A re-read after many years. It is not so much a novel as three connected novellas, the first of which, called 'Nightwings', won the 1969 Hugo novella award. I've just re-read it in The Hugo Winners 1963-1968 so will first reprise what I said in my review of that volume:

I still enjoyed 'Nightwings' and found in it a prefiguring of Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series, published over ten years later. Set in the far future on an Earth which is old, having seen many cycles of civilisation, it is told in the first person viewpoint of an old man who is one of the Watcher guild, his duty being to 'watch the skies' with an instrumentation cart, to look for a long forecast alien invasion. After centuries without an invasion, his guild is looked on as a joke, and even he is starting to wonder if he has wasted his whole life. He travels with a Flyer, a modified human female with gossamer wings which can only support her weight after sundown, and an apparent Changeling, an odd-looking character who is guideless, to Roum, which is clearly Rome. Similarly, other famous cities have changed name after aeons, and we eventually learn that he originates from what is left of the Americas, which have been mainly covered by the sea and are now a series of islands. An atmospheric and interesting story.

In a way, that first novella/third of the book is the best, with a good open ending. The second segment is probably the weakest. In it, the ex-Watcher leaves Roum, in the company of its Prince who is now blind and is travelling incognito in the guise of a Pilgrim to Perris (Paris). Their relationship is prickly, yet the ex-Watcher feels a certain responsiblity for the ex-Prince's fate, and his sense of obligation comes into conflict with his own desire to pursue the vocation of the Remembers guild in Perris. The job of this guild is to carry out archaelogical digs and analysis in order to piece together past history. The conquering alien race are very interested in the past also, although it becomes obvious that their interest is biased towards one particular aspect of Earth history.

In the Second Cycle (which began when contact was first made with offworlders and ended when the people of Earth became so arrogant that they tampered with the planet's magnetic fields and climate), Earth had risen to become a fabulously cultured and technologically advanced planet, and a tourist destination for many alien races. But as centuries passed, this civilisation fell into decadence, the Earth people developing a self importance amounting to hubris. As part of this, they had set up a zoo where non-humanoid aliens could be viewed as specimens, and as time passed, abducted more human-looking aliens with developed societies. Other alien races visited Earth to take advantage of the ability to see so many species in one place, while deploring the way it was done. One particular race, not yet achieving spaceflight but represented by others, had objected strongly and when Earth's civilisation collapsed, they bought up the planet's assets with the intent of coming to take their revenge when they finally developed spaceflight. Thus the ex-Watcher's guild had been established, although most ordinary people including himself no longer remembered who the Watchers were meant to provide early warning against.

After the disasters which occur in the second segment of the book, the ex-Watcher is now an ex-Rememberer apprentice also and is forced to leave Perris in the company of another character who played a main role in the disastrous sequence of events. Together they travel to Jorslem (Jerusalem) where the sole survivor of Second Cycle technology is preserved: the establishment where people can be regenerated and made young again. It is possible to do this two or three times in a lifetime and it is seemingly free, but the criteria for acceptance are mysterious and it is impossible to predict whether or not the ex-Watcher and his companion will be accepted. While in Jorslem, his fondest hope is realised when he again meets the Flyer from whom he was separated at the end of the first segment. There are some interesting parallels in this section between the newly formed guild of Redeemers and the early Christians, although that might just be coincidental.

I made allowances for the 1970s 'dodgy' cover on the second hand hand copy I was reading, but will comment on its inaccuracy: Flyers do remove their clothes to keep their weight down for flying, but are lean to the point of gauntness because of the difficulty of getting themselves off the ground otherwise, and the character being portrayed does not have a 38D chest!

On the whole, I found this book an enjoyable read. Not quite five stars because of the weaker middle section, but worthy of four. ( )

Now I get why people love Robert Silverberg.

Give me this kind of world building over the over-expository bloat that's popular these days. So many questions left unanswered, and that's perfectly satisfying.

I almost gave it five stars, but a few minor missteps and an ending that didn't quite connect with me, kept me from it. ( )

**Spoilers** I thought this was a good story, the main character was interesting and sympathetic, and Silverberg does a good job creating an earth that is at once recognizable and very much different. It didn't seem like much happened, although the entire planet gets taken over by aliens--there's almost a sleepwalking quality to the action, as if it's happening all around the narrator but not to him. The other conflicts were muted also, and I think the ending it the weakest part of the book--everything gets resolved and fixed more by a different point of view than any action, and it's all a little too neat and complete for my taste. His novel Dying Inside is one of my all-time favorites, so I'm using the availability of discounted ebooks to read more of his stuff. ( )

My feeling was that the story was complete in the first 63 pages and the rest was mostly packing material. But at least it was a good story. ( )

Reread this to see if my opinion changed on this which it did slightly. Unfortunately I still couldn't find myself interested in any of the supporting characters outside of the watcher and Roum. ( )