The New Springtime Author:Robert Silverberg Sequel to "At Winter's End" — When the 700,000-year winter of the death stars ended, tiny primitive tribes, led by prophecies, emerged from their ice caves to claim the ruins of the reborn Earth...That was the easy part. Master storyteller Robert Silverberg, winner of five Nebula and three Hugo awards, returns to the world of "At Winter's End" ... more »and to a thought provoking and adventure-packed future of endless wonders and terrors. Here savages must revive the legacy of a vanished interstellar civilization. Here each day may bring new heroes, new revelations--and new myths.
Forty years after the Coming Forth, cities of the People have spread across a continent, from Yissou, the walled fortress of brooding King Salaman, to vibrant Dawinno, where Chieftain Taniane presides of a coalition of tribes and the old Chronicler Hresh ponders Great World artifacts. With the cities came the ills of ambition, bureaucracy, and corruption. Then one day the People face a greater threat: an ultimatum from the hijk-queen...
Since emerging, the insectoid hijk hordes have believed that they, not the People, should inherit the Earth---and they might be right. Their telepathic immortal Queen rules a hive-mind millions of years old, the only survivor of the Great World's godlike races. The hijk are ancient where the People are young; learned where the People are ignorant; organized where the People are chaotic; many where the People are few.
A human envoy from the Queen makes the offer; peace in exchange for limits to tribal expansion, and acceptance of the hijk vision of security, love, and control. It is a vision that is intricate, beautiful, absolute. And inhuman.« less