Robert Silverberg Books in Order

Returning from five years in space, Rolf Dekker discovers that Earth’s people have embraced radical physical changes. His wish to fit into their society pushes him toward drastic alterations, forcing him to confront the distance between belonging and self-rejection.

After war destroys much of the world, the people who remain must confront the demands of survival. Their struggle tests human resilience in a devastated future, raising questions about what kind of people can endure such a catastrophe.

Eighteen stories unfold through the voices of unusual narrators, including animals, machines and beings outside ordinary human experience. Their accounts of desire, perception and survival invite readers to consider how an unfamiliar perspective can transform a seemingly recognizable world.

Seven adventures originally written for Super-Science Fiction send characters into dangerous encounters across distant worlds. Hostile aliens, deadly planets and unlikely survivors reveal the perilous situations facing people who venture beyond the safety of familiar territory.

These crime stories span decades of Silverberg’s writing, following criminals and their targets through schemes, capers and acts of revenge. Ambition, deception and dangerous opportunities expose the risks of trying to outwit others when money and personal grudges are at stake.

Laylah travels to the forbidden home of Earth’s alien conquerors, risking execution for entering their sacred world. To delay her death, she tells the emperor a story drawn from her own life and humanity’s struggle against its rulers.

Orpheus recounts a life shaped by music, his love for Eurydice and his voyage with Jason and the Argonauts. Knowing his fate in advance, he must still experience the losses and discoveries that give his songs their power.

Finding willing specimens for an interstellar zoo seems easy, with alien creatures competing to join its exhibits. Keeping the resulting display from humiliating its human organizer proves harder, turning the business of collecting unusual life into an unexpected struggle.

Sixteen stories examine what happens when people can cross or disrupt time. Rivalries, marriages and attempts to anticipate the future become unstable as characters discover that changing when events occur can alter both their relationships and their understanding of reality.

Eighteen stories explore encounters between humanity and extraterrestrial life, from occupied territory to unexpected visitors on Earth. Characters seeking rescue, understanding or survival must confront beings whose motives and abilities challenge the assumptions they bring to first contact.

This collection follows people whose private lives are unsettled by strange technologies and altered realities. A jealous rival’s manipulation of time, identical sons and disturbing forms of entertainment expose the consequences of treating identity, relationships and suffering as things to control.

Twelve stories send travelers across space, history and alternate realities, where discovery brings unexpected danger. Witnesses to future catastrophe, seekers of eternal youth and visitors to unfamiliar universes must face consequences that reach beyond the journeys they originally imagined.

Howard Gorman hires a professional killer to remove his wife so he can be with Marie. Marie has different plans and approaches the hit man herself, turning a murder contract into a contest of desire, money and betrayal.

Silverberg reflects on science fiction, scientific ideas and the changing circumstances of his writing career. Essays, introductions and other nonfiction consider fellow authors, the genre’s history and his own decisions to leave fiction temporarily and later return to it.

Silverberg selects stories spanning seventy years of his science fiction career, opening paths into many different imagined worlds. A new introduction and David Gerrold's foreword accompany this collection of tales chosen by the author himself.

Human explorers encounter an alien civilization whose customs challenge their assumptions about life beyond Earth. This short planetary adventure follows the difficulties of contact between societies as space exploration brings unfamiliar cultures into uneasy proximity.

A wealthy financier in postwar London becomes captivated by a poised performer in a Soho strip club. Their secret meetings draw him beyond respectable society, putting his reputation, fortune, and self-control at risk as fascination becomes obsession.

A respected retired judge is shot dead in his office, and Lieutenant Lew Norris must answer a city's demands for justice. A mysterious nightclub singer offers his best lead in a case steeped in appearances and hidden motives.

Three novellas examine frustration and the possibilities of immortality, including a husband’s pursuit of his resurrected wife. Different forms of continued existence place human relationships under pressure, asking how much can survive when life’s familiar boundaries are transformed.

Nine science fiction stories examine alien contact, exploitation, and threats to human autonomy. The title story follows a man involved in clearing an alien world for colonization, whose ancestry makes him question the destruction he is helping carry out.

Eight stories explore altered perceptions, alien encounters and societies under pressure, including the original Hawksbill Station novella. Time, identity and isolation shape conflicts in which apparently familiar lives give way to unsettling possibilities beyond everyday reality.