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.
“The Autumn Land” concerns a man traveling across the country hoping to land a job in Chicago. The position has almost certainly been filled, but he hasn’t been able to find work. Along the way he begins to have visions of an apocalyptic landscape, and before long he starts running into people from the visions. Unnerved, he decides to visit a valley he had explored when he was a boy living and working on his uncle’s farm. The valley is close by, so he does.
That’s when things get interesting. He finds a small town there that didn’t use to be there. A town in which it is always autumn. I was reminded of Ray Bradbury a bit by this part, although there was no mention of Halloween, something Bradbury would have been sure to mention.
The town is mostly uninhabited, but the little old lady he meets tells him that the house across the street from her is his. He moves in, and soon finds he can’t go back to
the outside world. He can only move on to some unspecified destination.
“The Autumn Land” almost seems to be a rejection of nostalgia at times. The title story, on the other hand, wallows in nostalgia. In this one, an alcoholic stumbling home from the bar one night gets picked up by a driverless Model T. The car takes him back to places he frequented in his youth (the 1920s in this case).
Both stories flirt with the idea that the protagonist is actually dead, although one is more explicit in this.
The other stories deal with how to spacemen deal with traveling to other worlds, the risks and advantages of collecting stamps from around the galaxy, and lies necessary for an immortal to tell himself in order to stay sane on a colony planet while it is being terraformed.
Stories of note include “Physician to the Universe”, about a society where cleanliness, teeth brushing, bathing, and general hygiene are enforced by robots. This one reminded me of Jack Williamson’s “With Folded Hands”.
“City” is the first story in the cycle that became the novel of the same name. The editorial note said the story was revised for book publication and this was the first time the original version had been reprinted. I’m not so sure. In one of Simak’s collections, sure. But I’m pretty certain the original version was reprinted in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 6 (1944), among other places.
Finally, one of Simak’s westerns, “No More Hides and Tallow”, is included. This series didn’t limit itself to just Simak’s science fiction. All of his short fiction is included. The subtitle of the book does say “The Complete Short Fiction”, after all. This one was interesting because it had more action in it than any of Simak’s science fiction I’ve read. I don’t read enough westerns to judge the quality of this one. I suspect it’s pretty formulaic, but I enjoyed it.
The Ghost of a Model T shows Simak’s range, and it’s worth checking out.