Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Downward to the Earth

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
7.6
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
7.6
7.6
1 Ratings
100
90
80
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
1970

ISBN
  
978-0-451-04497-6

Cover artist
  
3.8/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Pages
  
180 pp

Originally published
  
1970

Publisher
  
Downward to the Earth t2gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcSgw5Ko18hJERi3WK

Media type
  
Genres
  
Novel, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction

Nominations
  
Locus Award for Best Novel

Robert Silverberg books
  
Dying Inside, A Time of Changes, Nightwings, The Book of Skulls, The World Inside

Downward to the Earth is a 1970 science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg. It is a tale of the quest for transcendence (a frequent Silverberg theme) set on another planet, and includes references to Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's classic tale of colonialism, including the name of Kurtz.

Downward to the Earth was originally published as a four-part serial publication, starting in the November 1969 edition of Galaxy Science Fiction. It was nominated for a Locus Award in 1971.

Plot summary

Edmund Gunderson was the Terran administrator of the colony world of Belzagor, and he returns to it after it has gained independence, feeling a sense of guilt for the way he has treated its dominant species, the elephant-like nildoror, whose animalistic appearance had kept Gunderson from taking them seriously as sentient beings. On his return, he feels a new sense of kinship with the natives, perhaps more than for the Terran tourists. The nildoror undergo a process of rebirth, and Gunderson’s greatest guilt comes from having denied rebirth to seven nildoror to make them help him repair flood damage. He encounters his old colleague Jeff Kurtz, who had undergone the rebirth ceremony only to be turned into something monstrous. Nevertheless, Gunderson dares to subject himself to the rebirth ceremony, which brings him a new understanding of the native creatures and new powers by which he can heal Kurtz and bring new understanding to others.

References

Downward to the Earth Wikipedia


Similar Topics