First published 1968. Sphere paperback, 1983, pp 192, c.60,000 words.
This story is set in Earth’s Third Cycle – sometime in the far future when the high-technological achievements of the Second Cycle have been lost owing to catastrophic hubris. It is a highly inventive world where a reduced human population has become split into specialist guilds and sub-human guildless other creatures. Three persons are making their way on foot to Roum. The protagonist is an old man, a Watcher, Wuellig. The Watchers’ role is to regularly scan the heavens for potential alien invaders. The second of the group is a young woman, a Flier, Avluela, and the third, a strong man, but who is a guildless Changling named Gorman. The society they live in is hierarchical, ruled over by the guild of Dominators, who command city states and live in great luxury, while all around, the rest of the much-reduced population is starving. It is a world reverted to medieval barbarism, but where hints of the old technologies still exist, most notably in Jorslem, to where anyone can make a pilgrimage to be renewed: to be made young again.
Silverberg has a fertile imagination, and he gives it full reign here. Interiors are partly living; for example, lights that can be commanded to move and change intensity. The renewal process is pure hokum, but entertainingly described in a mystical, quasi-religious way that reeks of judgement and re-incarnation. Like in other examples of his work, Silverberg is here examining the meaning of faith and loyalty, hubris and come-uppance. Shall the meek inherit the Earth?
Wuellig is an intelligent observer of the scene. Yet although he can see the evil that results from the absolute power of the Dominators, he is believably a man of his times and finds it hard to break the bonds of loyalty and deference. This forces him into making a morally-suspect bargain. He is an old man, and yet there remains a ghost of his primal sexuality when observing the young woman, and a tinge of jealousy at the vigour of his other companion.
To a degree this book is a picaresque journey through an imagined future, and the plot is slight. Perhaps this is the result of it being three novellas joined together. Silverberg won a novella Hugo for the first part. Nevertheless it does make for a coherent and entertaining story. The three principle characters develop and change in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. At its heart lies a slight exploration of what faith might mean in the far-future. Humans still seeking salvation and redemption. It is an Abrahamic-faith centred view, with no place for other faiths, despite the Fliers coming from Hind – presumably the north of the Indian sub-continent.
Disappointingly this edition is peppered with typos: ‘life’ for lift [p8], ‘unweilding’ for unyielding (presumably) [p19], ‘if’ for of [p35], ‘puet’ for quiet [p57], and many more.
This is a highly entertaining read from an intelligent and able writer who was gifted with a superb imagination.
Wikipedia biography of Silverberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg
Wikipedia summary of the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightwings_(novella)
Others’ reviews of the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/449261.Nightwings?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_20
© William John Graham, April 2024