Customer Reviews

Time and Again

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is the future and Mankind has spread to the stars like seeds before the wind. One star system, though, shrouded in mystery, has defied Man's every attempt to visit it. Every expedition to 61 Cygni has found its path inexplicably deflected and has been forced to return home in frustration. In desperation, special agent Asher Sutton was sent on a solo mission, but unlike the others he did not return and 61 Cygni was quietly forgotten.

As the book begins, twenty years have passed and, against all odds, Asher Sutton has returned. The mystery only deepens when it is discovered that Asher's ship was damaged many years ago in a crash that left it completely disabled and ought to have killed its sole passenger. The conclusion becomes inescapable; Asher Sutton died but now he's back. As the story develops, we discover Asher is not alone and it's not clear that he's even entirely human. But most importantly, Asher returns bearing an idea that will shake Mankind's beliefs to their foundations.

In Time and Again, Mankind is spread thin across the stars and to help hold the frontier he has created biological androids. Created in the lab by chemical means, androids are sterile and cannot reproduce but in all other respects are as human as their creators. None the less, androids are treated as property and bear a mark on their foreheads to distinguish them from "true" humans.

Androids dream of one day being acknowledged and treated as the equals of the "humans" and Asher's idea is the key for which they have been searching. Asher soon becomes the center of a struggle between three groups; humans of the present who fear any new idea that might loosen Mankind's tenuous grip on the stars, humans of the future who, via time travel, are waging a quiet war to alter the past to maintain the current status quo, and the androids of the future who struggle to let Asher's idea be born.

Simak weaves these disparate elements into a delicious story. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Time and Again opens in a distant future on earth that includes androids, robots, interactive television, weather control, mentophones - an ingenious device that allows instantaneous interstellar communication, dramatically extended life spans, travel to distant star systems and a humanity that has conquered the galaxy and spread its seed far and wide. After a 20 year absence, Asher Sutton returns to earth from an expedition to 61 Cygni, a system that until now has defeated every attempt at landing and exploration. In the attempt, Sutton has miraculously survived a crash that left his ship disabled and, by all odds, should have killed him. His ship has somehow managed to return to earth apparently without the actual ability to do so and Sutton, through some extraordinary feat of bio-medical engineering, appears to have been modified into something that is considerably less than completely human. He is mentally linked to someone he refers to as "Johnny". The administration on earth wonder what all of this can possibly mean.

On the surface, Time and Again is a thrilling story of time travel. Sutton is carrying a book which he has not yet actually written - a summary of his philosphies that, in a not too distant future, will result in the achievement of the dreams of the Android Equality League, their right to be recognized as sentient beings and a release from their treatment as mere property. But, before the book can even be actually written, Sutton must survive assassination attempts by revisionists - humans from the future who are using time travel as the means to prevent its publication.

Simak's personal credo that reflects his quiet midwest upbringing, his pastoral approach to the science fiction genre and his concerns about humanity and its use of technology as a means to violent conflict are never very far from the surface. Indeed, they rather shine through the writing like a beacon. But, make no mistake - Simak never falls into the trap of preaching. The clear social commentary is never intrusive and never detracts for even an instant from an exciting story line.

In Time and Again, Simak was openly critical of humanity's impression of its own importance in the universe - "Not by strength did he hold his starry outposts, but by something else ... by depth of human character, by his colossal conceit, by his ferocious conviction that Man was the greatest living thing the galaxy had ever spawned. All this in spite of much evidence that he was not ... evidence that he took and evaluated and cast aside, scornful of any greatness that was not ruthless and aggressive".

He also used comedy as a vehicle to make a dark statement against weapons. He jests about "the code" having been changed to require everyone under age 100 to bear arms as a way of passing comment on his feelings against the US's unique constitutional amendment regarding the "right" to bear arms. His philosophical argument against Sutton's attempted use of the Christian commandment "Thou shalt not kill" as an exemption from the code is perhaps a little blunt but does serve to point out some of the ironies involved in, for example, a right wing Bible Belt fundamentalist Christian packin' an iron.

Finally, his creation of the Android Equality League represents an ingenious platform from which Simak can express his concerns about the ethical issues related to the problems of advanced artificial intelligence and voice his courageous, clear condemnation of the white's treatment of black people in the 1960s US and his support of the civil rights movement.

In Time and Again, Simak has created a story that many have suggested is his finest work. I was excited with the turn of every page and found I couldn't disagree with them!

