Review: City - Clifford D. Simak

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.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Way Station - Clifford D. Simak

Tucked away in an isolated corner of Wisconsin farmland is an old house that dates from before the Civil War, but it’s strangely unchanged in all that time. So is the man who lives there, Enoch Wallace, who fought with the Union Army in that conflict and is now still alive more than a hundred years later and apparently not much older than when he fought at Gettysburg. Enoch’s secret is that inside the house is an intergalactic transport apparatus, and he’s the keeper of Galactic Central’s way station on Earth.

That’s the set-up of Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo-winning novel WAY STATION, first published in 1963 and reprinted several times since. Simak was a veteran of the science fiction pulps dating back to before what’s now considered the Golden Age of those magazines, and as the pulps faded he made a seamless transition to writing well-received hardback SF novels. Although he wrote some Western stories for the pulps and later dabbled in fantasy novels as well, he’s best remembered for what some have called pastoral SF – stories and novels usually taking place in rural settings, with low-key, somewhat unsophisticated (at least on the surface) protagonists. WAY STATION fits neatly into that sub-category and may well be the best example of it I’ve encountered.

Simak was never a flashy writer. His prose style is functional and plain-spoken, like the people he writes about. In WAY STATION, the story unfolds in a gentle, leisurely fashion, with the main elements of the plot never really getting into gear until about halfway through the book. Most writers today couldn’t get away with that, but Simak makes it work. And once things do start rolling, the scope of the story rapidly expands, with the fate of entire galaxies ultimately at stake, even though all the action takes place here on Earth.

When I was younger, I read a number of Simak’s novels, and while I enjoyed them, he was never a particular favorite of mine. I think maybe I just wasn’t ready to appreciate his virtues. WAY STATION is a fine novel and has dated hardly at all. I plan to read more of his work soon.

(I swear, if I had the attention span even of a six-week-old puppy, I might be dangerous. Despite my good intentions, I haven't read anything else by Simak since this post first appeared on January 30, 2009. I still plan to one of these days, though. Bill Crider recommended CITY to me at least 40 years ago. I'll get to it.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1939

I like the cover by Howard V. Brown on this issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and the lineup of writers inside is very impressive: Henry Kuttner, Alfred Bester, Clifford D. Simak, Eando Binder (probably just Otto at this point), Frank Belknap Long, Ray Cummings, Ward Hawkins, and an author I haven't heard of, Roscoe Clark. If you want to check it out, the entire issue is online here, along with numerous other issues of THRILLING WONDER STORIES. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ace-High Western Stories, May 1945

Another dramatic, action-packed cover on this issue of ACE-HIGH WESTERN STORIES. I don't know the artist. As always with Western pulps from Popular Publications, the lineup of authors is a good one and the story titles are great. On hard are prolific Western pulpsters Thomas Thompson, Wayne D. Overholser, Archie Joscelyn, and M. Howard Lane, but the lead-off story in this issue is by science fiction legend Clifford D. Simak. Simak was a solid enough Western writer that I think he could have made a bigger name for himself in that genre if he'd wanted to, but of course his main interests lay elsewhere.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Amazing Stories, December 1950

This cover by James B. Settles is intriguing enough to make me want to read the story that goes with it, so I guess it did its job. I don't have time to read it right now, mind you, but if you want to, you can, because this issue of AMAZING STORIES is available on-line here. E.K. Jarvis was a Ziff-Davis house-name known to be used by Robert Bloch, Paul W. Fairman, Robert Silverberg, and Henry Slesar. 1950 is too early for Silverberg and Slesar. Fairman seems to me to be the best bet. Or the author might have been somebody else entirely. The second story in the issue is also by a Z-D house-name, P.F. Costello. William McGivern is known to have used that one, and since the story is called "Kiss and Kill", certainly a crime fiction sounding title, McGivern might well be the author. I've found that his SF and fantasy stories often have criminous elements. After that, we get some stories by authors using their real names: Clifford D. Simak, Raymond F. Jones, and John Jakes. A pretty good line-up, to be sure. 

Hellhounds of the Cosmos - Clifford D. Simak

I’ve read quite a few of Clifford D. Simak’s stories and novels over the decades without ever considering him one of my favorite science fiction authors, but on the other hand, I’ve never read anything by him that I didn’t enjoy, either. His novelette “Hellhounds of the Cosmos” is the earlier Simak story I’ve read, and it’s one of his earliest, period. It was only his fifth published story when it came out in the June 1932 issue of ASTOUNDING STORIES, while it was still a Clayton pulp edited by Harry Bates.

I admit, the title is what first attracted me to this yarn, along with the fact that there’s a free e-book version of it available on Amazon. But I quickly got caught up in a story that’s really wild and over-the-top compared to the low-key, often rural, homespun SF for which Simak is known. In this one, the whole earth is under assault from fearsome, midnight-black, amorphous creatures that appear seemingly out of nowhere, slaughter a bunch of people, and then disappear equally mysteriously. The newspaper reporter who’s the protagonist (a character type that is common to Simak’s work, since he was a journalist himself) interviews an eccentric professor who claims to know what’s really going on. The reporter not only gets the scoop, he becomes part of it himself when he gets caught up in the effort to fight back against these vicious invaders who have to be defeated before humanity itself is wiped out.

Does any of the science in this story make a lick of sense? Well, not really. The professor’s long-winded explanation is the sort of thing you ran into in science fiction all the time in those early days, pure handwavium. (Come to think of it, handwavium is a pretty common element in current SF, too.) But Simak makes it sound plausible, and boy, the end result is a lot of fun, especially the battle royale that makes up the second half of the tale. Then, at the last minute, Simak springs a twist that took me completely by surprise and is very effective.

