World Inside - Softcover

Silverberg, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765324326 ISBN 13: 9780765324320

Verlag: Orb Trade, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Welcome to Urban Monad 116. Reaching nearly two miles into the sky, the one thousand stories of this building are home to over eight hundred thousand people living in peace and harmony. In the year 2381 with a world population of over seventy-five billion souls, the massive Urbmon system is humanity's salvation.

Life in Urbmon 116 is highly regulated, life is cherished, and the culture of procreation is seen as the highest pinnacle of god's plan. Conflict is abhorred, and any who disturb the peace face harsh punishment-even being sent "down the chute" to be recycled as fertilizer.

Jason Quevedo, a historian, searches records of the twentieth century hoping to find the root of his discontent with the perfection of Urbmon life.

Siegmund Kluver, a young and ambitious administrator, strives to reach the top levels of the Urbmon's government and discovers the civilization's dark truths.

Michael Statler, a computer engineer, harbors a forbidden desire. He dreams of leaving the building-of walking in the open air and visiting the far-off sea. This is a dream he must keep secret. If anyone were to find out, he'd face the worst punishment imaginable.

The World Inside is a fascinating exploration of society and what makes us human, told by a master of speculative fiction.
The World Inside is a 1971 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novella.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert Silverberg has been a professional writer since 1955, widely known for his science fiction and fantasy stories. He is a many-time winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, was named to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2004 was designated as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. His books and stories have been translated into forty languages. Among his best known titles are NIGHTWINGS, DYING INSIDE, THE BOOK OF SKULLS, and the three volumes of the Majipoor Cycle: LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE, MAJIPOOR CHRONICLES, and VALENTINE PONTIFEX. His collected short stories, covering nearly sixty years of work, have been published in nine volumes by Subterranean Press. His most recent book is TALES OF MAJIPOOR (2013), a new collection of stories set on the giant world made famous in LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE. He and his wife Karen and an assorted population of cats live in the San Francisco Bay Area in a sprawling house surrounded by exotic plants.

