"The King of the Golden River"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1967
ID: 627
Publication history:
- 1967: Galaxy December 1967, Magazine, as King of the Golden World
- 1969: Dimension Thirteen, Ballantine Mass market paperback, 215 pp.
- 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 La nuit du feu
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that River, not World, is the real title of this story.
Elena is a young woman from Earth who goes to a distant planet to live with the natives, a simple, happy people. There she becomes the wife of their leader, the King of the Golden River. His people live on an island with two volcanic peaks, and when one of them starts erupting, Elena begins to learn just how alien these people are.