"The Songs of Summer"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1955
ID: 1085
Publication history:
- ????: Terra Extra #67, Magazine, in German as Die Gesnge des Sommers
- 1956: Science Fiction Stories September 1956, Magazine
- 1957: Authentic July 1957 (#82), Magazine
- 1962: The Seed of Earth/Next Stop the Stars, Ace Mass market paperback, 253 pp.
- 1977: Next Stop the Stars, Ace Mass market paperback, ISBN 441-57420, 144 pp.
- 1979: Next Stop the Stars, Dobson Hard cover book, ISBN 023472143X
- 1979: The Songs of Summer, Gollancz Hard cover book, ISBN 0575025654, 173 pp.
- 1981: The Songs of Summer, Pan Mass market paperback, ISBN 0330263153
- 1982: Les Chants de l'été, J'ai lu Mass market paperback, ISBN 2277213926, 245 pp., in French as Les chants de l't
- 1986: Next Stop the Stars, Tor Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-812-55462-0, 213 pp.
- 1996: The Road to Nightfall (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 4), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21372-4, 347 pp.
- 2002: Le Chemin de la nuit: Nouvelles au fil du temps, tome 1, 1953-1970, Flammarion Trade paperback, ISBN 2080682350, 727 pp., in French as Les chants de l't
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
This story is a frustrating combination of fascinating and annoying. The future post-apocalypse society is really interesting, a convincing portrayal of an unusual and peaceful people. The twentieth century man unexpectedly thrown into the future is greedy, selfish, and downright obnoxious (which I suppose is the point, but that doesn't mean I like it). There are some signs of the lyrical writing Silverberg would later develop.