A couple of weeks ago when I reran my review from 2009 of Clifford D. Simak’s novel WAY STATION, I mentioned that Bill Crider recommended Simak’s novel CITY to me at least 40 years ago and said that I would try to get around to reading it. Well, this may surprise you, but I actually did go ahead and read it. There’s a lot of classic science fiction I’ve never gotten around to, and I’d like to read some of it while I still have the chance. This is as good a place to start as any.
CITY is a fix-up novel composed of eight novelettes that appeared originally in the pulps ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION and FANTASTIC ADVENTURES between 1944 and 1951, plus a short story written for an anthology in 1973. The stories are: “City”, ASTOUNDING, May 1944; “Huddling Place”, ASTOUNDING, July 1944; “Census”, ASTOUNDING, September 1944; “Desertion”, ASTOUNDING, November 1944 (this is actually the first story in the series Simak wrote, although it wasn’t published first); “Paradise”, ASTOUNDING, June 1946; “Hobbies”, ASTOUNDING, November 1946; “Aesop”, ASTOUNDING, December 1947; “The Trouble With Ants”, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, January 1951 (Simak’s title for the story was “The Simple Way”); and “Epilog”, ASTOUNDING: JOHN W. CAMPBELL MEMORIAL ANTHOLOGY.
When Simak put the eight novelettes together in a book published by Gnome Press in 1952 (“Epilog” wasn’t written until years later), he wrote notes between each story in the voice of a future historian as bridging material. Even so, CITY reads more like a collection than an actual novel because of the vast sweep of time it covers and the varying protagonists. However, there’s enough continuity between the stories that I think it’s best to read them in this form. They wouldn’t make as much sense if they were read out of order.
As for the tale (no pun intended) itself, even though I hadn’t read this book, I’ve known for a long time what it’s about: a world in which humans have all but disappeared and things are run by robots and sentient, talking dogs. Come to find out, though, that set-up doesn’t really take shape until well past the halfway point of the book. Instead, the stories cover the gradual decline of humanity and its eventual exodus from Earth, except for a few stragglers. Sure, there are some robots and dogs, but humans—to be specific, several generations of the Webster family, who are all doctors and scientists—are the protagonists. Eventually, though, it’s just the robots, led by the nigh-immortal butler Jenkins, and the dogs, and they face the same sort of challenges the humans did. Will they be more successful in overcoming them?
Anybody who knows me very well knows that I love dogs. There are some good dogs in this book, although somewhat oddly, we never get to know any of them very well. Simak does a good job, though, of writing them as dogs, not as humans with four legs and a tail. Some of my favorite parts of this book are the between-story notes, in which academics named Tige, Bounce, and Rover argue about the origins of the stories and whether or not humans really existed or were just made up as some sort of doggish fairy tale. These sections are clever and very funny.
And that humor is welcome, because, man, overall this is a bleak book! Humans make the wrong decisions and things fall apart over and over again. There are glimmers of hope here and there, but mostly I was just left shaking my head in despair.
That’s where my problem with this book lies. There’s very little action, mostly just people sitting around talking or interior monologues (and you’d be surprised how many interior monologues robots can have). The concepts are huge, sweeping, and compelling, but there’s not much to the book other than the concepts. If I had actually read this 40 years ago, or better yet, when I was in junior high or high school, I think the ideas would have been enough to blow me away. As it is, CITY is probably not the best book for a tired old man who’s inclined to gloominess to be reading.
I think I’ve gotten shallow in my dotage. Mostly when I read, I just want to be entertained. CITY is an impressive book, very well-written and thought-provoking, but its entertainment value is slight. You might react entirely differently to it. I can certainly see why it’s considered classic science fiction, and I’m glad I read it, but for me, it was somewhat of a disappointment.
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