The Longest Way Home

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the most renowned and respected literary artists in the field of science fiction, Robert Silverberg transports us once again to a spectacular, deftly conceived world in transition and propels us on a remarkable odyssey of survival and self-discovery.

The Folk were first to arrive on this faraway planet, pushing aside the docile, intelligent aboriginal races they encountered. The Masters followed to subjugate the careless, complacent fellow humans who preceded them here.

Born to take over the reins of House Keilloran, Joseph Master Keilloran awakens one night in the Great House of distant relatives to the thunder of battle. Joseph escapes, but he is stranded and alone 10,000 miles from his home. Damned by his birth and class, surrounded by enemies who would kill him if they found him, Joseph must now embark on a journey of unimaginable distance toward a home that may already be in ruin.

©2002 Agberg, Ltd. (P)2002 Fantastic Audio

Critic reviews

"This is especially fine work by the always reliable Silverberg, and it promises an agreeable series of successors." (Booklist)

Classic Silverberg

This is classic Silverberg but not as fully developed as "Lord Valentine's Castle" or "Majipoor Chronicles." This book cries for a sequential to fully develop the themes. But it's well written as we have come to expect from Silverberg and the performance is perfectly fine.

Valentine redo?

RS is one of my favorite authors. He has written some really good stuff, such as Downward To Earth, The World Inside, At Winter's End and Sorcerers of Majipoor. He has edited some of the best collections of all time such as Legends and Far Horizons.
This book is about a Prince who is separate from his Kingdom by 10,000 miles on a planet colonized by Earth. The planet has a small indigenous population. Sound familiar? The book had some good parts, but there was really no plot. I kinda of think it important for a story to have one. I like the book, I just did not love it and there are two many great books out there to spend time on a travel log of a planet that does not exist.

LONGEST WAY HOME

I had forgotten why I like Robert Silverberg so much. This is an excellent book, unlike so much of what is being passed today as fantasy.

Sci-Fi

This novel is really a classic adventure story of a boy becoming a man through experiences that challenge him physically and mentally, that happens to be a classic hard science fiction story set on a planet around another star system. The sci-fi aspects function rather more as plot devices to enable the author to put the protagonist, a fifteen year old child of wealth and privilege in a feudal society at the start of the story. When the society is suddenly beset by a revolt of the peasant "volk," Joseph must find his way 10,000 miles from the estate of his cousin back to his own home. He is helped along the way he is rescued by the other sentient species native to the planet, as well as by sympathetic members of the "volk." Along the way while he comes to question the beliefs and values of the society in which he was raised. I would recommend the book highly for teenagers, with the caveat to parents that there is some fairly graphic sexual content, alhtough presented tastefully and lovingly. The reader has a good voice who adds just enough dramatization to add to the enjoyment. My only quibble, since I take the "science" in science fiction very seriously, is that the author assumes (as do most science fiction writers) that human beings will go to distant worlds populated by plants, animals, and sentient creatures that not only look outwardly very similar to earth species, but that have a biology sufficiently similar that we can live off them.

Excellent detail. Very good reading.

Robert Silverberg has always painted elaborate starscapes in my head, so I was glad to see he had not lost any of his ability. This was an entertaining audio book, but lacked the suspense of most of Mr. Silverberg's writings.

Although "The Longest Way Home" kept my interest until the end, it ultimately let me down. The only way the ending works is if Mr. Silverberg is positioning his character for another book.