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To Live Again
First published in 1969, this novel by one of the most prolific authors in the history of science fiction explores an idea that is truly "far out." Imagine a future world where death is not exactly the end. You can record everything about you that ever made you a distinct human being and then be implanted in the mind of someone living. Paul Kaufmann had been the richest and most powerful man on Earth. Imagine having his knowledge and insights integrated with your own persona. The tycoon's mind becomes the prize in a deadly game for those still living who want more out of life than they could ever achieve on their own. The great man's "soul" is stored in the Scheffing Institute, waiting for the time when someone hungry enough gives him back his appetite. Silverberg extrapolates as only he can from this intriguing premise. "To Live Again" is about a future where the dead are slaves to the living--until at last someone leads a rebellion.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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386 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
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Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
January 27, 2014
By the time Robert Silverberg released "To Live Again" in 1969, he had already come out with no less than three dozen science-fiction novels and several hundred short stories, all in a period of only 15 years! The amazingly prolific author had entered a more mature and literate phase in his writing career in 1967, starting with his remarkable novel "Thorns," and by 1969 was on some kind of a genuine roll. Just one of six sci-fi novels that Silverberg came out with that year (including the Nebula-winning "Nightwings" and my personal favorite of this author so far, "Downward to the Earth"), "To Live Again" initially appeared as a Doubleday hardcover and, surprisingly, was NOT nominated for a Hugo or Nebula award. To this day, the book does not seem to be as highly regarded as many of Silverberg's others, and yet a recent perusal has suggested to this reader that the book might well be overdue for a critical reassessment.
In the novel (which, from internal evidence, transpires a few hundred years from now), a means has been found of recording and preserving the personae of the living. These "soul tapes" can later be imprinted on the brains of others after the taped individuals have passed on; a way of preserving their identity after death, and cohabitating in the mind of a suitable host. Against this remarkable backdrop, Silverberg introduces us to two of the wealthiest men on Earth. Mark Kaufmann, the nephew of the late, great banker/industrialist Paul Kaufmann, and John Roditis, a self-made upstart who cannot claim the same kind of upper-crust pedigree as the Kaufmann clan. Both men are desirous of receiving the persona of Uncle Paul, to add to their own already-sharp business minds, and so, the scheming and plotting begins. Silverberg also introduces us to a number of other interesting characters: Risa Kaufmann, Mark's 16-year-old daughter, who receives her first persona transplant and travels to Europe to find out why her new brainmate had been murdered; Elena Volterra, Mark's bosomy mistress; Charles Noyes, a depressed and suicidal associate of Roditis who does all the billionaire's dirty work; and Francesco Santoliquido (a great name, isn't it?), head of the 140-story Scheffing Institute in downtown Manhattan, where the recorded personae of Earth's wealthiest (only the 1 percenters, it seems, can afford this persona transplant process) are stored for future use. And before Silverberg's story draws to a close, persona theft, murder and dybbuks (personae that take over their host) are thrown into the mix, in this constantly mind-blowing, ceaselessly imaginative tale.
