A Time of Changes

May 09, 2012 Lyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A Time for Changes by Robert Silverberg is difficult to rate and even more difficult to review. I can begin by saying that I liked it.

Silverberg tells a good story, he’s a fine writer and his narration draws the reader in. Set in the distant future, on a planet inhabited by humans for thousands of years, but still with the knowledge of far off earth as an anachronistic home, we follow the life of Kenal, second son of a king in a strictly primogeniture hierarchy. The world is also strictly in th ...more

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Sep 05, 2015 Brad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, worldbuilding-sf, 2016-shelf

This is a surprisingly different read.

At the very first, I thought it was going to be an alien-Odyssey, a SF treatment of the greek legend, with just a hint of something truly interesting, culturally, in that the entire race, or nearly the entire race, is devoted to self-abnegation.

Imagine, then, instead of relying on the world-building adventure that it began with, it turned into a very distinctive novel of the drug culture that reflects 1971 perfectly, changing Ulysses into Timothy Leary, and This is a surprisingly different read.

At the very first, I thought it was going to be an alien-Odyssey, a SF treatment of the greek legend, with just a hint of something truly interesting, culturally, in that the entire race, or nearly the entire race, is devoted to self-abnegation.

Imagine, then, instead of relying on the world-building adventure that it began with, it turned into a very distinctive novel of the drug culture that reflects 1971 perfectly, changing Ulysses into Timothy Leary, and instead of being a Lotus Eater, he's become an LSD-like proponent of a drug that allows limited telepathy.

And then the cultural cool-bit now comes to the fore as the full and major plot point, because it is considered evil to say "I", and it's even more evil to say "I love you." How much worse is it when you can see right into the heart and mind of someone else who takes the drug with you? Is it a mystical entwining, an exploration of love and understanding? Or is it, as everyone else seems to think, a twisted aberration, an illegal and immoral pastime, or the destruction of everything good and right in the world? The tale of the gods does hold a moral, after all.

Honestly, I've read a lot of great drug-culture books, fiction and non-fiction, but this reads as one of the very best, exploring the highlights and the problems within our own culture and especially of the 60's and 70's. Not only is it a fascinatingly good story in its own right, but it reflects our world in equal measure, serving a dual duty nearly effortlessly.

Just a warning, though, for you readers who might get turned off by free-sex and shameless, almost laughable pornography: The novel has it. Just remember the times. It's all about throwing off the shackles of the accepted norm, after all, whether it's conformity, sexual repression, or opening your mind to new experiences. If you keep that in mind, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this novel in the spirit it is offered.

Oh, and by the way, it was nominated for '72 Hugo and won the '71 Nebula. Interesting, no? ...more

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Aug 07, 2014 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Robert Silverberg is a legend, one of the all-time greats, and among these all-time greats he is probably the most underrated. He has Hugo and Nebula Awards up the wazoo but is relatively unknown compared to the giants of the genre like Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, IMHO he belongs up there with them in term of accolades.

A Time of Changes is one of his best novels if his Goodreads page is anything to go by. However, if you have never read anything by Silverberg before you may want to start with Robert Silverberg is a legend, one of the all-time greats, and among these all-time greats he is probably the most underrated. He has Hugo and Nebula Awards up the wazoo but is relatively unknown compared to the giants of the genre like Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, IMHO he belongs up there with them in term of accolades.

A Time of Changes is one of his best novels if his Goodreads page is anything to go by. However, if you have never read anything by Silverberg before you may want to start with something more immediately accessible like Lord Valentine s Castle or Dying Inside. That said A Time of Changes is indeed an extremely good and unusual book. If you are in the mood for a thought provoking (but not action packed) book by all means dive straight into this one.

The novel gets off to a slow start and never really shifts into high gear. However, once you immerse into the story, characters and settings the fascination sets in, and the slow pace becomes a kind of virtue.

“this planet was settled by men who had strong religious beliefs, who specifically came here to preserve them, and who took great pains to instill them in their descendants.”

In a nutshell, the story is set on a human colony planet called Velada Borthan where intimacy is taboo and self-denial is the norm. Their society operates under a Covenant that prohibits opening up one’s feelings except to a designated bondbrother and bondsister. The usage of first person pronouns “I” and “me” is considered obscene. The title of the book refers to the protagonist Kinnall Darival’s discovery of a drug that forms a temporary telepathic link between the drinkers. After his first experience with the drug, it becomes clear that the Covenant is preventing people from intimacy, and thereby from understanding and loving each other.

It is actually fairly difficult to synopsize this book briefly and interestingly but it really is a wonderful thought experiment that explores human relationship, religiosity, and empathy. A culture where people build walls around themselves to keep everybody at a distance and human interactions are always impersonal have far-reaching implications. In some way, it is an allegory for impersonal, taciturn human relationships we often encounter in real life.

I hesitate to call A Time of Changes a “difficult book” as the narrative style is straightforward, and even the timeline is almost completely linear (except for the frame story at the beginning and the end) with only one plot stand and point of view. The possible difficulty lies in the unusual theme and slow, contemplative pacing. As usual, Robert Silverberg writes beautiful literary prose without lapsing into excessively lyrical passages. There is even some mild humour in the “polite circumlocution” dialogue which is the norm for this planet. For example:

”I should not have said, “One would have a room,” but rather, “Is there a room to be had? ” At a restaurant, it is wrong to say, “One will dine on thus and thus,” but rather, “These are the dishes that have been chosen.” And so on and so on, twisting everything into a cumbersome passive form to avoid the sin of acknowledging one’s own existence.”

