Time of Changes

No action, no revolutionary technology... quite political/social actually. Its all about Kinnall Darival and his journey from royalty to bureaucrat to dissident to fugitive. Not a difficult book to read although the beginning was a little tedious. Thought provoking piece.

I have to concur with a fellow reviewer - there is very little here that is science fiction. However, the science fiction genre releases the novel from some restrictive bounds and allows Silverberg to fully develop his ideas. The story: a planet has been settled by what I call "Catholic Puritans" - religious fundamentalists that believe self-containment and self-effacement are the keys to a stable society. They retain the idea of confessional (called "draining") to allow some relief from the totality of self-reliance. Referring to oneself directly (i.e. use of the pronouns I, we, etc.) is a sin, as well as burdoning someone (other than a Drainer) with any personal problems.Into this society is born Kinnall, a noble. He meets an Earthman (with no such cultural conditioning) who introduces to him a drug that allows, for a short time, the direct communication between minds. Kinnall comes to the realisation that to know someone is to truly love him, and sets out to spread his newfound knowledge with the fervor of a prophet, even though it is illegal.The story, while interesting, is not the reason to read the book. It is a superbly crafted tale, told in the first person by Kinnall, so you come to be immersed in the culture and morals of the society. The background is so consistently maintained that you feel it is a real place (or, that it could be a real place) and philosophy.This is not really so much a science fiction tale as a parallel tale (rebuttal?) to the sexual revolution of the late '60's. The technology is similar (for example, they have automobiles), although the government system is more autocratic. Instead of sex, however, it is friendship and brotherly love that are the revolutionary concepts. One could argue that such a revolution has not yet occurred on Earth, and we could certainly use it! This book is not meant to preach, but is an immersing experience that is both enjoyable and a little thought-provoking.

Gee, look at this another out of print and utterly awesome Robert Silverberg book, how the author himself can let all these great books of his go out of print is totally beyond me, sometimes I think that the chance that a book will stay in print is inversely proportional to how good it is (check out my comments on the Helliconia books by Aldiss for more of those rants). Needless to say this one was awarded either the Hugo or Nebula or both and it darn well deserved it (and I think there was some stiff competition that year). Unlike the shift at the time toward "hard science fiction" (Ringworld had just come out the year before and changed all the rules about scientific accuracy), Silverberg fills his novel more with ideas and feelings, using the medium to ultimately make comments that can apply to us and showing us the necessity to know yourself so you can know others. In a nutshell, the book details the story of a man named Kinnall who lives on a planet where selfhood is totally abolished, everyone talks in the third person ("one this and one that") and some talk totally in the passive voice and basically people close off to one another completely. Into this world comes an Earthman with a drug that can break down the barriers between people and let you enter into their minds and upon tasting it, Kinnall embarks on a quest to let his world know about love and knowing each other. The book is told in devastatingly searing prose, and Kinnall's observations are always poignant, you can feel his conviction for his cause and get a feel for the emotional barreness of a world where the words "I love you" are a total abomination. While not as intense as Dying Inside, this one further served to cement Silverberg's reputation as one of the best authors of the seventies. Probably one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, if only for its complete examination of a society where self baring is a crime, it deserves to be read even today and its message taken to heart. If you don't know yourself, you can never know anyone else. Who says reading never teaches you anything important?