I just discovered his writing with The Man Who Never Forgot and Caught in the Organ Draft. He is fuckin’ brutal. I need to read more of his work so what three stories should I read?
Incidently, if you want an SF short story whose ending grabs you by the balls and yanks hard, try The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford.
Dying Inside was a big favorite of mine. If you ever wished you could read other people’s minds, this will make you question it. (Is it still in print?)
Also, “Gianni,” a short story that appeared in Playboy about 25 years ago, is about the unforeseen-yet-inevitable consequences of rescuing a self-destructive Mozart type from his own impulses.
This is a good list of his books, with descriptions: Silverberg site
The only books of his I still own are Hawksbill Station and The World Inside. I reread Hawksbill Station fairly recently (both the novella and the novel) and thought it still held up well…
I’ve not taken to very much of his since Lord Valentine’s Castle, which is just a big juvenile, really, so I’d stick with the earlier stuff.
The good news is that if you like Silverberg there’s a lot out there. The man has literally written hundreds of books.
My personal favorite: Nightwings - it’s a novella that was expanded into a novel.
I’m also a fan of Dying Inside, and his story “Passengers” is one of the most chilling bits of SF ever written and “To See the Invisible Man” is also a great one. “Good News from the Vatican” is also worth reading.
But overall, I just don’t warm to Silverberg. I will admit he is a great writer, but most of his works never really grab me.
‘Lord Valentine’s Castle” is a good, if meandering, read. I didn’t care for the sequels all that much.
“The World Inside” is an interesting look at a future where cultural beliefs have created a world where human reproduction is all important, thus causing a huge population explosion, but also where sexual freedom casual sex with strangers is the norm.
“Up the Line” is a pretty good time travel story.
“The Book of Skulls” is an interesting book about four young people figuring out who they are, based against a backdrop of a mysterious immortal group of quasi monks.