Monthly Archives: August 2019

Riding in The Ghost of a Model T with Clifford D. Simak

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The Ghost of a Model T
Clifford D. Simak
Open Road Media
print $21.99
ebook $7.99

Open Road Media publishes a lot of great science fiction and fantasy, and I mean A LOT.  Much of it is from classic authors who have fallen out of print or writers who are still active and have an extensive backlist.

One of my favorite authors is Clifford D. Simak.  Open Road has published a twelve volume set of his complete short fiction.  They’ve also reprinted a number of his novels (although I’m still waiting for The Visitors).

Simak’s birthday was a week or so ago, and I did a post on it.  I decided after rereading “All the Traps of Earth” that I would read some more of his work.  In honor of Simak’s birthday, F&SF tweeted that his story “The Autumn Land”, which they had published back in October of 1971 had been shortlisted for the Nebula Award.  So I decided to start with that on, which is one of the stories in The Ghost of a Model T.  And I ended up reading the whole collection. Continue reading →

Simak’s “All the Traps of Earth”

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“All the Traps of Earth”
Clifford D. Simak
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1960
Currently available in I am Crying All Inside: The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Volume One and Space Pioneers edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio

Today, August 3, would have been Clifford D. Simak’s 115th birthday.  Simak (1904-1988) wrote some of the best science fiction of the 20th Century.  One of the themes he returned to, and it’s a theme in this story, is robots and their role in society.

When people talk about robots in science fiction, the name of Isaac Asimov naturally comes up.  Simak might be mentioned if the people talking are well-read.  Between the two, I prefer Simak’s robots to Asimov’s, although I very much enjoy Asimov’s robots.  The difference, I think, is that Asimov’s robots tend to be cold and calculating, while Simak’s are more, well, human.  Case in point, “All the Traps of Earth”. Continue reading →