In writing this review I find that while I love the book I can not sell it very well because it is not a “fun read” as such, unless you enjoy pondering thought experiments. If you read this book and dismiss it as “boring” you may want to pause to examine what you want from a novel. If it is purely entertainment then this may not be the book for you. If you enjoy imagining how our society may operating under very different sets of rules A Time of Changes is endlessly fascinating. The Nebula Award (1971) for Best Novel is well deserved. ...more

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Aug 10, 2008 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, award-nominee-hugo, award-nominee-locus, multiple-award-nominee, award-winner-nebula, award-nominee-prometheus, audiobook, humans-rule-the-galaxy, 1970-1979, alien-cultures

4.0 to 4.5 stars Another intelligent and provocative story by Robert Silverberg who seems to have a real gift for evocative stories. This strong, emotional tale involves the journey of a repressed member of a repressed society to open himself up and find his “self."

The novel is set on a distant planet (originally colonized from an Earth over-populated and polluted). The planet's population lives by the "Covenant" whose most notable characteristic is the complete and utter denial of "self." Words ...more

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May 02, 2013 Stuart rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, new-wave-sf, distant-worlds, humanistic-sf

This is one of Silverberg’s best novels from his most prolific and creative period in the late 1960s/early 1970s, along with Downward to the Earth and Dying Inside.

It’s about a repressive human society on a distant planet called Borthan, in which the terms “I” and “myself” are obscenities, and “self-bearing” is a serious crime. It’s the story of Kinnall Darival, the second son of a Plutarch (essentially a prince), who must leave his home to avoid being a threat to his older brother’s claim to r This is one of Silverberg’s best novels from his most prolific and creative period in the late 1960s/early 1970s, along with Downward to the Earth and Dying Inside.

It’s about a repressive human society on a distant planet called Borthan, in which the terms “I” and “myself” are obscenities, and “self-bearing” is a serious crime. It’s the story of Kinnall Darival, the second son of a Plutarch (essentially a prince), who must leave his home to avoid being a threat to his older brother’s claim to rulership. When he encounters an Earthman trader named Schweiz, he forms an intimate bond that would be unacceptable with others of his kind, and when the Earthman introduces him to a mind-altering drug that allows a direct and complete telepathic sharing of the souls of both users, this breaks down the rigid bonds inside him and catalyzes him to form a new movement (perhaps religion is more accurate) to open up others to their own feelings, since they must “learn to love themselves in order to love others”. The idea of using drugs to break down the artificial barriers of society and the mind is a vintage 1960s/1970s theme.

In surprising ways, this book resembled Evgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924) and Ayn Rand’s Anthem (1938) since it depicted a repressive society that demonizes the individual, venerates the group, and suppresses private feelings. In both books, the concept of “I” is forbidden, and people have numbers in place of names. However, those early dystopian classics were written by Russian emigrates who had escaped oppressive totalitarian regimes, and forcibly showed the dangers of suppressing free will and individualism. What is most interesting is that Anthem came to a radically different conclusion from A Time of Changes. Instead of exhorting readers to love themselves and others and break down barriers, Ayn Rand pushes her famous philosophy of objectivity, which emphasizes self-interest, reason, and individual freedom. Despite the outward similarities of concept, the messages couldn’t be any more different.

I was also strongly reminded of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Both novels are set on distant planets settled by humanity but relatively isolated and somewhat undeveloped technologically. In LeGuin’s Gethen, the population consists of hermaphrodites that assume male and female aspects only when in heat (“kemmer”). When a human envoy named Genly Ai arrives, he goes through great difficulties understanding their cultures and recognizing his own shortcomings and gender biases. The plot has a lot of similarities as Genly’s companion Estraven is a powerful bureaucrat that is forced into exile and must hide in various guises as he travels to various kingdoms. This is similar to Kinnall Darival’s story, the second son of a septarch who must go into exile and disguise himself for political reasons at first, and later because he tries to spread the seditious new religion of self-discovery. Both books are journeys of self-discovery featuring spiritual awakenings and are highly recommended. ...more

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Mar 25, 2016 Ivan Lutz rated it liked it

Nije loša, iako malčice zamorna. Fino zamišljen svijet i politički ustroj. (Npr. ne smiješ o sebi govoriti u prvom licu). Orginalna ideja. Silverbergova kritika na Zemljane i opijate jer jasna kao dan. Otvoren kraj je fino zamišljen, ali ipak romanu fali ono nešto. Osvojio je Nebulu, bio nominiran za Hugo i Locus, vjerojatno zbog te orginalnosti.
Što se stila tiče, ovo je malčice drugačiji Silverberg od onoga na kojega smo naviknula, ali i dalje tečan, jasan i vrlo vrlo jednostavan. Ne skrivam d ...more

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Jan 18, 2015 David rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

When settlers first colonized Borthan, they set up a society and a religion called "The Covenant" that makes "self-bearing" into a taboo. People cannot share their deepest thoughts with others, with the sole exception being one's "bond brother" and "bond sister". One can never say the words "I" or "me", because that indicates a sort of self-infatuation, or "self bearing". Those words are the most terribly obscene words one can possibly utter.

