TO OPEN THE SKY

Reviewed 7/30/2012

Cover by Jim Burns, for Bantam's Dec. 1984 PB

Access to this book courtesy of the

TO OPEN THE SKY Robert Silverberg Russell Letson (Intro.) Boston: Gregg Press, June 1977				Rating: 5.0 High
ISBN-13 978-0-8398-2382-7
ISBN 0-8398-2382-7	222pp.	HC	$?

So frazzled was Reynolds Kirby by his high-level UN job that he frequently sought refuge in the womblike Nothing Rooms. Part of that job was to escort visiting VIPs, and the man from Mars, Nathaniel Weiner, was the last straw. He arrived drunk, got even drunker as they went bar-hopping, ducked Kirby to fly to Chicago and try to vandalize a Vorster temple there. (He wanted to take their reactor back to Mars and put it to some good use.) The Vorsters were a scientific religion, and thanks to the persuasion of a girl with a cosmetic-surgery face,1 Kirby joined them. The peace and order of the Brotherhood of the Immanent Radiance, as the religion was formally known, soothed his frazzled nerves and, his organizational talents once again coming to the fore, he rose rapidly in the hierarchy. But Noel Vorster was still alive, and no one outranked or disputed the Founder.

The Founder, it develops, is very much like Hari Seldon of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy: He has a vision of the future, and he manipulates conditions in the present to bring that future about. The result is a fascinating tale of two cults, the Vorsters and the Harmonists, contending to grow their memberships and influence. Unlike the Foundation novels, however, To Open the Sky has only seven or eight characters who matter. And unlike the Sturgeon story "It Opens the Sky," it ends with the awesome capabilities sought by the two religions still only potentially realized, as Vorster uses them to retire from the scene — on his way, as Voltaire said, "to seek a great perhaps."2

"It's too pat," Emory insisted. "Why should a man with Vorster's power just step down voluntarily?"

"Perhaps he's bored," said Lazarus. "There's something about absolute power that can't be understood except by someone who holds it. It's dull. You can enjoy moving and shaking the world for twenty years, thirty, fifty—but Vorster's been on top for a hundred. He wants to move along. I say take the offer. We're well rid of him, and we can handle Kirby. Besides, he's got a good point: neither his side nor ours can get to the stars without the help of the other. I'm for it. It's worth the try."

– Page 212

This is a very easy read, and an enjoyable one. It may not rank with Silverberg's best work, but it deserves top marks. As Russell Letson notes in his Introduction, the story is furnished with most of the major ideas of post-Campbell science fiction, and he links it to a number of other SF works by Silverberg and other authors, including Asimov's Foundation.

"The new Silverberg is present in style and mood as well as content, particularly in the allusive texture of the section "Blue Fire 2077" and the tone of existential uncertainty of "To Open the Sky 2164." These features suggest that despite the presence of traditional SF machinery and a plot reminiscent of van Vogt or Asimov, this book is not a simple reworking of intrigue adventure or interstellar travel formulas, but combines these conventions with other elements to produce something more complex."

– Letson, Pages vi-vii

There are two or three typos in this edition, but nothing worth recording.

1 The girl, and other characters displaying extreme cosmetic alterations, even presage much more modern fiction like William Gibson's Neuromancer.

2 This was Voltaire's deathbed line: "Je me ve a cherche un gran peutetre."