A Rediscovery of Clifford D. Simak - A Reading Challenge
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Book 10: The Autumn Land and Other Stories - Collection, pub 1990
Having read Simak's short stories individually as I came across them to date (primarily in old original copies of Astounding and Galaxy), it was interesting to read a collection of his work in one go. This particular volume is a Mandarin imprint, edited by Francis Lyall, whose introduction was welcome and informative. The 6 stories span 1938 through to 1971 and provided a lot of enjoyment. On the whole I recommend it, and I'm left wanting to read more of his short work. The individual stories do vary in quality though and deserve a few specific comments:
Rule 18 (1938) is the earliest offering here and while it has a strong whiff of 'men in hats SF', it is worth a read for three reasons: firstly, it is the fabled story that Asimov criticised in the letters page of Astounding, only to re-read and reappraise after CDS actually wrote to him asking him what he might change about it; secondly, it was CDS' first foray back into SF, writing for Campbell after his early 6 year hiatus; and lastly, its not bad. The historical value of the story has been attributed to the implied criticism of segregation/racism and the solution the protagonists find. Thus, it was rather ahead of its time, perhaps, though when read now it shows least well in this collection, in my opinion.
Jackpot (1956) is a novella, being a little longer, and I did enjoy it. Simak wrote most of his stories on Earth (mainly in Wisconsin!), so its nice to read one set on another planet now and then. Typical Simak aliens and ideas here. Its a solid enough effort, but probably not up there with his very best.
Contraption (1953) is a small but brilliant gem. The idea is simple, but the execution is quite superb - it reads like Hemingway. Its probably the perfect Simak primer to recommend if you wanted to show someone what the writer had to say to world, and how good he was at doing it. It seems to me that there were stories and novels CDS took very seriously and those he didn't, quite so much. For the former, he crafted his writing and produced enchanting works of genuine gravity. For the latter, they read more like he had to get something out after a long day on the newspaper to pay a bill. This story, along with novels like Way Station, is definitely in the former camp, whereas Jackpot, in this collection, is a very solid example of the latter, perhaps.
Courtesy (1951) is a pretty good story, in that I think CDS was aiming high, and one can never fault that, but the result is perhaps not entirely successful, so its a solid B+. The themes are very Simakian - humanism and humility having an intrinsic value - and the characters are quite nicely drawn.
Gleaners (1960) is a time-travel story from the perspective of the company that employs trained travelers to execute jobs in history. I'm not sure what Simak was trying to say here, other than 'this story might be fun, hope you like it'. It was kinda fun, but it was popcorn, dated SF, and not one I'll probably re-read.
The Autumn Land (1971) is of course the title story for the collection and presumably considered the strongest story here. Funnily enough, its not - that gong goes to Contraption - but is does have some things going for it: its a very thoughtful story, with some wonderful imagery and there's obviously some depth, as well as trademark Siamkian introspection and pastoral themes on offer. However, it's also unclear, unexplained, and rather unresolved. It reads more like dystopian fantasy than SF and I'm rather in two minds as to whether it possibly great but I need to re-read it, or maybe a bit of a mess and over-rated. I could probably be convinced either way.
Having read Simak's short stories individually as I came across them to date (primarily in old original copies of Astounding and Galaxy), it was interesting to read a collection of his work in one go. This particular volume is a Mandarin imprint, edited by Francis Lyall, whose introduction was welcome and informative. The 6 stories span 1938 through to 1971 and provided a lot of enjoyment. On the whole I recommend it, and I'm left wanting to read more of his short work. The individual stories do vary in quality though and deserve a few specific comments:
Rule 18 (1938) is the earliest offering here and while it has a strong whiff of 'men in hats SF', it is worth a read for three reasons: firstly, it is the fabled story that Asimov criticised in the letters page of Astounding, only to re-read and reappraise after CDS actually wrote to him asking him what he might change about it; secondly, it was CDS' first foray back into SF, writing for Campbell after his early 6 year hiatus; and lastly, its not bad. The historical value of the story has been attributed to the implied criticism of segregation/racism and the solution the protagonists find. Thus, it was rather ahead of its time, perhaps, though when read now it shows least well in this collection, in my opinion.
Jackpot (1956) is a novella, being a little longer, and I did enjoy it. Simak wrote most of his stories on Earth (mainly in Wisconsin!), so its nice to read one set on another planet now and then. Typical Simak aliens and ideas here. Its a solid enough effort, but probably not up there with his very best.
