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Thorns (origineel 1967; editie 1969)

door Robert Silverberg

Leden	Besprekingen	Populariteit	Gemiddelde beoordeling	Aanhalingen
507	11	48,698	(3.16)	12

Titel

Thorns

Auteur

Robert Silverberg

Waardering

Bespreking

Chalk is an entertainment mogul. Burris is a retired spaceman who was irreparably altered by alien surgeons. Lona is a teenager who had hundreds of her eggs removed. Scientists then fertilized the viable ones, all from the same sperm donor, and a dozen women and 88 artificial wombs brought her babies to term. She has never met them. This profoundly impacted her. Burris is profoundly impacted by the unending pain and the monster face that the alien surgeons left him with.
Chalk decides to bring the two together, and publicize their romance, making revenue from it. But he is an emotional vampire and he grows fat on negative emotions, so Burris and Lona are in for bad times.
Hardback edition
P.65:
"Hooded once more, he let himself be swept along a network of pneumatic tubes until he found himself gliding into an immense cavernous room studded with various levels of activity points. Just now there was little activity; the desks were empty, the screens were silent. A gentle glow of thermal luminescent fungi lit the place. Turning slowly, Burris panned his gaze across the room and up a series of Crystal rungs until he observed, seated thronewise near the ceiling on the far side, a vast individual.
Chalk. Obviously.
Burris stood absorbed in the sight, forgetting for a moment the million tiny pricking pains that were his constant companions. So big? So enfleshed? The man had devoured a legion of cattle to gain that bulk."

P.67:
" 'your rating must have been good. you were given a tough assignment. first landing on a world of intelligent beings – never a cinch. how many in your team?'
'Three. we all went through surgery. Prolisse died first, then Malcondotto. Lucky for them.'
'you dislike your present body?'
'it has its advantages. The doctors say I'm likely to live 500 years. But it's painful, and it's also embarrassing. I was never cut out to be a monster.'
'you're not as ugly as you may think you are,' chalk observed. 'oh, yes, children run screaming from you, that sort of thing. But children are conservatives. They loathe anything new. I find that face of yours quite attractive in its way. I dare say a lot of women would fling themselves at your feet.' "

P.83:
" '... It's a dry world. Pluvial belts about the poles, then mounting dryness approaching the equator. it rains about every billion years at the equator and somewhat more frequently in the temperate zones.'
'Homesick?'
'hardly. But I learned the beauty of thorns there.'
'thorns? They stick you.'
'That's part of their beauty.'
'you sound like chalk now,' Aoudad muttered. 'pain is instructive, he says. Pain is gain. and thorns are beautiful. Give me a rose.'
'rose bushes are thorny, too,' Burris remarked quietly.
AOudad looked distressed. 'tulips, then. Tulips!'
Burris said, 'The Thorn is merely a highly evolved form of leaf. an adaptation to a harsh environment. Cacti can't afford to transpire the way leafy plants do. So they adapt. I'm sorry you regard such an elegant adaptation as ugly.' "

P.134-5:
"the glass was translucent quartz. It was 3/5 filled with a richly viscous green liquid. moving idly back and forth was a tiny animal, teardrop shaped, whose Violet skin left a faint glow behind as it swam.
'is that supposed to be there?'
Burris laughed. 'I have a deneb martini, so-called. It's a preposterous name. specialty of the house.'
'and in it?'
'a tadpole, essentially. Amphibious life form from one of the aldebaran worlds.'
'which you drink?'
'yes. Live.'
'live.' Lona shuddered. 'why? does it taste that good?'
'it has no taste at all, as a matter of fact. It's pure decoration. sophistication come full circle, back to barbarism. One gulp, and down it goes.'
'but it's alive? How can you kill it?'
'Have you ever eaten an oyster, Lona?'
'No. what's an oyster?'
'a mollusk. once quite popular, served in its shell. Live. You sprinkle it with lemon juice – citric acid, you know – and it writhes. Then you eat it. it tastes of the sea. I'm sorry, Lona. That's how it is. Oysters don't know what's happening to them. They don't have hopes and fears and dreams. Neither does this creature here.'
'but to kill -'
'we kill to eat. A true morality of food would allow us to eat only synthetics.' Burris smiled kindly. 'I'm sorry. I wouldn't have ordered it if I'd known it would offend you. Shall I have them take it away?' "

Publicatiedatum

1969

Uitgave

Walker, Hardcover, 222 pages

Aantal exemplaren

Pagina's

222

Afmetingen

LC-classificatie

PZ4.S573 T

Onderwerpen

Science fiction