Today, August 3, is Clifford D. Simak’s birthday. Simak (1904-1988) is a favorite in these here parts. It’s been a long day, It’s late, and I’m tired. I’ll raise a glass in his memory shortly, but I’m not going to do a full post tonight. The computer keeps freezing up for a few seconds at a time, and I don’t have the patience to reboot it.
I’ve got a post in mind and will get it up in a few days.
Our Children’s Children
Clifford D. Simak
Ebook $9.99
It’s been a little while since I posted about Simak here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t read any more of his work. I’ve just been slammed with work and haven’t had a chance to post. I’ve got at least one more Simak post coming up.
This short novel was published in 1974 after being serialized in Worlds of If. Like much of Simak’s work, it involves time travel.
The plot is fairly straightforward. Doorways open up all over the world, and people start pouring out of them. The spokesman for the newcomers tells the President that they are refugees from 500 years in the future. They are fleeing an alien invasion. Continue reading
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
“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
The Big Front Yard
Clifford D. Simak
Open Road
Print $15.99 ($10.87 as of this writing)
Ebook $7.99 ($4.80 as of this writing)
“The Big Front Yard” was originally published in the October 1958 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It won the Hugo for Best Novelette the next year. This is one of Simak’s best known and most reprinted stories.
Hiram Taine lives alone with his dog Towser in a house that’s been in his family for over a hundred years. Located in a small village across the road from a wooded area, Hiram makes his living in the small town by repairing appliances and selling antiques. When the story opens, Towser seems agitated about what Hiram at first thinks are mice under the floorboards. They aren’t mice. Hiram lets Towser out and tells him to leave the woodchuck across the road alone. Only it turns out later that Towser isn’t trying to dig up a woodchuck. What’s buried out in the woods is something much bigger, both in size and in importance. Continue reading
Grotto of the Dancing Deer
Clifford D. Simak
Open Road
ebook $4.99
Yesterday was Cliff Simak’s birthday. I read the first two stories in this collection to honor his memory and his work. Grotto of the Dancing Deer is volume four of The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak. There is no print edition. I’d read both of these stories years ago in the collection from Tachyon entitled Over the River and Through the Woods. Continue reading
Cifford D. Simak was born on this date, August 3, in 1904. He passed away in April of 1988.
Simak was one of the great science fiction writers of the Twentieth Century. Among his awards were three Hugos (“The Big Front Yard”, Way Station, “Grotto of the Dancing Deer”) and a Nebula (“Grotto of the Dancing Deer”). He was the third SFWA Grandmaster after Robert Heinlein and Jack Williamson. Simak, Fritz Leiber, and Frank Belknap Long were all awarded the inaugural Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. Not too shabby.
Simak has frequently been called the pastoralist of science fiction. Many of his works are set in rural areas of his home state of Wisconsin. Robots, time travel, and the nature of God were often themes in his work. Although he is best remembered as a science fiction author, Simak also wrote fantasy, westerns, and war stories. A newspaper man by trade, Simak also wrote a handful of science books in the 60s and early 70s.
Unfortunately, as often happens these when a writer dies, his work soon fell out of print. For years the only place to buy his work was in used books stores. I’m glad to say that isn’t the case anymore. Open Road is bringing back all of Simak’s work, including his complete short fiction. Early Bird books often has electronic editions on sale for $1.99. You have to act fast, though. These sales only last 24 hours.
If you’ve not read Simak, you should give him a try. I’ll be lifting a glass in his memory and reading one of his short stories