Contraption (1953) is a small but brilliant gem. The idea is simple, but the execution is quite superb - it reads like Hemingway. Its probably the perfect Simak primer to recommend if you wanted to show someone what the writer had to say to world, and how good he was at doing it. It seems to me that there were stories and novels CDS took very seriously and those he didn't, quite so much. For the former, he crafted his writing and produced enchanting works of genuine gravity. For the latter, they read more like he had to get something out after a long day on the newspaper to pay a bill. This story, along with novels like Way Station, is definitely in the former camp, whereas Jackpot, in this collection, is a very solid example of the latter, perhaps.
Courtesy (1951) is a pretty good story, in that I think CDS was aiming high, and one can never fault that, but the result is perhaps not entirely successful, so its a solid B+. The themes are very Simakian - humanism and humility having an intrinsic value - and the characters are quite nicely drawn.
Gleaners (1960) is a time-travel story from the perspective of the company that employs trained travelers to execute jobs in history. I'm not sure what Simak was trying to say here, other than 'this story might be fun, hope you like it'. It was kinda fun, but it was popcorn, dated SF, and not one I'll probably re-read.
The Autumn Land (1971) is of course the title story for the collection and presumably considered the strongest story here. Funnily enough, its not - that gong goes to Contraption - but is does have some things going for it: its a very thoughtful story, with some wonderful imagery and there's obviously some depth, as well as trademark Siamkian introspection and pastoral themes on offer. However, it's also unclear, unexplained, and rather unresolved. It reads more like dystopian fantasy than SF and I'm rather in two minds as to whether it possibly great but I need to re-read it, or maybe a bit of a mess and over-rated. I could probably be convinced either way.
Ralf 58
Simak Bibliograph
There is a fourth reason why we should read "Rule 18": The story won in 2014 the "Retro Hugo" for the best novelette of the year 1939.
Thank you Bick, for your review. I agree with your assessment. "Contraption" is told very simple and straight forward, and that is precisely why the story is so memorable and effective. "Autumn Land" is a very excellent narrative, which still pleases me even after the tenth reading.
james lanfear
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Project Pope is a good'un!Looks like I'm playing. (Bick, you're messing up my reading order.
Book 11: Immigrant and Other Stories - Collection, pub 1991
Having enjoyed the previous collection in the Mandarin imprint series, I read another in between other novels, and again, enjoyed the experience. The introduction by Francis Lyall in this collection focuses on 'Simak Country' - that land just south of the Wisconsin river, and east of where it joins the Mississippi. This farmland features valleys, ridges and woods that Simak refers to in many stories. I looked the area up on 'Google Earth', and have a good impression of exactly how it looks now.
The 7 stories span 1954 through to 1980 and are a good representation of Simak's shorter work. A few specific comments:
Neighbor (1954) is a solid story and features that recurring CDS idea of an alien coming to Earth with a neutral or friendly intent. It would be a good introduction to Simak if you wanted to understand his typical output.
Green Thumb (1954) offers up the idea of how an alien might interact if it were plant-like rather than animal-like. I enjoyed this story particularly and, like the preceding story, it features the 'Simak Country' that Lyall discusses in the introduction very nicely.
Small Deer (1965) is quite a funny story that offers a strange alternative explanation for the dying out of the dinosaurs, with some added pathos at the end. A solid B+ kind of story, but not the strongest here.
The Ghost of a Model T (1975) is not exactly SF; I'm not sure what it is, though it's harmless enough. Not one of my favourites to be honest, though its kinda charming I suppose and enables Simak to question whether technology has made things 'better' - a theme I harp on about myself.
Byte Your Tongue (1980) - There are some Simak stories that manage to be timeless, thoughtful and relevant despite technological advances that may have been made since they were written. This isn't one of them; rather weak.
I am Crying All Inside (1969) is a very strong story. Written from the perspective of a semi-literate sounding, obsolete, robot, it is compassionate, moving and rather deep. Rather reminiscent of a certain kind of literature that gains power by having a 'backward' point of view or protagonist (think, The Sound and the Fury, or Of Mice and Men), this is Simak aiming high and being successful with it.
Immigrant (1954) is pretty good. It takes Simak rather longer to tell his story than is often the case (this is a 60 page novella), but the premise is an interesting one and its quite well paced. I enjoyed it rather more by the end than I did part way through.
Overall, this is a good collection and one to be recommended - its possibly a touch more consistent than The Autumn Land collection - though that does have some real highs.
