Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) is quite rightly put on a par with such “pillars” of modern science fiction as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Sheckley, Henry Kuttner. Silverberg is literature of the highest class; in his books, along with a complex and unusual plot, the psychology of the heroes is described in detail. An eternal theme in science fiction: people and strangers, earthlings and aliens. Who are they for us and who are we for them?