Silverberg, Robert /Силверберг, Роберт - Собрание сочинений (554 произведения) [1954-2022, fb2/epub/pdf, ENG]

Revolt on Alpha C / Революция на Альфе Ц 1955, epub, Thomas Y. Crowell Master Of Life And Death / Хозяин жизни и смерти 1957, fb2; 2002, epub, ISBN: 0-7953-0566-4, RosettaBooks The 13th Immortal 1957, epub, Ace Books Aliens From Space / Пришельцы из космоса 1995, pdf, ISBN: 978-1-60557-160-7; 2015, epub, ISBN: 978-1-60557-160-7, The Colonial Press Inc. (псевдоним David Osborne) Invaders From Earth / Захватчики с Земли 1958, fb2; 2002, epub, ISBN: 0-7953-0526-5, RosettaBooks Shadow on the Stars (= Stepsons of Terra) / Пасынки Земли 1958, fb2; 2002, epub, ISBN: 0-7953-1016-1, RosettaBooks Starman's Quest / Приключение звездолетчика 1958, fb2; 1958, epub, Gnome Press The Plot Against Earth / Заговор против Земли 1959, fb2 (псевдоним Calvin M. Knox) Lost Race of Mars / Затерянные марсиане 1960, fb2 The Hot Beat 2022, epub (retail), ISBN: 978-1-78909-993-5, Titan Collision Course / Лоб в лоб 1961, fb2 Recalled to Life / Возврашенные к жизни 1962, fb2 The Seed of Earth / Семя Земли 1962, fb2 The Silent Invaders / Безмолвное вторжение 1963, fb2 Time of the Great Freeze 1964, epub The Time Hoppers / Прыгуны во времени 1979, epub, ISBN: 0-00-615147-7 Those Who Watch / Наблюдатели 1967, fb2 Thorns / Тернии 1967 fb2; 2014, epub ISBN: 978-1-4976-3243-1, Open Road Media To Open the Sky / Открыть небо 1967, fb2; 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4976-3246-2, Open Road Integrated Media Hawksbill Station (= The Anvil of Time) / Лагерь «Хауксбиль» (= Наковальня времени) 1968, epub, Doubleday The Masks of Time / Маски времени 1968, fb2 Across a Billion Years / Через миллиард лет 1969, fb2; 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4804-1810-3 The Man In The Maze / Человек в лабиринте 1969, fb2; 1968, epub (журнальная публикация с иллюстрациями); 2015, epub, ISBN: 978-1-5040-1422-9, Open Road Integrated Media Nightwings / Ночные крылья 2001, epub, eISBN: 1-59176-011-9 Up the Line / Вверх по линии 2002, epub, eISBN: 1-59176-195-6 To Live Again / Жить снова 1999, fb2/pdf, ISBN: 1-58445-019-3; 1969, epub, Doubleday To Live Again & The Second Trip 2013, epub eISBN: 978-1-4804-1823-3, Open Road Media Downward to the Earth / Вниз, в землю 1970, fb2; 1970, epub, Nelson Doubleday Tower of Glass / Стеклянная башня 1970, fb2; 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4976-3249-3 A Time of Changes / Время перемен 1971, fb2; 1971, epub, Nelson Doubleday Son Of Man / Сын человеческий 1971, fb2; 1980, epub, ISBN: 0-345-28884-X, Del Rey / Ballantine The World Inside / Вертикальный мир 1971, fb2; 2010, epub, ISBN: 978-0-7653-2432-0, Orb The Book of Skulls / Книга черепов 2006, epub, eISBN: 978-0-345-49103-9 The Second Trip / Второй раз 1972, fb2; 1972, epub, Nelson Doubleday Dying Inside / Умирающий изнутри 2002, epub, eISBN: 1-59176-009-7 The Stochastic Man / Провидец 1975, fb2; 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4976-3240-0, Open Road Integrated Media Shadrach in the Furnace / Шадрак в горниле 1976, fb2; 1976, epub, ISBN: 0-672-51993-3, Bobbs-Merrill Company Lord of Darkness / Повелитель тьмы 2012, epub, eISBN: 978-1-933065-52-6 Tom O'Bedlam / Том О'Бедлам 1999, fb2/pdf, ISBN 0-75921-029-2; 1985, epub, ISBN: 0-917657-31-4, Donald I. Fine Star Of Gypsies / Звезда цыган 1986, fb2/epub The Mutant Season / Сезон мутантов 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-61242-147-6 (with Karen Haber) Nightfall / Приход ночи 1991, epub, eISBN: 978-0-307-79239-6 (with Isaac Asimov) The Face of the Waters / Бездна 1991 fb2/epub Child Of Time (= The Ugly Little Boy) / Безобразный малыш 1991, fb2; 1992, epub, ISBN: 0-385-26343-0, Doubleday Foundation (with Isaac Asimov) Kingdoms of the Wall / Королевства Стены 1992, fb2; 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4976-3234-9, Open Road Integrated Media The Positronic Man / Позитронный человек 1992, fb2; 1993, epub, ISBN: O-385-26342-2, Doubleday (with Isaac Asimov) Hot Sky at Midnight / Жаркое небо полуночи 1994, fb2 Starborne / Рожденные среди звезд 1996, fb2; 2012, epub, ISBN: 978-1-61242-081-3, Phoenix Pick The Alien Years / Время «Икс»: Пришельцы 1998 fb2; 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4976-1180-1, Open Road Integrated Media The Longest Way Home / Долгая дорога домой 2002, epub, eISBN: 9780061832918 Roma Eterna / Вечный Рим 2010, epub, eISBN: 978-0-06-201438-2 Beyond the Doors of Death 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-61242-108-7, Phoenix Pick

