Silverberg appears to have a high opinion of himself (at least that is what his brief introductions to each of these stories communicate to me) but he is also frankly a maestro: the eponymous novella alone justifies the purchase of this book. I am sorry to say that in contrast with the recent Hamilton, this far outweighs anything The Dreaming Void could throw at it; Science Fiction isn't about quantum busters, exotic matter, or FTL travel alone, but the human response to the projected conundrums of time, place and relationships that these things might evoke. Think of the telephone, and the way literary works incorporated the new, literally telegraphic and immediate ways people related to each other: this literary effect wasn't achieved by constant reference to the operative components of the telephone or the physics responsible. Hamilton makes this mistake, repeatedly: Silverberg, to his credit, sees the wood, despite the trees. ( )