This science fiction novel is written as an autobiogr ...more

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Oct 17, 2013 Amy Sturgis rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction-vintage, 20th-century, nebula-award

This 1971 novel won the Nebula Award and was nominated for the Hugo, but I have to confess I found it to be quite underwhelming.

Robert Silverberg offers a first-person memoir of a future human (descended from Earthlings) on a far distant planet. In his society words like "I" and "me" are considered obscenities. Burdening others with one's individuality, sharing one's self with them, is held to be a sin that should be limited whenever possible. When he meets a man from Earth with a rare and illeg This 1971 novel won the Nebula Award and was nominated for the Hugo, but I have to confess I found it to be quite underwhelming.

Robert Silverberg offers a first-person memoir of a future human (descended from Earthlings) on a far distant planet. In his society words like "I" and "me" are considered obscenities. Burdening others with one's individuality, sharing one's self with them, is held to be a sin that should be limited whenever possible. When he meets a man from Earth with a rare and illegal drug that allows individuals to fuse their consciousnesses, the protagonist questions and ultimately rebels against his culture's taboos, and he pays the price for his heresy.

The novel has problems. First, the world-building seems poorly thought out. If individuality and personal pride and sharing are evil -- if people must deflect attention from self by saying "one" instead of "I" or "me" -- why do they have personal names and take pleasure in having namesakes, for instance? Over and over again, when inconsistencies reared their heads, it occurred to me that Yevgeny Zamyatin (We) and George Orwell (1984) offered far more sophisticated explorations of how institutions may (try to) control language and how language in turn affects identity and self-perception, and they did it half a century before Silverberg wrote this.

Second, for the main character's "time of changes" to have the proper impact, the reader should empathize with him in some way and appreciate the depth and drama of his awakening and transformation. Instead, he's about as unsympathetic as they come: flat, uninspiring, oddly two-dimensional, and at times genuinely annoying. (I recognize there was a literary reason for his rambling discussions of his impressive genital size and premature ejaculation issues, but I won't miss them, that's for certain.)

Third, the novel comes across as dated in a way that novels a century older or more do not because of Silverberg's handling of the consciousness-expanding drug. It bears all the hallmarks of a late-sixties/early-seventies flirtation with the counterculture -- from a safe distance. Karin Boye's depiction of a "sharing" drug in 1940's Kallocain is far more nuanced; for that matter, Robert Heinlein's exploration of the counterculture in Stranger in a Strange Land (published ten years before A Time of Changes) is far more challenging.

In short, if I can be forgiven for collapsing my review into LOLcat speech, I see what Silverberg's doing there, but he's doing it wrong. Or, to be more precise, everything this novel attempts has been done better elsewhere by others. ...more

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Oct 04, 2016 Rachel (Kalanadi) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, winners-nebulas

This book is far, far too preoccupied with its leading man's premature ejaculation.

The repetitive fact that he puts his penis in many willing receptacle women - but never sticks it in the one woman he truly lusts after - really distracted me from the story where he learns to bare his soul... or be human...

....
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Guys, he gets high on a drug and it changes his life.

The End.

In case you're wondering, (view spoiler) ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 Sandy rated it it was amazing

After four years of successive losses, sci-fi great Robert Silverberg finally picked up his first Nebula Award in 1972. His 1967 novel "Thorns" had lost to Samuel R. Delany's "The Einstein Intersection," his brilliant '68 novel "The Masks of Time" had been bested by Alexei Panshin's equally brilliant "Rite of Passage," '69's time travel tale "Up the Line" had succumbed to Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness," while 1970's unforgettable "Tower of Glass" had been beaten by Larry Niven's After four years of successive losses, sci-fi great Robert Silverberg finally picked up his first Nebula Award in 1972. His 1967 novel "Thorns" had lost to Samuel R. Delany's "The Einstein Intersection," his brilliant '68 novel "The Masks of Time" had been bested by Alexei Panshin's equally brilliant "Rite of Passage," '69's time travel tale "Up the Line" had succumbed to Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness," while 1970's unforgettable "Tower of Glass" had been beaten by Larry Niven's "Ringworld." But in '72, Silverberg finally copped the top prize given out by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, winning for his superb novel "A Time of Changes" and prevailing over Le Guin's "The Lathe of Heaven" and novels by Kate Wilhelm, Poul Anderson, T.J. Bass and R.A. Lafferty. ("A Time of Changes" was also nominated for the Hugo Award, ultimately losing to Philip Jose Farmer's "To Your Scattered Bodies Go.") Originally appearing in the March - May '71 issues of "Galaxy" magazine, the novel was released as a hardcover book in June of that year, and in conjunction with the author's three other remarkable novels of 1971--"The Second Trip," "Son of Man" and "The World Inside"--demonstrate what a tremendous roll Silverberg was on during this phase of his lengthy career.