Needle in a Timestack 1966, epub, Ballantine Books Sailing to Byzantium / Плавание в Византий 2000, pdf, eISBN: 1-58824-361-3 Sailing to Byzantium / Плавание в Византий 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4804-1813-4, Open Road Media Cronos / Хронос 2001, fb2, 0-7434-2390-9 In the Beginning / В начале 2006, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-364-8 Early Days: More Tales from the Pulp Era 2016, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-814-8, Subterranean Press Collected Stories Vol.1--To Be Continued--1953-58 / Собрание рассказов том 1 1953-58--Да продлится твой род 2011, epub ISBN: 978-1-59606-385-3, Subterranean Press Collected Stories Vol.2--To the Dark Star--1962-69 / Собрание рассказов том 2 1962-69--К черной звезде 2011, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-386-0 Collected Stories Vol.3--Something Wild is Loose--1969-72 / Собрание рассказов том 3 1969-72--Что-то ужасное вырвалось на волю 2008, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-387-7 Collected Stories Vol.4--Trips--1972-73 / Собрание рассказов том 4 1972-73--Странствия 2009, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-387-7 Collected Stories Vol.5--The Palace at Midnight--1980-82 / Собрание рассказов том 5 1980-82--Полночь во дворце 2010, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-607-6 Collected Stories Vol.6--Multiples--1983-87 2013, epub, ISBN: 9781596066281 Collected Stories Vol.7--We Are for the Dark--1987-90 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-654-0 Collected Stories Vol.8--Hot Times in Magma City--1990-95 2013, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-589-5 Collected Stories Vol.9--The Millennium Express--1995-2009 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-655-7, Subterranean Press Blood on the Mink / Кровь на норковой шубе 2012, epub, eISBN 978-0-85768-769-2 When the Blue Shift Comes 2014, epub, ISBN: 978-0-575-13187-3, Gollancz (with Alvaro Zinos-Amaro) Hunt the Space-Witch! 2015, epub, ISBN: 978-1-5040-1426-7, Open Road Integrated Media The Chalice of Death 2015, epub, ISBN: 978-1-5040-1425-0, Open Road Integrated Media The Planet Killers: Three Novels of the Spaceways 2015, epub, ISBN: 978-1-5040-1424-3, Open Road Integrated Media The Robert Silverberg Science Fiction MEGAPACK 2016, epub, ISBN: 978-1-4794-2211-1, Wildside Press Rough Trade 2021, epub (retail), ISBN: 978-1-78636-947-5, PS Publishing Almost Complete Short Fiction 2020, epub, Jerry eBooks

