"Absolutely Inflexible"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1956
ID: 6
Publication history:
- 1956: Fantastic Universe July 1956, Magazine
- 1958: New Worlds June 1958, Magazine
- 1962: The Seed of Earth/Next Stop the Stars, Ace Mass market paperback, 253 pp.
- 1966: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Ballantine Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1967: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Sphere Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1970: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Macmillan Hard cover book
- 1970: Voyagers in Time, Tempo Mass market paperback, 208 pp.
- 1970: Needle in a Timestack [1st Version], Ballantine Mass market paperback, 1970 pp.
- 1971: The Cube Root of Uncertainty, Signet Mass market paperback, 239 pp.
- 1973: Die Mrder Mohammeds, Heyne Mass market paperback, in German as Absolut Unbeugsam
- 1979: Next Stop the Stars, Dobson Hard cover book, ISBN 023472143X
- 1979: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Sphere Mass market paperback, 149 pp.
- 1979: Le livre d'or de la science-fiction: Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-266-00597-9, 448 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
- 1985: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Ace Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-441-56872-6, 180 pp.
- 1986: Next Stop the Stars, Tor Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-812-55462-0, 213 pp.
- 1988: Voir l'invisible, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-266-02713-1, 448 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
- 1996: The Road to Nightfall (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 4), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21372-4, 347 pp.
- 2000: Alexandria Digital Literature, Alexandria Digital Online
- 2000: Fictionwise, Fictionwise Online
- 2002: Le Chemin de la nuit: Nouvelles au fil du temps, tome 1, 1953-1970, Flammarion Trade paperback, ISBN 2080682350, 727 pp., in French as Absolument inflexible
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
According to the introductory notes in Voyagers in Time, the original magazine appearance of this story was The story made its debut in that collection. It's a nifty little time-travel paradox story. In the 28th Century, the Earth has been rid of disease, so germ-ridden time travelers from the past are quarantined at a prison on the moon where they can't infect the world's unprotected population.
Silverberg has written about the genesis of the story, including its indebtedness to Heinlein's
.