THE DAY THE SUN STOOD STILL: Three Original Novellas of Science Fiction

by Poul; Gordon R. Dickson & Robert Silverberg Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1972

Three variations on a theme (what would happen if the miracle at Jericho were repeated today?) prove cumulatively depressing, not so much for their pervading pessimism as for what their redundancy reveals about the imaginative and stylistic range of three popular science fiction writers. Undeniable evidence of God's existence only feeds into the prevailing Schadenfreude -- diverting society from nuclear war, but perhaps triggering a new dark age in Anderson's story, giving rise to frenzied apocalyptic cults in Silverberg's, and producing a kind of evanescent Woodstock in Dickson's. In all three cases, the establishment rejects the miraculous event and its prophets meet death, and, despite Gordon Dickson's muddy attempts at philosophizing and Silverberg's talent for evoking images of mob hysteria, none of the scenarios hold any surprises. In science fiction, as in baseball, three strikes add up to an out.

Pub Date: April 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION