Gilgamesh in the Outback

Science fiction novella by Robert Silverberg

Gilgamesh in the Outback

Author| Robert Silverberg
Cover artist| Gary Freeman
Language| English
Genre| Science fiction
Publisher| Asimov's Science Fiction

Publication date

| 1986
Publication place| United States

Gilgamesh in the Outback is a science fiction novella by American writer Robert Silverberg, a sequel to his historical novel Gilgamesh the King[1] as well as a story in the shared universe series Heroes in Hell. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1987 and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1986.[2][3] Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction,[4][5][6] it was then printed in Rebels in Hell[7] before being incorporated into Silverberg's novel To the Land of the Living. Real-life writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft feature as characters in the novella.

Robert Silverberg wrote that he was "drawn into" writing a story for the "Heroes in Hell" project. While he remembered that the central concept of the series was "never clearly explained" to him, he noted the similarity of "Heroes in Hell" to Philip José Farmer's Riverworld works, and decided "to run my own variant on what Farmer had done a couple of decades earlier." After writing "Gilgamesh in the Outback", he decided that, since the story "was all so much fun," to write two sequels, "The Fascination of the Abomination" and "Gilgamesh in Uruk".[8] In writing those stories, as Silverberg recalled, he "never read many of the other 'Heroes in Hell' stories", and had "no idea" of how consistent his work was with that of his "putative collaborators"; instead, he had "gone his own way ... with only the most tangential links to what others had invented."[8]

Silverberg compiled the three stories as To the Land of the Living, revising the stories to remove any references to other writers' contributions to "Heroes in Hell" to avoid copyright issues.[8] To the Land of the Living was published in the British market in 1989 and reprinted in an American edition in 1990.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Brian Stableford & John Clute, "Robert Silverberg". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
2. ^ "1987 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on May 7, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
3. ^ "Nebula Nominees List". The Locus Index to SF Awards. Locus. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
4. ^ The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies, Mike Ashley & William G. Contento, Greenwood Press, 1995, p.507
5. ^ Thomsen, Brian; Greenberg, Martin H., eds. (March 2006). Novel Ideas — Fantasy. New York, NY: DAW Books. p. Acknowledgments. ISBN 978-1-101-15755-8.
6. ^ U.S. Copyright Office records (via webcitation.org because Copyright Office search results are time-dependent)
7. ^ U.S. Copyright Office records (via webcitation.org because Copyright Office search results are time-dependent)
8. ^ a b c Thomsen, Brian; Greenberg, Martin H., eds. (March 2006). Novel Ideas — Fantasy. New York, NY: DAW Books. pp. 205–06 (story introduction). ISBN 978-1-101-15755-8.

## External links

[edit]

* Gilgamesh in the Outback title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

* v
* t
* e

Robert Silverberg

* Bibliography

Novels|

* Revolt on Alpha C
* Lest We Forget Thee, Earth
* Starman's Quest
* Collision Course
* The Seed of Earth
* The Silent Invaders
* Time of the Great Freeze
* Conquerors from the Darkness
* The Gate of Worlds
* Planet of Death
* Thorns
* Those Who Watch
* The Time Hoppers
* Hawksbill Station
* The Masks of Time
* The Man in the Maze
* Nightwings
* Across a Billion Years
* To Live Again
* Up the Line
* Downward to the Earth
* Tower of Glass
* Son of Man
* The Second Trip
* The World Inside
* A Time of Changes
* The Book of Skulls
* Dying Inside
* Shadrach in the Furnace
* Sailing to Byzantium
* Nightfall
* The Face of the Waters
* Kingdoms of the Wall
* The Positronic Man
* Starborne
* Roma Eterna

| Nidonian series|

* The Shrouded Planet
* The Dawning Light

|

Majipoor series|

* Lord Valentine's Castle
* Majipoor Chronicles
* Valentine Pontifex

Gilgamesh series|

* Gilgamesh the King
* To the Land of the Living

Short story collections|

* The Cube Root of Uncertainty

Anthologies edited|

* Alpha series
* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* 5
* 6
* 7
* 8
* 9
* The Best of Randall Garrett
* Dawn of Time
* Deep Space: Eight Stories of Science Fiction
* Epoch
* Far Horizons
* Legends
* Legends II
* The Nebula Awards #18
* Nebula Awards Showcase 2001
* New Dimensions 1
* New Dimensions II
* New Dimensions 3
* New Dimensions IV
* New Dimensions 5
* Robert Silverberg Presents the Great SF Stories: 1964
* The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964
* Strange Gifts
* Universe 1
* Universe 2
* Universe 3

