To Live Again (novel)

To Live Again
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Robert Silverberg
Cover artist	Pat Steir
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1969
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	231 pp

To Live Again is also a novel by Lurlene McDaniel in the Dawn Rochelle quintet.

To Live Again is a 1969 science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg.

Plot introduction

The book describes a world where all great scientists, economists, thinkers, builders and so on can store a "backup" of their personality (if they can afford the expensive procedure). Most of those who can afford it record their personality once every six months.

These personalities can then be transplanted (upon the person's actual death) to other people, "living" alongside the Host, providing him or her with a new insight on life, and on their field of expertise. As the possession of extra personalities can be a mark of prestige, it has become fashionable in high society to buy and possess as many personalities as they have money for. Occasionally, the personalities of strong minded individuals can overwhelm the personalities of their hosts, resulting in the destruction of the host body's personality. The personality is said to have gone dybbuk.

Reception

Algis Budrys, finding the novel "genuinely mov[ing]" despite being indifferently crafted, concluded that it succeeded because "the very best parts of this book are the unwritten ones, the ones that play on the good old half-buried fears and longings, the love-death pushme-pullyou that drives men in the old, old quest whose byproduct is power."^[1] Sidney Coleman reviewed the novel favorably, saying "At the close of To Live Again, his characters are in various postures of triumph or defeat, but they are convinced they have lived life to the fullest, and have striven after that which is worth the striving. Only the reader is left in horrid fascination, as if he had just witnessed feeding time at the cannibal cage."^[2]

References

↑ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1970, pp.2, 142-43
↑ "Books," F&SF, June 1970, p.53-4

Bibliography of Robert Silverberg

Novels	Revolt on Alpha C The Shrouded Planet Starman's Quest The Dawning Light Collision Course The Seed of Earth Time of the Great Freeze Conquerors from the Darkness The Gate of Worlds Planet of Death Thorns Those Who Watch The Time Hoppers The Man in the Maze Hawksbill Station The Masks of Time Downward to the Earth Across a Billion Years Nightwings To Live Again Up the Line 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 Gilgamesh the King Gilgamesh in the Outback Nightfall The Face of the Waters Kingdoms of the Wall The Positronic Man Starborne Roma Eterna

Short story collections	Lest We Forget Thee Earth The Cube Root of Uncertainty

Anthologies edited	The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964 New Dimensions 1 The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two Epoch Strange Gifts Alpha 1 Alpha 2 Alpha 3 Alpha 4 Alpha 5 Alpha 6 Alpha 7 Alpha 8 Alpha 9 Dawn of Time The Best of Randall Garrett Legends Legends II Far Horizons Deep Space: Eight Stories of Science Fiction

Non-fiction	Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations

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