The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume Two: To the Dark Star

This story, "To See the Invisible Man," written in June of 1962, marks the beginning of my real career as a science-fiction writer, I think. The 1953-58 stories collected in To Be Continued, the first of this series of volumes, are respectable professional work, some better than others but all of them at least minimally acceptable – but most of them could have been written by just about anyone. Aside from a few particularly ambitious items, they were designed to slip unobtrusively into the magazines of their time, efficiently providing me with regular paychecks. But now, by freeing me from the need to calculate my way around the risk of rejection, Fred Pohl allowed – indeed, required – me to reach as deep into my literary resources as I was capable of doing. I knew that unless I gave him my very best, the wonderful guaranteed-sale deal I had with him would vanish as quickly as it had appeared. Therefore I would reach deeper and deeper, in the years ahead, until I had moved so far away from my youthful career as a hack writer that latecomers would find it hard to believe that I had been emotionally capable of writing all that junk, let alone willing to do it. In "To See the Invisible Man" the distinctive Silverberg fictional voice is on display for just about the first time.

– Robert Silverberg

Contents:

• Introduction
• To See The Invisible Man
• The Pain Peddlers
• Neighbor
• The Sixth Palace
• Flies
• Halfway House
• To The Dark Star
• Hawksbill Station
• Passengers
• Bride 91
• Going Down Smooth
• Fangs of the TREES
• Ishmael in Love
• Ringing the Changes
• Sundance
• How It Was When the Past Went Away
• A Happy Day in 2381
• (Now + n, Now - n )
• After the Myths Went Home
• The Pleasure of Their Company
• We Know Who We Are