Thorns
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Novel
Year: 1967
ID: 1160
Publication history:
- 1967: Espinhos, Publicações Europa América Mass market paperback, 160 pp., in Portuguese
- 1967: Thorns, Ballantine Mass market paperback, 222 pp.
- 1969: Thorns, Walker Hard cover book
- 1970: Thorns, Ballantine Mass market paperback, ISBN 345-02026-X, 222 pp.
- 1972: Twee Sterren, Meulenhoff , ISBN 90-290-0064-3, 204 pp., in Dutch
- 1973: Thorns, Ballantine Mass market paperback, ISBN 345-23447-2, 222 pp.
- 1973: Der Gesang der Neuronen, Lichtenberg Mass market paperback, ISBN 378522012X, 199 pp., in German
- 1978: Thorns, New English Library Mass market paperback
- 1979: Thorns, Del Rey Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-345-27968-9, 222 pp.
- 1983: Thorns, Bantam Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-553-23573-7, 222 pp.
- 1985: Welten der Zukunft V: Kinder von Morgen, Heyne Mass market paperback, ISBN 3453311515, in German as Der Gesang der Neuronen
- 1987: Thorns, Futura Orbit Mass market paperback, ISBN 0708882382
- 1988: The World Inside/Thorns/Downward to the Earth, Bantam Mass market paperback, 487 pp.
- 1989: Der Gesang der Neuronen, Heyne Mass market paperback, ISBN 345303161X, 252 pp., in German
- 1994: Un Jeu Cruel, J'ai lu Mass market paperback, ISBN 2277118001, 214 pp., in French
- 1995: Espinas, Ultramar Mass market paperback, ISBN 8473865510, 256 pp., in Spanish
- 1996: Chute dans le réel, Omnibus Hard cover book, ISBN 2258040590, 1070 pp., in French as Un jeu cruel
- 2000: Thorns, Gollancz Trade paperback, ISBN 057507146X, 224 pp.
- 2000: Thorns, Fictionwise Online
- 2006: 荆棘, 四川科学术技出版社 (Sichuan Science and Technology University Press) Trade paperback, ISBN 7-5364-5936-X/I-96, 200 pp., in Mandarin
- 2011: Thorns, E-reads Electronic book
Blurb:
(from Ballantine 1967)
Lona Kelvin – naive orphan. And at seventeen, mother of one hundred children.
Minner Burris – starman. Whose butchered body had been put together by aliens, with artificial alien replacements.
Horror stalked just beneath the surface of these two lonely creatures.
Duncan Chalk – a vulture, carrion eater of other people's emotions, feeding on pain, fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, terror; typifying in the appetites of his vast body the sick delight millions took in the tragedies he skillfully arranged.
Lona Kelvin – Minner Burris – Duncan Chalk
Surely the strangest triangle the worlds had ever seen.
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
Nominated for Nebula for best novel, 1967.
Triangle is not exactly the right word, as Chalk does not participate directly in the affair he arranges for Lona and Minner, only leech off the inevitable pain when they don't get along. The picture of human relationships given is a bit grim, though there is a kind of hope offered. That function of the media which feeds off people's pain is quite prevalent in the story, as it is in
.A very good book, and not as depressing as it may sound. And note that the cover art on the 1967 Ballantine edition (while pretty) has nothing whatever to do with the story. The Jim Burns painting on the 1983 edition is the most accurate of the cover illustrations for Minner's deformity. And try to remember that egg donors and reality shows were the stuff of science fiction when this book was written.
Sci-Fi reviewed Thorns in their Classics column.