Having enjoyed the previous collection in the Mandarin imprint series, I read another in between other novels, and again, enjoyed the experience. The introduction by Francis Lyall in this collection focuses on 'Simak Country' - that land just south of the Wisconsin river, and east of where it joins the Mississippi. This farmland features valleys, ridges and woods that Simak refers to in many stories. I looked the area up on 'Google Earth', and have a good impression of exactly how it looks now.
The 7 stories span 1954 through to 1980 and are a good representation of Simak's shorter work. A few specific comments:
Neighbor (1954) is a solid story and features that recurring CDS idea of an alien coming to Earth with a neutral or friendly intent. It would be a good introduction to Simak if you wanted to understand his typical output.
Green Thumb (1954) offers up the idea of how an alien might interact if it were plant-like rather than animal-like. I enjoyed this story particularly and, like the preceding story, it features the 'Simak Country' that Lyall discusses in the introduction very nicely.
Small Deer (1965) is quite a funny story that offers a strange alternative explanation for the dying out of the dinosaurs, with some added pathos at the end. A solid B+ kind of story, but not the strongest here.
The Ghost of a Model T (1975) is not exactly SF; I'm not sure what it is, though it's harmless enough. Not one of my favourites to be honest, though its kinda charming I suppose and enables Simak to question whether technology has made things 'better' - a theme I harp on about myself.
Byte Your Tongue (1980) - There are some Simak stories that manage to be timeless, thoughtful and relevant despite technological advances that may have been made since they were written. This isn't one of them; rather weak.
I am Crying All Inside (1969) is a very strong story. Written from the perspective of a semi-literate sounding, obsolete, robot, it is compassionate, moving and rather deep. Rather reminiscent of a certain kind of literature that gains power by having a 'backward' point of view or protagonist (think, The Sound and the Fury, or Of Mice and Men), this is Simak aiming high and being successful with it.
Immigrant (1954) is pretty good. It takes Simak rather longer to tell his story than is often the case (this is a 60 page novella), but the premise is an interesting one and its quite well paced. I enjoyed it rather more by the end than I did part way through.
Overall, this is a good collection and one to be recommended - its possibly a touch more consistent than The Autumn Land collection - though that does have some real highs.
Found a couple of Clifford D Simak novels in an old collection of SF books I was given a while ago:
The Cosmic Engineers
Waystation
Not sure when I'll get around to trying one or both. Should I prefer one over the other?
The Cosmic Engineers
Waystation
Not sure when I'll get around to trying one or both. Should I prefer one over the other?
hitmouse
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Waystation certainly.
One of the great SF novellas.
J-Sun
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Yep, Way Station (novel, actually). I love Cosmic Engineers (some don't) but it's very atypical Simak whereas Way Station is Simak's best novel but otherwise very "typical" (i.e., "quintessential).
If you like Way Station, maybe even give another Simak or two a try before getting to CE just to get his style/voice/attitudes firmly cemented. But, if you don't like Way Station, then go ahead and give CE a try anyway.
(If this is the same set that had the Clarke (even if that particular one isn't his best) it sounds like you got quite a haul.)
If you like Way Station, maybe even give another Simak or two a try before getting to CE just to get his style/voice/attitudes firmly cemented. But, if you don't like Way Station, then go ahead and give CE a try anyway.
(If this is the same set that had the Clarke (even if that particular one isn't his best) it sounds like you got quite a haul.)
Indeed, give Way Station a go, Brian. to sample any other very good, typical novels, you could select more or less any novel he wrote between about 1961 and 1965.
J-Sun
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I finished Simak's first collection, Strangers in the Universe (1956), yesterday. I'd read All the Traps of Earth (1962, his third) years ago and thought it was pretty good but wasn't sure Simak would be a guy I'd want to get a lot of collections of. However, Ballantine neglected to do a "The Best of Simak" and there really isn't a good "TBO"-like collection which "covers" Simak. So there it stood for awhile, but I finally picked up his other two main collections. The same applies to this one: it's a good collection, maybe even very good, but not quite solid-gold perfection. But, again, no other collection supersedes it. I particularly liked half a dozen of the stories, found one borderline, and felt four could have been cut.
