Hawksbill Station
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Robert Silverberg |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1968 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 166 pp |
Hawksbill Station is a science fiction novel written by Robert Silverberg. The novel is an expanded version of a short story first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967; the novel was published in 1968. It was released in the United Kingdom under the title The Anvil of Time.
Synopsis
Hawksbill Station is a penal colony in the Precambrian era created by the United States government, using time travel as a means to exile rebels and political dissidents into the past. The colony houses only male exiles, who are sent there as a "humane" alternative to execution. The machine only works one way, so the prisoners are marooned in the past.
The prison is in a barren coastal area prior to the colonization of land by sophisticated life. The personal relationship of the main character, the de facto leader of the colony, and both his government torturer/prosecutor and Dr. Hawksbill, each of whom had been members of the dissidence movement, as well as explication of the picayune ideological differences among the prisoners, and the confused circumstances leading to the establishment of the authoritarian government.
The prisoners, all of them middle-aged or elderly, are surprised by the arrival via the time machine of a much younger prisoner. The newcomer, ostensibly an economist, is questioned about economic theory and political ideology, and his answers reveal his essential ignorance of either. His ignorance and youth cause the prisoners to wonder if he is fact a political prisoner or a common criminal who would have been exiled for a heinous crime.
When the newcomer arrives via the time machine a second time, it is revealed that he is a police officer of a new government which overthrew the authoritarian regime but was unrelated to the dissident movements of the exiles; upon the overthrow, the new government discovered both the existence of Hawksbill Station and the means to time travel from past to future, making it possible to retrieve prisoners from the colony. The newcomer has been sent to evaluate the prisoners and to recommend whether they are mentally stable for retrieval.
With return now possible, the leader of the exiles realizes that he is a time traveler of a different sort: the struggle against the authoritarian regime, his life's work, is over; his closest friends in the movement and his bitterest enemies, who left the movement to join the authoritarian government, are dead; and those who finally overthrow the government have little connection with or regard for his brand of dissent. He is now somewhat inclined to visit the newcomer's future, but staying at Hawksbill Station is now the only existence he knows.
Interesting Facts
Hawksbill Station was accredited by Jeff Vogel, a small indie-game developer, as influencing his design for his game "Exile: Escape from the Pit", saying while most of the games plot-lines were his, this classic short story helped shape his ideas.–[1]
References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Roxby Press Limited, 1979. ISBN 0-385-14743-0.
- Clute, John with Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St Martin's Griffin, 1993 (2nd edition 1995). ISBN 0-312-13486-X.
External links
- Hawksbill Station title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
