In the Beginning: Tales from the Pulp Era
In the Beginning: Tales from the Pulp Era
Subterranean Press | February 28, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1596060433 | 335 pages | PDF | 3 MB
Subterranean Press | February 28, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1596060433 | 335 pages | PDF | 3 MB
Silverberg delivers exactly as promised in this collection of high-speed romps from the beginning of his career that he suggests affords a kind of archaeological experience. This is the work of a young man writing at a furious pace for what were simple adventure magazines, and it often lacks such literary niceties as developed characters and lyrical prose. But the stories do the job they were expected to do: entertain. They include such gems as "Vampires from Outer Space" (a title chosen by an editor, says Silverberg, and the only time the redundant cliche outer space appears in his fiction), in which aliens resembling nothing so much as the classic batlike vampire stand accused of murdering humans in search of blood, and "New Year's Eve–2000 AD," an early (1957) look at the argument over the date on which the new millennium begins. The classic tropes of pulp sf are all on view and just as rewarding as they were meant to be when Silverberg first exploited them.