City

Clifford D. Simak’s writing style is often described as “pastoral”, a gentle Midwestern American soft science fiction with a splash of fantasy flavoring his pastel impressionist coloring. For me he was the other Ray Bradbury, a very literate writer with an even tempo and a terrific imagination who could go dark when necessary or boyishly imaginative. Though he was an early writer published in Hugo Gernsback’s pulp magazines, his peak came in the 60’s and early 70’s when the revitalized boomer kids like myself were discovering his CITY and WAY STATION novels and The Big Front Yard novelette through The Science Fiction Book Club or Doubleday or Ballantine and Ace reissues.While WAY STATION and CITY are definitive triumphs, after reading them you are going to go spelunking for nuggets like Time And Again, Ring Around The Sun, A Choice Of Gods, or the really bizarre All Flesh Is Grass; and of course some of the collected short stories. Clifford D Simak was the 3rd Grand Master of The Science Fiction Writers of America after Robert Heinlein and the great Jack Williamson.Like his contemporary and other Midwestern Sci-Fi Guru Bradbury, Simak has an almost Mark Twain approach to writing, there is an easy humanity in his style and this is the attraction because Simak gives us characters who breathe and worry, laugh and take time to look at the vistas and panorama of the world. They have flaws and they learn how to rise above them, and they deal with obstacles and challenges with thought and wisdom and not with violence. If you are looking for shoot-em up action, Starship Troopers and Bug Invaders, look elsewhere. Clifford D. Simak is an intelligent writer with the strange willingness to concentrate on people and hopefulness, decency and compassion, curiosity and understanding. Clifford D. Simak was a cosmic consciousness kind of guy and his writing has been a source of inspiration to explore and discover.While CITY began life as a short story series from the World War II years into the 50’s, he managed to magically interconnect them into a storyboard spanning over ten thousand years as a history of mankind generally, but of a certain family specifically, told through the framing device (as collected into a short story series now novelized together as a whole) of a mythology handed down by generations of dogs who have inherited the future of earth. This latest edition of CITY ends with a Coda, written by Simak in 1973 and not included in my original copy of City which I read as a teen and again in college. The Coda is a wonderful ending that truly polishes off the story in the best way possible.WAY STATION on the other hand is one of the best science fiction novels, non-serialized, ever written and to my dismay, too many reviewers give away way too much of the storyline, one which should be approached almost blindly in order to get maximum pleasure from reading it. The novel unfolds with revelations and surprises that are key to the charm and entertainment of the reader. To their credit, when I purchased my copy in 1970 from the Science Fiction Book Club, they lauded the great writer Simak and only teased at the plot of the novel to sell it. Let’s just say that Enoch is a lot older than he appears and over time attracts undue attention to himself from the wrong people. This new trade paperback edition replacing my lost hardback copy, like the replacement for CITY, is handsomely and artistically bound.Both books are well manufactured with quality paper and great typeface, easy to read for “tired eyes”. Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy gets my two thumbs up just for reissuing these two classics in such nicely made volumes. New readers of Simak will also appreciate the new Introduction in City which gives a brief but informative picture of Clifford D. Simak. Way Station has no introduction, just dive in and drink up!

I thoroughly enjoyed City. I gave this book 4 stars b/c I find parts of the premise under-developed and hard to believe, other portions I found just a little silly. However, overall it was a thought-provoking and enjoyable read.Simak pieces together several connected stories into an overarching narrative, much like A Canticle for Liebowitz. Simak does as wonderful a job as Miller did w/ Canticle. The author gives us the opportunity to see the evolution of mankind over thousands of years while still giving us an anchor in characters that persist across all of the stories, specifically in the form of a long-lived robot and a human family whose scions play pivotal roles in human history. This is where the real meat of the story is and I had great fun reading Simak's view of humanity's future, even if I don't agree w/ his vision 100%. There were portions of the novel that brought the overall greatness of the story down, for me at least.1. City is a deviation from typical sci-fi, in which humanity is crammed into ever larger cities and facing the challenges entailed. In the first 2 tales, Simak's posits that humanity will eventually outgrow the need of the city as a hub of human activity. Simak bases this supposition on atomic energy permeating everyday life, making travel of 100 miles equivalent to walking down the street today. This dispersion from the city is one of the primary drivers of Simak's plot for the remainder of the book. Personally, I found this premise to be a little far-fetched and unbelievable. I believe Simak's upbringing shines through here as he believes everyone wants 40 acres and a mule, rather than the big city. I found Gibson's picture of the Sprawl a much more realistic view of the future of our cities. However, even if cities do not become as bleak as Gibson supposes, I still find it hard to believe that cities will altogether disappear when every inhabitant decides they want to live a pastoral life. Humans want to huddle around the fire w/ other humans. I found Simak's description of our future living conditions lonely and unappealing. I had a hard time getting over this premise as I was reading, but if you can accept it you will probably have a better read than I did.2. In the course of the story, dogs are modified by human scientists to be given speech through surgical means and eventually become the inheritors of the world. I don't begrudge Simak this imaginative scenario; however what I do find unappealing is that Simak blatantly skips over the question of the persistence of speech in the dogs' progeny. The human scientist who surgically alters the first dog has a conversation w/ another character in which he states, "the dogs are somehow passing it down" meaning their offspring are also able to speak. I found this to be a little lazy on Simak's part. Even in Simak's time, biologists knew that parental traits acquired through surgical means would not be passed on to any offspring. Simak makes no attempt to explain how the progeny of the first dogs were able to speak and I think he knew he was glossing over that, hence the conversation I alluded to. I understand Simak wrote this book before Watson and Crick did their thing, but some sort of explanation would have been beneficial to the story.3. I did not care at all for the canine narrator's notes on the tales which are placed in between each one. I found these to be the weakest portions of the book by far, and ended up skipping them after the first three. I later went back and read them after I had finished the last tale. I felt that these notes really took me out of the story and interrupted the flow. I understand Simak provides these notes to give some insight into the dog culture of the future, but I found them to be unnecessary and a little silly. I think the book would be stronger had they been omitted.Overall, I found City to be thought-provoking and entertaining. My criticisms aside, this book is definitely worth reading. It was nice to read such an imaginative picture of the course of human evolution.

This is an epic tale that spans millions of years.The way it was created makes it particularly impressive -- the individual stories were written over a period of time, and the connecting pieces were written many years later, turning the series of stories into a coherent story.It's the story of the decline and extinction of the race of men, and the rise of the world of dogs -- this sounds odd, but it really comes together.The book is dated, and is definitely a product of it's time, but the scope of the imagination is awe-inspiring!If you enjoy this author, this book is very worth picking up.

Wow. Wow wow wow. I would rate this one between "Very Good" and "Masterpiece". The book is an anthology of conected short stories told by a genetic modified talking dog, thousands of years after Man left earth. Each story is preceded by editor notes where a Dog editor lectures the reader on the possible existence of a race called Man, but most scholars agreed the tales are merely metaphorical, despite having no agreement on their end symbology. Marvelous book.

Il libro è in ottime condizioni e consegnato nei tempi richiesti.

Das Buch packte mich nicht, ich konnte es weglegen. Die Geschichte ist für mich unbefriedigend und zu sehr an den Haaren herbeigezogen.

This story made me reflect once more on the eternal search for purpose apparently present in any intelligent life. I love how the author encompases thousands of years through short interlaced stories and how everything is linked through an eternal robot who has served humans for so long that it begins to behave like one.