I really enjoyed “Hellhounds of the Cosmos”. If you’re a fan of early science fiction and haven’t read it, you ought to. If you’ve only read SF published in the past twenty years or so . . . well, you’re probably not reading this blog to start with.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Lariat Story Magazine, May 1944

As usual with a Fiction House pulp, the cover of this issue of LARIAT STORY MAGAZINE features both exciting action and a pretty girl. I don't know who the artist was, but I think he did a good job. Inside are stories by top Western pulpsters Wayne D. Overholster, J.E. Grinstead, M. Howard Lane, and Curtis Bishop, as well as house-name John Starr (if I had to guess, I'd say Bishop, but that's purely a guess) and much-better-known-for-his-science-fiction Clifford D. Simak. I've read a few of Simak's Western stories and found them to be very good. I like the title of that John Starr yarn: "Six Sins in My Holster". The editor must not have been quite at the top of his game, though. That title really needs an exclamation mark at the end of it.

UPDATE: The cover art is by Norman Saunders, used originally on the October 1937 issue of ACTION STORIES. Thanks to Sheila Vanderbeek for the info!

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1939

This cover by Graves Gladney almost looks like it would be more at home on a detective pulp, rather than an issue of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. Either way, I like it. There's a fine line-up of authors in this issue, too: Jack Williamson (with an installment of a Legion of Space serial), Clifford D. Simak, Nat Schachner, Arthur J. Burks, Ross Rocklynne, and Harl Vincent. I'm not sure if I've ever read anything by Schachner or Vincent, but I've read and enjoyed all the other authors.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Planet Stories, Fall 1943

An excellent cover by George Rozen graces this issue of PLANET STORIES, and there's a really fine group of writers behind it: Leigh Brackett, Clifford D. Simak, Nelson S. Bond, Carl Jacobi, Wilbur S. Peacock, Charles R. Tanner, and Henry Hasse. I haven't read it, but you can read or download the entire issue here.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Startling Stories, March 1949

That's an Earle Bergey cover on this issue of STARTLING STORIES, of course, and I can see why Bergey's work moved copies off the newsstands while annoying some of the more serious-minded SF fans at the same time. However, I don't see how anybody can argue with the line-up of authors in this issue: Ray Bradbury, Jack Vance, Clifford D. Simak, Murray Leinster, Noel Loomis, L. Ron Hubbard (writing as Rene Lafayette), and Robert Moore Williams. I'm sure it was a very entertaining issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1941

And the people who ride the subway in New York think they've got it bad! At least they don't have an alien coming through a wormhole and shooting a ray gun at them. Or maybe they do, I don't know, I've been on a New York City subway car. I do know, however, that there's a mighty good line-up of authors in this issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES: Henry Kuttner, Clifford D. Simak, Eando Binder (probably just Otto Binder on this one), Robert Arthur, Robert Moore Williams, and Maurice Renard, translated by a much more familiar name to me, Georges Surdez. I really like the SF pulps from this era. That's an Earle Bergey cover, by the way, although it doesn't really resemble the "space babes" covers he's more famous for.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1938

It's been a while since I've featured a pulp with a giant ant cover. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever had a pulp with a giant ant cover on here. But I like this one a lot, and based on the authors, a lot to like inside the issue as well: Henry Kuttner twice (once under his own name and once as by Will Garth), Edmond Hamilton, Clifford D. Simak, Stanley Weinbaum, Ray Cummings, and Eando Binder (actually Earl and Otto Binder). Looks like a fine issue. And I know what my dad would have done if he'd ever been confronted by a giant ant like that. He would have got himself some giant ant dope.

Forgotten Books: Way Station - Clifford D. Simak

Tucked away in an isolated corner of Wisconsin farmland is an old house that dates from before the Civil War, but it’s strangely unchanged in all that time. So is the man who lives there, Enoch Wallace, who fought with the Union Army in that conflict and is now still alive more than a hundred years later and apparently not much older than when he fought at Gettysburg. Enoch’s secret is that inside the house is an intergalactic transport apparatus, and he’s the keeper of Galactic Central’s way station on Earth.

That’s the set-up of Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo-winning novel WAY STATION, first published in 1963 and reprinted several times since. Simak was a veteran of the science fiction pulps dating back to before what’s now considered the Golden Age of those magazines, and as the pulps faded he made a seamless transition to writing well-received hardback SF novels. Although he wrote some Western stories for the pulps and later dabbled in fantasy novels as well, he’s best remembered for what some have called pastoral SF – stories and novels usually taking place in rural settings, with low-key, somewhat unsophisticated (at least on the surface) protagonists. WAY STATION fits neatly into that sub-category and may well be the best example of it I’ve encountered.

Simak was never a flashy writer. His prose style is functional and plain-spoken, like the people he writes about. In WAY STATION, the story unfolds in a gentle, leisurely fashion, with the main elements of the plot never really getting into gear until about halfway through the book. Most writers today couldn’t get away with that, but Simak makes it work. And once things do start rolling, the scope of the story rapidly expands, with the fate of entire galaxies ultimately at stake, even though all the action takes place here on Earth.

When I was younger, I read a number of Simak’s novels, and while I enjoyed them, he was never a particular favorite of mine. I think maybe I just wasn’t ready to appreciate his virtues. WAY STATION is a fine novel and has dated hardly at all. I plan to read more of his work soon.