"A Time of Changes" takes the form of a memoir written by the fugitive prince Kinnall Darival, who pens his story in the desertlike Burnt Lowlands of the planet Borthan, at least 1,000 years from today. Darival is currently the most wanted man on the planet, and his story explains why. First settled by Earthmen a millennium earlier, Borthan--or, at least, Velada Borthan, the only continent that has been civilized--is now a society run in conformity with the dictates of their "Covenant." It is a society that severely frowns on any demonstration of the self. Speaking of one's feelings to another has been proscribed, to the point that even the use of such words as "I" and "myself" are deemed more offensive than the 21st century "F bomb." Indeed, one may only speak of such intimate matters to one's bondsister or bondbrother (everyone, apparently, gets two) or to the professional "drainers," who, in their quasireligious manner, seem to combine the attributes of both analyst and paid confessor. As Darival tells us from his crumbling shack in the middle of the burning desert, he had been forced to leave his province of Salla when his older brother, Stirron, had assumed the position of septarch, following the death of their father. He had found little welcome in the northern, ascetic province of Glin, and so had worked his way down to the southern, tropical province of Manneran, where he had wed the look-alike cousin of his bondsister Halum (who he'd been shamefully in love with), raised a family and risen to a position of prominence. All was going well with him until he'd encountered the roving Earthman named Schweiz, who made him realize what a repressive society he lived in, and with whom he'd partaken of a drug from the uncivilized southern continent of Sumara Borthan, which enabled its users to enter one another's minds and (gasp!) share feelings. And Darival's crimes were only compounded when, in company with Schweiz, he'd traveled to the unknown continent to get more of the drug, and come back to "turn on" the populace to a new covenant of love, feelings and mutual understanding....

"A Time of Changes" is a beautifully written book, and as it turns out, Kinnall Darival is almost as good a writer as Silverberg himself (LOL!). He is an immensely likable and self-effacing man, imposing physically yet constantly telling the reader about his perceived "shortcomings" (such as his premature ejaculation problem), and his slow conversion from upright observer of the puritanical Covenant to a messiah of free love is wonderful to behold. The world of Borthan is meticulously described by the author, down to its history, geography, customs, flora and fauna, and can almost be seen as a warm-up for Silverberg's most elaborately detailed planet, Majipoor (although it took him eight novels and change to flesh out THAT world fully). Very much a novel of its time, with its emphasis on drugs and "soul sharing" and the liberating power of love, the book retains its great effectiveness today, over four decades later. As for that Sumaran drug, it is described in a manner that forcefully brings to mind LSD, especially when Kinnall and Schweiz spill the powder into some wine, drink it down, and wait a 1/2 hour or so for the effects to manifest. Those initial effects DO seem reminiscent of the lysergic experience, too, although no acid that I have ever heard of, unfortunately, enabled soul-to-soul telepathy between its users. A pity. As in "Son of Man" (an extremely psychedelic, borderline unreadable book that makes one wonder about the extent of Silverberg's own drug experiments during that period!), our lead character here gets to know what it feels like to be a woman (by doing the drug with his mistress); as does the telepath David Selig in the author's 1972 novel "Dying Inside," our lead character also gets to experience a "double orgasm" (while doing the drug and having sex with that same woman). The book is absolutely compelling, fascinating and charming; a true "page-turner" that even contains some traces of genuine humor (in an apparent nod to "Star Trek," the shipmaster who takes Kinnall and Schweiz to the southern continent is named...Capt. Khrisch!). "My prose has its faults," Darival tells us at one point in his history, but there were certainly none that this reader could discern. In all, this is yet another wonderful creation from Mr. Silverberg, one of the best of the 15 or so that I have read so far, and surely deserving of that Nebula Award. To put it succinctly, and in a phrase that would surely shock and appall most of the inhabitants of Velada Borthan, "As for myself, I loved it!" ...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Matt rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of Robert Silverburg, British sci-fi, or soft sci-fi

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

'A Time of Changes' is classic Robert Silverburg of the sort that he rightly recieves acclaim for, but it suffers in my opinion from the fact that Silverburg makes no attempt at all to really maintain the fantastic conceit which is at the heart of the story. That conceit of the story is a world where self-deprication is so esteemed as virtuous and putting oneself forward is likewise deemed immoral, that no one is allowed to refer to oneself in the first person. The pronoun 'I' therefore is a tru 'A Time of Changes' is classic Robert Silverburg of the sort that he rightly recieves acclaim for, but it suffers in my opinion from the fact that Silverburg makes no attempt at all to really maintain the fantastic conceit which is at the heart of the story. That conceit of the story is a world where self-deprication is so esteemed as virtuous and putting oneself forward is likewise deemed immoral, that no one is allowed to refer to oneself in the first person. The pronoun 'I' therefore is a true profanity within the culture eliciting outrage from all hearers and bring harsh censure on those that would use it. Likewise intimacy is criminal, and no one is allowed to discuss thier inner thoughts and feelings and indeed is encouraged to act as if they have none. But Silverburg makes no real sustained attempt to write in this mode, nor does he offer us a real window into the thoughts of someone who has, by the standards of the world, properly lived in such self-denial. Instead, the narrator of the story is recounting past events after having obtained a more familiar sense of the value of self, and as such the story lacks some of the punch it might have if the narrator's new self-awareness was concealed until a more dramatic point in the story. Whenever maintaining the conceit is difficult in the narrative, Silverburg simply drops it and so you never quite feel the setting lives anywhere other than in the story. The setting never quite achieves existance as an interesting mental toy for the reader to play with and ponder, and we are left to do the invention that the author left undone.

