Feels relevant to comment here that somewhere I read that Silverberg considers the 1950s to be the Real Golden Age of Science Fiction. There was a wide breadth of book and magazine publications and in many quarters to explore serious themes and seek a mainstream audience. Anyway, cool review. I look forward to reading more of your stuff.
Yeah, I learned a lot about the SF publishing landscape in the mid-20th century from that Silverberg essay! I think it’s so interesting how writers have fought over titles like “Golden Age” or “New Wave.” I was just reading Harlan Ellison’s intro to a story collection from 1969 absolutely blasting people who use the label New Wave (and also even “science fiction”— Ellison prefers “speculative fiction” thanks very much, and only an idiot would call it “sci-fi”). Very entertaining.
I don't know how familiar you are with Silverberg's career, but his work up to about 1966 is generally considered his apprenticeship (or less kindly, his hackwork). This early work is facile but, by and large, not terribly significant; he didn't, for example, pick up a single Hugo or Nebula nomination during this period (not to suggest that popular awards necessarily correlate with quality, of course).
Starting with the publication of stories that went into the fix-up novel To Open the Sky (1967), Silverberg suddenly moved into a much more thoughtful and ambitious phase. The next decade saw him produce a much more substantial body of work, including novels such as Thorns (1967), The Masks of Time (1968), Nightwings (1969), A Time of Changes (1971), The Book of Skulls (1971), and Dying Inside (1972). This is Silverberg's golden period.
Feels relevant to comment here that somewhere I read that Silverberg considers the 1950s to be the Real Golden Age of Science Fiction. There was a wide breadth of book and magazine publications and in many quarters to explore serious themes and seek a mainstream audience. Anyway, cool review. I look forward to reading more of your stuff.
Yeah, I learned a lot about the SF publishing landscape in the mid-20th century from that Silverberg essay! I think it’s so interesting how writers have fought over titles like “Golden Age” or “New Wave.” I was just reading Harlan Ellison’s intro to a story collection from 1969 absolutely blasting people who use the label New Wave (and also even “science fiction”— Ellison prefers “speculative fiction” thanks very much, and only an idiot would call it “sci-fi”). Very entertaining.
I don't know how familiar you are with Silverberg's career, but his work up to about 1966 is generally considered his apprenticeship (or less kindly, his hackwork). This early work is facile but, by and large, not terribly significant; he didn't, for example, pick up a single Hugo or Nebula nomination during this period (not to suggest that popular awards necessarily correlate with quality, of course).
Starting with the publication of stories that went into the fix-up novel To Open the Sky (1967), Silverberg suddenly moved into a much more thoughtful and ambitious phase. The next decade saw him produce a much more substantial body of work, including novels such as Thorns (1967), The Masks of Time (1968), Nightwings (1969), A Time of Changes (1971), The Book of Skulls (1971), and Dying Inside (1972). This is Silverberg's golden period.
Get em started young 🥑🤑