The Silent Colony / Молчаливая колония 1954, fb2 The Girl from Bodies, Inc. 1956, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Leonard G. Spencer) Hopper / Прыгун 1956, fb2 Sourdough / Изыскатель 1956, fb2 Battle for the Thousand Suns / Битва за тысячу солнц 1956, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Calvin Knox and David Gordon) A Man of Talent / Талант 1956, fb2 Absolutely Inflexible / Абсолютно невозможно 1956, fb2 Collecting Team / Звероловы 1956, fb2 Double Dare / Двойная работа 1956, fb2 Man Of Many Bodies / Сменивший много тел 1956, fb2 (псевдоним Ralph Burke) The Hunted Heroes / Преследуемые герои 1956, fb2 The Judas Valley / Долина Иуды 1956, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Gerald Vance) The Macauley Circuit / Контур Маколи 1956, fb2 To Be Continued / Да продлится твой род 1956, fb2 Venus Trap / Ловушка Венеры 1956, fb2 Hero from Yesterday 1957, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Robert Randall) House Operator 1957, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним S. M. Tenneshaw) Deadly Decoy 1957, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Clyde Mitchell) The Man Who Hated Noise 1957, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним S. M. Tenneshaw) Woman's World / Мир женщин 1957, fb2 Neutral Planet / Нейтральная планета 1957, fb2 The Assassin 1957, fb2 One-Way Journey / Дорога в один конец 1957, fb2 Postmark Ganymede / Почта на Ганимед 1957, fb2 Solitary / Одиночное заключение 1957, fb2 The Happy Unfortunate / Счастливый невезучий 1957, fb2 World of a Thousand Colors / Мир тысячи красок 1957, fb2 Menace from Vega 1958, fb2 (с Randall Garrett, псевдоним Robert Randall) No Way Out / Безвыходное положение 1958, fb2 We, the Marauders 1965, fb2 Alaree / Элари 1958, fb2 I'll Be Glad When You're Dead / Буду рад, когда ты умрешь 1958, fb2 Prime Commandment / Главная заповедь 1958, fb2 (псевдоним Calvin M. Knox) Heir Reluctant / Преемник поневоле 1958, fb2 Voyage to Procyon / Путешествие на Процион 1958, fb2 The Four / Четверо 1958, fb2 (псевдоним Calvin M. Knox) The Man Who Never Forgot / Человек, который помнил все 1958, fb2 The Road to Nightfall / Дорога на закат 1958, fb2 Heap Big Medicine (= Strong Waters) / Ядрёная водичка 1959, fb2 The Undertaker's Sideline 1959, fb2 Company Store / Контракт 1959, fb2 Eye of the Beholder 1959, fb2 The Outbreeders / Селекционеры 1959, fb2 (псевдоним Calvin M. Knox) The Impossible Intelligence 1959, fb2 To See The Invisible Man / Увидеть невидимку 1963, fb2 The Sixth Palace / Вот сокровище ... 1965, fb2 Flies / Мухи 1967, fb2 Hawksbill Station / Лагерь "Хауксбиль" 1967, fb2 Planet of Death / Планета смерти 1967, epub As Is / Без гарантии 1968, fb2 Going Down Smooth / Потихоньку деградируя 1968, fb2 Passengers / Пассажиры 1968, fb2 The Fangs of the Trees / Клыки деревьев 1968, fb2 To the Dark Star / К черной звезде 1968, fb2 After the Myths Went Home / После того, как не нужны нам стали мифы 1969, fb2 How It Was When the Past Went Away / Как все было, когда не стало прошлого 1969, fb2 Sundance / Танец Солнца 1969, fb2 Three Survived / Трое выживших 1969, epub The Song the Zombie Sang / Соната для зомби 1970, fb2 (с Harlan Ellison) Now + n, Now - n / Сейчас +n. Сейчас -n 1972, fb2 Multiples / Мультиличности 1983, fb2 Sailing to Byzantium / Плавание в Византий 1985, fb2 Symbiont / Симбионт 1985, fb2 Blindsight / Слепой взгляд 1986, fb2 The Iron Star / Железная звезда 1987, fb2 The Pardoner's Tale / Торговец индульгенциями 1987, fb2 The Secret Sharer / Подселенец 1987, fb2 Hannibal's Elephants / Слоны Ганнибала 1988, fb2 House Of Bones / Костяной дом 1988, fb2 A Sleep and a Forgetting / Сон и забвение 1989, fb2 Chip Runner / Бегун на чипе 1989, fb2 Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another / Раз солдат, два солдат... 1989, fb2 In Another Country / В другой стране 1989, fb2 The Asenion Solution / Решение Асениона 1989, fb2 They Hide, We Seek / Они прячутся, мы ищем 1990, fb2 A Tip on a Turtle / На какую черепаху поставить 1991, fb2 Hunters in the Forest / Охотники в лесу 1991, fb2 In the Clone Zone / В зоне клонов 1991, fb2 The Last Surviving Veteran of the War of San Francisco / Последний из ветеранов войны Сан Франциско 1991, fb2 A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple / Долгое бодрствование в храме 1992, fb2 Looking for the Fountain / В поисках фонтана 1992, fb2 Thebes of the Hundred Gates / Фивы Стовратные 1992, fb2 Hot Times in Magma City / Горячее время в Магма-Сити 1995, fb2 Death Do Us Part / Смерть разлучает нас 1996, fb2 The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James / Записки Генри Джеймса о вторжении марсиан 1996, fb2 Beauty in the Night / Красота ночью 1997, fb2 Call Me Titan / Зовите меня Титаном 1997, fb2 The Church at Monte Saturno / Церковь в Монте Сатурно 1997, fb2 Travelers / Путешественники 1999, fb2 The Millennium Express / Экспресс Тысячелетие 2000, fb2 Hanosz Prime Goes To Old Earth / Хэйноз Первый отправляется на Старую Землю 2006, fb2 Against the Current / Против течения 2007, fb2 The Eater of Dreams / Пожиратель снов 2007, fb2 The Emperor and the Maula / Император и дикарка 2007, fb2 Defenders of the Frontier / Защитники фронтира 2010, fb2 The Last Song of Orpheus 2011, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59606-389-1

