The Iron Star: A Short Story
Aug 2023 · Open Road Media
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34
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About this ebook
An alien race makes a chilling first impression in this story that “evokes difficult moral issues” from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author (SF Site).
A corporate ship’s complicated business venture involves the experimental use of new technology to scoop a sample from the core of a neutron star. The discovery of a dead civilization on a nearby solar system serves as a fascinating distraction. The same can’t be said for the alien spaceship circling around them. Becoming the first expedition from Earth to encounter extraterrestrial life is not on the agenda—and the crewmembers find themselves out of their depth.
Treading a fine line between diplomacy and danger, the chief executive officer of the mission—a man of Sioux ancestry—decides to open up lines of communication with the aliens. And though they may be more advanced than humanity, the aliens’ account of past actions calls to mind a dark age in human history, one that the CEO will make sure is never repeated. Not on his watch . . .
“With this story, Silverberg proves he knows his science and is willing to do a story grounded in hard sf.” —MarzAat
Praise for Robert Silverberg and his short stories
“When Silverberg is at the top of his form, no one is better.” —George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times–bestselling author
“Silverberg’s creative story premises are matched by a remarkable ability to make his characters sympathetic, whether human or not.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Decades after being originally published, most of these stories are still just as entertaining and powerful as they were when first released. A singularly unique collection.” —Kirkus Reviews
A corporate ship’s complicated business venture involves the experimental use of new technology to scoop a sample from the core of a neutron star. The discovery of a dead civilization on a nearby solar system serves as a fascinating distraction. The same can’t be said for the alien spaceship circling around them. Becoming the first expedition from Earth to encounter extraterrestrial life is not on the agenda—and the crewmembers find themselves out of their depth.
Treading a fine line between diplomacy and danger, the chief executive officer of the mission—a man of Sioux ancestry—decides to open up lines of communication with the aliens. And though they may be more advanced than humanity, the aliens’ account of past actions calls to mind a dark age in human history, one that the CEO will make sure is never repeated. Not on his watch . . .
“With this story, Silverberg proves he knows his science and is willing to do a story grounded in hard sf.” —MarzAat
Praise for Robert Silverberg and his short stories
“When Silverberg is at the top of his form, no one is better.” —George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times–bestselling author
“Silverberg’s creative story premises are matched by a remarkable ability to make his characters sympathetic, whether human or not.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Decades after being originally published, most of these stories are still just as entertaining and powerful as they were when first released. A singularly unique collection.” —Kirkus Reviews
About the author
Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) sold his first science fiction stories to the lower-grade pulps in the mid-fifties, moved swiftly to the three prestigious magazines (Astounding, Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) and as his style deepened and themes expanded in through the next reached the first rank of science fiction writers. He is regarded as the greatest living writer of science fiction, an SFWA Grandmaster, ex-President (in the 1960’s) of that organization, winner of five Nebulas, four Hugos and many other domestic and foreign awards. Among his famous novels are Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls, Downward to the Earth, A Time of Changes; his novella Born with the Dead (1974) is perhaps the finest work of that length published within the genre. Shifting to a predominating fantasy in the late 1970’s (Lord Valentine’s Castle and the attendant Majipoor Series), Silverberg continued to write science fiction and won a Nebula in 1986 for the novella Sailing to Byzantium, and Hugos for the novelettes Gilgamesh in the Outback and Enter a Soldier: Later, Enter Another. He was editor of the long-running original anthology series New Dimensions and of important reprint anthologies such as The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Alpha, and The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction.
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