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In the 1980s, Tor Books launched a line of Tor Doubles, similar to the Ace Doubles of an earlier decade. For the most part, the two novellas published in these books were completely unrelated to each other, but with the eighteenth volume, Robert Silverberg published "In Another Country," a sequel of sorts of C.L. Moore's "Vintage Season," which formed the other half of the book. In 2012, Arc Manor has decided to publish the Stellar Guild series, in which a short book will include a novella by an established author and a sequel by a less well-known author. Silverberg's entry bends the rules, with Silverberg providing the first half of a story and his collaborator, Alvaros Zinos-Amaro, finishing the story.

Readers were first introduced to Hanosz Prime of Prime in the short story "Hanosz Prime Goes to Old Earth," published in Asimov's in 2006. That story forms a basis for Silverberg's entry in When the Blue Shift Comes, "The Song of Last Things." Silverberg introduces the reader to a universe far in the future of our own where mankind can change their forms as readily as we change our clothes. An omniscient and chattering narrator explains, or often only hints at, the tremendous difference between humans during our own time and during the time of Hanosz Prime. The style, which Silverberg notes in his introduction was experimental, comes across almost as if the narrator's comments are outline notes for a more detailed exposition.

In this first half of the story, Silverberg presents Hanosz Prime, who abdicates his throne to journey to the legendary Earth to see Humanity's birthplace before it is eaten by a black hole and to meet the beautiful Kaivilda, about whom a random traveler told him. By the time Silverberg hands the reins of the story over to Zinos-Amaros, it feels as if the introductions are to be made and a plot can finally get underway.

In the second half of the story, "The Last Mandala Sweeps," Zinos-Amaros takes up Silverberg's narrative voice very ably, reproducing the tone of the narrator as well as the repetitiveness of Silverberg's descriptions. Hanosz is revealed to be the potential savior of Earth and Humanity, even as the Oracles of Earth issue conflicting prophecies. Zinos-Amaros also explores Hanosz Prime's budding relationships with Kaivilda and her father, Sinon Kreidge, as well as some other characters, although the world, both Earth, Prime, and the space intervening, seems amazingly unpopulated.

Zinos-Amaros does an excellent job with the material Silverberg handed off to him, especially since Silverberg originally conceived of his story as the first of a multi-book epic. What appears, however, are characters and story that are not are particularly fresh and When the Blue Shift Comes has a tendency to ramble and stumble its way from Hanosz Prime's abdication to the ultimate conclusion, which presents a changed universe that is less than interesting for the simple reason that even when the universe faced its destruction there was little to engage the reader.

Silverberg and Zinos-Amaros present an interesting experiment in which Silverberg handed off a fragment that has been giving him difficulty for years and asked Zinos-Amaros to provide closure. Zinos-Amaros does provide closure, but the biggest question is whether the story needed to be told and if the closure was necessary, or if the experiment, both as story and stylistically, was one that never really quite gelled.

Steven H Silver is a seven-time Hugo Nominee for Best Fan Writer and the editor of the anthologies Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings, and Horrible Beginnings. He is the publisher of ISFiC Press. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is heavily involved in convention running and publishes the fanzine Argentus.