THE SILENT COLONY

If explorers from a distant planet were to visit Earth, our world would seem terribly strange to them, full of strange colors and smells and feelings. And even if they found something familiar, that too could pose a sudden deadly danger. Robert Silverberg is one of the premier writers of modern science fiction. His most recent novel is The Stochastic Man.

Skid, Emerak, and Ullowa drifted through the dark night of space, searching the worlds that passed below them for some sign of their own kind. The urge to wander had come over them, as it does inevitably to all inhabitants of the Ninth World. They had been drifting through space for eons; but time is no barrier to immortals, and they were patient searchers. "I think I feel something," said Emerak; "the Third World is giving off signs of life." They had visited the thriving cities of the Eighth World, and the struggling colonies of the Seventh, and the experienced Skid had led them to the little-known settlements on the moons of the giant Fifth World. But now they were far from home. "You're mistaken, youngster," said Skrid. "There can't be any life on a planet so close to the sun as the Third World—think of how warm it is!" Emerak turned bright white with rage. "Can't you feel the life down there? It's not much, bat it's there. Maybe you're too old, Skrid." Skrid ignored the insult. "I think we should turn back; we're putting ourselves in danger by going so dose to the sun. We've seen enough." "No, Skrid, I detect life below." Emerak blazed angrily. "And just because you're leader of this triad doesn't mean that you know everything. It's just that your form is more complex than ours, and it'll only be a matter of time until—" "Quiet, Emerak." It was the calm voice of Ullowa. "Skrid, I think the hothead's right. I'm picking up weak impressions from the Third World myself; there may be some primitive life-forms evolving there. We'll never forgive ourselves if we turn back now." "But the sun, Ullowa, the sun! If we go too close—" Skrid was silent, and the three drifted on through the void. After a while he said, "All right, let's investigate." The three accordingly changed their direction and began to head for the Third World. They spiraled slowly down through space until the planet hung before them, a mottled bowl spinning endlessly. Invisibly they slipped down and into its atmosphere, gently drifting toward the planet below. They strained to pick up signs of life, and as they approached the life-impulses grew stronger. Emerak cried out vindictively that Skrid should listen to him more often. They knew now, without doubt, that their kind of life inhabited the planet.

