Reviews for A Robert Silverberg omnibus

The average rating for A Robert Silverberg omnibus based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-04-24 00:00:00 John Morris I'm a huge SF geekasaurus fairly prolific reader of science fiction and yet I was very surprised to learn that this classic tale was the #2 vote getter (behind only Isaac Asimov's Nightfall) when the Science Fiction Writers of America compiled their list of the Best SF short stories written before 1965. Of course, once I read this strange and wonderful story, my bulging eyes receded and I quickly lost the slack in my jaw because Stanley G Weinbaum penned a masterpiece when he wrote this tale in 1934. A true timeless classic. As the title implies, this story is a journey of wanderings and discoveries across a beautifully conceived Martian landscape including marvelous interactions with the unique (and for the time ground-breaking) alien inhabitants of this most impressive world. It is a quest story, an odyssey. Written in 1934 and set early in the 21st century, the plot concerns a four man crew making the first landing on Mars. Dick Jarvis, the ship's chemist, becomes trapped 800 miles away from the landing site when his transport breaks down while exploring the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet. Jarvis is forced to begin walking back the 800 miles to reach his colleagues……..and thus begins one of the most unique, imaginative and memorable journeys in all of science fiction. Jarvis's journey across the Martian landscape is, in a word, WONDROUS. The prose has such a lyrical, poetic quality to it that a true sense of "elsewhere" is created in the mind of the reader. I am a big fan of that. While on his odyssey, Jarvis encounters several "indigenous" and intelligent life forms. One of these aliens, Tweel, accompanies Jarvis on his trip back as the two new friends try their best to learn about the other despite the difficulty of having no common language or shared history. I don't want to give anything else away specifics of the journey so let me just say that A LOT happens before the end and all of it is worth experiencing. As a bonus, the last sentence of the story is an absolute TEN and changes the whole complexion of the tale, which I thought was very funny. From a historical perspective, this story was extremely influential as it is marks the first time that an alien is used as something more than a simple "one dimensional" plot device. Weinbaum's aliens are shown to have their own reasons for existing (not easily understood by the humans as they do not share a common history or frame of reference). These inhabitants of Mars are neither human-like nor inferior to humans, they are simply different. In fact, Tweel is widely considered the first character to satisfy the famous challenge of John W. Campbell: "Write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man." Weinbaum did that, and all of the talented SF writers who have created such memorable and well drawn alien cultures owe a debt to Mr. Weinbaum for showing the way. 5.0 to 5.5 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-07-22 00:00:00 Gerarda Garcia Tralasciando la parte centrale in cui Stanley G. Weinbaum cade un po' nel ripetitivo, i suoi racconti sono freschi, dinamici, nuovi. Forse la ripetitività è dovuta al fatto che le sue pubblicazioni avvenivano tramite riviste sci-fi dell'epoca, quindi doveva ricorrere alla stessa "formula vincente" per accattivarsi il consenso del pubblico. Nonostante alcune strutture in quelle storie vengano ripetute, non mancano elementi di originalità. Un vero peccato che questo autore non sia vissuto più a lungo. Un'odissea marziana ~ ★★★★½ La valle dei sogni ~ ★★★★★ I mondi del Se... ~ ★★★ L'ideale ~ ★★★½ La luna pazza ~ ★★★ Il pianeta dei parassiti ~ ★★★½ Il pianeta del dubbio ~ ★★★★ La Peri Rossa ~ ★★★½ Il mutare delle correnti ~ ★★★★ Adattabilità ~ ★★★★½