"A Sleep and a Forgetting"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1989
ID: 1068
Publication history:
- ????: What Might Have Been, Volumes I & II, Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book
- 1989: Playboy July 1989, Magazine
- 1990: What Might Have Been 2: Alternate Heroes, Bantam Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-553-28279-4, 354 pp.
- 1992: Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1), Bantam Trade paperback, ISBN 0-553-37068-5, 546 pp.
- 1992: Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1), Bantam Hard cover book, 546 pp.
- 1993: The Secret Sharer (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 2), Grafton Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21370-8, 395 pp.
- 1994: Le Nez de Cloptre, Denol Hard cover book, ISBN 2207241912, 314 pp., in French as Le sommeil et l'oubli
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise Online
- 2000: Le Nez de Cloptre, Denol Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-207-25001-6, 320 pp., in French as Le Sommeil et l'oubli
- 2001: Le Nez de Cloptre, Gallimard Mass market paperback, ISBN 2070420760, 343 pp., in French as Le Sommeil et l'oubli
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
This story was written for the second volume of the What Might Have Been alternate history collections, and deals with Genghis Khan. A scientist has invented a device which seems to make mental contact with people from the past. He calls in a friend of his, who is an expert on the old Mongol language, to try to make sense of their latest contact. The man comes to the startling conclusion that he is communicating with Ganghis Khan, but a very different Khan than the one in our history.
This story was adapted by The Hollywood Theatre of the Ear for the 2000 X radio show, featuring the voices of Rosemary Alexander, René Auberjonois, Rodertson Dean, Kaitlin Hopkins, and Allan Miller. The adaptation was done by Michael Cassutt. It is available in this form for purchase from Audible.com.