Downward to the Earth

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A lone man must make a journey across a once-colonized alien planet abandoned by mankind when it was discovered that the species there were actually sentient.

Gundersen returns to Holman’s World seeking atonement for his harsh years as colonial governor. But now this lush, exotic planet of mystery is called by its ancient name of Belzagor, and it belongs once again to its native alien races, the nildoror and the sulidoror. Drawn by its spell, Gundersen begins a harrowing pilgrimage to its mist-shrouded north to witness a strange ritual rebirth that will alter him forever.

This is one of Silverberg’s most intense novels and draws heavily on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It puts listeners at the heart of the experience and forces them to ask what they would do in the same circumstances.

©1969 Robert Silverberg (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Blends mysticism, world-building, and literary references in an inventive mix…This is perhaps SF’s finest tribute to Joseph Conrad, both in its keen moral sense and its portrayal of a vividly realized alien forest.” ( Time Out)

A fantastic adaptation of Heart of darkness

What did you love best about Downward to the Earth?

I read it a second time just recently and it was just as good as the first. It's a exciting and compelling adaptation of heart of darkness. A redemption novel with compelling creatures and a distinctive world. So far, this is the only Robert Silverberg book I've really liked. I'm going to read another but Up The Line wasn't all that interesting to me. This book has more wisdom to it than most and best of all it has a good ending, something separate from most science fiction. Something very compelling. I won't say more!

Have you listened to any of Bronson Pinchot’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I thought the audio performance was great. Didn't think of it too much, he did a good job of pulling me into the story rather than thinking about the performance.

Any additional comments?

My only complaint is that the story line is kind of a now classic hollywood tail of white man comes to feel bad about imperialism and his role in it. A thing the character should feel but the narrative is still on the greatness of the guy, his personal learnings, not of the charecters effected by the company and imperialism. But, that complaint is a nuanced one and criticizing silverberg on that seems a little unfair. he did not grow up in a hyper aware time.

A Fascinating World

Downward to the Earth is a superb science fiction novel! For some reason, I hadn't read Silverberg before this year, despite decades of reading science fiction. I've recently begun to discover the joys of his work. He writes beautifully and this is a thoughtful book, full of symbolism, darkness, light and discovery. The world-building is excellent and Gunderson, the protagonist, is a well-developed, interesting (and introspective) character. This is the kind of book that made science fiction my favorite genre. What a joy to discover it!

Planetary post-colonialism

Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth is an exploration of post-colonialism on a planetary scale with an indigenous intelligent population. A former colonial administrator returns after relinquishment to reconcile his own sense of his former behavior. The natives have the appearance of elephants. He journeys to participate in the mysterious rebirth ceremony for which he harbors some remorse for having denied the process to a group of natives. Along the way, he reconnects with various ex-pats that have adapted in various ways to the decidedly unearthly planet. In the end, he learns answers to some of the unknowns from his former time as well as arriving at a greater understanding of the concept of a soul.

Silverberg leans heavily on Heart of Darkness and does a yeoman's effort in crafting a sci-fi version of the post-colonial scenario with the unavoidable cultural clash. In this case, rather than the classic savage versus civilized dichotomy, the alien species' lack of tool capability and written language render them at first glance as merely smart animals. As the administrator confronts his prior prejudices as he experiences his journey, the narrow Earth perspectives are dwarfed by his appreciation of the richer context around him. At the same time, the distinction between a smart animal and true intelligence, where the latter is perceived as having a soul, is displayed due to the presence of a second intelligent species. The final denouement of the rebirth ceremony was an insightful ending to this delightful tale.

The narration is superbly rendered with excellent character distinction as well as clear alien accents. Pacing is brisk.

Disappointing story

Maybe I had expectations, or maybe it's is not my favourite type of sci-fi, but this book disappointed me.
The story is mostly of boring parts and sometimes it's get interesting, but not enough and for short periods.

Love this book

I have never encountered SciFi like this. I felt as though I was inside one of the Heinlein side stories. It's a must read.

Great story

A wonderful story with excellent world building. You are taken to another world. one very different but strangely familiar. worth another listen through in a couple months.

Better than expected

It is an older scifi but holds up well. Would recommend the graphic novel also.

The books follows a man who committed terrible sins against the planet’s sentient elephant-like life— and he finds understanding and redemption. Reminscent of anti-colonization (similar to native american ateocities) The themes are deep but are very well executed.

1970 Novel Still Captures Attention

With a significant nod to Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness “, this is Silverberg at the top of his game. Beautifully written, wonderfully descriptive and full of imagination, this book was a joyful listen.

well the ending could be better

great story but I hope there is a second book at least. he ends up changing but into what? is he now immortal?

The story may be good

The narrator did not do their best on this one. If you want some white noise to fall asleep too, play this. I have four hours of this audiobook to go and simply stopped listening

Strangely rewarding

Whacky 60s sci-fi in an alien world of dancing green pachyderms, with heavy psychedelic overtones and literary reference to Conrad and the story of Christ... sounds cheesily unreadable, right? But in fact it's a fascinating story, beautifully written and engaging, not afraid to explore big questions (including colonialism here on Earth), and doing so with subtlety. Very well narrated, creatively capturing the way in which an other intelligence might speak. Intriguing listen, recommended.