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The World Inside

By Silverberg, Robert

Orb Books

Copyright © 2010 Silverberg, Robert
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780765324320
Here begins a happy day in 2381. The morning sun is high enough to touch the uppermost .fty stories of Urban Monad 116. Soon the building’s entire eastern face will glitter like the bosom of the sea at daybreak. Charles Mattern’s window, activated by the dawn’s early photons, deopaques. He stirs. God bless, he thinks. His wife yawns and stretches. His four children, who have been awake for hours, now can of.cially start their day. They rise and parade around the bedroom, singing:
God bless, god bless, god bless! God bless us every one! God bless Daddo, god bless Mommo, god bless you and me! God bless us all, the short and tall, Give us fer- til- i-tee!
They rush toward their parents’ sleeping plat­form. Mattern rises and embraces them. Indra is eight, Sandor is seven, Marx is .ve, Cleo is three. It is Charles Mattern’s secret shame that his family is so small. Can a man with only four children truly be said to have reverence for life? But Principessa’s womb no longer .owers. The medics have declared that she will not bear again. At  twenty- seven she is sterile. Mattern is thinking of taking in a second woman. He longs to hear the yowls of an infant again; in any case, a man must do his duty to god.
Sandor says, “Daddo, Siegmund is still  here.”
The child points. Mattern sees. On Principessa’s side of the sleeping platform, curled against the in.ation pedal, lies fourteen- year- old Siegmund Kluver, who had entered the Mat-tern home several hours after midnight to exercise his rights of propinquity. Siegmund is fond of older women. He has become quite notorious in the past few months. Now he snores; he has had a good workout. Mattern nudges him. “Siegmund? Sieg­mund, it’s morning!” The young man’s eyes open. He smiles at Mattern, sits up, reaches for his wrap. He is quite handsome. He lives on the 787th .oor and already has one child and an­other on the way.
“Sorry,” says Siegmund. “I overslept Principessa really drains me. A savage, she is!”
“Yes, she’s quite passionate,” Mattern agrees. So is Sieg­mund’s wife, Mamelon, according to what Mattern has heard. When she is a little older, Mattern plans to try her. Next spring, perhaps.
Siegmund sticks his head under the molecular cleanser. Principessa now has left the bed. Nodding faintly to her hus­band, she kicks the pedal and the platform de.ates swiftly. She begins to program breakfast. Indra, reaching forth a pale, almost transparent little hand, switches on the screen. The wall blossoms with light and color. “Good morning,” says the screen heartily. “The external temperature, if anybody’s in­terested, is 28°. Today’s population .gure at Urbmon 116 is 881,115, which is +102 since yesterday and +14,187 since the .rst of the year. God bless, but  we’re slowing down! Across the way at Urbmon 117 they’ve added 131 since yes­terday, including quads for Mrs. Hula Jabotinsky. She’s eigh t­een and has had seven previous. A servant of god, isn’t she? The time is now 0620. In exactly forty minutes Urbmon 116 will be honored by the presence of Nicanor Gortman, the vis­iting sociocomputator from Hell, who can be recognized by his distinctive outbuilding costume in crimson and ultra ­violet. Dr. Gortman will be the guest of the Charles Mat-terns of the 799th .oor. Of course we’ll treat him with the same friendly blessmanship we show one another. God bless Nicanor Gortman! Turning now to news from the lower levels of Urbmon 116—”
Principessa says, “Hear that, children? We’ll have a guest, and we must be blessworthy toward him. Come and eat.”
When he has cleansed himself, dressed, and breakfasted, Charles Mattern goes to the  thousandth- .oor landing stage to meet Nicanor Gortman. As he rises through the building to the summit, Mattern passes the .oors on which his brothers and sisters and their families live. Three brothers, three sisters. Four of them younger than he, two older. All quite successful. One brother died, unpleasantly, young. Jeffrey. Mattern rarely thinks of Jeffrey. Now he is passing through the .oors that make up Louisville, the administrative sector. In a moment he will meet his guest. Gortman has been touring the tropics and is about to visit a typical urban monad in the temperate zone. Mattern is honored to have been named the of.cial host. He steps out on the landing stage, which is at the very tip of Urb­mon 116. A force- .eld shields him from the .erce winds that sweep the lofty spire. He looks to his left and sees the western face of Urban Monad 115 still in darkness. To his right, Urb­mon 117’s eastern windows sparkle. Bless Mrs. Hula Jabotin­sky and her eleven littles, Mattern thinks. Mattern can see other urbmons in the row, stretching on and on toward the horizon, towers of superstressed concrete three kilometers high, taper­ing ever so gracefully. It is a thrilling sight. God bless, he thinks. God bless, god bless, god bless!
He hears a cheerful hum of rotors. A quickboat is landing. Out steps a tall, sturdy man dressed in  high- spectrum garb. He must surely be the visiting sociocomputator from Hell.
“Nicanor Gortman?” Mattern asks.
“Bless god. Charles Mattern?”
“God bless, yes. Come.”
Hell is one of the eleven cities of Venus, which man has reshaped to suit himself. Gortman has never been on Earth before. He speaks in a slow, stolid way, no lilt in his voice at all; the in.ection reminds Mattern of the way they talk in Urb­mon 84, which Mattern once visited on a .eld trip. He has read Gortman’s papers: solid stuff, closely reasoned. “I particularly liked ‘Dynamics of the Hunting Ethic,’ ” Mattern tells him while they are in the dropshaft. “Remarkable. A revelation.”
“You really mean that?” Gortman asks, .attered.
“Of course. I try to keep up with the better Venusian jour­nals. It’s so fascinating to read about alien customs. Such as hunting wild animals.”
“There are none on Earth?”
“God bless, no,” Mattern says. “We  couldn’t allow that! But I love gaining insight into different ways of life.”
“My essays are escape literature for you?” asks Gortman.
Mattern looks at him strangely. “I don’t understand the ref­erence.”
“Escape literature. What you read to make life on Earth more bearable for yourself.”
“Oh, no. Life on Earth is quite bearable, let me assure you. There’s no need for escape literature. I study offworld jour­nals for amusement. And to obtain a necessary parallax, you know, for my own work,” says Mattern. They have reached the 799th level. “Let me show you my home .rst.” He steps from the  drop- shaft and beckons to Gortman. “This is Shang­hai. I mean, that’s what we call this block of forty .oors, from 761 to 800. I’m in the  next- to- top level of Shanghai, which is a mark of my professional status.  We’ve got  twenty- .ve cities altogether in Urbmon 116. Reykjavik’s on the bottom and Louisville’s on the top.”
“What determines the names?”
“Citizen vote....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Orb Trade
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0765324326
• ISBN 13: 9780765324320
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 258
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland