Customer Reviews

A Choice of Gods: Science Fiction

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This is one of my favorite books by Simak. As usual, the detail of the characters themselves is somewhat sparse. Simak wastes no time in getting right to the plot, and that is what I like about his books. He can pack more story into a 200-page book than some authors do in several 500-page books. This book is a story of Earth in the future, when most of humanity has been mysteriously taken from Earth, but a few people are still left on Earth. The people that are left barely age, living thousands of years, and are able to teleport themselves to other planets (a concept also visited in Simak's "Time is the Simplest Thing"). After 3,000 years, Earth is rediscovered by the people that were taken away from it.

One day on Earth, something strange happens-- the People vanish. The vast majority of humans are suddenly gone for the earth, leaving only an isolated pocket of remnants and all the robots. 5000 years passes and instead of developing new technology, the remaining humans find themselves expanding in unexpected ways and in the meantime the robots, deprived of people to serve, take up the abandoned task of serving God.

As noted before, here and elsewhere, Simak is the King of pastoral science fiction. The action is gentle and philosophical rather than exciting and violent, but nonetheless compelling to read. One of his best and the book that introduced me to his work.

When I first started reading Simak over 30 years ago it was primarily for his nostalgic, bucolic settings and the refreshing down-to-earth humanity of his characters. This book has both of those features in abundance. Only now, am I coming to truly realise the depth and breadth of Mr. Simak's philosophy. It is a philosophy than runs true in all of his books (at least I believe that I've managed to track down and read them all.) It is a philosophy of humanity over technology and progress. It is the idea that sometime in the past humanity made the wrong decision, took the wrong path. Yet, here and there, there are a few isolated oddballs and misfits who have somehow managed to remain human, even though it must put them at odds with the majority. As for the breadth of his thinking, this book alone touches on so many things, my favorite things: love of ancestral homes and the land, good stewardship of the land and it's creatures, American Indians, astral travel, telepathy, God and the soul.... Even his "Dark Walker" shows a true understanding of Jungian Shadow. And there is always the "twist", the new idea, such as aliens and robots with more humanity to them than most of the human race. What's more, Simak always leaves you with a feeling of hope, though sometimes it is a bitter sweet hope.
Sometimes I think that perhaps Simak wasn't speaking so much of this world, but that he was intuiting a better world for humane spirits on the other side....

There are a handful of science fiction writers who should be as highly respected as some of the best-loved writers of regular fiction. If this book is indicative of Simak's work, then he is one of those writers. This is a book that reads like a warm summer night- it is gentle and warm. And yet some of the ideas are timeless, philosophically deep, and give you a sense of wonder. For example, what is the real meaning of life? At what point do our machines become deserving of equal respect? What is the nature of the universe? Are we perhaps an experiment ?

These are some of the concepts explored in this wonderful novel. Don't be put off by the fact that it's no longer in print, and don't be afraid of reading sci-fi that fits the description "pastoral". If you like sci-fi that makes you think, that makes you wonder, that makes you believe that things can improve, then find this book.

One day nearly all humans disappear from earth as an experiment by God. The few men who were left behind now live for 5000 or more years without sickness, but the earth has been depleted of its resources. However, without a dependence on technology to hold them back, the humans left behind on earth learn teleportation and telekinesis. Strangely, it's the robots left on earth along with an alien visitor who search for communication with God and the way to secure a soul for themselves. Unexpectedly, a rumor circulates that the humans who disappeared from earth so many years ago are on their way back to earth.

I am a huge Clifford Simak fan & this book is one of the best I have read. I felt as if I knew the robots from his other books, especially Dogs. The people in the book are thinkers, no doers, but that is ok - thinking works sometimes. Loved this book as well as all that I have read by this author. I believe he has a gentle soul.

Most of the people of Earth have disappeared leaving only a rich, white family, a tribe of Native Americans, and another small group of people who are not really introduced. And, the robots. Of course, the robots who were only ever made to serve humans. The remaining whites, the Whitneys, have developed parapsychic abilities and now travel among the stars without the aid of any machinery. The Natives have returned to the old way of nomadic communion with the Earth. Of the robots, some serve the Whitneys, some are trying to figure out Christianity, and the rest are engaged in the Project. All of the humans now live about 8,000 years and never get sick.
The book is mostly philosophical discussion of the how and why of the universe. Why are we still here? Where's everyone else? How come we no longer suffer from illness? Where did our new abilities come from and what's the next evolutionary step? What are the robots building? Is a robot who worships God a blasphemy? Sometimes this can seem heavy, but it is so steeped in narrative, that it's mostly digestible (although, I spent a lot of time with the book open in my hands, staring off into space, considering just these questions).
The conflict comes when the People who disappeared are located and are threatening to come back. What does that mean for those still on Earth?
All I know is, I'd like to have 8,000 years to live with an abandoned library at my disposal and a fleet of robots to serve my basic needs. (Though, I'm quite sure, this is not the impression the author meant to leave with the reader...)

Long before the "Left Behind" series slithered off the tree of life, Simak wrote this gem that bids our evangelical brothers and sisters farewell and good riddance. I can't wait for the rapture he describes. I just hope the self-righteous so and sos are happy wherever they are that they go. Rural Wisconsin and Simak's post-millennia are the place for me!

A Choice of Gods covers some of the same ground as Crane's atrocious Hero's Walk and the overrated film, "Day the Earth Stood Still;" Simak suggests that humanity, or at least white people, are so monstrous that we would be better off if we were subordinate to invincible aliens. Fortunately for the reader, Simak is a charming writer, and emotionally and philosophically sophisticated (check out his complex and ambigious view of faith and religion in this book), so this novel is a good read, whatever you think of its politics and economics. Worthy of recommendation to any thoughtful SF fan, but especially to environmentalists, socialists, and people who think hunter-gatherer societies were (or should have been) the pinnacle of human development, who will love Simak's relentless attacks on industry, private property, and technology. In my opinion, not as good as Simak's City, but better than Cemetary World, the other Simaks I read in the last year or so.