Silverberg has always been one of my favorite sci-fi authors. This novel, published in 1994, is one of his later efforts and I wasn't sure if it would hold up against his classics from the 60s and 70s like "Book of Skulls" and "Nightwings", but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this one about a very polluted earth in the not too distant future and how mankind is trying to deal with the pollution. This includes a very radical concept of genetically re-engineering the human species by changing its hemoglobin so we would be able to breathe the polluted air including methane and to alter the skin, etc. to withstand the unprotected rays of the sun. The new race would be "monstrous with scales, goggle eyes, and webbed feet..." In addition to this option, a stardrive has been developed to take earthlings to a possible new home in the stars. However, traveling at the speed of light is found to negatively affect humans' eyesight and makes them disoriented so a retrofitting to change eyesight into a kind of "blindsight" is in the works. Not only does this novel have some great concepts but the characters are all developed very well and the story-line has a lot of intrigue. The character "Farkas", who was blinded in the womb in a genetic experiment and has no eyes, is especially interesting. Overall, I would recommend this one highly.
