cover image The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Four: Trips, 1972–1973

The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Four: Trips, 1972–1973

Robert Silverberg, . . Subterranean, $35 (411pp) ISBN 978-1-59606-212-2

Grand Master Silverberg (Roma Eterna ) is one of science fiction's finest short story writers, and this superb volume shows him at his best. In the masterful novella “Born with the Dead,” Jorge Klein cannot accept that his recently resurrected wife no longer loves him, preferring the company of other “deads.” “Schwartz Between the Galaxies” introduces a near-future anthropologist who lectures on the destruction of indigenous human cultures while daydreaming of interstellar travel. In “The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV” an alien approaches secular Jew Shimon, speaks to him in fluent Hebrew and claims to be possessed by the soul of Shimon's departed friend. Thought-provoking and deeply ironic, these stories and the others in this volume are as powerful today as they were when they first saw print. (June)