links Harris with his boss Carver and he sees hatred and bloodthirst there, and when it links Harris to the Medlin woman he sees peace and love and tranquility. He then gets back together with Carver, chickens out of killing him, but then goes back and finishes the job and settles down with the Medlin woman to help this future strand of humanity evolve as a traitor to Darrui? If you say so, Robert...

This book isn't bad or offensive, but it's nothing you've never read before, and the story from the 1977 reissue introduction (which I haven't seen since I read this in the debut 1963 Ace Double publication) says that Silverberg had completely forgotten writing this book when he picked up a reprint of it in 1973. That's pretty funny, and I can see why - this totally read like it was written for the pulps, without much elegance in the writing (although it is perfectly readable because, well, it's still Silverberg) or inventiveness. It's just.... there. The world is only thinly sketched, and the character sketches are thinly brushed at best; Major Harris' betrayal of his people does seem a bit sudden, although I suppose a psychedelic experience through the conduit of a fetus will do weird things to a guy), and no one else had any development. Like, usually you can rely on Silverberg to say really interesting thematic things based on the carefully structured ways that characters interact with each other, and there's just none of that here. There's not much in the way of themes either, believe it or not, unless you count "Good > Evil" as a theme...

This book doesn't just lack the usual character development or themes, though; it lacked pretty much anything in Silverberg's arsenal. It only had one scene which made me think of his other books (when the fetus does a mind-linking thing between Harris and the other Darruui; Silverberg does like to link minds). The plot seems like something out of a Philip K Dick novel, with the simultaneous infiltrations of Earth and all that. But it lacks PKD's paranoia. That being said, this was probably similarly inspired by the Cold War, but in the schlockier way that the pulps were in need of. But I don't think this book's inspirations are worth too much decoding, so in conclusion...

I give this short novel (if not a flat out novella) a 5.5/10. It's not good. But I can't think of anything out be too pissy about, so.... Silverberg gets to squeak by on this one, I guess. My next read from him should be *The Man In The Maze*, which should be good, but we'll see what happens there. Stay tuned for those updates, and to hear my thoughts the next time I whip out an Ace Double. Thanks for reading so far, and here's wishing you the best of luck out there, especially if we really are caught in an intergalactic power struggle...

[Adam Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5 for 'The Silent Invaders' by Robert Silverberg

This book was going to be a 3/5 rating almost all of the way through, until the excellent, 5/5 final 25 pages. So I thought 4 / 5 was a fairer score, overall. This is one of Silverberg's shorter sci-fi novels; I believe it was originally a magazine novella from the early 60s that was expanded to novel format in the 70s. It was a swift read, partially due to the svelt 152-page length, but also partially due to Silverberg's very readable, smooth, almost Stephen King-like storytelling style.

A secret agent of one alien race arrives on Earth in human form, as Major Abner Harris, and bumps into a secret agent of a rival alien race, also in human form. The book tells the story of our MC's dawning realisation that the war with the rival race is primarily caused by his own people, and that the rival race is a decent, peace-loving people. The story also tells us what Abner does with this info, and what massive ramifications this info has on his own existence.

This book, for the most part, is an interesting and engrossing piece of 1960s sci-fi. Of course, most of the actual science sounds a little naive by today's standards, but it still reads well. The first two-thirds of the book suffers a few too many coincidences and uncharacteristic sudden changes of mind for certain characters, which allow the story to progress smoothly. These plot devices stand out like a sore thumb, and kinda take the reader out of the story briefly. Occasionally, some of the more philosophical sections, where Abner is considering his purpose, the war and the future, can feel a little like padding. For these reasons, the book was almost a 3/5 book.

Then, the final 25 / 30 pages offer a thrilling, logical and extremely well-told end to this story, building a grand and tense finale, with some emotional introspection by Abner, right at the end, when he makes his final choice about what to do. This last section drags the rest of the book up to a 4/5, the ending section is THAT good. Silverberg is yet to disappoint me, and this book is another good 'un.

