Sun 2 Jul 2017
SF Stories I’m Reading: ROBERT SILVERBERG “Passengers.”
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[6] Comments
ROBERT SILVERBERG “Passengers.” First appeared in Orbit 4, edited by Damon Knight (Putnam, hardcover, 1968; Berkley, paperback, August 1969). First collected in in The Cube Root of Uncertainty (Macmillan, hardcover, 1970) and in Moonferns and Starsongs (Ballantine, paperback, June 1971). Reprinted elsewhere many times.
At some time in the near future, “near” in the relatively speaking sense, since this story first appeared in 1968 but takes place in 1987, aliens have landed on Earth, and I mean aliens. No one has seen them, no one knows what they want, but whenever they want, they take over a human being’s body and do what they want with it for as long as they want. And when they leave, the person they have ridden with does not remember anything about the trip.
Except for maybe this time. A man named Charles wakes up after haven been ridden for three days, and this time he remembers that he was with a girl, a girl named Helen. What’s more by some freak of luck, he meets her. Helen, that is. Does she remember him? No. But Charles is attracted to her, and he persists.
It was no freak of luck. The aliens, whoever they are, like to play games, and sometimes their games are mean.
It is difficult to say how it is possible for a story that could have been novel length to be compressed in the space of only 18 pages, but with spare prose, minimal exposition, a heap of fatalism, and best of all, a wryly tragic ending, that is exactly what Robert Silverberg does with this tale.
The story was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1970, and won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1969.
July 2nd, 2017 at 6:53 am
This excellent story is from Silverberg’s best period. For around 12 or so years, 1965-1976 approximately, he wrote some of his best fiction. He had a great agreement with Fred Pohl of GALAXY that everything he submitted would be accepted providing it was his best work. This arrangement continued even after Pohl left. This story did not appear in GALAXY but is representative of the work he was doing at the time.
July 2nd, 2017 at 2:20 pm
I’m working my way through the MOONFERNS & STARSONGS paperback published by Ballantine in 1971, so while not a “Best of” per se, it does include a number of excellent stories from the period you mention. Besides “Passengers,” for example, it also includes “Nightwings,” a story from 1968 which may be even better. It won a Hugo for Best Novella in 1969 and was nominated for a Nebula.
July 2nd, 2017 at 7:08 pm
FYI: There’s a 9 volume “Collected Silverberg” on ebook at Amazon at $2.99/pop.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=collected+silverberg
No financial interest.
July 2nd, 2017 at 10:24 pm
I also have the Collected Silverberg set but in the hard cover edition. They are all in a uniform red color issued without dustjackets. Silverberg picked his best stories and each volume covers a specific time period. What I find most interesting are his extensive editorial notes to each story explaining and commenting on his work.
July 2nd, 2017 at 11:06 pm
An author’s comments on his stories are always worth the price of admission, as far as I’m concerned.
July 3rd, 2017 at 5:33 am
I have (and have read) that Silverberg ebook set of his collected stories. His intros are indeed worth the price of the books in and of themselves, though the stories (even at their weakest) are always worth reading.