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.