That brings me to a word of warning and an ironic point: it generally is cut. The original Simon & Schuster collection (I have the SFBC version of the same) contains 11 stories of 280 pages but there are two other main versions and a variant of one of those. Berkley mutilated the US pb by cutting it down to about 190 pages (7 stories, in a different order) and seems to have been completely random about it. I'd avoid that one. In the UK, Faber and Faber also cut it to 7 stories but does it about as well as it could be done, IMO, given that cutting is anathema to me. They cut the one I thought was middling (a novelette) and kept one I thought was cut-able (a short story) but the other six are my favorite six and are re-ordered in a reasonable way. (The UK pb (Panther) has the same contents as the Faber and Faber but leaves them in the original order. Ironically, the original order is pretty bad as the first four stories are four of the five weakest.)
So, the ones I liked: "Immigrant," "Kindergarten," "Target Generation," "Mirage," "Skirmish," and "Beachhead." I thought "Shadow Show" was iffy (ambitious but didn't really work for me). "Retrograde Evolution," "The Fence," "The Answers," and "Contraption" were the ones I didn't care for. Arguably only "Contraption" was actually bad - a kind of simple juvenile wish fulfillment.
The funny thing about what I liked, though: I didn't really agree with the ideology of most of the stories but they were just so well done and interesting that they seemed good and were enjoyable. For instance, in the 50s maybe we were plenty proud and could use being taken down a peg or two so the sort of "cosmic humility" Simak delivers wouldn't go amiss. These days, I feel like we're such a guilty and self-hating society with so little faith in our ability to accomplish dreams (and recent science fiction is belittling enough) that we don't need any "small man/vast cosmos" perspective at the moment. But none of that is Simak's problem: the stories are good and that's that.
"Immigrant" is a sort of thematic or conceptual sequel to "Kindergarten" and "Kindergarten" was somehow really charming and involving with the sick man, the spirited girl, and the idyllic rural area which is transformed by the alien gizmo the man finds in a field. "Immigrant" is a really remarkable story in which Simak tries to imagine the unimaginable and portray the unportrayable when humans make contact with transcendent aliens.
"Target Generation" is an interesting variant on the generation starship story told with an almost un-Simakian toughness. "Mirage" shares that last element and is set on an almost Brackett-like Mars.
"Skirimish" is a dash of SF in a basically fantasy tale (machines become sentient) that really has a horror tinge. And "Beachhead" is another "arrogant humans" story, involving traders finding a planet which turns out to be tougher than expected.
The (to me) lesser ones are made up of a sort of proto-VR story, a xenosociological mystery, an alien do-gooder tale, a sort of City-like story of a human staying behind on a planet to find answers about humanity which his companion dog and spider aren't interested in, and the aforementioned wish-fulfillment tale involving another "alien gizmo found in a field."
All in all, definitely worth reading with quite a bit worth re-reading.
That brings me to a word of warning and an ironic point: it generally is cut. The original Simon & Schuster collection (I have the SFBC version of the same) contains 11 stories of 280 pages but there are two other main versions and a variant of one of those. Berkley mutilated the US pb by cutting it down to about 190 pages (7 stories, in a different order) and seems to have been completely random about it. I'd avoid that one. In the UK, Faber and Faber also cut it to 7 stories but does it about as well as it could be done, IMO, given that cutting is anathema to me. They cut the one I thought was middling (a novelette) and kept one I thought was cut-able (a short story) but the other six are my favorite six and are re-ordered in a reasonable way. (The UK pb (Panther) has the same contents as the Faber and Faber but leaves them in the original order. Ironically, the original order is pretty bad as the first four stories are four of the five weakest.)
So, the ones I liked: "Immigrant," "Kindergarten," "Target Generation," "Mirage," "Skirmish," and "Beachhead." I thought "Shadow Show" was iffy (ambitious but didn't really work for me). "Retrograde Evolution," "The Fence," "The Answers," and "Contraption" were the ones I didn't care for. Arguably only "Contraption" was actually bad - a kind of simple juvenile wish fulfillment.
The funny thing about what I liked, though: I didn't really agree with the ideology of most of the stories but they were just so well done and interesting that they seemed good and were enjoyable. For instance, in the 50s maybe we were plenty proud and could use being taken down a peg or two so the sort of "cosmic humility" Simak delivers wouldn't go amiss. These days, I feel like we're such a guilty and self-hating society with so little faith in our ability to accomplish dreams (and recent science fiction is belittling enough) that we don't need any "small man/vast cosmos" perspective at the moment. But none of that is Simak's problem: the stories are good and that's that.
"Immigrant" is a sort of thematic or conceptual sequel to "Kindergarten" and "Kindergarten" was somehow really charming and involving with the sick man, the spirited girl, and the idyllic rural area which is transformed by the alien gizmo the man finds in a field. "Immigrant" is a really remarkable story in which Simak tries to imagine the unimaginable and portray the unportrayable when humans make contact with transcendent aliens.