That said, this is Robert Silverburg, and the story is well written and reasonably gripping. I particularly like how the sharing of self and the mingling of the self with the other leads not to a less defined or nebulous sense of self, but a greater and more refined one. This easily could have been a five star work had Silverburg managed to maintain the central conciet, and even so its still easy to see why this story won the Nebula for 1971. ...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a brilliant piece of thoughtful science fiction. As has been said elsewhere, this is science fiction that is really dealing with the times in which the book was written. The story takes place in a far future where refering to one's self in the first person or sharing one's innermost thoughts is largely banned. After encountering a former resident of Earth, the protagonist learns of a drug (a drug that sounds eerily like cocaine) that allows the users to delve within each others innermost ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Denis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hardcover, b-c

An excellently written novel by Silverberg. It is written in the form of a memoir by one who has gone into hiding after taking on a mission to change the ways of his world by freeing its citizens of the covenants constraint of the forbidden practice of acknowledgment of one's self. Had Silverberg come up with this idea and attempted this in the 1950's, it might have a pulpier title like, "The Man Who Dared Say "I". I'm glad the idea struck him twenty years later.

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Oct 27, 2014 fromcouchtomoon rated it really liked it

Gripping on-the-run memoir of an alien from a repressed culture seeking communal enlightenment via drugs. Hippie hallmarks of sex and psychedelics, but aged well.

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Nov 04, 2013 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A Time of Change is told as the memoir of Lord Kinnall Darival, exiled prince of Salla who has come to know the self. On Borthan—founded by stern, stoic humans of northern stock—personal pronouns are obscene, self-concern is a sin, and the worst crime is to let loose emotions that should be buried deep inside. “I love you” is a more vile obscenity to this culture than “fuck off” is to ours. This set of social norms that prohibit acknowledgement and repress the self is the Covenant, and the rule A Time of Change is told as the memoir of Lord Kinnall Darival, exiled prince of Salla who has come to know the self. On Borthan—founded by stern, stoic humans of northern stock—personal pronouns are obscene, self-concern is a sin, and the worst crime is to let loose emotions that should be buried deep inside. “I love you” is a more vile obscenity to this culture than “fuck off” is to ours. This set of social norms that prohibit acknowledgement and repress the self is the Covenant, and the rule of the Covenant is the rule of law supported by the teachings of the gods. The only outlets for the deepest secrets of one’s self are one’s bond-brother and bond-sister—friends close enough to be siblings, assigned at birth—and the drainers, an almost religious sect who “drain” the internal burdens of their clients, bound by oath to reveal none of what they hear.

Kinnall’s memoir takes him from his younger days at the court of his father, the Prime Septarch of Salla, through his torturous exile and road to growth, culminating in his meetings with the Earthman, Schweiz, who picks apart what little of tradition Kinnall’s retained. The taking of a telepathic drug from the far south that expands consciousness and melds minds sets Kinnall on a self-appointed mission to enlighten his planet and allow his peers to bare their souls. But there are those who do not tolerate anyone changing the status quo, and Kinnall’s message of love and peace comes to a world that has long buried its emotions in favor of distance.

At its core, the novel asks the loaded question “What is self?” in a similar vein to Philip K. Dick asking “What is human?” The planet Borthan doesn’t know, having long forgotten and repressed expressions of their earthly ancestors. Kinnall himself comes across as always confused by his world’s rigid social standings and distanced lack of emotions, going through its motions but failing to grasp its meaning, always questioning its purpose. A rebel not quite able to rebel. He comes to view himself through his connections to others—his love for his bond-sister, his friendship with the strange Schweiz. By the end, he’s become so enthralled by his own visions and hopes of becoming his world’s savior from the Covenant, and spirals towards his own doom as a Christ-like figure.

I can see why it was so popular back in the day, but I don’t feel it’s aged as well as the best novels of the time. Certainly, I think there are some stronger Silverberg books to consider. The distance between the narrator and the reader creates an awkward gap in a novel about bringing people closer together, and reading was slow going at times. That isn’t to say the novel is without merit. It’s a very smart book that leaves you with a lot to consider, and handles limitations of the self well. The lack of “I” and “Me” reads like a serious authorial attempt and not like some gimmick. Silverberg was no slouch in his prime, nor were the Nebula voters fools. So, kind of a mixed bag: great ideas, decent execution, but there's just something lacking compared to Silverberg's other classics from this era.

Full review found here.
...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Michele rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi_general

My reactions to Silverberg are very uneven. I absolutely loved the creepy yet alluring The Book of Skulls and the dystopian The World Inside but have never been able to get into, let alone finish, any of his Majipoor series which he seems to be so well known for. This one left me ambivalent. I think sometimes he tries a little too hard with his social messages -- in this case, I suppose, the value of love (published in 1971, surprise, surprise).

The main character, Kinnall Darival, is a member of My reactions to Silverberg are very uneven. I absolutely loved the creepy yet alluring The Book of Skulls and the dystopian The World Inside but have never been able to get into, let alone finish, any of his Majipoor series which he seems to be so well known for. This one left me ambivalent. I think sometimes he tries a little too hard with his social messages -- in this case, I suppose, the value of love (published in 1971, surprise, surprise).

The main character, Kinnall Darival, is a member of the upper classes on a world settled several thousand years ago by religious fundamentalists (specific type not mentioned but one suspects a virulent strain of Puritans). The original settlers built into their world the Covenant, a socio-religious structure that requires people to keep their private joys and sorrows -- indeed all their emotions -- strictly private and bother no one else with them. This suppression of the self is so extreme that the words "I" and "me" have become obscenities and the greatest sin/crime is "self-baring."

