"The Reality Trip"
by Robert Silverberg
Form: Short story
Year: 1970
ID: 919
Publication history:
- ????: LHomme Descend du Songe, Omnibus Mass market paperback, in French as Trip dans le rel
- 1970: Worlds of If May 1970, Magazine
- 1972: The Reality Trip and Other Implausibilities, Ballantine Mass market paperback, ISBN 345-02548-2, 210 pp.
- 1972: This Side of Infinity, Ace Mass market paperback
- 1973: Best from If, Volume I, Award Mass market paperback
- 1979: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Sphere Mass market paperback, 149 pp.
- 1979: Signaux du silence, Casterman Mass market paperback, ISBN 2-203-22628-5, 242 pp., in French as Trip dans le rel
- 1980: Aliens!, Pocket Mass market paperback
- 1985: Needle in a Timestack [2nd Version], Ace Mass market paperback, ISBN 0-441-56872-6, 180 pp.
- 1986: Worlds of If: A Retrospecitve Anthology, Bluejay Mass market paperback
- 1996: Chute dans le réel, Omnibus Hard cover book, ISBN 2258040590, 1070 pp., in French as Trip dans le rel
- 1997: Ringing the Changes (The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 5), HarperCollins UK Trade paperback, ISBN 0-586-21373-2, 359 pp.
- 1997: Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, Ace Mass market paperback
- 2000: Aliens Among Us, Ace Mass market paperback, 292 pp.
- 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 Trip dans le rel
Other resources:
[None on record]
Comments:
A different take on the aliens-are-among-us theme: an alien observer disguised as human becomes the object of a woman's amorous attention. The setting is New York around 1970, and the alien has the ability to communicate with his homeworld easily. Personal isolation (alienation even) is the main theme. Warning: this story contains some excruciatingly bad poetry written by the smitten woman. Proceed at your own risk!