The Face of the Waters - Softcover

Silverberg, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553299077 ISBN 13: 9780553299076

Publisher: Spectra, 1992

Synopsis

Living on one of the scattered artificial islands that serve as outposts for human beings, one group of humans anger their hosts and are sent into exile, where they face danger and discover a planetwide secret. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Silverberg is one of science fiction s most beloved writers, and the author of such contemporary classics as"Dying Inside", "Downward to the Earth, "and"Lord Valentine s Castle". He is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the winner of five Nebula Awards and five Hugo Awards. In 2004 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented him with the Grand Master Award. Silverberg is one of twenty-nine writers to have received that distinction.

From Kirkus Reviews

After the sun goes nova and destroys the Earth, humans survive only in small groups on far-flung planets like Hydros, a world with no land masses at all; here, humans are permitted to share the floating islands built by the Gillies, one of several intelligent native species. But when ambitious capitalist Nid Delagard of Sorve Island accidentally kills some intelligent ``divers'' in the course of his operations, the Gillies somehow know--and order the humans off Sorve. Led by doctor Valben Lawler, in ships provided by Delagard, they sail off in pursuit of a distant uninhabited island. On the voyage, storms, tides, and deadly sea creatures take their toll of ships and people; then Lawler discovers that Delagard really intends to seek out the Face of the Waters, a fabulous, mysterious island avoided by the Gillies. At last, a handful of survivors reach the island, only to learn that the Face of the Waters is the focus of a planetary consciousness embracing all Hydran life--and they, isolated, orphaned humans, are being invited to join. This far-from-original idea raises other questions, not least the problem of a food chain whose components share a consciousness, that Silverberg declines even to acknowledge, let alone confront. So: a mediocre ocean-world odyssey--comparisons with Jack Vance's superior The Blue World are inevitable--from the veteran writer/editor, professionally turned but disappointingly superficial. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Spectra
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0553299077
• ISBN 13: 9780553299076
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1