Downward to the Earth
By Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg was a very prolific author, much science-fiction but also history, criticism and much else. He had a "golden" period in the late-sixties until the early-seventies, writing some of his most famous novels to a lot of critical acclaim. The first Silverberg I read was one of these, Dying Inside from 1972: a book I thought was extremely good. Downward to the Earth is another from this period, published in 1970, and another great novel I enjoyed immensely.

Using Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a template, Silverberg refashions a new version of the tale: a trip "up river" on a planet that was previously a colonial possession. Like Conrad, the journey is as much a mental one as physical. It is clear that the protagonist, Edmund Gundersen, is seeking some sort of atonement of past sins committed while he was a colonial functionary.

There are two intelligent native species inhabiting the world: the Nildoror and the Sulidoror. The Nildoror are dominant and have an elephant-like appearance but much larger. They are vegetarian, peaceable and intelligent. The Sulidoror are bipedal, fur covered with a snout and long arms with claws. They are more taciturn. The planet has been "relinquished" by the company that ran it and left to its own devices, although a few humans remain and it still receives some tourists. Gundersen travels back to make some sort of peace with the Nildoror and himself. He has done some things he is ashamed of. Other humans have also behaved badly, some much worse.

There is a lot of self-discovery as you would expect and a need to come to terms with the past, especially the treatment of the alien "people" on Belzagor, as the planet is now known. This is the crux in fact: the elephant-like Nildoror are treated like animals (beasts of burden) but they are, in fact, individual, intelligent "people". Perhaps Africans were often treated in the same way: the sin of racial colonialism. The world of Belzagor is beautifully built by Silverberg, in all its humid, sticky or foggy glory. The aliens of both main kinds are also brought to life well and we empathise with these strange, quiet alien beings. Whether or not redemption is achieved, the journey itself is a rewarding one. This is a quiet book worth reading.