The Masks of Time

The approach of the millennium provided ripe fodder for cranks, news organizations and science fiction writers. Silverberg's premise is right out of SF101: on Christmas Day1999, in Rome, a man descends from the sky and claims to be from the future. He states he wants to observe us and to take the equivalents of a Middle Age's Grand Tour of out civilizations. Silverberg plays fair in that the reactions are consistent with plausible actuality: skeptics dismiss Vron-19, as he calls himself, as a outright charlatan while a growing segment of the population hails him as a religious figure sent to herald the new Century and the end of the world. Others don't know what to think. The U.S. Government invites Vrom to tour the country accompanied by "guides" who are in reality scientific experts. These CIA-types attempt to extract information and to ascertain if Vrom is a fraud or what. The government encourages belief in Vrom to counteract waves of hedonistic self-destruction by cults preaching doomsday at the end of the century. Thankfully Silverberg skips over the "lurid descriptions of riots and orgies in the streets" for thoughtful dialogs between the science-types and Vrom. At the end we are still left with the question is Vrom a fake or a true time traveler. Robert Silverberg book "The Mask of Time" was a thoughtful and exciting "what if" novel set in 1999. For fans of Silverberg it is well worth reading. The casual readers of science fiction may want to pass because of its "dated" theme.

A sixties book, set on the eve of the Year 2000, and apocalyptic cults are growing and starting to cause problems. On top of this, a man arrives who claims to be from a 1000 years or so in the future, and his presence destabilises things even further. A group of experts is put together in the USA to try and evaluate his claim while taking him on a tour of spots of interest. One of these experts has two married friends, much younger, who live out by themselves in the desert - one of whom is an ex-wunderkind of physics himself, and finds himself fascinated with the so-called time traveller. 3.5 out of 5

Somebody out there finally wised up and started getting these novels back into print. Back in the seventies Robert Silverberg wrote a string of novels that are simply unreal in their consistant high quality. Not only did many of them tackle ideas that SF had merely toyed with or completely ignored but each was a distinct entity. This one isn't as groundbreaking as some of the other, more famous ones (A Time of Changes or Dying Inside being probably the best known) but is an excellent read in its own right. The concept here is blissfully simple and has been tackled dozens of times by other authors . . . a man claiming to be a visitor from the future lands in the present day (in this book 1999, the future when it was written). The man, Vernan-19, states that he is here merely to look around and experience the sights, a team of scientists from a variety of disciplines assigned to escort him aren't so sure, but they can't prove it either way and that inability to prove becomes almost maddening. Silverberg does a good job of twisting expectations around, the book isn't told from the POV of the future guy, but from one of the scientists, whose own work is in the physics of time travel, so Vernan is kept at arm's length. In fact, the central question in the book, whether Vernan is indeed a man from the future or just a faker, is left up in the air, as well as its sister question, just what is his purpose for doing all this? His impact on the world at large is shown in broad detail and for the most part his fictional 1999 feels a lot like ours. The characters are drawn with his usual eye for details, even without seeing into their thoughts the reader gets a good sense of them. What impresses most in this novel is Silverberg's economical style of storytelling, this is a brief book that presents its premise, extrapolates it to entertaining effect and then wraps up, leaving questions dangling in the air. The prose is sharp and lean, with no needless flourishes of flowery sentences to muddle the story. Once past a somewhat slow beginning, it moves at a good clip, never going too fast or lingering on one idea for too long. In the end, the book really isn't about the man from the future, but the people he affects and changes and how they deal with it, and once changed, where they go from there. Not the most attention grabbing of his novels, but excellent in its own quiet way and just as worthy as his other novels from this period. Grab it if you see it.

The Masks of Time (a.k.a. Vornan-19) is one of my favorite Silverberg novels, one of a string of brilliant works he wrote in the late 60s / early 70s.In 1999, on the eve of the millenium, a stranger named Vornan appears mysteriously on Earth, claiming to be a visitor from the future. The government, looking for anything to distract attention from the riots of the Apocalypse cults, welcomes Vornan and sends him on a worldwide tour of Earth in the company of several prominent scientists, each of whom is either trying to debunk him or pump him for information on the future.Short (about 200 pages), engaging, with cleanly drawn and compelling characters, this is Silverberg at his best, and should be a model for aspiring writers of any genre - tell the story well and be done with it.