"Nightwings"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Novelette
Year: 1968
ID: 800
Publication history:
- 1968: Galaxy September 1968, Magazine
- 1969: The Eleventh Galaxy Reader, Doubleday Hard cover book
- 1969: Nightwings, Avon Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1970: Nightwings, Walker Hard cover book
- 1971: The Hugo Winners Volume 2, Doubleday Hard cover book
- 1971: Moonferns and Starsongs, Ballantine Mass market paperback, ISBN 345-02278-5, 244 pp.
- 1972: The Hugo Winners: Volumes One and Two, Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book
- 1972: Invaders from Space, Hawthorne Hard cover book
- 1972: Nightwings, Sidgwick & Jackson Hard cover book
- 1973: Ali della Notte, Mass market paperback
- 1973: The Hugo Winners: Volume Two (1968-1970), Sphere Mass market paperback
- 1973: More Stories from the Hugo Winners, Fawcett Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-449-23883-0
- 1974: Science Fiction Special 10, Sidgwick & Jackson Mass market paperback
- 1974: Nightwings, Sphere Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-7221-7834-4, 192 pp.
- 1976: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 671-80282-8, 258 pp.
- 1976: Far Travelers, Mews Hard cover book
- 1976: Nightwings, Avon Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1977: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Pocket Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-671-83497-5, 258 pp.
- 1977: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Sidgwick & Jackson Hard cover book
- 1978: Nightwings, Sphere Mass market paperback, 192 pp.
- 1978: Science Fiction Special #30, Sidgwick & Jackson Mass market paperback
- 1978: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Orbit Mass market paperback, 258 pp.
- 1978: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1, Gregg Hard cover book, 288 pp.
- 1979: Nightwings, Avon Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-380-41467-8, 190 pp.
- 1981: A Robert Silverberg Omnibus (The Man in the Maze/Nightwings/Downward to the Earth), Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book, 497 pp.
- 1981: A Robert Silverberg Omnibus, Harper & Row Hard cover book
- 1983: Nightwings, Avon Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-380-41467-8, 190 pp.
- 1985: Nightwings, DC Comics Comic book
- 1986: The Best of Robert Silverberg, Baen Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-671-65586-8, 277 pp.
- 1987: Nightwings, Durkin Hayes Audio Audio CD
- 1987: Nightwings, Futura Orbit Mass market paperback, ISBN 0708882358
- 1987: Nightwings, Avon Mass market paperback, 190 pp.
- 1989: Nightwings/The Last Castle, Tor Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-812-50194-2, 182 pp.
- 1999: Nightwings, Peanut Press Online
- 2000: Alexandria Digital Literature, Alexandria Digital Online
- 2000: Nightwings, Fictionwise Online
- 2000: Nightwings, Bookface Online
- 2000: The Furthest Horizon, St Martins Hard cover book
- 2000: Exploring the Horizons, Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book
- 2001: Nightwings, iBooks Trade paperback, ISBN 0743474465, 218 pp.
- 2003: Other Dimensions, Science Fiction Book Club Hard cover book
- 2003: Nightwings, Mass market paperback
- 2004: Phases of the Moon, iBooks Trade paperback, ISBN 0743498011, 623 pp.
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
Winner of Hugo Award for best novella 1969. Nominated for Nebula Award for best novella, 1968.
This is a truly wonderful story. The far-future setting is full of strangeness taken for granted, with a rich diversity of life on Earth reminiscent to a modern reader of Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun series. Civilization on Earth has been through several cycles of advance and decline and the planet is filled with the artifacts of the past: semi-functional fusion plants, magic-tech monuments, Roman buildings. There are apparently many planets full of humans and other races, some of whom come to Earth as tourists. The most prominent feature of human society is a rigid guild system: most people belong to a Guild which has certain duties, privileges and strictures; those without a guild live in a shadowy world, mostly subservient to the Guilded. Some Guilds seem to be based on genetically engineered abilities: Fliers are slight of build and have wings, Watchers have the ability to mentally scan the galaxy for enemies (with the aid of a device), and so on.
The story involves the journey of a Watcher who has lost faith in the necessity of Watching. Together with a Flier named Avluela (whose delicate flying appendages provide the title), and a Changeling named Gormon (a genetic mutant), he visits the ancient city of Roum. Finding themselves without a place to stay, they throw themselves on the mercy of the Prince of Roum, a member of the Guild of Dominators, who takes a liking to Avluela and invites the threesome into the palace. Then the Watcher detects a fleet of enemy ships approaching Earth and sounds the alarm, simultaneously setting in motion the defenses of the planet and rendering himself Guildless (as there is no more need of Watchers once the invasion comes). The story continues in , but also functions magnificently on its own.
The audio version narrated by Fritz Weaver is available from Audible.com.