Weird-Ass Books #3: Robert Silverberg

Chris discusses three novels from the 1970s by Robert Silverberg:
Son of Man (1971)
The Second Trip (1971)
Dying Inside (1972)
Music by Prison for Kids

[@iAmEhead]

Reading Dying Inside now. Great book.

[@tylerkasuboski3366]

"Dying Inside" is the greatest telepath novel ever written...The description of a telepath on LSD is utterly mind-blowing....Definitely my favorite R. Silverberg novel.

[@khomo12]

Good review!👍👍👍🤖📚🚀

[@txarly2008]

Dude you totally missed 'DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH" . To me, it's Silverberg's ABSOLUTE Best. The story is wonderfully written and it is totally relatable to someone who lived many years in a completely different culture (as I have) and how that affects your mind and soul . The book has many references to colonialism, the exploitation of animals and also religion. What else could you ask for? I TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT!!!! By the way, nice video...keep it up!

[@PrisonforKids]

Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve since read ‘The World Inside’ and ‘Thorns.’ I liked them both. The next Silverberg I’ll read will be ‘Downward’ for sure. It sounds like it has some similarities to Aldiss’ ‘The Dark Light Years.’ -Chris

[@monicamumford2902]

"Downward to the Earth" is great, so is "The Man in the Maze".

[@chrispreddy4082]

I have just brought The Second Trip. Looking forward to it. Good vid

[@chrisw6164]

I read Dying Inside this week and it’s definitely the best Silverberg I’ve ever read (I’ve read about a half dozen from different points in his career). The sci-fi starts and ends with the lead character having the ability to read minds. The story itself is quite grounded and the prose is superb, it’s contemporary literature written (and set) in the 70s.

[@matonmongo]

Great reviews, thx! Yeah, Silverberg is an amazing author and perhaps my fav all-time sci-fi writer. He also seems to be a very interesting, and sorta 'iconoclastic' character IRL, who's won lotsa awards, but despite his lo-o-ng and very prolific career, still hasn't received quite the same recognition as many of his peers. But if science fiction is indeed the "literature of ideas", IMHO, he 'da MAN!

[@dmomcilovic9185]

This channel had great potential , what appended? I was hoping for lots of regular sci-fi book reviews

[@chrisw6164]

He needs to come back, these videos are great

[@fluffybison4655]

The world inside is a far fantastical book

[@PurplePixieEater]

Interesting observation about Silverberg's perceived misogyny and the parallels between his magnum opus Dying Inside and the character of David Selig's slow death of his telepathy and Silverberg's own slow death of his creativity after writing that book. Silverberg wrote some brilliant novels, novellas and short stories starting in the mid-60s then after Dying Inside and The Book of Skulls he seemed to slowly lose that brilliance. Virtually all his novels after 1980 are dreary, ponderous and unreadable to me with the memorable exception of his excellent historical novel LORD OF DARKNESS. However, some of his stories and short works are quite good from this period

[@NLB90805]

Do you feel that Robert Silverberg's "The Second Trip" turned you off based upon how he portrayed females in the novel? We both know, colloquially, it's only a story, and is based upon the framing of an extremely deranged individual. Just like Frank Herbert writing's of the Dune Novels takes a hero in a previous book and evolves them into a tyrant in the next - this is the same for Silverberg's Novel (however it only being a single dose) where the primary character is deranged and unable to understand or even care of the other individual's he will or may harm. If the lead character had mental issues and is either a psychopath or sociopath then how can he show or even perceive life or empathy from the point of view of a healthy, in mind & spirit, adult human? This is only 'Food for Thought' and I'm not attempting to bait anyone either way. Just a simple observance. By the way I enjoyed your review. Thank you.

[@fluffybison4655]

Jesus this book was bizarre

[@rebekahlevy4562]

Sorry, but you have very little idea, if any at all, of what kind of author Robert Silverberg has been, and how influential his work has been. Gilgamesh? Lord Valentine? Nightwings is an absolute classic...

[@PrisonforKids]

You’re right. Never claimed to be an authority on him or his work. Just gave my impression of three novels. I’ve since read Thorns and The World Inside which, IMO, were both entertaining.

[@rebekahlevy4562]

@@PrisonforKids And the stuff about his writing about women...it's a little PC cancelly, IMO. You could understand that your attitudes will be dissed by future generations, too, for being so whatever they are. Just compare Silverberg's writing with his contemporary, Harlan Ellison, and you'd take it back--or with his Sci Fi Grandmaster predecessors Heinlein and Asimov (who was a serial groper, BTW)...it's a process of evolution, and it's happened pretty fast in the last century. Just please remember that the bulk of humanity is still in the Middle Ages where women are concerned (many scientists included, sadly!)--they may use the tech very well, but can't deal with the profound implications of the actual science that brought it to them.