My first encounter with Robert Silverberg was in the 1970 publication of The Hugo Winners, volumes I and II combined into one edition by Doubleday. I bought that book upon its release through my book club primarily because it was bound to be "the best" science fiction and it was edited by Isaac Asimov whom I greatly admired for some of his "robot" novels. I was not a hard science fiction fan by any means. I grew up as a boy reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' martian series and Pellucidar series, some of the Tarzan books and many of his one-off novels (and the two-off when he decided to re-visit). I also ate up HG Wells and Jules Verne, no doubt many school kids still do (I Hope), Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft, H Rider Haggard, and of course Robert E Howard's blundering chauvinistic hero with the sloping forehead, Conan, through something like a dozen or more serialized paperbacks. I thank my Grandfather for introducing me to Burroughs when I was barely old enough to read (exaggerated but close to the truth), those sexy pulp covers were astounding, later I set out to collect the Doubleday hardbacks with Frazetta painted covers. My Father was responsible for bringing home The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings to an adolescent with fantasy leanings, forever my favorite books to this day, Tolkein my favorite author. So as I began to venture into Clifford D Simak and his "pastoral" science fiction, John Wyndham and his "modernistic" Wells approach to sci-fi, and various other authors who were firmly planted in science with a softer fantasy approach, it was natural enough to be instantly enamored to Nightwings as I read it. I found myself a Silverberg short story collection later, Moonferns & Starsongs, which contained Nightwings. I read many of his time travel novels, and some of his "invasion" books but none of them held a candle to Nightwings. It was years later I discovered that he had indeed written two more novellas to complete the story arc begun in Nightwings. By then I was reading "serious stuff". So now here I am revisiting my youth, and what should I run across but a new edition of Nightwings complete, all three stories collected together and lightly edited by the author to make a more whole and consistent novel. It was an immediate must-have to finally get this and read it as the desired end result that Robert Silverberg had intended.
This "New Classics" edition of an "Essential Science Fiction Library" was the fitting first installment since unlike any other science fiction story I read in the 60's - early 70's, this one was the one which left me with the deepest impressions akin to Simak's "City", "Way Station", or Wyndham's "Rebirth", "Midwich Cuckoos", etc, stories of speculative fiction on the border of sci-fi. I opened it up as soon as I pulled it out of the Amazon.com box and finished it very quickly only to re-read it immediately during my lunch breaks at work. The whole novel is even better than I remembered the novella, it is the written equivalent of a classical symphony performing Pink Floyd. It is beautifully antiqued with futuristic flourishes. The style is again pastoral, vivid and dramatic. Innocence mixed with jaded wit. You cannot help but be drawn in from the first paragraph into a cryptic and mystical world that seems at once familiar and wholly separate from any imaginings. This IDW Publishing edition (overseen by none other than Harlan Ellison) is a handsomely bound soft-cover in a hard cover size (Trade Paperback as opposed to the mass market paperbacks) printed on quality paper stock and well worth the Amazon price. The beautiful cover art is reproduced inside the book as illustrations separating the three parts of the novel. Kudos have to go to IDW for producing a classic looking book at an affordable price.
Personally, I don't think you should read any lengthy descriptions of the plot and storyline, some of these reviews go into too much (spoiler) detail and stepping into this novel partially blind will reap the biggest rewards. If you love Tolkein-esque fantasy, and classic futuristic fiction, and a slightly melancholic writing style with some dry wit and cryptic mystery which should be discovered naturally in steps as you progress towards an inevitable conclusion, then you will love this book. If, like me, you once read the original novella but never read the two sequels, the continuing story is even more fascinating and the conclusion wonderfully astounding. This is a treasure for all lovers of fantasy and science fiction.
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Reviews with images
If pride goeth before a fall, what comes afterward?
Silverberg tells us in the introduction to the new digital edition that the title and key images for this story came to him in a flash of inspiration in early 1968. "I knew I would set it in the very far future and try for a certain incantatory tone." That he certainly achieved -- "Nightwings" is more fantasy than science fiction, though it does have a superficially science fictional plot.The story is a pilgrimmage, first to "Roum," then to "Perris," and finally to "Jorslem." The protagonist we know only as The Watcher at first, and his friend and companion is Avluela, a female Flyer (a genetically modified type of human, we later learn). The world they travel through seems medieval for the most part, but with incongruous pieces of technology, including the device in the cart pushed by the Watcher used for his daily watching, a projection of the mind far out into space.A crucial plot development takes place at the end of the first of three sections (originally three novellas) which I will not reveal. Only in the second section do we learn the context for this momentous event. The Earth has passed through several cycles. Our 21st century is part of the First Cycle. In the Second Cycle humanity made fantastic technical progress, voyaging to the stars and encountering many other species. Then came a great Fall due to a failed attempt to engineer the planet's geology, and the planet went into receivership, saved by other galactic races. A hideous crime had also been committed, which is crucial to the plot.And so the present of the book is the Third Cycle, with humans reduced to a humble state compared to their former glory. Without any specific plot reveals, Silverberg's ending can only be described as messianic. Humanity's redemption is glimpsed, though not right away, and not without much effort. Our protagonists, as a collective, make a surprising breakthrough that leads to this prospect, based on their ethical awakening and resolve. Thus a Fourth Cycle beckons."Nightwings" is not one of Silverberg's books that I read back in the day (the late Sixties and early Seventies when I was in junior high and starting high school). I am glad to discover it now. It seems clear to me, though I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, that this was the first of at least three novels he wrote with a messianic theme -- a Messianic Trilogy -- followed by "Downward to the Earth" (1970), and the Nebula Award-winning "A Time of Changes" (1971), which won for 1972.*** *** ***The novel "Nightwings" combines three novellas, all published in Galaxy, edited by Frederik Pohl: "Nightwings," "Among the Rememberers" (published as "Perris Way"), and "The Road to Jorslem" (published as "To Jorslem"). The first won the Hugo Award for Best Novella for 1969. The novel was published later that year. It's a bit confusing -- yes "Nightwings" won a Hugo, but for the novella, not the novel by the same name.(verified purchase of the Open Road paperback from the Cosmic Book Emporium)
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. Dominic Banks
THE GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2013Mr. K. A. Harrison
So very different
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2015