Customer Reviews

BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES OF CLIFFORD D. SIMAK

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Man! I can't believe the lack of reviews for one of the best, most prolific and long-lived SF authors ever. And it's a "BEST OF" collection!

Reading Simak at times is like floating down a lazy river or taking a liesurely stroll with an old friend. He's got a country bumpkin type of approach. I love it.

I like Simak's "Robot Stories" better than Asimov's because of his style. In fact, my favorite story in this collection was a robot story. ALL THE TRAPS OF EARTH examines what it would be like to be a robot with hundreds of years of memories and suddenly be faced with the threat of having all those memories taken away. Then to runaway from that situation and become an instantly recognizable fugitive, hitch a ride on the side of a spaceship and the effect warp-drive would have on a robot's uninsulated positronic brain. Oh, there's so much more to the story, but I can't tell you.

CRYING JAG is definately a "feel good" story, as almost all of them are.

This is good stuff and definately "a keeper" on my shelf.

The one minor quibble that I have with _The Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak_ (1967) is that it wasn't long enough. Couldn't they have made room for "The Big Front Yard," or "Good Night, Mr. James," or "Desertion," or...? Ah, well. Ahem. I cannot really quibble with the seven stories that were selected. They are among Simak's best, and they had a "track record"; that is, they were collected or anthologized in previous volumes.

The stories are: "Founding Father" (_Galaxy_, 1957), "Immigrant" (_Astounding_, 1954), "New Folks' Home" (_Analog_, 1963), "Crying Jag" (_Galaxy_, 1960), "All the Traps of Earth" (_Fantasy and Science Fiction_, 1960), "Lulu" (_Galaxy_, 1957), and "Neighbor" (_Astounding_, 1954).

"Founding Father" is about the spaceman who was living a life on a distant planet that seemed too good to be true. Turns out that it was. "Immigrant" was a story that I had not read before, so my pleasure was doubled. It is about one of Earth's best and brightest who is chosen to go to an alien Shangri-La, where the aliens are lovely, friendly, and civilized. Too civilized.

"New Folks' Home" is one of those deceptively simple stories that grow on you each time you reread it. It is a fable of what retirement _ought_ to be. "Crying Jag" is the one about the alien who gets drunk from the sad stories of other people-- to the benefit of everybody.

"All the Traps of Earth" (what a marvelous title!) is about a robot named Richard Daniel Barrington (possibly a nod to Asimov's robot detective R. Daneel Olivaw) who flees Earth to "become his own robot" (164). It is one of Simak's very best.

"Lulu" is about the lovesick spaceship computer that causes no end of trouble for her crew. It is good, light entertainment. "Neighbor" is Simak at his most pastoral. It is about the alien farmer who has a way to insure that meddlesome outsiders never leave Coon Valley. The story is well crafted and amiable. But I was always a bit bothered that the good neighbor was really a benevolent despot.

Simak's pastoralism is frequently mentioned by reviewers, and sometimes his skill at plotting stories. But I would like to call attention to another aspect of his fiction-- his sense of decency. Simak is not, perhaps, the most philosophical of writers. But he knows how we ought to live. He has a vision of the good life. Because of that vision, we go back to his stories again and again.