The Sixth Palace by Robert Silverberg

Ben Azai was deemed worthy and stood at the gate of the sixth palace and saw the ethereal splendor of the pure marble plates. He opened his mouth and said twice, "Water! Water!" In the twinkling of an eye they decapitated him and threw eleven thousand iron bars at him. This shall be a sign for all generations that no one should err at the gate of the sixth palace.

Lesser Hekhaloth

There was the treasure, and there was the guardian of the treasure. And there were the whitening bones of those who had tried in vain to make the treasure their own. Even the bones had taken on a kind of beauty, lying out there by the gate of the treasure vault, under the blazing arch of heavens. The treasure itself lent beauty to everything near it -- even the scattered bones, even the grim guardian. The home of the treasure was a small world that belonged to red Valzar. Hardly more than moonsized, really, with no atmosphere to speak of, a silent, dead little world that spun through darkness a billion miles from its cooling primary. A wayfarer had stopped there once. Where from, where bound? No one knew. He had established a cache there, and there it lay, changeless and eternal, treasure beyond belief, presided over by the faceless metal man who waited with metal patience for his master's return. There were those who would have the treasure. They came, and were challenged by the guardian, and died. On another world of the Valzar system, men undiscouraged by the fate of their predecessors dreamed of the hoard, and schemed to possess it. Lipescu was one: a tower of a man, golden beard, fists like hammers, gullet of brass, back as broad as a tree of a thousand years. Bolzano was another: awl-shaped, bright of eye, fast of finger, twig thick, razor sharp. They had no wish to die. Lipescu's voice was like the rumble of island galaxies in collision. He wrapped himself around a tankard of good black ale and said, "I go tomorrow, Bolzano." "Is the computer ready?" "Programmed with everything the beast could ask me," the big man boomed. "There won't be a slip." "And if there is?" Bolzano asked, peering idly into the blue, oddly pale, strangely meek eyes of the giant. "And if the robot kills you?" "I've dealt with robots before." Bolzano laughed. "That plain is littered with bones, friend. Yours will join the rest. Great bulky bones, Lipescu. I can see them now." "You're a cheerful one, friend." "I'm realistic."