Recognizing, I suppose, that people have to be able to talk to someone the Covenant provides two outlets, one religious and one secular. The religious outlet are the Drainers, to whom one can go for something like confession, while the secular outlet takes the form of bondsisters and bondbrothers (everyone has one of each). Even with these people one doesn't use the words "I" or "me", however.

Kinnall is introduced to a drug that allows people to essentially mind-meld, literally wander through each others' minds like shoppers at a bazaar, picking up this memory and that, and seeing themselves through each other eyes. This brings Kinnall to a realization that the Covenant is outmoded, damaging, unhealthy and he begins to proselytize (secretly), recruiting others to take the drug. Although his bondsister and bondbrother don't share his views, they don't abandon him; they help him escape for a time, but in the end Kinnall is arrested and taken away, his fate unknown.

The idea is intriguing but I'm not sure how well executed it was. Silverberg's writing is good enough to draw you in past the plot holes (the biggest being that if the first person singular is abhorrent, why is the second person singular OK? If it's a sin to recognize myself as "I" why is it OK to recognize someone else as "you"?) but ultimately I didn't find it particularly satisfying. Kinnall's interlude where he becomes so focused on the drug-induced sharing that he doesn't bother going to work and forgets about personal hygiene make the drug seem a lot less attractive. Perhaps Silverberg's point is that their society is so broken that it takes drastic measure to fix it? Or maybe he tried LSD at some point in the 60s and thought it was great (Kinnall's last experience with the drug sounds an awful lot like Timothy Leary's mind expansion, and his bondbrother and bondsister suffer what sounds very much like a "bad trip" when they try it).

I give it a resounding "Meh." ...more

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Oct 19, 2014 Perry Whitford rated it liked it · review of another edition

'I am Kinnall Darival and I mean to tell you all about myself.'

That might not seem like such a momentous opening to a memoir, but if you were a citizen of Borthan, a distant planet colonized by a stoic group of Earth evacuees some two thousand years before, where the very concept of self is taboo, it's positively revolutionary.

A large but sparsely populated world where the settlers are primarily gathered on just one of its five vast continents, the people of Borthan are rigidly bound to the Cove 'I am Kinnall Darival and I mean to tell you all about myself.'

That might not seem like such a momentous opening to a memoir, but if you were a citizen of Borthan, a distant planet colonized by a stoic group of Earth evacuees some two thousand years before, where the very concept of self is taboo, it's positively revolutionary.

A large but sparsely populated world where the settlers are primarily gathered on just one of its five vast continents, the people of Borthan are rigidly bound to the Covenant, a social contract which discourages personal pronouns, frank discourse, and "any opening of the soul".

To talk freely in this manor is known as 'selfbaring' and considered a shameful act. Family exists, but purely for successional purposes, close friendships are nonexistent. Only to a bond-brother and bond-sister - selected at birth - can anyone discuss matters of the heart, or to lowly esteemed priests named 'drainers', who serve in squalor and are sworn to secrecy.

Kinnall is the second son of a septarch, in love with his bond-sister Halum (a severe taboo), fated to be a nuisance to his older brother when their father is killed and he ascends to the throne. Kinnall goes on the run, but a fateful meeting with a man from Earth and the discovery of a mind-opening drug are set to place him at odds with the entire society, wherever he goes.

This is a Nebula Award winning novel from Silverberg, and despite his fundamental flaws you can see why. The planet Borthan has its own fully realized geography, fauna and flora, and its colonists have created their own eschatology, hierarchy and customs.

Silverberg is undoubtedly one of the better science fiction writers of his time, with good ideas and the narrative means to create convincing worlds, ask important questions and tell a gripping story. Not dissimilar to a 'Hainish' novel, Silverberg is none-the-less no Ursula le Guin, so though he always thinks big, he often over-stretches and falls flat.

I am not sure just how differently he intended the Covenant society of Borthan to be, but in the end it didn't seem so greatly removed from the courtly world of the middle ages. The characters still talk about themselves plenty, only substituting 'I' and 'me' for the impersonal pronoun 'one'. beyond that, I never really got a sense of anything too psychologically radical.

Being Silverberg, there is plenty of sex, all described explicitly. This is a unusual for science fiction, and commendable in its way, but it also makes for some crude writing which comes across as comic alongside his general attempts at a lofty tone ('I felt the hot prickling tickle of ecstasy dancing along my tool',indeed).

That said, A Time of Changes is still a good read, one of the better books I have read from a prolific, risk-taking, always interesting writer.
...more

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May 23, 2015 Marion Hill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

3.5 Stars.

What is the strength or conviction of someone’s beliefs unless they are tested by temptation?

The Nebula Award winning novel A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg attempts to answer the aforementioned question. Prince Kinnall from the planet Velada Borthan tells his story as a memoir about how he became tempted by a substance brought by a man from Earth named Schweiz. That temptation makes him questioned his religious beliefs and changes his life forever.

The substance that the Earthman 3.5 Stars.

What is the strength or conviction of someone’s beliefs unless they are tested by temptation?

The Nebula Award winning novel A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg attempts to answer the aforementioned question. Prince Kinnall from the planet Velada Borthan tells his story as a memoir about how he became tempted by a substance brought by a man from Earth named Schweiz. That temptation makes him questioned his religious beliefs and changes his life forever.

