Hot Times in Magma City, 1990–95: The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 8

SFWA Grand Master Silverberg’s extensive retrospective continues with these stories written between July 1990 and March 1995, a period of decreased productivity in his career. Silverberg’s usual themes are present: classical history, archaeology, the nature of art, and the artist’s role in creation. Time travelers hunt big game in “Hunters in the Forest,” explore one ancient city in “Thebes of the Hundred Gates,” and borrow another in “Crossing into the Empire.” Silverberg pays homage to Tolkien’s masterful world-building with “A Long Night’s Vigil at the Temple” and to the imagination of H.G. Wells with the wry “The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James.” Immortals search for novelty in “Death Do Us Part,” and a clone maker forced to work for a dictator finally finds peace in “In the Clone Zone.” Dense with colorful settings, thoughtful characters, and Silverberg’s usual painstaking attention to detail, these stories reveal a master of the genre comfortable with what he does best. Agent: Chris Lotts, Lotts Agency. (Sept.)