The World Inside

Rating:
Summary: Top quality Science Fiction!
Review: The World Inside is one of Silverberg's best works, where he extrapolates into the future and then looks at human behavior. Picture Earth in the year 2381, specifically present day USA. The inexorable growth of population, driven by a quasi-religious fertility ethic has so pressured the available surface area, that new urban units have developed. Instead of cities, there are huge apartment complexes, many towers (grouped in a "constellation"), with each tower rising miles into the air, accommodating as many as 1000 levels, each with hundreds of apartments. In effect, each such "urban monad" or "urbmon" is a mini-city in itself and like any city has its own schools, medical facilities, waste management, technicians, office professionals and administrators. With this background, Silverberg writes a series of short stories that explore social interaction. With so many people in close proximity, conflict management becomes critical so the urbmon "eliminates" causes of conflict. Sexual attraction for instance is kept free of jealousy by making sexual relationships independent of marital links. Men and women can "nightwalk" into other's apartments for sex as casually as borrowing a cup of sugar. Families of 2 parents and 6-10 children occupy one apartment which is just one large room so children are taught from an early age to share toys and possessions. Privacy is unheard of and consequently nudity is free of taboo. The individual is socialized into subordinating his or her behavior and aspirations to the good of the urbmon society. And yet, since the urbmon inevitably requires maintenance, police and janitorial services, a clear stratification of society develops, with the lowly seeking to rise to the ranks of the Administrators on the top levels. Each story explores one facet of life in the urbmon and in doing so unfolds the big picture. With all needs met, what happens to striving for something better? How is the occasional rebel to be dealt with? With all material needs taken care of, why go out of the urbmon into a frightening open space at all? This is a book that in turns shakes up the reader, makes one think of the power of society and even scares! Science fiction at its best: the focus is less on pseudo-technological bells and whistles and more on how humans behave in a vision of the future that is both attractive and frightening at the same time. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An Undiscovered Gem
Review: While it borrows many themes from other dystopian sci-fi novels, including Brave New World and 1984, the final product is nevertheless a work of great intelligence, brilliantly executed. The horror expresses is made all the more horrific by the benign way it is treated by the characters and the eerily emotionless present-tense narration.