Tower of Glass

by Robert Silverberg

Paperback, 1977

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

English paperback sf

Publication

Panther (1977), Paperback, 206 pages

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: From the Hugo and Nebula Award�??winning author: "High adventure, considerable tension, and�??most important�??social consciousness" (Harlan Ellison). Simeon Krug is the king of the universe. A self-made man, he is the Bill Gates of the era, having built a megacommercial empire on the backs of his products: androids, genetically engineered human slaves. Having amassed incredible wealth, his next major goal is to communicate with aliens living in an uninhabitable world, sending a mysterious signal. This requires building a mile high tower in the arctic tundra. The androids want civil equality with humans, but are divided on the best means to the goal�??political agitation or religious devotion to Krug, their creator. And Krug's son, Manuel, is reluctant to step into his role as heir to his father's… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Bridgey

Tower of Glass - Robert Silverberg ****

Simeon Krug is a man with a vision. He has always wanted to contact extraterrestrial life and when a strange signal is received hundreds of light years away he decides the only way in which to communicate would be to build a glass tower many hundreds of meters

high. Not just a visionary but also a giver of life, Simeon has created the worlds first flesh androids and even divided them up into a simple class system. However, little does he know that the while he just regards them as property, they are looking towards Krug as a God. Can a man ever live up to expectations bestowed on a God? They are not just thinking for themselves but creating political parties for independence and even have a bible dictating ethics.

A really different type of book to one that I would normally read but I really enjoyed parts of it. The way the story unfolds is very closely mirroring the slavery period in worlds history, with all sorts of moral question being raised. The way Krug's relationship differs between his sons towards man made objects highlights a changing world and provides a glimmer of hope for the future of mankind. Why is Krug obsessed with finding new life in the stars when he has created his own on earth?

An easily recommendable book, but one that at time seemed a little too geeky for me, especially with all the Technology explanations, hence 4 stars instead of 5.

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LibraryThing member antao

Original Review, 1980-10-28)

If it is in fact Silverberg's intention to make the sexual encounters uncaring in order to give an indication of the interpersonal encounters of the society in general, then why attribute them to the androids in "The Glass Tower" since it seems that he is trying to make

the point that the androids CAN care and that they should therefore be considered equal to the humans? Is this contradiction his intention? Has he thought things out far enough that he even notices the contradiction? Or is this whole idea about his conscious decision to make the encounters uncaring simply a rationalization made by certain parties who would not like to see this type of cheap filler taken out of certain SF novels. In any event, I will admit that certain authors have used the technique of including uncaring sexual encounters in SF novels in order to show just the type of decadent society that considers such encounters typical. A notable example is "Brave New World". However, in order to make such a point, the number of such encounters need not be inordinately high. I highly doubt that this is what Silverberg had in mind when he wrote "The Glass Tower". My thanks go out to MD@XX for his remark about the coverless paper-back rip-off (no pun intended). I was not aware of this practice. The place at which I purchased this and other books in the same condition is not a book store at all, but merely a corner convenience store in Lisbon.

My parting comment is that this discussion of "The Glass Tower" is rapidly becoming more boring than the material in the book that I was initially remarking about. Let us cease and desist and get on with another discussion.

Some of you may recall that about 6 months ago I made a title/author request for which the winning answer was "The Man in the Maze" by Robert Silverberg. Recently, I re-read the book for the first time since I was 14. The book was still excellent. Good plot, execution, even good sociological commentary. However, to appease my curiosity about the general quality of Silverberg books, I then read "The Glass Tower" which happened to be the only other book by him that I happened to have on hand. I was severely disappointed. He raised several conflicts early in the book (the messages from space; his own ensuing mental breakdown; the building of the tower; his differences with his son; and the android equality issue) that led me to a point of eager anticipation. However, he then spent the next 100 pages continuing with characterizations that were not getting any deeper as well as several (read "too many") somewhat boring sexual encounters. And then as the topper, he finishes up with an ending that only resolves one and possibly two of the conflicts. The others are simply sidestepped as if to say, "They really weren't important ones anyway".

I am not the type that objects to sex in SF. I am even willing to have a lot of sex in the book and enjoy having it there (for example, Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love"). However, I am not willing to have another boring sexual encounter on every other page. I began to feel as if I was reading a gothic romance! The sexual encounters should ADD something to the characterizations, or should be an integral part of the plot, in order to justify their existence.

I realize that this is not a new book by Silverberg, but I felt so strongly about this one that I just had to write this post. I will not take this as a final comment on Silverberg, either; I intend to read more in the hopes that other of his works will be better.

[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.]

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LibraryThing member ikeman100

I'm beginning to see a pattern with Silverberg. He is a good writer with a good imagination and has contributed much to classic SF. But... I am finding I don't like many of his protagonist. It's hard to enjoy a book when you don't give a hoot for any of the characters.

I admit I didn't finish this

one. It appears to be skillfully written with the usual amount of Silverberg sex scenes. Unfortunately, I could tell where this one was going early in the book and couldn't be bothered to watch it unfold.

I'll try more of his works but it may be a while.

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