"Passengers"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1968
ID: 857
Publication history:
- ????: Kindred Spirits, Mass market paperback
- ????: Monsters, Signet Mass market paperback
- 1968: Orbit 4, Putnam Hard cover book
- 1970: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Macmillan Hard cover book
- 1970: Nebula Award Stories 5, Doubleday Hard cover book
- 1971: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Signet Mass market paperback, 239 pp.
- 1971: Moonferns and Starsongs, Ballantine Mass market paperback, ISBN 345-02278-5, 244 pp.
- 1975: The Best from Orbit, Berkley Mass market paperback
- 1976: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 671-80282-8, 258 pp.
- 1977: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-671-83497-5, 258 pp.
- 1977: Dertien Dwaalwegen, Meulenhoff , ISBN 90-290-0667-6, 320 pp., in Dutch as Passagiers
- 1977: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Sidgwick & Jackson Hard cover book
- 1978: Science Fiction Special #30, Sidgwick & Jackson Mass market paperback
- 1978: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Orbit Mass market paperback, 258 pp.
- 1978: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1, Gregg Hard cover book, 288 pp.
- 1979: Robert Silverberg Reads Passengers & To See the Invisible Man, Pelican Vinyl LP
- 1981: The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, Arbor House Trade paperback
- 1981: Science Fiction Hall of Fame [UK] Volume 4, Gollancz Hard cover book
- 1982: Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 3, Avon Mass market paperback
- 1985: Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, A&W/Galahad Mass market paperback
- 1986: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Baen Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-671-65586-8, 277 pp.
- 1989: The Best of the Nebulas, Tor Mass market paperback
- 1991: The Giant Book of Horror Stories, Magpie Mass market paperback
- 1992: Foundations of Fear, Tor Mass market paperback
- 1993: The Ultimate Zombie, Dell Trade paperback
- 1994: Shadows of Fear, Tor Mass market paperback
- 1996: Les Eléphants d'Hannibal, Denol Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-207-30579-1, in French as Passagers
- 1997: Ringing the Changes (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 5), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21373-2, 359 pp.
- 1998: The Greatest Horror Stories of the 20th Century, Dove Audio Audio CD
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise Online
- 2001: Les Elphants d'Hannibal, Gallimard Mass market paperback, ISBN 2070417298, 365 pp., in French as Passagers
- 2001: Masterpieces, Ace Mass market paperback
- 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 Passagers
- 2004: Phases of the Moon, iBooks Trade paperback, ISBN 0743498011, 623 pp.
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
Winner of the Nebula Award for best short story, 1969. And a Hugo Award nominee.
Nasty telepathic aliens have taken over the Earth! At unpredictable times, they seize control of a person's mind and force them to do sometimes bizarre things they might not normally do. Society has sort of adjusted to this:
(Ridden in the way a voodoo loaspirit rides a human host.) The main character breaks a taboo and contacts a woman he had sex with while ridden. The aliens' motives and capabilities are never explained.The vinyl LP listed above contains a recording of Silverberg reading this story along with
.Another audio adaptation, narrated by a professional actor, is available from Audible.com.
This is yet another great Silvrberg story which has been optioned as the basis for a motion picture, but there's no word on whether it will ever be produced. It certainly has the kind of paranoid plotting that would lend itself to the screen, and wouldn't even require a lot in the way of special effects.