The substance that the Earthman brought gives a person the ability to look deep into one’s soul as well as the other person who is taking with you. Since this novel was published in 1971, I could see Silverberg being influenced by the drug and hippie culture of that time and decides to put that aspect into this story. However, self-bearing or saying something that starts with ‘I’ is taboo and even considered a criminal act in the culture that Prince Kinnall belongs to.

I found that custom to be one of the most fascinating aspects of the novel and one of the fundamental questions that all believers of any religion have to wrestle with. I was reminded of these words from Jesus in the Book of Matthew, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.“ {Matthew 16:25 ESV Bible} If you are a believer (especially in the Big 3 religions of Western Culture: Christianity, Judaism, & Islam), do you give up your autonomy as a human being in order to follow God?

Silverberg uses the secular lens of science fiction to look at that fundamental question. As a Christian, I would disagree with his method of using a substance as a possible answer for that question. However, I can appreciate the honesty reflected through Prince Kinnall’s choice and his inevitable outcome.

A Time of Changes will be one of my best reads in 2015. I will admit that novels like The Sparrow, The Book of Strange of New Things, Parable of the Sower, and The Child Goddess along with this one have become my favorite genre of fiction where science fiction and fantasy concepts intertwine with religious beliefs. Even though, I believe that A Time of Changes will seem dated to some readers, I will highly recommend reading the novel. I can see why it won a Nebula award in 1972.
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Aug 02, 2011 Nuno Magalhães rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: own, scifi

Tempo de Mudança é um romance muito interessante e profundo de Robert Silverberg, distinguido com um prémio Nébula, um galardão concedido anualmente pelo Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) para os melhores trabalhos de ficção científica/fantasia publicados nos Estados Unidos durante os dois anos precedentes. Este livro, escrito nos inícios da década de 70 do séc. XX, no rescaldo de Woodstock e de uma década de 60 em que se assistiu a uma grande liberalização de costumes e à co Tempo de Mudança é um romance muito interessante e profundo de Robert Silverberg, distinguido com um prémio Nébula, um galardão concedido anualmente pelo Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) para os melhores trabalhos de ficção científica/fantasia publicados nos Estados Unidos durante os dois anos precedentes. Este livro, escrito nos inícios da década de 70 do séc. XX, no rescaldo de Woodstock e de uma década de 60 em que se assistiu a uma grande liberalização de costumes e à consequente confusão do sistema de valores individuais, vem abordar de uma forma muito inteligente, provocadora e com uma invulgar sensibilidade emocional o processo da auto-descoberta que todo o ser humano enfrenta desde a adolescência, e a construção de convicções e de um sistema de valores que sustentam a personalidade individual.

Narrado na primeira pessoa de Kinall Darival, habitante do planeta Borthan, província de Salla, que foi inicialmente colonizado por um grupo de pioneiros espaciais oriundos da Terra, sob a forma autobiográfica, esta escolha narrativa permite-nos entrar mais profundamente no dilema da vida deste personagem e sentir com alguma intensidade o desespero e desânimo iniciais, fruto de uma sociedade/cultura altamente repressiva da individualidade aliada a um conjunto de infelizes circunstâncias familiares, e, em oposição, a sensação final de alegria esfuziante, plena de liberdade, resultante da afirmação dos valores que foi construindo ao longo dos eventos relatados no romance, culminando num acto final de assunção da sua responsabilidade pelas opções que tomou e pelas vidas que influenciou.

A abordagem a esta temática, enquadrada num outro planeta e numa outra realidade, sustentada no género da ficção científica, permite em simultâneo desresponsabilizar o leitor ao mesmo tempo que o vai capturando num processo inevitável de auto-análise à medida que a história se vai desenrolando. Por este motivo,entendo que este livro é uma reflexão profunda, forte e muito bem escrita de um dos grandes autores deste género literário, e aconselho a sua leitura. ...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: People who like thoughtful science fiction

Shelves: read-sci-fi

Often it's one line that makes a book. With this book it was a single concept, a world where speaking in the first person singular is taboo, to use the word "I" is the worst kind of swearing. Needless to say it's also a world where opening up oneself is a very private thing reserved for a highly select few. Into this world, as so often happens, comes a man, an earthman as it happens, with a different point of view about what is right and wrong. The fact is, throughout history, right and wrong ha ...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Erik Graff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Silverberg fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: sf

Helen, Michael and Tom's mother, was a godsend to her sons and their friends during our early adulthoods. Director of Chicago's Womens' Athletic Club downtown, she was in the position to hire people for various positions. She helped me during the summer after college and for some time after seminary by hiring me as a security guard, working days in the first instance and nights in the second. The position was wonderful, entailing very little real work beyond occasional night rounds, allowing lon ...more

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Jan 17, 2010 Bookbrow rated it really liked it

One of the better Silverberg novels, one that makes you respect Silverberg's knack of telling people stories within a sci-fi conext, the world building here reminds one of the valentine's castle novels, a rich tapestry that is both old and new. This book is surely one of the highlights of Silverberg's career and far more timeless than some good efforts like Dying Inside, etc. Recomended even for reader's who don't normally read spec fiction.

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Oct 07, 2015 Phil rated it really liked it

Liked it beginning to end. A reasonably believably world and premise for a story.

