Another interesting sci-fi work from Silverberg. The World Inside was published in 1971. The novel originally appeared as a series of shorter works in 1970 and 1971, all but one published in Galaxy, including the Hugo nominated novella "The World Outside". The World Inside was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1972, although Silverberg declined the nomination.
The novel takes place in the year 2381 where the world's population has reached a staggering 75 billion people. To provide for these people, huge 1000-story skyscrapers have been built to house over 800,000 people each. These buildings are called Urban Monads or "urbmons". The surrounding land has all been converted into farmland used to feed this vast population. The novel takes place in Urbmon 116 that is divided into over 20 levels of 40 stories each. Each level is designated by a city name from the past with the lowest level being Reykjavik and the highest Louisville. The more elite of the society are nearer the top of the urbmon. Everyone seems to be happy in this vertical environment where the population is encouraged to have as many children as possible. It's a really free and open society where anyone can have sex with anyone else. The apartments are left unlocked and open to anyone who desires to copulate with there neighbor or strangers on another level. Various psychedelic drugs are also available to enhance the experiences. But there are those who become disenchanted with this utopia and yearn to see what is outside. These malcontents are called "flippos" and generally end up being thrown down the shaft to the energy generators and thus contribute to the energy needed to maintain the building.
The novel focuses on several different characters including a young man, Seigmund, who is trying to work his way to the top. Then there is Jason, a historian, who is working on a theory that mankind has evolved into a new species based on living in the vertical environment for centuries. He is married to Micaela who has a twin brother, Michael, who yearns to see what is outside the urbmon. All of these characters are well-portrayed by Silverberg and keep the narrative quite compelling. However, the novel is definitely dated and a product of the early 70s filled with some of the ideas of the time period such as free love and the use of drugs. Although much of the book is filled with descriptions of the sexual mores that take place in the urbmon, it never really seems erotic. Overall, I did enjoy this one but not quite as much as some of Silverberg's other works.
The novel takes place in the year 2381 where the world's population has reached a staggering 75 billion people. To provide for these people, huge 1000-story skyscrapers have been built to house over 800,000 people each. These buildings are called Urban Monads or "urbmons". The surrounding land has all been converted into farmland used to feed this vast population. The novel takes place in Urbmon 116 that is divided into over 20 levels of 40 stories each. Each level is designated by a city name from the past with the lowest level being Reykjavik and the highest Louisville. The more elite of the society are nearer the top of the urbmon. Everyone seems to be happy in this vertical environment where the population is encouraged to have as many children as possible. It's a really free and open society where anyone can have sex with anyone else. The apartments are left unlocked and open to anyone who desires to copulate with there neighbor or strangers on another level. Various psychedelic drugs are also available to enhance the experiences. But there are those who become disenchanted with this utopia and yearn to see what is outside. These malcontents are called "flippos" and generally end up being thrown down the shaft to the energy generators and thus contribute to the energy needed to maintain the building.
The novel focuses on several different characters including a young man, Seigmund, who is trying to work his way to the top. Then there is Jason, a historian, who is working on a theory that mankind has evolved into a new species based on living in the vertical environment for centuries. He is married to Micaela who has a twin brother, Michael, who yearns to see what is outside the urbmon. All of these characters are well-portrayed by Silverberg and keep the narrative quite compelling. However, the novel is definitely dated and a product of the early 70s filled with some of the ideas of the time period such as free love and the use of drugs. Although much of the book is filled with descriptions of the sexual mores that take place in the urbmon, it never really seems erotic. Overall, I did enjoy this one but not quite as much as some of Silverberg's other works.
A very 1970's view of the consequences of overpopulation.
A creative view of a possible future world where pro-lifers won out but had to team up with free love. In the future, most of the earth's population live in urbmons--buildings 1,000 stories tall containing around 880,000 people each. The hive dwelling requires a complete lack of privacy, even down to no locks on apartment doors and a universal acceptance that any time an adult asks another for sex, they must comply. A series of vignettes builds up to a reveal of the interconnectedness of the characters' lives and gives a chance to explore whether the development of the urbmons has led to the evolution or a new type of human being or whether they are all just silently suffering a loss of all of their freedoms to allow themselves the one freedom to reproduce at will. A truly thought-provoking book. I highly recommend it.
Check out my extended review.
Check out my extended review.
