The World Inside

This is the first Silverberg work I have read. Knowing a little about the author and his acclaimed ability to mix the "literary" with the genre, I guess maybe I expected more. Then again, I've read elsewhere that The World Inside is not considered one of his better works.

Be that as it may, I think I enjoyed the idea of the story more than the story itself. That Silverberg was able to create sex as a virtual character in this book is praiseworthy. But where I felt The World Inside fell short was with the character discontinuities. Each chapter focuses on a different character and none of the characters are repeated. Thus, the book serves as more of a series of snapshots of how different peoples of different classes live in the "vertical" world of the urbmon (see Synopsis for more description of urbmon). The end-result was that just when I got to liking a character and cared about what happened to them next, the rug was pulled from under me. This was obviously intentional and I didn't particularly care for it. Because of this, by the end of the book I didn't feel I'd been given enough to want anything more. The chosen style & structure ultimately disengaged me from the story Silverberg was trying to tell. It is an interesting story and an interesting approach to telling it...but, in the end, not a thoroughly satisfying read.