"The Feast of St. Dionysus"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Novelette
Year: 1973
ID: 304
Publication history:
- 1974: An Exhaltation of Stars, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 671-77737-8, 207 pp.
- 1975: The Feast of St. Dionysus, Scribner's Hard cover book
- 1976: The Feast of St. Dionysus, Gollancz Hard cover book, 255 pp.
- 1979: The Feast of St. Dionysus, Berkley Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-425-04174-3, 210 pp.
- 1986: Beyond the Safe Zone, Donald I Fine Hard cover book, 472 pp.
- 1987: Beyond the Safe Zone, Warner Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-446-30173-6, 565 pp.
- 1987: The Feast of St. Dionysus, New English Library Mass market paperback, 255 pp.
- 1989: Beyond the Safe Zone, Warner Mass market paperback, 565 pp.
- 1990: Cults of Horror, DAW Mass market paperback
- 1995: Beyond the Safe Zone (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 3), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21371-6, 605 pp.
- 1995: Beyond the Safe Zone, Grafton Mass market paperback, ISBN 0586213716
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
This is a story written in late 1971 and early 1972 which is fascinating and very moving even if you're never sure what's and what isn't. John Oxenshuer is the sole survivor of the first American expedition to Mars. His crewmates were killed in a sandstorm, the bodies never recovered. Oxenshuer, though considered a hero for his efforts to rescue the others and his solo return to Earth, is wracked with guilt and self-doubt. He packs up his camping gear and heads out into the Mojave Desert alone to get his head straight, but he bumps into a weird religious cult with a hidden city in the desert. Their religion is a melding of Christianity and Dionysian revelry. They seek union with Jesus through indulgence in wine, dancing, wrestling, and sex, and they have a completely peaceful community. They welcome the astronaut, but he isn't sure he wants what they offer.