Seven American Nights
A novella. TOR Double #10 with Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg. Originally published in 1978.
Hugo Award nominee 1979, Nebula Award nominee 1978.
The
first impression one gets of America is that it is not as poor as one
has been told. It is only later that it becomes apparent how much has
been handed down from the previous century. The streets here are paved,
but they are old and broken. There are fine, though decayed, buildings
everywhere (this hotel is one – the Inn of Holidays, it is called),
more modern in appearance than the ones we see at home.
I asked the manager where I should go to see the sights of the city. "There are no tours," he said. "Not any more."
I
set off for the north when I left the hotel. What American cities might
be like if these people thronged the streets then, I cannot imagine.
Even by clearest day, there is the impression of a carnival, of some
mad circus whose performance began a hundred or more years ago and has
not ended yet.
Gene Wolfe
Gene Rodman Wolfe (1931-2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short-story writer and novelist and won many science fiction and fantasy literary awards.
Wolfe is best known for his Book of the New Sun series (four volumes, 1980–83), the first part of his "Solar Cycle". In 1998, Locus magazine ranked it the third-best fantasy novel published before 1990 based on a poll of subscribers that considered it and several other series as single entries.
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