"To Live Again," as mentioned up top, is a novel that has not received much in the way of critical acclaim. The author's own "Quasi-Official Web Site" says that the book is "not one of [the author's] great works of the sixties," while British critic David Pringle, who I've long respected, calls it "over-complex" and "not one of Silverberg's better books." Well, this reader would have to respectfully disagree. I suppose that it is the curse of a supremely gifted genius such as Silverberg that one of his books, good as it might be, attracts denigration simply for being not his best; even middling Silverberg, I would argue, is better than just about any other sci-fi out there, and "To Live Again" is far from middling. It is a fast-moving (the story is set in such diverse locales as NYC, Dominica, Arizona, Indiana, Stockholm, Monaco and London), constantly surprising book, and one that is more than generously detailed with imaginative touches; hence, the ultrasonic injectable cocktail drinks, the living-crustacean jewelry that Santoliquido wears, the gambling game based on the particles emitted by a chunk of polonium, the gymnasium with an adjustable gravity field (what a wonderful idea!) and on and on. As in "Thorns" and "The Masks of Time" (1968), both of which had featured a Tivoli amusement park on the moon, Silverberg here shows us a colossal pleasure arcade of the future: Jubilisle, a multibillion-dollar gambling/sex/drug/entertainment complex that Roditis has constructed on an artificial island in NY Harbor; one that can accommodate a million visitors at a time, and to which Noyes escorts Elena in one phantasmagoric interlude. Silverberg's book also features some prescient predictions; for example, an automatic toll collector that instantly deducts money from a driver's account! "To Live Again" has been accused of being misogynistic and, as Pringle claims, "over-sexy," and I suppose it is true that Risa DOES appear to be something of a randy sex kitten--and seems to be deliberately naked half the time--at least before her persona transplant, after which she matures and settles down. But her blatant and forceful sexuality is explained by the author as the young woman's efforts to assert her budding adulthood to the world, while Elena is a creature who deliberately uses her body to attract powerful men. Thus, the sex in the novel is well integrated with the characters themselves and helps to drive the plot forward. "To Live Again," need I even mention, is beautifully, even elegantly written by its author, is intricately plotted, and is a work that grows wilder and wilder as it proceeds, even culminating with a surprise ending of sorts. Somehow, it brought to mind a scenario that Philip K. Dick might have approved of, what with its frequent references to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, its precocious teenaged woman character, and its increasingly loopy plot complications, but Silverberg, of course, is a much better, much more controlled writer than Dick, technically speaking. "To Live Again" may not be Silverberg's best--of the '60s or of any other decade--but it is a book that demonstrates the author in the full flush of his considerable powers, and modern sci-fi doesn't get too much better than that. Personally speaking, I could not put the darn thing down....
In the novel (which, from internal evidence, transpires a few hundred years from now), a means has been found of recording and preserving the personae of the living. These "soul tapes" can later be imprinted on the brains of others after the taped individuals have passed on; a way of preserving their identity after death, and cohabitating in the mind of a suitable host. Against this remarkable backdrop, Silverberg introduces us to two of the wealthiest men on Earth. Mark Kaufmann, the nephew of the late, great banker/industrialist Paul Kaufmann, and John Roditis, a self-made upstart who cannot claim the same kind of upper-crust pedigree as the Kaufmann clan. Both men are desirous of receiving the persona of Uncle Paul, to add to their own already-sharp business minds, and so, the scheming and plotting begins. Silverberg also introduces us to a number of other interesting characters: Risa Kaufmann, Mark's 16-year-old daughter, who receives her first persona transplant and travels to Europe to find out why her new brainmate had been murdered; Elena Volterra, Mark's bosomy mistress; Charles Noyes, a depressed and suicidal associate of Roditis who does all the billionaire's dirty work; and Francesco Santoliquido (a great name, isn't it?), head of the 140-story Scheffing Institute in downtown Manhattan, where the recorded personae of Earth's wealthiest (only the 1 percenters, it seems, can afford this persona transplant process) are stored for future use. And before Silverberg's story draws to a close, persona theft, murder and dybbuks (personae that take over their host) are thrown into the mix, in this constantly mind-blowing, ceaselessly imaginative tale.
