"To the Dark Star"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1968
ID: 1189
Publication history:
- 1968: The Farthest Reaches, Trident Mass market paperback
- 1969: Best SF 1968, Putnam Hard cover book
- 1969: The Year's Best Science Fiction Volume 2, Sphere Mass market paperback
- 1970: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Macmillan Hard cover book
- 1971: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Signet Mass market paperback, 239 pp.
- 1973: Earth's Other Shadow, Signet Mass market paperback, 207 pp.
- 1975: Earth's Other Shadow, Signet Mass market paperback
- 1977: Dertien Dwaalwegen, Meulenhoff , ISBN 90-290-0667-6, 320 pp., in Dutch as Naar de Donkere Ster
- 1977: Earth's Other Shadow, Millington Hard cover book
- 1978: Earth's Other Shadow, Panther Mass market paperback, 222 pp.
- 1982: World of a Thousand Colors,
- 1983: World of a Thousand Colors, Priam Trade paperback, 329 pp.
- 1984: World of a Thousand Colors, Bantam Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-553-24059-5, 331 pp.
- 1997: Ringing the Changes (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 5), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21373-2, 359 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 L'toile noire
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
I love the opening line of this story: Three scientists travel to observe the last moments of a dying star, but the personal and professional conflicts between them make research impossible. I found their petty bickering quite annoying in some ways, but the characters were so fascinating I put up with it. In typical Silverbergian fashion, the scientific aspect of the situation is almost completely ignored to focus on the people.