"Target Generation" is an interesting variant on the generation starship story told with an almost un-Simakian toughness. "Mirage" shares that last element and is set on an almost Brackett-like Mars.
"Skirimish" is a dash of SF in a basically fantasy tale (machines become sentient) that really has a horror tinge. And "Beachhead" is another "arrogant humans" story, involving traders finding a planet which turns out to be tougher than expected.
The (to me) lesser ones are made up of a sort of proto-VR story, a xenosociological mystery, an alien do-gooder tale, a sort of City-like story of a human staying behind on a planet to find answers about humanity which his companion dog and spider aren't interested in, and the aforementioned wish-fulfillment tale involving another "alien gizmo found in a field."
All in all, definitely worth reading with quite a bit worth re-reading.
Great comments, J-Sun, very good to get your perspective on these. Some of these were in the collections I note above, as doubtless you're aware. I'm interested to hear you thought "Contraption" was the weakest, given my own thoughts on it, as indicated above. I've noted in the past I think, that we have very close views on the broader view of favourite writers, etc, but when we drill down to specific favourite stories we seem sometimes to be poles apart! Which is fine and dandy of course. I thought the quality of the writing in Contraption was some of the best CDS has produced.
J-Sun
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I glad you pointed that out, as I sort of was and sort of wasn't. If I've read something or don't know about reading something, I love reading reviews about it but, if I'm already about to read something, I tend to hold off on reading the reviews until I have read it. I think that's what happened regarding your reviews of the collections - I noticed the overlap and put off reading them. Unfortunately, I forgot to come back to them. Sorry about that and thanks for reminding me. (I still skipped the ones that are in The Worlds of Clifford Simak, as that's up next, but read the rest.
)I think that's exactly why it hit us differently - in your earlier post, you said, "The idea is simple, but the execution is quite superb" and I focused on the first part and you focused on the second. To me, the idea
of a mistreated kid finding a gizmo and - voila! - problem solved!
One place we do agree is on the part where you say, "The themes are very Simakian - humanism and humility having an intrinsic value" as I was also strongly struck by the dominance of humility in several stories. We all know the pastoralism and so on but the philosophical backing isn't always as stressed as the sort of setting and tone often is. Obviously the emphasis on humility is no great shock but I was still struck by the intensity of the emphasis.Also a quick note on "The Autumn Land": I haven't read it in a million years and it wasn't so great that I actually recall it well enough to say anything about it, but I do recall it favorably. Also, Simak seems to have really liked it as he selected it both for Harrison's Author's Choice series and Norton's Grandmaster's Choice (where I read it) and it appears in both the UK The Best of Clifford D. Simak and in the US Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak. That doesn't have to mean much, as authors frequently aren't the best judges of their own work and, as I've mentioned, those "Best of"s may not be the best Bests but it still indicates a non-trivial story. On the other hand, it's just a novelette, yet has never been anthologized anywhere apart from those two anthologies (sometimes novellas don't get anthologized much for reasons of space), which does indicate a non-major work. At the moment, I don't have it, though, so I can't refresh my memory. I guess my point is that outward signs would indicate that, whether it's actually good or not, it's definitely worth a re-read if you're not sure.
Many thanks for your thoughts J-Sun. I'm away from the PC camping for a while, so won't discuss at length on this mobile, but it does sound like I should re-read Autumn Land. I'll give it another go next week when I'm back home.
I did enjoy Immigrant; my comments in my previous post dwell more on the negative, but I thought it was a solid and interesting story.
I did enjoy Immigrant; my comments in my previous post dwell more on the negative, but I thought it was a solid and interesting story.
Tom Hering
Rememberer
I just watched a documentary on public television, "Mysteries of the Driftless," which is about the Driftless Zone - a paleozoic plateau located primarily in southwestern Wisconsin. As I watched, I realized that the Driftless Zone and Simak Country are one and the same thing. Here's the documentary, which can help readers visualize the unique landscape that inspired Simak:
That's fascinating, Tom, many thanks. 'Simak Country' looks exactly like I see it in my mind's eye.