"To Live Again," as mentioned up top, is a novel that has not received much in the way of critical acclaim. The author's own "Quasi-Official Web Site" says that the book is "not one of [the author's] great works of the sixties," while British critic David Pringle, who I've long respected, calls it "over-complex" and "not one of Silverberg's better books." Well, this reader would have to respectfully disagree. I suppose that it is the curse of a supremely gifted genius such as Silverberg that one of his books, good as it might be, attracts denigration simply for being not his best; even middling Silverberg, I would argue, is better than just about any other sci-fi out there, and "To Live Again" is far from middling. It is a fast-moving (the story is set in such diverse locales as NYC, Dominica, Arizona, Indiana, Stockholm, Monaco and London), constantly surprising book, and one that is more than generously detailed with imaginative touches; hence, the ultrasonic injectable cocktail drinks, the living-crustacean jewelry that Santoliquido wears, the gambling game based on the particles emitted by a chunk of polonium, the gymnasium with an adjustable gravity field (what a wonderful idea!) and on and on. As in "Thorns" and "The Masks of Time" (1968), both of which had featured a Tivoli amusement park on the moon, Silverberg here shows us a colossal pleasure arcade of the future: Jubilisle, a multibillion-dollar gambling/sex/drug/entertainment complex that Roditis has constructed on an artificial island in NY Harbor; one that can accommodate a million visitors at a time, and to which Noyes escorts Elena in one phantasmagoric interlude. Silverberg's book also features some prescient predictions; for example, an automatic toll collector that instantly deducts money from a driver's account! "To Live Again" has been accused of being misogynistic and, as Pringle claims, "over-sexy," and I suppose it is true that Risa DOES appear to be something of a randy sex kitten--and seems to be deliberately naked half the time--at least before her persona transplant, after which she matures and settles down. But her blatant and forceful sexuality is explained by the author as the young woman's efforts to assert her budding adulthood to the world, while Elena is a creature who deliberately uses her body to attract powerful men. Thus, the sex in the novel is well integrated with the characters themselves and helps to drive the plot forward. "To Live Again," need I even mention, is beautifully, even elegantly written by its author, is intricately plotted, and is a work that grows wilder and wilder as it proceeds, even culminating with a surprise ending of sorts. Somehow, it brought to mind a scenario that Philip K. Dick might have approved of, what with its frequent references to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, its precocious teenaged woman character, and its increasingly loopy plot complications, but Silverberg, of course, is a much better, much more controlled writer than Dick, technically speaking. "To Live Again" may not be Silverberg's best--of the '60s or of any other decade--but it is a book that demonstrates the author in the full flush of his considerable powers, and modern sci-fi doesn't get too much better than that. Personally speaking, I could not put the darn thing down....
July 28, 2013
Inane plot progression relies on soap opera type drama. Insipid characterizations rely on gratuitous nude imagery. Brief glimmers of what could be considered armchair philosophy or social commentary interspersed throughout but undeveloped. I would not have rated this at all because it doesn't even deserve one star but I wanted to play my part in off-setting its unjustifiable 3.8 star rating.
December 13, 2019
Commento scritto nel marzo 2013 (nel frattempo i cosiddetti transumanisti hanno davvero ipotizzato una forma di immortalità simile a quella descritta nel romanzo):
Questo romanzo del 1969 descrive una delle peggiori derive morali della società dei consumi, un futuro nel quale anche l’immortalità si può comprare ed in cui esiste pure una chiesa neo-buddista che da un avallo religioso ad una forma di reincarnazione che dell’evoluzione spirituale è in realtà l'esatto contrario. L’”imago” è una copia, registrata su nastro magnetico e periodicamente aggiornata, della personalità di un individuo, completa di ogni esperienza e ricordo, che dopo la morte del corpo viene conservata nella Banca delle Anime, in attesa dell’”impianto” nella mente di un soggetto vivente. Sia la registrazione dell’imago che l’impianto costano un mucchio di quattrini, sono riservati ad un elite di privilegiati. Una o più imago ospitate, oltre a rappresentare una sorta di status symbol, possono essere una maniera per completare la propria personalità, ma la presenza di entità conflittuali che si spartiscono il controllo di un cervello da origine anche ad una serie di inconvenienti spiacevoli e perfidamente comici. Se ben congegnati, come in questo caso, questi paradossi rendono sempre piacevole la lettura della fantascienza.