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Nov 29, 2016 Paul rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, scifi, fiction, hugo-award-nominees

I've read elsewhere that this book comes off as dated, but I honestly don't know what to make of that. Maybe Stirron is supposed to represent Nixon, or some obvious-at-the-time reference like that, but honestly I don't see it. More than anything else, this book reminds me of a book out of Ursula LeGuin's Hainish Cycle, which as I've mentioned previously tends to hold up fairly well in my opinion.

It's also interesting, people make a big deal about the idea that the word "I" is not used on this pl ...more

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Nov 22, 2016 Jack rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 09, 2017 Andrew Ten broek rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, generation-gap

Listened to the audio version of this novel and Rober Silverberg gives an interesting twist to the theme of living in an oppressive society. In this case its a planet where the words "I" and "me" are forbidden and considered obscenity and "selfbearing". The story is told through the eyes of Kennall Darival and he gives his account to all that happened in his life and how it was changed when he met an earthman. The story was slow to start but when it got going it started to be an enjoyable ride. ...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Mike S rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-sci-fi

Silverburg shows what an extraordinary writer he is in this story. He's completely comfortable and natural in his writing. The story will be a treat for any Silverburg fan.

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Jan 14, 2017 Lars Dradrach rated it really liked it

Shelves: fourandahalfstars, e-book

A beautiful crafted story which starts out as a world building fantasy and then suddenly takes of in a totally different direction.

The story can be read at face value but there are clear comments to our own society especially the US in early seventies.

The only reason this is not a clear 5* is the clear link between drugs and the liberty of the mind. Seen from 2017 with our current drug problems it seems more than a little naive

Not fair to critic a novel for being a product of its time ?, but the ...more

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Jan 15, 2017 Joseph rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. Fun to read, great characters, well written, well paced and interesting ideas about a culture of self repression and the heroes quest to find his true self via mind expanding drugs. What else do you need?

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Mar 09, 2016 Fungus Gnat rated it it was ok

Kinnall Dareval, brother of a king, sits in a dilapidated cabin in the “burnt lowlands” of his planet Borthan, awaiting the arrival of a posse. He is to be arrested for violating Borthan’s Covenant, which decrees that no one shall bare his soul to others; even use of the first-person pronouns trespasses on social decency. Certainly writing an autobiography, as he is now doing, will further displease the authorities. From these introductory ideas, Silverberg as Kinnall smoothly shifts to the memo Kinnall Dareval, brother of a king, sits in a dilapidated cabin in the “burnt lowlands” of his planet Borthan, awaiting the arrival of a posse. He is to be arrested for violating Borthan’s Covenant, which decrees that no one shall bare his soul to others; even use of the first-person pronouns trespasses on social decency. Certainly writing an autobiography, as he is now doing, will further displease the authorities. From these introductory ideas, Silverberg as Kinnall smoothly shifts to the memoir itself, where he relates his father’s early death and his own flight from home to avoid potential incarceration by his brother—among many other events and deeds that have led him to his current predicament.

As part of the narrative, Silverberg/Kinnall convey a great deal of information about Borthan’s culture and society. I thought most of this was fairly naturally woven in, with relatively few intrusive info dump digressions. The context for Kinnall’s life is unusual in that it mixes the trappings of heroic fantasy – elements of architecture and government, a lot of the clothing, aspects of weaponry – with modern transportation, data management, etc. Of course, as is often the case with SF, it reflects the society out of which it arose – 1971 America, in this case. Thus, A Time of Changes looks like the sixties (the sixties were still going strong in the early seventies) in terms of attitudes towards drugs, love and sex, sexual orientation, and egocentrism.

In the 2009 edition, there is a blurb on the front cover by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s no surprise that Le Guin likes Silverberg’s book, given that it bears some resemblance to The Left Hand of Darkness. From time to time, Kinnall reminds me of Estraven, and both persons undertake an odyssey central to the story and to their personal growth.

That’s about as far as (and maybe a little farther than) the resemblance goes. For one thing, although Silverberg is a capable stylist, his prose doesn’t have the ring and rhythm of Le Guin’s. For another, while sexual flexibility is much more of an emphasis in Left Hand, repressed sexuality is a reappearing theme in A Time of Changes. Neither does A Time of Changes resonate originally or incisively with other mid-life crisis stories, fiction or non. On the whole, I would rank this book below the more celebrated (and simplistic) SF works of the period like Ringworld and Tau Zero.

The 2009 edition contains a five-page preface by Silverberg in which he recounts the book’s publishing history and its origin in the social context of the day: “. . . it was, I suppose, my response to all that had been happening in American life and in my own in the laset few years of the 1960s—that time of changes for so many of us.” As in his monthly columns for Asimov’s Science Fiction, Silverberg’s voice in this preface is a refreshingly self-effacing one, especially for SF.

This edition also features the “first-ever map of Borthan,” bleats the back-cover copy. Thank you very much, although it could have been more useful had the intent been to create something legible rather than to convey a misplaced sense of antiquity.

Fortunately, the rest of the book, a trade paperback, is pysically easy to read. The page count at 300 makes it sound lengthier than it is. That’s because it’s divided into 74 chapters, so half the pages either begin or end a chapter and tend to be shorter. I estimate it to be around 70K words, about 10K less than Left Hand/ (304 pages in the 1999 version). The cover is a not entirely pleasing white print on gold background, the illustration a curiosity—something about being neither here nor there, perhaps.

Coming soon on my to-read list: The Book of Skulls and Dying Inside (both by Silverberg, from 1972). But first, To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis, 1998).
...more

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