The World Inside

January 4, 2010
In the 1960s, professional population alarmist Paul Ehrlich made hilariously inaccurate prognostications of imminent Malthusian doom. While these predictions inspired some SF authors to depict crowded future worlds, Silverberg’s 1971 quasi-utopian tale—less a novel than a collection of closely linked vignettes—presents a 24th-century Earth populated by 75 billion fanatically pro-natalist conformists. The product of centuries of artificial selection and social pressures, rewarded with (or forced to endure) frequent, meaningless sex, the citizens of the three–kilometer–high Urbmons are for the most part incapable of imagining other ways of life. Those few deviants who rebel are either forcibly cured or summarily executed. By modern standards this is a lean book, but Silverberg can bring a world to life with a few carefully chosen words, and a recent HBO option suggests it will appeal to present-day audiences.

March 15, 2010
The 1000-story building known as Urban Monad 116 houses over 800,000 people in a 24th-century world free of conflict, where free sex and procreation and the strict regulation of every facet of life ensures that "civilization" runs smoothly. Dissenters are sent "down the chute" for recycling. When a few individuals question their unhappiness with the system, their search for answers leads them to a dark secret at the heart of UrbMon life. First published in 1971, this classic by sf Grand Master Silverberg ("Lord Valentine's Castle; A Time of Changes") contains a new introduction by the author and serves as a cautionary tale that explores the dangers of losing what makes humans evidently unique in the universe. VERDICT Libraries wanting to revive interest in classic sf authors and sf fans in general will appreciate the return to print of this seminal story.

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