In addition to exploring Silverberg’s career, now in its sixth decade, this collection of transcribed conversations delves into aspects of Silverberg’s life—such as his extensive travel, passion for film, opera and classical music—not covered elsewhere.
A decade-and-a-half-long friendship, and working together on When the Blue Shift Comes, afforded Alvaro the opportunity to speak at length with Silverberg. The result: a remarkably candid series of conversations that will be of interest to science fiction readers and anyone curious about the writing life.
"I only wish the book was twice as a long."
--GEORGE R. R. MARTIN, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series
"Outstanding."
--LAWRENCE BLOCK, author of the P.I. Matthew Scudder series
"Zinos-Amaro is a skilled interviewer and Silverberg a brilliant polymath looking back at a long life well spent... I learned something on every page."
--NANCY KRESS, author of Yesterday's Kin
"Silverberg is as brilliant as you expect him to be, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro knows how to bring that brilliance out of him. An excellent and important book."
--MIKE RESNICK, author of Santiago
"A fascinating portrait of the artist, and a very nice supplement to his wonderful novels and stories."
--KIM STANLEY ROBINSON, author of Aurora
"Readers have long shared in Silverberg's joy of discovery. Now, Bob and Alvaro's perceptive dialog allows us to discover the brilliant man behind the writing."
--SHEILA WILLIAMS, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction
"This is your best chance to peer into the life and mind of the legendary Robert Silverberg--take it."
--JACK SKILLINGSTEAD, author of Life on the Preservation
"In this revealing interview collection, Zinos-Amaro chats with Grand Master Robert Silverberg about his extensive travels across the globe, his love of opera film and classical music as well as writing. This is a candid look into the mind of one of the field's most respected writers."
--JOHN DENARDO, Kirkus Reviews feature
"Though seemingly casual, compactly conveys a strong sense of the author's personal and literary world."
--JOHN CLUTE, in the SF Encyclopedia
"Conversations revelatory of both personal and literary history, evocative of a vanished era... Zinos-Amaro probes his subject with well-educated, perceptive questions about everything under the sun, eliciting a telling verbal portrait of both men in the process... Zinos-Amaro generously throws open the floor to questions from "the audience." He never insists on forcing the conversation down predetermined paths if more alluring detours arise. And he is utterly simpatico with his older peer. In short, this book is the next best thing to hanging out with Silverberg himself, and a vital addition to the historical record of our genre."
--PAUL DI FILIPPO, Locus Online
"... a series of conversations with Robert Silverberg is a safe bet. The interviews cover his own work, writing in general, his political views, his career and relationships with other writers... The selection of questions is excellent... this is on balance one of the better collections of interviews I've read."
--DON D'AMMASSA, author of the Encylopedia of Science Fiction
