Speculative Fiction Books - Robert Silverberg

List of great Robert Silverberg books for sale

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Robert Silverberg has been a science fiction writer for more than 40 years. He has won four Hugos and five Nebulas, along with an assortment of other awards, and his dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories have been translated into more than 24 languages. His latest project is the "Legends" fantasy anthology and its forthcoming science-fiction companion, "Far Horizons." Silverberg discussed "Legends" and other things with Amazon.com's Craig E. Engler.

You should try "Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy" and other titles by Robert Silverberg.


Robert Silverberg on Legendary Fantasy: An Excerpt from an 
Exclusive Amazon.com Interview

Amazon.com: How did you determine which authors were
legendary enough to be included in this anthology?

Robert Silverberg: That was easy. I invited writers whose
books were cherished by great multitudes of readers and
whose work I admired personally.

Amazon.com: Did the authors choose what they were going to
write about, or did you give them some direction for their stories?

Silverberg: Stephen King had to write a Dark Tower story,
Robert Jordan a Wheel of Time story, Raymond E. Feist a
Riftwar story, Terry Pratchett a Discworld story,
etc. Beyond that they were completely free to choose themes,
characters, plot. Aside from a certain minimum word-length
they had a free hand about the size of the story as well.

Amazon.com: Aside from your own contribution, do you have a
favorite story in "Legends?" If so, what sets that one apart
for you? If not...come on, everybody has a favorite!

Silverberg: You certainly aren't going to get me picking and
choosing among a bunch of stories that good! But one story
does stand apart for a special reason that has nothing to do
with its quality, although I do think it's a wonderful
story. George R.R. Martin was deep in the second volume of
his great new fantasy series, and way behind deadline on
it. So as the unalterable "Legends" deadline of December 31,
l997, arrived, it looked very much as though George was
going to miss his chance to be in the book, and I started
thinking about finding a replacement for him at the last
minute. (We had to have all the stories in at once so that
the book could be published in time for the 1998 gift-book
season.) But George simply stopped working on his own novel,
put in a tremendous round-the-clock effort on his story for
me, and made the deadline with a couple of days to
spare. Doing a magnificent story, too. I'm delighted with
that story not only for its own sake but because we all came
so close to losing it and were saved by a truly heroic
effort by George R.R. Martin.

Amazon.com: Are there any plans for future "Legends"?
Perhaps an anthology of the living masters of science fiction?

Silverberg: It's already on the way: coming in June 1999
from Avon Books' Eos series. The title is "Far Horizons: The
Great Worlds of Science Fiction," with stories by Joe
Haldeman, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card,
Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, Frederik Pohl, David
Brin, Dan Simmons, Nancy Kress, and myself. Each story adds
to the writer's well-known series--Card has done a new story
about Ender, Pohl a new Heechee story, Simmons a Hyperion story, etc.

Amazon.com: Was this an exciting project for you? What's
your next project after this?

Silverberg: It was exciting, all right--dealing with 10
great writers like that and watching them all come in with
terrific stories right on time, like the pros that they
are. Once I finished it I went on to write a new Majipoor
novel--"Lord Prestimion," the sequel to last year's
"Sorcerers of Majipoor"--and now I'm really, *really* tired
and I'm going to take some time off from writing and watch the flowers bloom.

Featured: "Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy" edited by Robert Silverberg. You can find other titles by great fantasy authors.
You'll find more great books, articles, excerpts, and interviews in Amazon.com's Science Fiction & Fantasy section

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