La chute des comètes avait apporté le long hiver, comme, cent millions d’années plus tôt, lorsque les dinosaures avaient disparu. L’Hiver durait depuis soixante-dix mille ans.

Le Peuple survivait à l’abri de son cocon souterrain, génération après génération. Et voilà que le Printemps, annoncé par la Tradition, était revenu. Le Peuple devait sortir et aller recueillir son héritage dans la glorieuse cité de Vengiboneeza. Mais était-il encore humain ?

Alternative title: “The Man with Talent”.

As the behavioral sciences progress, we’re approaching the great adventure, the literal exploration of the human psyche. Someday soon a psychiatrist may be able to penetrate directly into the mind of his patient, and understand clearly what problems lie there. Robert Silverberg, in a narrative rich in archetypal insights, suggests that such an ability might have its drawbacks.

A spellbinding tale of a tradition-bound centuries-old Earth Colony and an Earthman who offers a magic drug that tears down the walls between men’s souls.

Here’s an elegant and darkly ironic look at the proposition that some things in life are better not to know…

Time travel is possible, but only forward in time. Visitors from the past are multiple and dangerous as they carry deadly germs people of the future do not have immunity against anymore. So all the time travelers are promptly apprehended and isolated. The head of the institution responsible for isolation of the time travelers is implacable and absolutely inflexible in carrying out his duties. Until one of the time travelers gives him a device allegedly capable of moving people back in time...

Set in the year 2375, the novel follows Tom Rice, a young archaeologist attached to a two-year dig on the planet of Highby V. He is searching for artifacts belonging to a long-lost and ancient race known simply as The High Ones. Throughout known space, details of this billion-year old civilization have been uncovered on many planets. What seems like a fairly straightforward expedition becomes a galactic odyssey when an artifact never seen before is uncovered. This device hints that perhaps the High Ones are not extinct at all. But, if they are not, then where are they? And will this lead to the culmination of Mankind’s greatest challenge or greatest disaster?

From Library Journal:

From Kirkus Reviews:

Later appeared as part of the novel The Alien Years.

Tras miles de años, el Largo Invierno producido en la Tierra por el bombardeo de cometas que causaron las estrellas de la muerte llegó a su fin. Los que salieron del capullo para enfrentarse a los peligros del mundo exterior en busca de la Nueva Primavera se llamaban a si mismos humanos... Su destino era la creación de un nuevo mundo.

From Robert Silverberg’s “Earthmen and Strangers” anthology, 1966:

The German word “gestalt” means “shape” or “pattern,” but it also has the sense of “group” or “formation.” The science-fictional concept of the gestalt mind has frequently been examined—the intelligence that includes more than one individual. On Earth, the rule of one-body-one-intelligence seems to hold true, but who knows what we may find on other worlds? We already know of some simple creatures, like the corals and sponges, that exist in colonies numbering many individuals. Such Unkings are purely physical; the possibility exists, though, that on another planet some higher form of life may have developed a colony of linked minds. What it would be like to encounter such a form of life is considered in this story.