Altrettanto ben strutturato, e ricco di colpi di scena, è l’intrigo di inganni e sotterfugi ordito da alcuni magnati che ambiscono a farsi impiantare l’imago di un genio del business da poco defunto. Tali dissoluti personaggi trascinano un esistenza all’insegna dei peggiori stravizi, in cui l’accumulo di denaro e di potere è assolutamente fine a se stesso, la cupidigia e l’aridità emotiva sono esasperate dalla possibilità di protrarre questo stile di vita per un periodo di tempo teoricamente illimitato. Mi e venuto in mente anche il delirio di eterna giovinezza di un ben noto magnate ed esponente politico nostrano, e non è stato un pensiero piacevole…
Lo stile ed i dialoghi sono piuttosto spartani ma funzionali; se Silverberg voleva suscitare sdegno e disgusto, magari anche un po’ di cinico divertimento, direi che è riuscito nel suo intento.
Questo romanzo del 1969 descrive una delle peggiori derive morali della società dei consumi, un futuro nel quale anche l’immortalità si può comprare ed in cui esiste pure una chiesa neo-buddista che da un avallo religioso ad una forma di reincarnazione che dell’evoluzione spirituale è in realtà l'esatto contrario. L’”imago” è una copia, registrata su nastro magnetico e periodicamente aggiornata, della personalità di un individuo, completa di ogni esperienza e ricordo, che dopo la morte del corpo viene conservata nella Banca delle Anime, in attesa dell’”impianto” nella mente di un soggetto vivente. Sia la registrazione dell’imago che l’impianto costano un mucchio di quattrini, sono riservati ad un elite di privilegiati. Una o più imago ospitate, oltre a rappresentare una sorta di status symbol, possono essere una maniera per completare la propria personalità, ma la presenza di entità conflittuali che si spartiscono il controllo di un cervello da origine anche ad una serie di inconvenienti spiacevoli e perfidamente comici. Se ben congegnati, come in questo caso, questi paradossi rendono sempre piacevole la lettura della fantascienza.
Altrettanto ben strutturato, e ricco di colpi di scena, è l’intrigo di inganni e sotterfugi ordito da alcuni magnati che ambiscono a farsi impiantare l’imago di un genio del business da poco defunto. Tali dissoluti personaggi trascinano un esistenza all’insegna dei peggiori stravizi, in cui l’accumulo di denaro e di potere è assolutamente fine a se stesso, la cupidigia e l’aridità emotiva sono esasperate dalla possibilità di protrarre questo stile di vita per un periodo di tempo teoricamente illimitato. Mi e venuto in mente anche il delirio di eterna giovinezza di un ben noto magnate ed esponente politico nostrano, e non è stato un pensiero piacevole…
Lo stile ed i dialoghi sono piuttosto spartani ma funzionali; se Silverberg voleva suscitare sdegno e disgusto, magari anche un po’ di cinico divertimento, direi che è riuscito nel suo intento.
March 16, 2023
Deliciously odd novel about a future when people’s “souls” can be stored after death (on black tape, of course! It was the ‘60s after all) and re-implanted into anyone who’s rich enough to afford additional “personae” to live in his brain. My only quibble with the story is that Silverberg presents this soul-implanting concept as something highly desirable, as a procedure that grants status and prestige, while I’m guessing that most people wouldn’t like the idea of implanting any additional personality within their own. But it’s a fun and unpredictable story — very much centered around people with extremely strong personalities. And, despite the main topic and the references to eastern spiritual literature, it’s very light-hearted. Nothing deep came out of the ‘60s!
As an aside, the ideas in the story (including the cousin incest!) are strangely similar to the weaker “Traitor to the living”, which Philip J. Farmer published 10 years later.
As an aside, the ideas in the story (including the cousin incest!) are strangely similar to the weaker “Traitor to the living”, which Philip J. Farmer published 10 years later.
August 31, 2012
In the near-future world Silverberg postulates for this 1969 novel, anyone with enough money may pay to have periodic backups of his or her persona recorded and filed away so that upon their death, he or she may go into an pool of available personae other people, again with sufficient funds, can have incorporated into their own personalities. Why would anyone think this was a good idea? When I started the novel, I could imagine that a dead rich guy might want to live forever inside another's body, but his presence their is going to be purely secondary. He sees all but feels nothing. His new carrier's motives baffled me until it was explained that these secondary personae enriched one's experience. You might go to them for advice, worldly wisdom, and I guess even a kind of companionship. An artist in your head could make you a more aesthetically attuned person. A playboy might give you a better chance with the ladies. The world's most successful financier could come in really handy.