Overall, an engrossing and often thrilling slice of 1960s sci-fi told in Silverberg's comfortable style.

4 / 5

[Tomyris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story. It was nice and sweet although Beth is very sexualized. There’s a subreddit that’s a collection of female characters written by male writers, one could take pictures of almost anywhere you see Beth because she is not realistic. No one would say ‘give me a minute to get dressed’ and come out in a ‘gauze like’ piece of clothing, with a gun in her hand expecting to fight. They’re relationship was not even a little romantic, but whatever right. No she’s literally the only female character and she’s only there to look like a ‘hot fighter’. You could literally change her character and it wouldn’t matter much. She attracted him to the medlins, so what, you’ll just have to find another way to attract him the rest of the story is still there and you could.

Other than that I enjoyed the story very much. I don’t usually read sci-fi so good start.

[B Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abner Harris is a member of an elite squad in his part of the universe and is sent to earth in disguise to stop their enemy from taking over Earth before his species can. What follows is a struggle of self, loyalty, and fighting against what Abner had always known as new information about his enemies is shown to him and he realizes they may not be the scourge on the universe he had always been taught.

More of a “who dun it” mixed with “are we the baddies” disguised as sci fi, but a easy quick read and enjoyable.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good science fiction story by one of the living giants of the genre, Robert Silverberg, born in 1935 ( in Brooklyn). A novella really, one of two stories in an ACE Double paperback, from 1963. This is the story of Abner Harris' mission to Earth. In the guise of a human, he must find enemies who are similarly disguised as humans. What is their purpose on Earth--and how can they be stopped?

[Sven-marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a several years ago since I last read it, but I remember liking it a lot. Not a spectacular story, but it's easy to read and has a feel of both pulp and juvenile SF. Pretty original that the protagonist is an extra-terrestrial. Overall thrilling with a few twists, like many good SF stories. Bear in mind that this is an early Robert Silverberg, arguably far from his later works when it comes to complexity.

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spy from one warring alien race pretends to switch sides to the enemy, before realizing he's been blinded by his world's propaganda and that he really is on the wrong side. But can he turn traitor? A fun romp, probably bashed out quickly, but there's no shame in that.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing much going on here, just an old pulp sci-fi short story expanded into a novel years after the original. A story ostensibly about propaganda, it shows its age in its depiction of the one female character but is an overall fun enough tale taken as a product of its time.

[Matthew McGhie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some typos, unfortunately, but overall a good story and a good message

[Aaron Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. Basically an extended attempt to turn the main character from a true believer into something else

[Adam Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early pulp-era Silverberg where an alien spy and double agent suffers from repeated performance anxiety.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Silverberg. Light, fast read. This edition (1977) has an intro by the author explaining how he had totally forgotten about this novel, originally released as an Ace Double in 1963.

[Derik Boonstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10.

It was good for what it was, a short sci-fi novel. The introduction by Silverberg was fascinating and brought an interesting perspective to the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it at first and the relationship with Beth. The superhuman angle was a bit odd to me and wish more was done with Beth instead. Overall it was a fun and enjoyable read. I just wish it was longer and more flushed out, but that’s not what this novel was made to be.

[Yev · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is very much a Cold War novella, even though it doesn't have anything to directly do with the Cold War. Two alien races are having a propaganda battle with each other to manipulate the media and politics of Earth so that Earth will join their side in the war. A lot of times the alien bit seems entirely irrelevant and is plainly seen as an artifice of the plot to provide a veneer of being sci-fi.

Takes place in 2520, though advancement has apparently been very uneven. The protagonist, one of the aliens, has to decide where he's loyalties truly life. It's all resolved in the end by a deus ex utero as the other race has actually been cultivating mutant humans to create a super race who will challenge the universe at a fundamental level and the aliens hope by helping that they will take pity on them and allow their race to survive once they come to dominance.

[Frank Taranto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Silverberg

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool, love Silverberg.