Released in 1970, "Tower of Glass" was Robert Silverberg's 42nd sci-fi novel...his 18th since 1967 alone! The amazingly prolific author had embarked on a more mature phase of his writing career in '67, with an emphasis on ideas and a distinct literary quality, and "Tower of Glass" is yet another superior novel in this remarkable streak. Justifiably nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards (but "losing," respectively, to Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" and Larry Niven's "Ringworld"), it demonstrates that Silverberg, at this stage, was truly one of the very best in the sci-fi field. In the book, the reader encounters an obsessed, 60-year-old magnate named Simeon Krug. One of the world's wealthiest men, in the year 2218, by dint of his discovery of a process to create synthetic, humanoid androids out of vat-processed DNA, Krug now sets himself a new challenge: erecting a 1,500-meter-tall (!) tower in the Canadian tundra, using android laborers, to house the communication apparatus that will enable him to "talk to the stars." It seems that signals have been picked up from the planetary nebula NGC 7293, which Silverberg tells us is 300 light-years distant, and Krug is determined to utilize his billions to communicate with the star people, using a faster-than-light tachyon transmitter. In addition to its fascinating central plot, "Tower of Glass" gives the reader several exciting subplots, as well. We learn of Krug's son, Manuel, who is having a love affair with an upper-caste android woman. We read of the Android Equality Party, comprised of synthetic humans who are trying to gain full civil rights in the World Congress. We learn of the android religion, how it is in conflict with the tactics of the A.E.P., and of how Thor Watchman, Krug's most trusted android foreman at the construction site, is torn between the two factions.... "Tower of Glass," besides its interesting story lines, is just loaded with fascinating detail and colorful description, in Silverberg's best manner. The reader is treated to a tour of Krug's main android factory in Duluth, where, thanks to a bit of hard sci-fi pedagogy, we learn how his synthetic humans are created. We see several demonstrations of a "shunt room," where the wealthy can go to swap egos and live inside one another's head space for a while. We visit Krug's upper-crust restaurant in the Pacific's Challenger Deep, 30,000 feet underwater; are given a look at the lower-caste android underground in Stockholm; and observe an android religious meeting. Taking advantage of the recently loosened sexual constraints in science fiction, the author gives us a scene featuring copulation between Manuel and his android lover Lilith Meson, and a sex scene involving two androids, Lilith and Thor. "Tower of Glass" is a novel that really does move, and that sense of movement is primarily due to the fact that it takes place in a society that has perfected the use of "transmats." Remember how, in Alfred Bester's 1956 classic "The Stars My Destination" (STILL this reader's favorite sci-fi novel, after all these years), characters are able to flit from one geographic location to another by a process called "jaunting"? Well, here, the transmats serve a similar function, allowing, say, Krug to travel from Uganda to Canada instantaneously, and on to Duluth, and then Colorado and New York City. (Oh, to live in a world with transmats!!!) The net effect of this rapid hopping about (and yes, Silverberg DOES discuss the ramifications of such a lifestyle in depth) is a feeling of tremendous narrative energy and drive; as I said, this novel really does move! Silverberg, something of a genuine prose stylist at this point, alternates his writing methods to suit each particular chapter. Some chapters feature hard science, others well-written expository dialogue, while others give us snippets of the android Bible, and still others (such as the scenes in the shunt room and the Stockholm underground) are written almost Impressionistically, with shorthand, psychedelic imagery. The book is marvelously entertaining and almost overwhelmingly imaginative, with every page boasting some curious touch, unexpected development, unique character or colorful locale. Truly, modern sci-fi at its very best. I would set down only one quibble that I had with Silverberg's book, and it is that statement of NGC 7293 being 300 light-years distant. Perhaps, back in 1970, when Silverberg wrote his novel, this was the accepted figure, but today, it seems to be fairly well recognized that NGC 7293 is more on the order of 715 light-years away from planet Earth. Still, as I say, this is a mere quibble. The bottom line is that "Tower of Glass" is still another wonderfully gripping, intelligent piece of sci-fi from Robert Silverberg. And now, just one question for the author: Where can I purchase a "tesseract divan" for my own living room?
Que fantástica surpresa! Não estava de todo à espera....um excelente livro! Muito bom. Gostei bastante. Julgo também que o facto de ter sido surpreendida, veio amplificar o efeito já positivo que este livro teve em mim. Eu sei, eu sei, é um livro de ficção científica...Mas é um facto: este é um bom livro. E eu também não posso dizer que não gosto de ficção científica. Depende muito do livro. Há apenas uma coisa que me irrita sempre que acontece num livro deste género: são os nomes inventados das máquinas/mecanismos/tecnologias. Uns nomes que surgem sempre sonantes e em grande destaque, mas que em muitos textos, a sua quantidade é assustadora e parece que o texto se faz só disso: tipo x-megatron, v3 gordanzul, vruxomaton, nyartron, etc... Acho que já deu para perceber o que quero dizer...Já me aconteceu até muitas vezes nem conseguir entender a história. Mas este livro não é assim. Claro que tem termos deste tipo, mas na devida medida, e sem exageros.Esta é um excelente história, que retrata um possível futuro da espécie humana. Plausível, interessante, e bem escrita. Mas mais do que a história em si, o que me fez render a este livro, foi a "lente" que ele constituiu para reflectir sobre alguns aspectos importantes do estado actual da humanidade, por exemplo a religião, a hierarquização social, o racismo e a discriminação, entre outros. Essa "lente" por vezes confunde-se até com um "espelho" ... Os paralelismos entre alguns aspectos relevantes da nossa sociedade e a de uma possível sociedade do futuro, estão muito bem conseguidos.Excelente também é a visão do homem enquanto explorador do Universo, em não se limitar ao que existe, mas a procurar sempre mais, a ir sempre mais além. Neste livro essa busca reflecte-se na procura por vida inteligente noutros planetas, algo que julgo que irá ser transversal ao homem de todos os tempos, até que a encontre, ou se prove ser impossível a sua existência.Em resumo, uma história que nos conta mais para além do que é dito, se nos permitirmos pensar sobre isso. Como já referi, gostei bastante, e penso que veio salvar a má imagem que o género ficção científica tinha aqui no blog. Continuo no entanto a achar que o autor tem uma visão algo machista sobre o futuro...
