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Shop nowDownward to the Earth
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Learn moreA lone man must make a journey across a once-colonized alien planet abandoned by mankind when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient.
Gundersen returns to Holman's World seeking atonement for his harsh years as colonial governor. But now this lush, exotic planet of mystery is called by its ancient name of Belzagor, and it belongs once again to its native alien races, the nildoror and the sulidoror. Drawn by its spell, Gundersen begins a harrowing pilgrimage to its mist-shrouded north to witness a strange ritual rebirth that will alter him forever.
This is one of Silverberg's most intense novels and draws heavily on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It puts listeners at the heart of the experience and forces them to ask what they would do in the same circumstances.
Robert Silverberg is the winner of five Hugo and five Nebula awards for his novels and short fiction. His work began appearing during the 1950s; he has received high acclaim for, among many others, such novels as Lord Valentine's Castle (the first in the Majipoor series), Tower of Glass, Dying Inside, and Nightwings.
Bronson Pinchot, Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible’s Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People’s Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.
Reviews
“Blends mysticism, world-building, and literary references in an inventive mix…This is perhaps SF’s finest tribute to Joseph Conrad, both in its keen moral sense and its portrayal of a vividly realized alien forest.”
“Unusual even among Silverberg’s works…in its density of physical detail…A fine novel.”
“A lush and mystical rite-of-passage story which infuses SF with the exotic flavors of Joseph Conrad.”
“A tour de force.”
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