It is the fate of Paul Kaufmann's persona that propels this novel. He was the patriarch of the powerful Kaufmann dynasty. A noveau riche upstart named Roditis wants him bad. Mark Kaufmann, Paul's nephew, is determined to see that this doesn't happen. There is much maneuvering among Silverberg's cast of characters and even a murder to be solved. It is all pretty silly but fun. The chief hurtle for reader's today remains Silverberg's traditionally adolescent sexual obsessions. There are two female characters, and we seldom encounter them without a detailed description of their breasts, thighs, and voracious sexual appetites, appetites always used to gain power over the poor schmucks they offer themselves to. Silverberg was thirty-five years old when he wrote this, but his libido is still that of a wide-eyed pre-teen looking at the Little Annie Fannie cartoons in Playboy Magazine.
This is a story of decadent rich people who have taken this bizarre new technology as their birthright and wield it as a weapon in an endless games of one upmanship. They also live in danger of having their new personae overpower them, a process known as going dybbuk. Actually everything about the process seems more trouble than its worth, but as Roditis points out, these are just a bunch of high society types with nothing else to do. One couple, Charles and Elena, goes slumming to an amusement part aimed at the lower classes, a pleasure dome where you can throw explosive darts at genetic mutations or rent sex rooms by the hour. Elena has never touched money before and is delighted with a souvenir one hundred dollar bill. Needless to say, she slips it between her ample breasts.
It is the fate of Paul Kaufmann's persona that propels this novel. He was the patriarch of the powerful Kaufmann dynasty. A noveau riche upstart named Roditis wants him bad. Mark Kaufmann, Paul's nephew, is determined to see that this doesn't happen. There is much maneuvering among Silverberg's cast of characters and even a murder to be solved. It is all pretty silly but fun. The chief hurtle for reader's today remains Silverberg's traditionally adolescent sexual obsessions. There are two female characters, and we seldom encounter them without a detailed description of their breasts, thighs, and voracious sexual appetites, appetites always used to gain power over the poor schmucks they offer themselves to. Silverberg was thirty-five years old when he wrote this, but his libido is still that of a wide-eyed pre-teen looking at the Little Annie Fannie cartoons in Playboy Magazine.
This is a story of decadent rich people who have taken this bizarre new technology as their birthright and wield it as a weapon in an endless games of one upmanship. They also live in danger of having their new personae overpower them, a process known as going dybbuk. Actually everything about the process seems more trouble than its worth, but as Roditis points out, these are just a bunch of high society types with nothing else to do. One couple, Charles and Elena, goes slumming to an amusement part aimed at the lower classes, a pleasure dome where you can throw explosive darts at genetic mutations or rent sex rooms by the hour. Elena has never touched money before and is delighted with a souvenir one hundred dollar bill. Needless to say, she slips it between her ample breasts.
June 4, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"To Live Again (1969) is a flawed work from a very fruitful period of Robert Silverberg’s career. The ideas are original and well-conceived but a downright disgusting strain of misogyny and sexism permeates virtually every page. Bluntly put, I cannot recall a single instance where a female character does anything without the shape, size, and clothed or unclothed state [...]"
"To Live Again (1969) is a flawed work from a very fruitful period of Robert Silverberg’s career. The ideas are original and well-conceived but a downright disgusting strain of misogyny and sexism permeates virtually every page. Bluntly put, I cannot recall a single instance where a female character does anything without the shape, size, and clothed or unclothed state [...]"
July 17, 2012
My prize for reading the most books at my library in 1969. I was 12 and I was hungry.
March 1, 2018
aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando
December 9, 2019
Hatte diesen Silverberg nur deshalb "reingeschoben", weil mich ein anderes ziemlich anödete und ich mich nach einem Erfolgserlebnis sehnte. Die Rechnung ging auf. Wieder erlebe ich diese Diskrepanz: eine komplette Handlung mit ordentlichen Charakteren, und das auf nur ca. 145 Seiten. Angestaubt? Ja, ist von 1969. Dennoch mindestens 3,4 Sterne wert.
