omnibus of: MAN IN THE MAZE (1969) + NIGHTWINGS (1969) + DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH (1971)

After an initial explosion of output in the mid to late fifties (he won a Hugo for "best new author" in 1956) , Silverberg slowed down when the magazine market shrank, and took on other projects including history books for a few years. In the late sixties, he became noticed for a more mature, artistic style, garnering Hugo & Nebula nominations for his 1967 novel Thorns and the magazine version of "Hawksbill Station," and then winning a Hugo for "Nightwings" and a handful of Nebula awards for short works plus the novel A Time of Changes.

The Man in the Maze. A shorter version was serialized in IF April and May 1968.

Richard Muller lives in a deadly maze on the dead planet Lemnos - hiding there after the changes wrought upon him when he was discovered as humanity's spy on the first alien race they'd encountered. His presence is unbearable to other people. But now, Humanity has need of him, in his changed state. Someone must thread through the maze and convince him to come out. The task falls upon Ned Rawlins...

Nightwings - the 3 parts that make up the book were originally published in Galaxy as "Nightwings" (September 1968), "Perris Way" (November 1968), and "To Jorslem" (February 1969.) The title novella won the Hugo award. I'd cheerfully place this book on any "top 100" list - strongly recommended.

Earth is in decline, occupations divided into various guilds like Watcher, Defender, Rememberer, Flier. While on pilgrimage to ancient Roum, a Watcher and his companions, a Flier and a Changeling, see the invasion of Earth - that event that Watchers were supposed to guard against. Purposeless, the Watcher continues his pilgrimage, finding eventual redemption and rebirth.

Downward to the Earth - a novel from Robert Silverberg's artistic renaissance of the late Sixties/early Seventies. This is revised from serialization in Galaxy magazine (4 parts from November 1969 to March 1970.)

From the shrouding fogs of its Mist Country to the lunatic tropical fertility of its jungles, the planet Belzagor was alien in the extreme. Before the decolonization movement, it had been part of Earth's Galaxy-wide empire. But the Nildoror and Sulidoror, Belazagor's two intelligent species, had been given their independence, and once again they ruled themselves. The Nildoror were great elephant-like beings; and the Sulidoror were were husky bipeds covered with dark red fur, and had long arms tipped with terrifying claws. How could such creatures, without any technology to speak of, run an entire planet? Yet they did, and they had one thing that had always eluded human understanding - the ceremony of rebirth. Somehow this mysterious rite linked the two species. Edmund Gunderson, a former colonial official, was returning to Belzagor after an eight-year absence. Officially, he was a tourist, but in reality he was seeking redemption - redemption for the crimes he had committed against the Nildoror and Sulidoror. During an emergency, he had commandeered a group of Nildoror for a labor detail. Using a fusion torch, he had forced them to obey, and on his account they missed their rebirth. To atone for this misdeed, Gunderson had decided to journey alone through Belzagor's jungles. When he reached the Mist Country, he would offer himself as a candidate for rebirth - even if it would mean the end of his life as a human!