Ralf 58
Simak Bibliograph
Hello all,
on March 1 the volumes 4, 5 and 6 of "The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak" have been published as e-books. Here is the Table of Contents (Clicking the images brings you to Amazon):
Vol. 4 - Grotto of the Dancing Dear
Over the River and Trough the Woods (1965)
Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
The Reformation of Hangman's Gulch (1944 - no SF)
The Civilization Game (1958)
Crying Jag (1960)
Hunger Death (1938)
Mutiny on Mercury (1932)
Jackpot (1956)
Day of Truce (1963)
Unsilent Spring (1976)
Vol. 5 - No Life of Their Own
No Life of Their Own (1959)
Spaceship in a Flask (1941)
The Loot of Time (1938)
Huddling Place (1944)
To Walk a City's Street (1972)
Cactus Colts (1944 - no SF)
Message from Mars (1943)
Party Line (1978)
A Hero Must Not Die (1943 - no SF)
The Space-Beasts (1940)
Contraption (1953)
The Whistling Well (1980)
Vol. 6 - New Folk's Home
New Folks' Home (1963)
The Questing of Foster Adams (1953)
Hermit of Mars (1939)
Worlds Without End (1956)
Barb Wire Brings Bullets! (1945 - no SF)
Second Childhood (1951)
Beachhead (1951)
Sunspot Purge (1940)
Drop Dead (1956)
Worrywart (1953)
So there are 32 more stories published, including 4 non-SF stories. Unfortunately, there is no prospect that these books appear as print editions.
Best regards
Ralf
on March 1 the volumes 4, 5 and 6 of "The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak" have been published as e-books. Here is the Table of Contents (Clicking the images brings you to Amazon):
Vol. 4 - Grotto of the Dancing Dear
Over the River and Trough the Woods (1965)
Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
The Reformation of Hangman's Gulch (1944 - no SF)
The Civilization Game (1958)
Crying Jag (1960)
Hunger Death (1938)
Mutiny on Mercury (1932)
Jackpot (1956)
Day of Truce (1963)
Unsilent Spring (1976)
Vol. 5 - No Life of Their Own
No Life of Their Own (1959)
Spaceship in a Flask (1941)
The Loot of Time (1938)
Huddling Place (1944)
To Walk a City's Street (1972)
Cactus Colts (1944 - no SF)
Message from Mars (1943)
Party Line (1978)
A Hero Must Not Die (1943 - no SF)
The Space-Beasts (1940)
Contraption (1953)
The Whistling Well (1980)
Vol. 6 - New Folk's Home
New Folks' Home (1963)
The Questing of Foster Adams (1953)
Hermit of Mars (1939)
Worlds Without End (1956)
Barb Wire Brings Bullets! (1945 - no SF)
Second Childhood (1951)
Beachhead (1951)
Sunspot Purge (1940)
Drop Dead (1956)
Worrywart (1953)
So there are 32 more stories published, including 4 non-SF stories. Unfortunately, there is no prospect that these books appear as print editions.
Best regards
Ralf
I've read quite a few from Vols 4 and 5 of those collections. Thanks for the listings, Ralf. I particularly enjoyed Civilization Game in Vol 4, and of course Huddling Place is a top story in Vol. 5. Volume 6 rings fewer bells. I know I've read Worrywort, but recall little about it. The non-SF are no doubt Westerns, he did pen a few of those for the Western pulps.
Ralf 58
Simak Bibliograph
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I finished Shakespeare's Planet this past week and I must say that as books go it was a refreshing change from some of the mega-series that are produced today. There was so much packed into those 200 pages, a publisher today would probably make an author get six or seven volumes out of it.
It was so full of interesting ideas that I'm still thinking about them days later and I'm having difficulty selecting a new book to match it. While I'm no Simak expert I now feel I have to go in search of more of his books. I think I need to read them in book format and not as ebooks, it would feel wrong otherwise.
It was so full of interesting ideas that I'm still thinking about them days later and I'm having difficulty selecting a new book to match it. While I'm no Simak expert I now feel I have to go in search of more of his books. I think I need to read them in book format and not as ebooks, it would feel wrong otherwise.
2DaveWixon
Shocked and Appalled!
Good day to everyone.
My apologies for being absent for such a long time; but by now many of you are aware that I've been caught up in bringing to reality a project of two decades -- the collection of the complete short fiction of Cliff Simak.
I'm still at work on it, and will be for a while. Nonetheless, I hope to appear here more frequently.
Dave Wixon
My apologies for being absent for such a long time; but by now many of you are aware that I've been caught up in bringing to reality a project of two decades -- the collection of the complete short fiction of Cliff Simak.
I'm still at work on it, and will be for a while. Nonetheless, I hope to appear here more frequently.
Dave Wixon
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