Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, James Blish - Read Online Free Books Archive

The three stories presented here were written specially for this book. They are the outcome of an unusual sort of literary challenge.

Arthur C. Clarke, one of the world's best-known science-fiction authors, whose works include the novel Childhood's End and the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey, was asked to write a brief essay setting forth a general theme for a science-fiction story. Clarke's theme then was offered to Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, and James Blish, three award-winning science-fiction writers; each was told to use it as the basis for a short novel, and each was given no hint of the approaches the others were taking.

The result is a trio of stories that differ markedly in style, technique, and tone, while demonstrating in three individual ways the uncomfortable possibilities that the future may hold for us.