Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg # The 1970 Club

Tower of Glass Book CoverI had read all of my own published in 1970 books, so I dived into the garage to delve into the overflow bookcases and came up with one of Jack’s books, an SF book – Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg, it was published in the US in 1970. It’s a good long while since I read any science fiction.

Simeon Krug is fabulously wealthy. He has created a community of androids, three different grades, Alphas, Betas and Gammas, they are made in vats starting with a sort of chemical soup and then they are given a training to learn how to become almost human, to understand their needs, the Alphas being the closest to being human. They look similar to humans, apart from their skin being red. The androids exist to do the dirty work and make life easier for humans.

Simeon Krug, their creator has moved on to a new project and he has become obsessed, he has designed a massive tower of glass and he hopes that as it reaches far into space he’ll be able to communicate with other galaxies, one in particular which is sending signals which can’t be deciphered.   .

Unknown to Krug the androids have set up chapels where they can worship Krug their creator, but he does know about the AEP which is a political group founded by disgruntled androids who are determined to gain equal rights with the humans. They want it to be made illegal for them to be sold and for anyone harming them to be held responsible legally.

So there are parallels with slavery, and social inequalities, but also the dangers of creating what could be superior beings which could take over society if they felt that way inclined.

Fifty-four years ago Robert Silverberg was imagining an AI takeover, except nowadays no androids are required, just computers.

This was a surprisingly good read, although I don’t really know why I was surprised as Silverberg was one of the best SF authors of his time. I have read a few of his previous books, but decades ago.

 

 

 

Blood on the Mink by Robert Silverberg

 Blood on the Mink cover

Blood on the Mink by Robert Silverberg was first published in 1962 and at 156 pages it’s a really quick read. I’ve been having trouble settling down to read and had tried and failed with a few books before this one unexpectedly hit the spot.

The setting is 1950s America, starting in Chicago before moving on quickly to Philadelphia – apparently the City of Brotherly Love. Someone is printing loads of counterfeit US money in Philadelphia and it’s almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The government sends Nick an undercover agent there to infiltrate the gang responsible and to find out where the currency is being printed.

It all gets very complicated and more than a wee bit dangerous, but Nick is a good guy always aiming to wing not kill, which is more than can be said for the gangsters. This is well written but very much of its time so there’s quite a lot of 1950s style sexism, if that bothers you then this might not be for you. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, I just find it quite amusing and quaint nowadays. There’s quite a lot of humour. It all helps to set the scene. Philadelhia is portrayed as being a very strait-laced and boring place, you can’t get a drink after midnight and nothing at all is open on a Sunday – very similar to Scotland until fairly recently, but apparently unusual in 1950s America.

Robert Silverberg is better known as a very successful writer of science fiction, but he wrote all sorts of things when he was starting out in his career. He wrote a very interesting afterword to this one which had initially been rejected, it was a difficult time for writers and publishers (when is it not?) and magazines were going to the wall. A magazine publisher decided he might have more luck publishing a novel and Silverberg offered him this old one of his. He was paid $800 for it which apparently had buying power of about $8,000 then. How lucky was that?!

This book also contains a couple of short stories – Dangerous Doll and One Night of Violence.