Robert Silverberg

Sailing to Byzantium

At dawn he arose and stepped out on to the patio for his first look at Alexandria, the one city he had not yet seen. That year the five cities were Chang-an, Asgard, New Chicago, Timbuctoo, Alexandria: the usual mix of eras, cultures, realities. He and Gioia, making the long flight from Asgard in the distant north the night before, had arrived late, well after sundown, and had gone straight to bed. Now, by the gentle apricot-hued morning light, the fierce spires and battlements of Asgard seemed merely something he had dreamed. The rumour was that Asgard's moment was finished, anyway. In a little while, he had heard, they were going to tear it down and replace it, elsewhere, with Mohenjo-daro. Though there were never more than five cities, they changed constantly. He could remember a time when they had had Rome of the Caesars instead of Chang-an, and Rio de Janeiro rather than Alexandria. These people saw no point in keeping anything very long. It was not easy for him to adjust to the sultry intensity of Alexandria after the frozen splendours of Asgard. The wind, coming off the water, was brisk and torrid both at once. Soft turquoise wavelets lapped at the jetties. Strong presences assailed his senses: the hot heavy sky, the stinging scent of the red lowland sand borne on the breeze, the sullen swampy aroma of the nearby sea. Everything trembled and glimmered in the early light. Their hotel was beautifully situated, high on the northern slope of the huge artificial mound known as the Paneium that was sacred to the goat-footed god. From here they had a total view of the city: the wide noble boulevards, the soaring obelisks and monuments, the palace of Hadrian just below the hill, the stately and awesome Library, the temple of Poseidon, the teeming marketplace, the royal lodge that Mark Antony had built after his defeat at Actium. And of course the Lighthouse, the wondrous many-windowed Lighthouse, the seventh wonder of the world, that immense pile of marble and limestone and reddish-purple Aswan granite rising in majesty at the end of its mile-long causeway. Black smoke from the beacon-fire at its summit curled lazily into the sky. The city was awakening. Some temporaries in short white kilts appeared and began to trim the dense dark hedges that bordered the great public buildings. A few citizens wearing loose robes of vaguely Grecian style were strolling in the streets. There were ghosts and chimeras and phantasies everywhere about. Two slim elegant centaurs, a male and a female, grazed on the hillside. A burly thick-thighed swordsman appeared on the porch of the temple of Poseidon holding a Gorgon's severed head and waved it in a wide arc, grinning broadly. In the street below the hotel gate three small pink sphinxes, no bigger than house cats, stretched and yawned and began to prowl the kerbside. A larger one, lion-sized, watched warily from an alleyway: their mother, surely. Even at this distance he could hear her loud purring. Shading his eyes, he peered far out past the Lighthouse and across the water. He hoped to see the dim shores of Crete or Cyprus to the north, or perhaps the great dark curve of Anatolia. Carry me towards that great Byzantium, he thought. Where all is ancient, singing at the oars. But he beheld only the endless empty sea, sun-bright and blinding though the morning was just beginning. Nothing was ever where he expected it to be. The continents did not seem to be in their proper places any longer. Gioia, taking him aloft long ago in her little flitterflitter, had shown him that. The tip of South America was canted far out into the Pacific; Africa was weirdly foreshortened; a broad tongue of ocean separated Europe and Asia. Australia did not appear to exist at all. Perhaps they had dug it up and used it for other things. There was no trace of the world he once had known. This was the fiftieth century. 'The fiftieth century after what?' he had asked several times, but no-one seemed to know, or else they did not care to say. 'Is Alexandria very beautiful?' Gioia called from within. 'Come out and see.' Naked and sleepy-looking, she padded out on to the white-tiled patio and nestled up beside him. She fitted neatly under his arm. 'Oh, yes, yes!' she said softly. 'So very beautiful, isn't it? Look, there, the palaces, the Library, the Lighthouse! Where will we go first? The Lighthouse, I think. Yes? And then the market place - I want to see the Egyptian magicians - and the stadium, the races - will they be having races today, do you think? Oh, Charles, I want to see everything!' 'Everything? All on the first day?' 'All on the first day, yes,' she said. 'Everything.' 'But we have plenty of time, Gioia.' 'Do we?' He smiled and drew her tight against his side. 'Time enough,' he said gently.