Beautiful, yet somewhat ~incomplete~

By deciding to listen to this particular audio book, I embarked on a journey of a, sort of, revisiting my childhood's most impressionable and memorable sci-fi/fantasy author.

The journey was pleasant and, more often than not, immersive enough.

However, disregarding the risk of repeating myself, it felt somewhat incomplete.

Another "downwards dragging" feature of this book, in my personal opinion, was the slight overdoing with the religiously infused subtexts and subplots.

Although, it felt like an attempt to tread an ultra thin, barely detectable, line between the realms of religion and spirituality or, perhaps, even mysticism.

I don't mind the latter two, but I'm strongly opposed to the former one.
That was the most deciding aspect which led me to slice off a star.

Other than that, it's an easy to recommend sci-fi adventure treat for the lovers of this kind.

Beautiful

I loved this. Written and performed beautifully. A Sci-Fi with no war, no power struggle and peaceful aliens. Enlightening and powerful.

Downward to the Earth

Thought provoking plot and ideas. A man's pilgrimage for atonement for his part in the colonization of an alien planet. Excellent world building. While I found the topic of alien culture and spirituality interesting from a psychological perspective, I didn't enjoy the magical aspects. I can suspend disbelief only so far - the rebirth process just seemed completely implausible even taking into account that this is an alien planet.

Brilliant

I wasn't sure what this was going to be about but that's part of the appeal, luckily it was very good and I enjoyed it.

Soul's journey of discovery

Such a pleasure, hard to stop listening.
Performance was impeccable, resounded with the characters. Story was unforgettable

A strange and intriguing world that has it’s own priorities.

This is a brilliant SF story, from Robert Silverberg, that doesn’t involve any of the usual tropes that the genre conveys. As such it was a genuine change of pace and an original plot (or at least one that I’ve not come across before) that kept me listening and intrigued throughout. The ‘event’ was well signalled but not the nature of it, which turned out to be a twist of sorts. This is a story with a brilliant idea behind it, and that’s what I really like! This is not space opera at all, no nasty attacks on Earth, in fact, no fighting at all, to speak of.
This is a story about a return, both to a receding empire and to old friends. Also, as is often the case about returning, you see things that you didn’t notice before. Are you older and wiser, or just more observant? Or has everything changed?
Branson Pinchot reads the story well. It’s told from one person’s viewpoint, so there’s no need to have different voices for each character. All the plot takes place on the one planet, and the inhabitants there are explained carefully and respectfully, and those rules aren’t broken. So the world building is concise and believable, the characteristics of the differing ‘races’ explained slowly and carefully without putting huge demands on the listener’s memory. Some of the humans meet strange fates that wouldn’t normally apply, but might be expected in a foreign environment. This environment is always there, a living entity that can’t be forgotten, even if some of the old ‘occupiers’ have been.
If you enjoy stories built around ideas not fights, alien settings that are convincing and hold together through the plot, and aliens who think and have a culture that isn’t about conquering other civilisations but living in co-existence, then this book is for you. It is a strange place that will intrigue and enthrall you. I’m looking for my next Silverberg novel now.

Odd but good

A really interesting science fiction idea, We follow a man named Gunderson as he returns to an alien planet where he once lived for a decade, before the planet was rightfully returned to its indigenous population.

The main indigenous population (if you can call them that) look much like elephants and that is where the problems started. Upon seeing these creatures, and other weird and wonderful ‘animals’ when they arrived on this planet mankind assumed they were unintelligent and so saw fit to take over their planet.

There are obvious parallels with wildlife habitats on earth that we have taken over and destroyed because the inhabitants are merely ‘dumb’ animals, our supposed inferiors, and so in looking at the relationship between humans and aliens in this book comparisons between us and animals and even different races of people here on earth can be made. Why do we consider ourselves better, and are we? This book asks the question what it means to be human, or to have a soul. It is in fact quite spiritual.

Aside from the deep questions of souls and humanity this is a fantastical tale albeit told in quite a somber serious way.

The story gets weirder as you go along with some wonderful descriptions of exotic wildlife and the plant itself. I really had no idea how it would end, being set on another planet the options really are endless, and the author really lets his imagination fly, not in ridiculous ways, but imaginative and sometimes a little horrific too. It was nice to just listen (this was an audible ‘read’) and not worry about where it was taking me, it meant it had very little chance of being predictable too when the only limit is the author's vivid imagination.

Overall a really well written and well told story which can make you think but also just be a good work of science fiction in its own right too.

Stunning

My first Silverberg and several levels above what I was expecting. A beautifully written book that can’t help but make you think. If you’re looking for Stars Wars though, best to avoid.

Showing its age

This really isn’t worth the time it takes to listen to it. The author wrote a book to fit a mundane idea. It might have been interesting when I was a teenage sci-fi fan but not at 73.