March 28, 2008
This is actually one of the first sci-fi novels I've read and enjoyed.IF you are interested in karma,re-birth and sci-fi this is definately a book you ought to read.
June 21, 2020
Once more the old saying about Robert Silverberg is confirmed. He always know how to tell a good story. This book is no exception. 4 stars.
June 2, 2021
r/menwritingwomen. I've seen a lot of useless descriptions of women, but this one takes the cake. No woman goes a single paragraph without having her clothing, breast orientation, or sexual mood described.
I can't imagine less relatable protagonists (if you can call them that). One percenters endlessly quibbling and making illogical choices at every turn. If that was the intended takeaway then I missed it.
I can't imagine less relatable protagonists (if you can call them that). One percenters endlessly quibbling and making illogical choices at every turn. If that was the intended takeaway then I missed it.
February 1, 2018
It's been 20+ years since I last read a Silverberg novel. I found this decent, concise, well written, and mildly engaging. It's from what I consider(ed) to be Silverberg's best period, but is not quite the equal of the best titles from that period, i.e. Shadrach In The Furnace, Downward To The Earth, and The Book of Skulls.
November 18, 2017
I am a fan of Robert Silverberg. This was not his best work but I still enjoyed it. Considering how old it is, it has aged well. There was probably an excess of sex in it and I can see how Silverberg would write porn novels under a pseudonym.
February 22, 2012
Better-than-average science fiction novel. Unlike most short sf novels read decades ago, this one I actually recall pretty clearly.
March 5, 2017
Like most 60s/70s SF way more sexualized than it needed to be, but an interesting,if predictable story about mind sharing.
February 17, 2020
Ugh. DNF at 11%. Keep your creepy incest and nasty protagonists. I'm done.
March 16, 2024
This was not an entirely new idea yet Silverberg treats it with his usual way, during the time it was published, with the including much sexual, and some controversial subject matter (if incest with a first cousin is considered controversial to you that is - it is to me, though I fully get that in future times or alternate worlds, who know what would still be considered controversial?)
This aside, the idea of implementing another’s consciousness in one’s mind did not appeal to me at all. That it is a luxury to have a high status deceased persona living within you at the ready to consult with every decision you make or to have there as company seems disturbing. Spider Robinson in one of his later books had a similar situation, though in his case it was due to an individuals gift (or curse) of telepathy, the idea of having a foreign consciousness in ones mind was the worst horror one could experience. I side with Robinson.
This aside, the novel is very well written with the inclusion of fine philosophic ideas, as is expected when reading Silverberg, especially during this period while he was at the top of his game.
I may even round this up to a four rating rather than three on execution alone.
This aside, the idea of implementing another’s consciousness in one’s mind did not appeal to me at all. That it is a luxury to have a high status deceased persona living within you at the ready to consult with every decision you make or to have there as company seems disturbing. Spider Robinson in one of his later books had a similar situation, though in his case it was due to an individuals gift (or curse) of telepathy, the idea of having a foreign consciousness in ones mind was the worst horror one could experience. I side with Robinson.
This aside, the novel is very well written with the inclusion of fine philosophic ideas, as is expected when reading Silverberg, especially during this period while he was at the top of his game.
I may even round this up to a four rating rather than three on execution alone.
