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The Pardoner's Tale

Robert Silverberg

First published June 1987
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

Synopsis

In a future when aliens have taken Earth over and enslaved humanity, a man survives by selling his ability to alter the programming for anybody's imbedded interface to change their assignments.

Notes


Silverberg states in The Best of Robert Silverberg: Stories of Six Decades that he used three prior stories, renaming the characters, as the basis for the The Alien Years (1998): "Against Babylon" (1986) - almost entirely as opening chapters; "Hannibal's Elephants" (1988) - small piece in one of the early sequences; and "The Pardoner's Tale" (1987) - nearly all in later part of book. He also states that he later carved out three new stories from the novel: "Beauty in the Night" (1997), "On the Inside" (1998), and "The Colonel in Autumn" (1998).

Awards

YearAwardCategoryStatus
1988 Locus Poll Award Best Short Story Nominee/Finalist

Publications (23)

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
June 1987 Playboy, June 1987 Playboy Enterprises, Inc. MAGAZINE 60
May 1988 The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection St. Martin's Press Anthology 220
May 1988 The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection St. Martin's Press Anthology 220
June 1988 The 1988 Annual World's Best SF DAW Books Anthology 12
June 1988 The 1988 Annual World's Best SF DAW Books Anthology 12
August 1988 The 1988 Annual World's Best SF DAW Books / SFBC Anthology 1
September 1988 Best New SF 2 Robinson Anthology 220
September 1988 Best New SF 2 Robinson Anthology 220
November 1992 The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1: Secret Sharers Bantam Spectra Collection 309
November 1992 The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 1: Secret Sharers Bantam Spectra Collection 309
May 1993 The Secret Sharer Grafton Collection 15
June 1994 The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection St. Martin's Press Anthology 220
October 1996 Hackers Ace Books Anthology 76
June 1997 Cyber-Killers Millennium / Orion Anthology 85
June 1997 Cyber-Killers Millennium / Orion Anthology 85
May 1998 Cyber-Killers Orion Anthology 113
November 2009 The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 1 Secret Sharers Spectra / Ballantine Books Collection
September 2011 Multiples: 1983-87 Subterranean Press Collection 297
September 2011 Multiples: 1983-87 Subterranean Press Collection 297
December 2012 Multiples Gateway / Orion Collection
June 2013 Multiples: 1983-87 Subterranean Press Collection
June 2013 Multiples: 1983-87 Subterranean Press Collection
July 2013 Hackers Baen Books Anthology