Robert Silverberg

Death Do Us Part

IT WAS her first, his seventh. She was 32, he was 363: the good old April/September number. They honeymooned in Venice, Nairobi, the Malaysia Pleasure Dome, and one of the posh L-5 resorts, a shimmering glassy sphere with round-the-clock sunlight and waterfalls that tumbled like cascades of diamonds, and then they came home to his lovely sky-house suspended on tremulous guy-wires a thousand meters above the Pacific to begin the everyday part of their life together. Her friends couldn't get over it. "He's ten times your age!" they would exclaim. "How could you possibly want anybody that old?" Marilisa admitted that marrying Leo was more of a lark for her than anything else. An impulsive thing; a sudden impetuous leap. Marriages weren't forever, after all - just thirty or forty years and then you moved along. But Leo was sweet and kind and actually quite sexy. And he had wanted her so much. He genuinely did seem to love her. Why should his age be an issue? He didn't appear to be any older than 35 or so. These days you could look as young as you liked. Leo did his Process faithfully and punctually, twice each decade, and it kept him as dashing and vigorous as a boy. There were little drawbacks, of course. Once upon a time, long long ago, he had been a friend of Marilisa's great-grandmother: they might even have been lovers. She wasn't going to ask. Such things sometimes happened and you simply had to work your way around them. And then also he had an ex-wife on the scene, Number Three, Katrin, 247 years old and not looking a day over 30. She was constantly hovering about. Leo still had warm feelings for her. "A wonderfully dear woman, a good and loyal friend," he would say. "When you get to know her you'll be as fond of her as I am." That one was hard, all right. What was almost as bad, he had children three times Marilisa's age and more. One of them - the next-to-youngest, Fyodor - had an insufferable and presumptuous way of winking and sniggering at her, that hundred-year-old son of a bitch. "I want you to meet our father's newest toy," Fyodor said of her, once, when yet another of Leo's centenarian sons, previously unsuspected by Marilisa, turned up. "We get to play with her when he's tired of her." Someday Marilisa was going to pay him back for that. Still and all, she had no serious complaints. Leo was an ideal first husband: wise, warm, loving, attentive, generous. She felt nothing but the greatest tenderness for him. And then too he was so immeasurably experienced in the ways of the world. If being married to him was a little like being married to Abraham Lincoln or Augustus Caesar, well, so be it: they had been great men, and so was Leo. He was endlessly fascinating. He was like seven husbands rolled into one. She had no regrets, none at all, not really.

Defenders of the Frontier by Robert Silverberg

Seeker has returned to the fort looking flushed and exhilarated. “I was right,” he announces. “There is one of them hiding quite close by. I was certain of it, and now I know where he is. I can definitely feel directionality this time.” Stablemaster, skeptical as always, lifts one eyebrow. “You were wrong the last time. You’re always too eager these days to find them out there.” Seeker merely shrugs. “There can be no doubt,” he says. For three weeks now, Seeker has been searching for an enemy spy—or straggler, or renegade, or whatever he may be—that he believes is camped in the vicinity of the fort. He has gone up to this hilltop and that one, to this watchtower and that, making his solitary vigil, casting forth his mind’s net in that mysterious way of his that none of us can begin to fathom. And each time he has come back convinced that he feels enemy emanations, but he has never achieved a strong enough sense of directionality to warrant our sending out a search party. This time he has the look of conviction about him. Seeker is a small, flimsy sort of man, as his kind often tends to be, and much of the time in recent months he has worn the slump-shouldered look of dejection and disappointment. His trade is in finding enemies for us to kill. Enemies have been few and far between of late. But now he is plainly elated. There is an aura of triumph about him, of vindication. Captain comes into the room. Instantly he sizes up the situation. “What have we here?” he says brusquely. “Have you sniffed out something at last, Seeker?” “Come. I’ll show you.” He leads us all out onto the flat roof adjacent to our barracks. To the right and left, the huge turreted masses of the eastern and western redoubts, now unoccupied, rise above us like vast pillars, and before us lies the great central courtyard, with the massive wall of tawny brick that guards us on the north beyond it. The fort is immense, an enormous sprawling edifice designed to hold ten thousand men. I remember very clearly the gigantic effort we expended in the building of it, twenty years before. Today just eleven occupants remain, and we rattle about it like tiny pebbles in a colossal jug. Seeker gestures outward, into the gritty yellow wasteland that stretches before us like an endless ocean on the far side of the wall. That flat plain of twisted useless shrubs marks the one gap in the line of precipitous cliffs that forms the border here between Imperial territory and the enemy lands. It has been our task these twenty years past—we were born to it; it is an obligation of our caste—to guard that gap against the eventual incursion of the enemy army. For two full decades we have inhabited these lonely lands. We have fortified that gap, we have patrolled it, we have dedicated our lives to guarding it. In the old days, entire brigades of enemy troops would attempt to breach our line, appearing suddenly like clouds of angry insects out of the dusty plain, and with great loss of life on both sides we would drive them back. Now things are quieter on this frontier, very much quieter indeed, but we are still here, watching for and intercepting the occasional spies that periodically attempt to slip past our defenses. “There,” says Seeker. “Do you see those three little humps over to the northeast? He’s dug in not very far behind them. I know he is. I can feel him the way you’d feel a boil on the back of your neck.” “Just one man?” Captain asks. “One. Only one.” Weaponsmaster says, “What would one man hope to accomplish? Do you think he expects to come tiptoeing into the fort and kill us one by one? “There’s no need for us to try to understand them,” Sergeant says. “Our job is to find them and kill them. We can leave understanding them to the wiser heads back home.” “Ah,” says Armorer sardonically. “Back home, yes. Wiser heads.” Captain has walked to the rim of the roof and stands there with his back to us, clutching the rail and leaning forward into the dry, crisp wind that eternally blows across our courtyard. A sphere of impenetrable chilly silence seems to surround him. Captain has always been an enigmatic man, solitary and brooding, but he has become stranger than ever since the death of Colonel, three years past, left him the ranking officer of the fort. No one knows his mind now, and no one dares to attempt any sort of intimacy with it. “Very well,” he says, after an interval that has become intolerably long. “A four-man search party: Sergeant to lead, accompanied by Seeker, Provisioner, and Surveyor. Set out in the morning. Take three days’ food. Search, find, and kill.”