What do You think about Tower Of Glass (2000)?
Simeon Krug, a fantastically wealthy entrepreneur, endeavors to communicate with the stars in this fascinating tale of a man's incredible hubris and the destruction it wreaks on all within his sphere of influence, which includes the entire world. Every one of Krug's actions appears to be motivated by the need for self-aggrandizement, although he would probably be shocked to hear it; this blindness is a fascinating aspect of the character. Krug wants to stretch his presence across this universe, so he is building a mile-high glass tower on the northern tundra that will house a tachyon projector. He needs workers for his project, so he creates androids that are capable of the full range of human emotion and presses them into service. Some reviewers have complained that the story ends on an inconclusive note but, if you read this story, just think about the havoc that Krug has caused through his single-minded attachment to his own grand schemes without adequate thought to their consequences. Robert Silverberg has penned a worthy cautionary tale about the danger of pairing too much power with too much ambition and too little ability or desire to imagine any result but what the great man intends.
—David Bonesteel
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature."Some of them are looking for God, and some of them are looking for power, and some of them are just looking."Simeon Krug, a brilliant inventor, has changed the world by creating synthetic humans in vats. They are so similar to humans that, to avoid confusion, Krug made their skin a reddish color and gave them no body hair. To these androids, Krug is God, but he doesn’t realize it. He thinks of them as mere machines and he’s set them the task of building a giant glass tower which will reach into the heavens to communicate with the aliens who have been sending messages to Earth. Krug’s son, poised to take over the company when his father dies, doesn’t share Krug’s obsession with talking to aliens, and he is particularly disturbed when he discovers the android religion. What will happen when the androids find out that Krug is not their salvation?There aren’t any likeable characters here, and it’s hard for me to relate to androids, but Tower of Glass made me think (most of Robert Silverberg’s stories make me think). In Tower of Glass, Silverberg uses androids to explore a common science fiction theme: What makes us human? I’ve read dozens of stories which ask this question, but Tower of Glass will stick with me. Originally published in 1970, Tower of Glass has worn very well, probably because it deals with timeless human problems.Krug’s androids, who call themselves “vat-born” to distinguish themselves from the “womb-born,” are constructed with human DNA which has been altered to give them a slightly alien look and to make them hard-working faithful servants. What Krug didn’t realize, perhaps, was that this human DNA would make them ambitious and would give them a desire to worship their creator. Under the leadership of Thor Watchman, the android who works as Krug’s right-hand man in the tower project, they develop an entire religion around Krug. In their time off from building Krug’s tower, they get involved in politics, build temples, write holy scriptures, hold worship services, conduct sacraments, chant and pray. Their chants and prayers consist of recitations of genetic code and their scriptures, modeled after the Christian Bible, speak of Krug’s love for them and his plan to save them by transforming them, with genetic code, into full human beings after they die. It’s understandable, then, that they’d be a little upset when they find out that their religion is false and that they’re not going to be saved after all.As usual with a novel by Robert Silverberg, you have to suffer through some unpleasant sex scenes (I find many of Silverberg’s sex scenes to be disturbing), but there are fewer far-out tangents in Tower of Glass than in some of his other stories and at least here there is some purpose to them here. The pace moves quickly and Silverberg packs in a lot of ideas as he shows us a newly developing android society that is dealing with the same kinds of issues that humans have always dealt with — racism, caste systems, slavery, outcasts, ghettos, disease, drug abuse, political agitators, religious zealots, and the rise of an oppressed population. All the while Silverberg ratchets up the tension as the tower gets taller and Krug becomes more obsessed and noticeably less godlike.I listened to Stefan Rudnicki narrate Audible Frontiers’ version of Tower of Glass. Rudnicki always gives a great reading — he has a nice voice, he never overacts, and he always seems to “get” what he reads. Tower of Glass was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards.ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
—Kat Hooper
Tower of Glass is Robert Silverberg’s most Phillip K. Dickian novel.If this were a film I would want it directed, of course, by Wes Anderson or maybe Alex Proyas, he did a good job with I, Robot and The Crow and I would cast it with Albert Finney, Kevin Spacey, Hugh Laurie and … Will Ferrell?Was that humor I detected? Subtle, certainly, potentially a black comedy if at all, but isn’t Absurdist Theater only a first cousin of speculative fiction? Are Eugene Ionescu and Samuel Beckett that far removed from Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov? Stuff is being made up, situations are created to produce an effect, a message is being presented not on its face but peripherally, as metaphor and hyperbole.Silverberg’s 1970 publication (during his almost superhuman period of prolific writing) is about, among other things, androids. Thus the PKD reference? Not just that. There is also his absurdist setting, the abstract theme and the almost Jungian vision of the leading protagonist. There is misdirected theology, there is mind altering processes and drugs, there is sex, lots of wild sex, and a bacchanal of global proportions.This also reminded me of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination as teleportation has shrunken the world economy and made the global community one of accessible proximity. Finally, the plight of the Android civil rights movement can be a metaphor for the equal rights struggle of the 60s.
—Lyn
