Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another
- Form
- Novella
- Year
- 1989
Publication history
- 1989: Asimov's June 1989, Magazine
- 1989: Time Gate, Baen Mass market paperback, 277 pp.
- 1990: Best New Science Fiction 4, Robinson Mass market paperback
- 1990: Purjehdus Bysanttiin, Oy Mass market paperback, in Finnish as Tulkoon sotilas - ja myhemmin: viel toinen
- 1990: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventh Annual Collection, St Martins Trade paperback
- 1992: Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1), Bantam Trade paperback, 546 pp.
- 1992: Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1), Bantam Hard cover book, 546 pp.
- 1993: The Secret Sharer (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 2), Grafton Trade paperback, 395 pp.
- 1994: The New Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Baen Mass market paperback
- 1994: Le Nez de Cléopâtre, Denol Hard cover book, 314 pp., in French as Entre un soldat, puis un autre
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise On-line
- 2000: Le Nez de Cléopâtre, Denol Mass market paperback, 320 pp., in French as Entre un soldat, puis un autre
- 2001: Le Nez de Cléopâtre, Gallimard Mass market paperback, 343 pp., in French as Entre un soldat, puis un autre
- 2004: Phases of the Moon, iBooks Trade paperback, 623 pp.
Blurb
(None on file)
Comments
Nominated for Nebula Award for best novelette, 1989. Winner of Hugo Award for best novella, 1990. Possible winner of an award for most punctuation in a story title.
Computer wizards of the 22nd century recreate famous historical personages in their machines and stage virtual meetings between them. Interestingly, Silverberg chose Francisco Pizarro and Socrates for this story instead of more well-known figures. Not that they're unknowns, they're just not obviously dramatic the way Hitler or Napoleon might have been. A very good story, deserving of its accolades. Aside from the computers used to create the AIs, no advanced technology is evident in the story. There is no time travel involved. Simulation is used to defeat the passage of time, in a way.
The scenario is revisited by other authors (Robert Sheckley, Poul Anderson, Gregory Benford and Pat Murphy) in Time Gate and in Time Gate 2 by Benford and Sheckley again with the addition of Christopher Stasheff, Matthew J. Costello, Anne McCaffrey and Karen Haber. Not a bad set of contributors, though Silverberg has remarked how difficult it was to get the others to really follow with the basic idea he came up with.
Other resources
(None on file)