Form: Novella
Year: 1987
Publication history:
- 1987 : Asimov's September 1987 (m) ,
- 1988 : The Secret Sharer (hc) , Underwood, 107 pp., 056-8
- 1988 : The Secret Sharer (hc) , Underwood, 107 pp., 057-6
- 1989 : Compagnons secrets (pb) , Denoël (France), 352 pp., ISBN 2-207-30490-6, 490 (in French "La compagnon secrète" tr. Jacques Chambon)
- 1990 : Purjehdus Bysanttiin (pb) , Oy (Finland) (in Finnish "Salainen seuralainen")
- 1992 : Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1) (tpb) , Bantam, 546 pp., ISBN 0-553-37068-5
- 1992 : Secret Sharers (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1) (hc) , Bantam, 546 pp., 37068-5
- 1993 : The Secret Sharer (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 2) (tpb) , Grafton (UK), 395 pp., ISBN 0-586-21370-8
- 1999 : Compagnons secrets (pb) , Denoël (France), 346 pp., ISBN 2207249336 (in French "La compagnon secrète" tr. Jacques Chambon)
- 2000 : Fictionwise (ol) , Fictionwise
- 2000 : Sailing to Byzantium (tpb) , iBooks
- 2000 : Sailing to Byzantium (acd) , Blackstone Audio (UK), ISBN 0786199059
- 2003 : Voile vers Byzance: Nouvelles au fil du temps, tome 3, 1981-1987 (tpb) , Flammarion (France), 768 pp., ISBN 2080682547, 41 (in French "La compagne secrète")
This fascinating story was nominated for Nebula Award for best novella, 1987. It was written as a sort of tribute to the classic Joseph Conrad story of the same name, since Silverberg had already covered Conrad's other famous novella, Heart of Darkness, with Downward to the Earth. Conrad's tale of a ship captain who befriends a mysterious stowaway is translated into a far future where the technology appears magical, and interstellar trade is accomplished on gigantic needle-shaped ships seemingly made of light. Silverberg's vivid imagination is much in evidence here, as the Sword of Orion is like nothing I've encountered in any other science fiction story. On every page, clever details are woven into the prose, but the story really concentrates on the characters. The Captain (who is strangely enough the least experienced member of the crew, and the "stowaway" are tangible entities in the midst of an environment so unreal it's hard to describe. Certainly one of highlights of Silverberg's post-retirement work.