Nonfiction|

* Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations

* v
* t
* e

Hugo Award for Best Novella

Retro Hugos|

* Who Goes There? by Don A. Stuart (1939)
* "If This Goes On—" by Robert A. Heinlein (1941)
* Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (1943)
* The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1944)
* Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon (1945)
* Animal Farm by George Orwell (1946)
* The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (1951)
* A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1954)

1968–1980|

* Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip José Farmer / Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
* Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969)
* Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (1970)
* Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971)
* The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (1972)
* The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973)
* The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (1974)
* A Song for Lya by George R. R. Martin (1975)
* Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976)
* By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson / Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977)
* Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978)
* The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979)
* Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)

1981–1990|

* Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson (1981)
* The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson (1982)
* Souls by Joanna Russ (1983)
* Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn (1984)
* Press Enter by John Varley (1985)
* 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai by Roger Zelazny (1986)
* Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg (1987)
* Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card (1988)
* The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis (1989)
* The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1990)

1991–2000|

* The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman (1991)
* Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1992)
* Barnacle Bill the Spacer by Lucius Shepard (1993)
* Down in the Bottomlands by Harry Turtledove (1994)
* Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (1995)
* The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele (1996)
* Blood of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin (1997)
* ...Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen Steele (1998)
* Oceanic by Greg Egan (1999)
* The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis (2000)

2001–2010|

* The Ultimate Earth by Jack Williamson (2001)
* Fast Times at Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge (2002)
* Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2003)
* The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge (2004)
* The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross (2005)
* Inside Job by Connie Willis (2006)
* A Billion Eves by Robert Reed (2007)
* All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis (2008)
* The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress (2009)
* Palimpsest by Charles Stross (2010)

2011–2020|

* The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (2011)
* The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (2012)
* The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (2013)
* Equoid by Charles Stross (2014)
* (No award given) (2015)
* Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2016)
* Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2017)
* All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018)
* Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2019)
* This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2020)

2021–present|

* The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2021)
* A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (2022)
* Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (2023)
* Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Epic of Gilgamesh

Characters|

| Humans|

* Gilgamesh
* Aga
* Enmebaragesi
* Enkidu
* Shamhat
* Urshanabi
* Utnapishtim

|

Deities|

* Adad
* Anunnaki
* Ea
* Enlil
* Ishtar (Inanna)
* Ninsun
* Shamash (Utu)
* Shullat and Hanish
* Siduri
* Silili
* Wer

Other mythical beings|

* Bull of Heaven
* Humbaba
* Scorpion man

Adaptations|

| Literature|

* The Great American Novel (1973)
* Gilgamesh the King (1984)
* Gilgamesh in the Outback (1986)
* Timewyrm: Genesys (1991)
* Slaves of the Shinar (2006)
* The Sorceress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2009)

|

Classical music|

* The Epic of Gilgamesh (1955 Czech oratorio)
* Gilgamesh (Kodallı) (1964 Turkish opera)
* Gilgamesh (Saygun) (1970 Turkish opera)
* Gilgamesh (Nørgård) (1972 Danish opera)
* Gilgamesh (Brucci) (1986 Serbian opera)

Film|

* The Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom (1985)
* Princess Mononoke (1997)
* Where is Gilgamesh? (2024)

Television|

* "Darmok"
* "Demon with a Glass Hand"
* "The Tower of Druaga"
* "The Beginnings"

Comics|

* Gilgamesh II
* Forgotten One
* Gilgamesh

Video games|

* The Tower of Druaga

Other|

* Popular culture
* Gilgamesh flood myth
* Uruk
* Mashu
* Sîn-lēqi-unninni
* George Smith
* Tale of Gudam

* Category

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