A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple
- Form
- Novelette
- Year
- 1992
Publication history
- 1991: After the King, Hard cover book
- 1993: Best New Science Fiction 7, Robinson Trade paperback
- 1993: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Tenth Annual Collection, St Martins Trade paperback
- 1996: Les Eléphants d'Hannibal, Denol Mass market paperback, in French as Longue nuit de veille au temple
- 2000: Lion Time in Timbuctoo (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 6), Harper & Row Trade paperback, 390 pp.
- 2000: Lion Time in Timbuctoo (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 6), Voyager Trade paperback, 400 pp.
- 2001: Les Elphants d'Hannibal, Gallimard Mass market paperback, 365 pp., in French as Longues nuit de veille au temple
Blurb
(None on file)
Comments
Written at Martin Greenberg's request for After the King, a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien. Two interesting things about this story: Silverberg has never actually read The Lord of the Rings, only The Hobbit, and it is in fact a science fiction story, not fantasy.
Thousands of years in the future, the earth worships the memory of three alien beings who visited during times of great trouble fifteen hundred years in the past. The high priest of the religion is Diriente, Warder of the great temple devoted to the aliens. One evening the groundskeeper comes to him with news of a great discovery beneath the lowest levels of the building, a discovery which will call into question everything that is believed about the saviors of the human race.
Other resources
(None on file)