At Winter's End

by Robert Silverberg

Published 1 June 1988
From the Five-Time Nebula Award-Winner Seven thousand centuries ago, falling death stars unleashed fiery apocalyptic destruction on Earth and inaugurated the Long Winter. One small band of People took refuge in an underground cocoon where they and their descendants waited for the time of ice to end. Now their long winter is over. Prophecy and circumstance urge the tribe out into the half-forgotten world beyond their safe cocoon. Led by their chieftain Koshmar, the tribe journeys to the city of Vengiboneeza, where the prophecy of the gods says they are to rule. On their way the tribe discovers the dangers and wonders of life in the New Springtime. In the face of new temptations and peril, Koshmar and her lover, the priestess Torlyri, struggle to keep the People united and fulfill the prophecy. For soon they will be beset by other trials, as other beings seek to fulfill their own prophecies. Robert Silverberg provides an introduction exclusive to this Bison Books edition.

The Queen of Springtime

by Robert Silverberg

Published 1 November 1989
From the Five-Time Nebula Award-Winner The death stars that brought the apocalyptic destruction on Earth seven hundred thousand years before have stopped falling, and Earth has begun to renew itself. The Long Winter that held the human tribes in their cocoons beneath the ground is over, and the People are spreading rapidly across the newly fertile land. The Queen of Springtime continues the chronicles of the People's reclamation of Earth begun in the first volume, At Winter's End. The human tribes struggle to fulfill their destiny as rulers of Earth, but they find the seats of power already occupied. The hjjks, the somber, cold-eyed insect-folk, never retreated, even at the time of greatest chill. The world fell to them by default, and they have been its sole masters for seven hundred thousand years. The Queen of Springtime follows the struggle between these dissimilar beings to establish dominance in the newly emerging world. Exclusive to this Bison Books edition, Robert Silverberg provides an introduction and a synopsis of the unwritten concluding volume of The New Springtime trilogy.
Appearing for the first time in print, "The Summer of Homecoming" outline reveals the fates, two hundred years later, of the heroes and their world that were introduced in At Winter's End and The Queen of Springtime.