January 22, 2025
Robert Silverberg takes us to a future of memory recordings and soul banks, where the wealthy dead can be pasted into the minds of the living. The recordings are usually subservient to the living mind but can occasionally overwhelm them and become the dominant personality; what is called a dybbuk. With the concept of immortality and reincarnation comes a revival of interest in Buddhism and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. When the mega-rich Paul Kaufmann dies the front runner for his persona is his bitter rival John Roditis, but Kaufmann’s nephew Mark desires the persona too, despite it being illegal for a relative to adopt it. Roditis makes an entreaty to both Mark’s lover and the director of the transfer facility. Meanwhile Mark’s daughter Risa has turned 16 and taken on her first persona and finds that she can control it easily, but her implant suspects she was murdered and did not die as a result of an accident. Investigations reveal a suspected dybbuk and a mindwipe allows the Kaufmann persona to be inserted in a blank body. Meanwhile highly illegal machinations by Roditis imperil many lives as the tale of blackmail, murder and bribery comes to a satisfying conclusion. Eminently readable and could be source material for books like Richard Morgan's 'Altered Carbon' series.
October 28, 2023
To Live Again Robert Silverberg 1969
The premise here is that when people die — if they are sufficiently rich — they can have their persona transferred to someone else. The receiver can consult with the new persona, taking advantage of the deceased person’s knowledge and experience.
The ultra-capitalist, Paul Kaufman, has died and his persona is on the transfer list. His nephew, Mark, wants the transplant but fears that John Roditis, Paul’s parvenu rival, will use his wealth and deviousness to win it. Paul’s daughter, the strong willed 16 year old Risa, also has designs on Paul’s mental estate.
Sometimes there are problems. Transplanted personae go ‘dybbuk’ and attempt to take over their host’s consciousness. One such dybbuk, a psychotic named Kravchenko, complicates the plot.
Silverberg is one of my favourite Science Fiction authors.
The premise here is that when people die — if they are sufficiently rich — they can have their persona transferred to someone else. The receiver can consult with the new persona, taking advantage of the deceased person’s knowledge and experience.
The ultra-capitalist, Paul Kaufman, has died and his persona is on the transfer list. His nephew, Mark, wants the transplant but fears that John Roditis, Paul’s parvenu rival, will use his wealth and deviousness to win it. Paul’s daughter, the strong willed 16 year old Risa, also has designs on Paul’s mental estate.
Sometimes there are problems. Transplanted personae go ‘dybbuk’ and attempt to take over their host’s consciousness. One such dybbuk, a psychotic named Kravchenko, complicates the plot.
Silverberg is one of my favourite Science Fiction authors.
December 13, 2021
This is another Silverberg book I probably read when I was middle-school age but didn't remember hardly anything about.
In the future, the wealthy will have recordings made of their minds. After death they will undergo a pseudo-reincarnation as secondary personas implanted in the minds of others.
This concept is not totally unfamiliar in SF. There's Altered Carbon for instance. But Silverberg did this 50 years ago.
A real page-turner. Two tycoons of industry are locked in a battle of wills from which neither can back down.
In the future, the wealthy will have recordings made of their minds. After death they will undergo a pseudo-reincarnation as secondary personas implanted in the minds of others.
This concept is not totally unfamiliar in SF. There's Altered Carbon for instance. But Silverberg did this 50 years ago.
A real page-turner. Two tycoons of industry are locked in a battle of wills from which neither can back down.
September 17, 2025
This is a flawed book that has a fun premise. It's just poorly executed. The sexism in it is not ideal, but it's also over 50 years old. The biggest problem I had was that the two businessman characters are so alike that they could be interchangeable. The daughter uses sex for status points and to use people, which is sexist but possibly a reality for some women at the time in certain situations.
The other female character is just there for the 15 year old audience who want to read about boobies. However, the story is ok until the third act when the plot gets really overly complicated and characters don't make logical decisions to move everything along. I think Silverberg wrote this for money and for no other reason.
The other female character is just there for the 15 year old audience who want to read about boobies. However, the story is ok until the third act when the plot gets really overly complicated and characters don't make logical decisions to move everything along. I think Silverberg wrote this for money and for no other reason.
March 9, 2023
I read this novel in the early 70s when I was a teen. Comparing the other reviews with my fragmentary recollections, I'm astonished to find that I only seem to remember the philosophical part and have completely forgotten the sex and nudity. Usually it's the other way round.
