Absolutely Inflexible
- Form
- Short story
- Year
- 1956
Publication history
- 1956: Fantastic Universe July 1956, Magazine
- 1958: New Worlds June 1958, Magazine
- 1962: The Seed of Earth/Next Stop the Stars, Ace Mass market paperback, 253 pp.
- 1966: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Ballantine Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1967: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Sphere Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1970: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Macmillan Hard cover book
- 1970: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Ballantine Mass market paperback, 1970 pp.
- 1970: Voyagers in Time, Tempo Mass market paperback, 208 pp.
- 1971: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Signet Mass market paperback, 239 pp.
- 1973: Die Mrder Mohammeds, Heyne Mass market paperback, in German as Absolut Unbeugsam
- 1979: Le livre d'or de la science-fiction: Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, 448 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
- 1979: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Sphere Mass market paperback, 149 pp.
- 1979: Next Stop the Stars, Dobson Hard cover book
- 1985: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Ace Mass market paperback, 180 pp.
- 1986: Next Stop the Stars, Tor Mass market paperback, 213 pp.
- 1988: Voir l'invisible, Pocket Mass market paperback, 448 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
- 1996: The Road to Nightfall (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 4), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, 347 pp.
- 2000: Alexandria Digital Literature, Alexandria Digital On-line
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise On-line
- 2002: Le Chemin de la nuit: Nouvelles au fil du temps, tome 1, 1953-1970, Flammarion Trade paperback, 727 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
Blurb
(None on file)
Comments
According to the introductory notes in Voyagers in Time, the original magazine
appearance of this story was mutilated by an overly zealous editor.
The story made its debut as it was originally written
in that collection. It's a nifty little time-travel paradox story. In the 28th Century, the Earth has been rid of disease, so germ-ridden time travelers from the past are quarantined at a prison on the moon where they can't infect the world's unprotected population.
Silverberg has written about the genesis of the story, including its indebtedness to Heinlein's By His Bootstraps
.
Other resources
(None on file)