Notes
A Time of Changes, a standalone novel by Robert Silverberg.

Previously published (in a (shorter form?) as a three part serial in Galaxy (March to May-June 1971).

Publisher's Blurb – Jacket Flaps
A TIME OF CHANGES is a novel set in a distant future when the vast majority of human beings live on planets other than Earth. Each of these new worlds has developed its own form of society, but none so strange as that on the planet Borthan.

The people of Borthan are ruled by the Covenant. Established thousands of years ago by the original settlers, the Covenant teaches that the self is to be despised, and it forbids anyone to reveal his innermost thoughts or feelings to another. On Borthan, the filthiest obscenities imaginable are the words "I" and "me".

A few men have dared to rebel against this repressive religion and then paid with their lives for the heinous crime of selfbaring. But no one has ever represented a more dangerous threat to the Covenant than Kinnall Darival, a prince of the country of Salla.

Driven from Salla when his brother inherited the throne, Kinnall has established a new life in another land where he has prospered. Although he has outwardly observed the Covenant all his life, inwardly he has committed a grave offense – for Kinnall is secretly in love with his bondsister, Halum.

At birth, all are given a bondsister and a bondbrother, and only among bond-kin may a person reveal anything of himself. Yet Kinnall has never dared to show his love to Halum for, although unrelated by blood, bond-kin are absolutely forbidden to marry.

Ultimately, this leads to Kinnall's rebellion. He meets an Earthman who has discovered a drug that enables two persons to completely bare their souls to each other. Kinnall uses the drug, and the effect is miraculous. He immediately begins to give it to others, but when the authorities discover his selfbaring, Kinnall is forced to go into hiding.

Firmly convinced of the value of this drug, Kinnall is determined to use it with his bondsister – little realizing the effect this will have upon her and the unalterable change it will bring to both their lives.

This brilliant, powerfully written novel demonstrates the creative genius of author Robert Silverberg as never before. In it we see the men and women of another world vividly come to life before our very eyes, and the story it tells is at once exciting, convincing and deeply moving.

Robert Silverberg, a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, has published stories in all the major science fiction magazines, and has written over twenty novels, including The Time Hoppers, Hawksbill Station, To Live Again and Downward to the Earth. He is a two-time winner of the coveted Hugo Award.