Добавлено: Robert Silverberg - The Positronic Man - 1993.epub Robert Silverberg - Lord Prestimion (Prestimion 02) - 1999.epub Robert Silverberg - The King of Dreams (Prestimion 03) - 2001.epub Robert Silverberg - Majipoor Chronicles (Majipoor 02) - 1982.epub Robert Silverberg - The Mountains of Majipoor (Majipoor 04) - 1995.epub Robert Silverberg - A Time of Changes - 1971.epub Robert Silverberg - Downward to the Earth - 1970.epub Robert Silverberg - Hawksbill Station (Novel) - 1968.epub Robert Silverberg - Kingdoms of the Wall - 2014.epub Robert Silverberg - Shadrach in the Furnace - 1976.epub Robert Silverberg - Son of Man - 1980.epub Robert Silverberg - The Alien Years - 2014.epub Robert Silverberg - The Second Trip - 1972.epub Robert Silverberg - To Live Again - 1969.epub Robert Silverberg - To Open the Sky - 2014.epub Robert Silverberg - Child Of Time - 1992.epub

Добавлено: Robert Silverberg - Tom O'Bedlam - 1985.epub Robert Silverberg - Early Days - 2016.epub

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Robert Silverberg - Starman's Quest - 1958.epub (к имеющемуся fb2) (роман) Robert Silverberg - The Man in the Maze - 1968.epub (журнальная публикация с иллюстрациями) Robert Silverberg - Master of Life and Death - 2002.epub (к имеющемуся fb2) (роман) Robert Silverberg - Aliens from Space - 2015.epub (к имеющемуся pdf) (роман) Robert Silverberg - Invaders From Earth - 2002.epub (к имеющемуся fb2) (роман) Robert Silverberg - Shadow on the Stars - 2002.epub (к имеющемуся fb2) (роман) Robert Silverberg - Starborne - 2012.epub (к имеющемуся fb2) (роман)

Цикл Nidorian: Robert Silverberg - The Shrouded Planet (Nidorian 01) - 1982.fb2 (роман) Robert Silverberg - The Dawning Light (Nidorian 02) - 1957.fb2 (роман) Robert Silverberg - The Chosen People (Nidorian) - 1956.fb2 (рассказ) Robert Silverberg - False Prophet (Nidorian) - 1956.fb2 (рассказ) Robert Silverberg - All the King's Horses (Nidorian) - 1958.fb2 (рассказ)

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Добавлено: Robert Silverberg - Almost Complete Short Fiction - 2020.epub (Jerry eBooks; +180 повестей и рассказов, которых раньше не было в коллекции)

Добавлено: Robert Silverberg - Urban Monad_ The Complete Stories - 2021.epub Замена: Robert Silverberg - Almost Complete Short Fiction - 2020.epub на Robert Silverberg - Almost Complete Short Fiction - 2021.epub (новая версия от Jerry)

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