I'm still not sure I understand why. Perhaps I'm unusually interested in the idea of trying to acquire other people's mental powers and inadvertently being taken over by their personalities as a result? Or, more likely, the sex and nudity were exactly as they are in all the other Robert Silverberg novels from that period and my memory has just deleted a few unnecessary duplicates.
I'm still not sure I understand why. Perhaps I'm unusually interested in the idea of trying to acquire other people's mental powers and inadvertently being taken over by their personalities as a result? Or, more likely, the sex and nudity were exactly as they are in all the other Robert Silverberg novels from that period and my memory has just deleted a few unnecessary duplicates.
July 23, 2023
The idea here is that in some unspecified future it is possible to download the essence of another person, their thoughts, personality, and memories into a host body. For the dying it is a comfort to know that they will be “reborn” into another body once they die, to the living rich enough to afford the procedure (or multiple procedures!) it offers bragging rights to say that you carry along some famous deceased architect, or sculptor, or business tycoon in your head, and the acquired knowledge and life experience can be a huge advantage in climbing to the top of society. Every once in a while a personality download clashes with the host and they have to be erased (but copies are still held in the archives so that somebody else more compatible can try). One character had seven personalities, and was beginning to lose control, too many vying for his attention, and they were learning how to take over his vocal apparatus and shut out the host.
The concept of the story might warrant four stars, but the characters are not really likable. The real essence of the story for me is the lifestyle of these mega-rich one-percenters, who own properties on all continents, and who jet off to some enticing attraction here or there the moment they get bored. And if they aren’t involved in their petty rivalries and jealousies, they get bored a lot. It’s a very detailed and somewhat uncomfortably intimate look at a lifestyle most of us can never even imagine. All I can say is that Silverberg has one hell of an imagination, with surprises until the very end. But once is enough, clean paperback to the donation box.
The concept of the story might warrant four stars, but the characters are not really likable. The real essence of the story for me is the lifestyle of these mega-rich one-percenters, who own properties on all continents, and who jet off to some enticing attraction here or there the moment they get bored. And if they aren’t involved in their petty rivalries and jealousies, they get bored a lot. It’s a very detailed and somewhat uncomfortably intimate look at a lifestyle most of us can never even imagine. All I can say is that Silverberg has one hell of an imagination, with surprises until the very end. But once is enough, clean paperback to the donation box.
October 4, 2025
Really inventive sci-fi, focused down to a individual human level. The concept of recording personalities and then implanting them into others is a great one. Silverberg even thoughtfully sees out how only the wealthy and powerful would have acccess to this. Lots of interpersonal drama and the charachters and their motivations feel real and compelling.
Weird 1950s/60s focus on what someeone's ethnic group is still prevailing, but that's more a factor of the culture the writer grew up in.
Weird 1950s/60s focus on what someeone's ethnic group is still prevailing, but that's more a factor of the culture the writer grew up in.
August 20, 2023
I couldn't finish this.
Although the sci-fi concepts are fun; and I have a stomach for classic sci-fi from the 50s-80s, ended this one up to be overly misogynistic with a layer of paedophilia. Page after page after page.
It wasn't a surprise this author ended up writing erotic fiction, but I hope never to need to read it.
1 star, it should be forgotten
Although the sci-fi concepts are fun; and I have a stomach for classic sci-fi from the 50s-80s, ended this one up to be overly misogynistic with a layer of paedophilia. Page after page after page.
It wasn't a surprise this author ended up writing erotic fiction, but I hope never to need to read it.
1 star, it should be forgotten
November 26, 2023
A fascinating concept, made even more interesting by the story around the creation and publication of the book itself. Mr. Silverberg allowed me to reprint his introduction to the 1978 edition on Fantasy Author's Handbook…
https://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com...
https://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com...
June 13, 2024
There is excessive commenting on two particular women's bodies and one in particular that is just about how she is big breasted including phrases like meaty udders. I guess this is what it took to get people to read stuff in the 60s. Felt like it was published serially in a paper. SciFi concepts were cool and no character is the good guy.
November 11, 2018
I thought Silverberg was mainly an editor, but I really enjoyed this story.
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