This book is really about religion and time. About the power
of religion and about the cost one can pay for the knowing
the truth. The book deals with the personal sacrifice,
loneliness and betrayal that important historical
figures, past, present and future, often endure. Asher Sutton is
the ultimate imperfect, reluctant hero.

Those of you who love Heinlein will undoubtedly enjoy
this book - I couldn't recommend it any more thoroughly.
I read City (Simak's most acclaimed book) and thought
that "Time and Again" was easily a superior work

It's been nearly forty years since I first read Simak's "Time And Again" but I still remember it very clearly as I read it several times. It just blew me away! I was fifteen years old and in the hospital. It was 1963 and the civil rights movement was in full bloom. Whether or not Simak intended to create a story to parallel the issues of the civil rights movement, I do not know, but a thoughtful reading of the story certainly suggests them.

This is a book to read and think about beyond its riveting plot and subplots. The principal questions raised by the book are "Who has the right to be human?" and "What is humanity?"

Simak's story is still fresh and relevant after all this time and I would love to see it reissued so that I can buy another copy and read it again.

It's been nearly forty years since I first read Simak's "Time And Again" but I still remember it very clearly as I read it several times. It just blew me away! I was fifteen years old and in the hospital. It was 1963 and the civil rights movement was in full bloom. Whether or not Simak intended to create a story to parallel the issues of the civil rights movement, I do not know, but a thoughtful reading of the story certainly suggests them.

This is a book to read and think about beyond its riveting plot and subplots. The principal questions raised by the book are "Who has the right to be human?" and "What is humanity?"

Simak's story is still fresh and relevant after all this time and I would love to see it reissued so that I can buy another copy and read it again.

"I have no morbid fear of death, nor any sentimental wish to gain the brief immortality that a thought accorded me after I am dead may give me, for the thought itself will be a fleeting one and the one who holds it himself will not have too many years of life, for the years of man are short...far too short for any perfect understanding of any of the problems a lifetime poses." from "Time and Again"

To be honest if you told me this story concerned a space traveler in the 80th century returning to Earth after 20 years from a mysterious 'closed" star system it would not particularly entice me to rush out and purchase a copy - if one were available that is. To compound my reluctances I'm informed that the author include a caboodle of props, conventions, and terminology - robots, time travel, and aliens - in order to be published under the "science-fiction" banner. It is remarkable that Simak could employe these inane plot elements to create a startling entertaining story with some poignant metaphysical ruminations. Then again, Simak was a dedicated craftsman laboring in a field with an overabundance of hacks. His "real" career was as a journalist, which could only help his narrative skills.

There is more to this story that meets the eye. It is apparent to this reader that Simak had some strongly held personal ideas he wished to share with an audience but not in a newspaper article. Asher Sutton returning from his mission to 61 Cygni where he died. He returns in spacecraft that is inoperable, has no air or food. He is obsessed with writing a book that will change the course of human history. Take the name of the protagonist Asher Sutton. In rabbinical literature "Asher" is regarded as the example of a virtuous man who with singlemindedness strives only for the general good. Talking to an old eithics professor friend he, Asher, ask: "Have you ever felt," asked Sutton, "as if you sat on God's right hand and heard a thing that you knew you were never meant to hear?" Interesting ruminations for a 1950's SF novel I'll say.

A character, a relative of Asher, ruminated on death:
"I have no morbid fear of death, nor any sentimental wish to gain the brief immortality that a thought accorded me after I am dead may give me, for the thought itself will be a fleeting one and the one who holds it himself will not have too many years of life, for the years of man are shot...far too shot for any perfect understanding of any of the problems a lifetime poses."

Asher mediated on nature:
"The water was warm against his body and it talked to him with a deep, important voice and Sutton thought, it is trying to tell me something, as it has tried to tell the people something all down through the ages. A might tongue talking down the land, gossiping to itself when there is no one else to hear, but trying, always trying to tell its people the news it has to tell. Some of them, perhaps, have grasped a certain truth and a certain philosophy from the river, but none of them have ever reached the meaning of the river's language, for it is an unknown language."

This book is highly recommended - possibly Simak's best, or al least one of his best.

Clifford D. Simak (1904-88) wrote 26 science-fiction novels of which "Time and Again" was his second, published in 1951. For some unknown reason it's first paperback publication was titled "First He Died"- Dell 1953. All subsequent editions were titled "Time and Again" with the last publication being in 1993.

I just finished reading this book and have to say that is was a fairly good read. Despite its age it still inspires some wonder which is what sci-fi is supposed to do. The retro-future of the novel is funny in a way as you get to see a world with androids and colonization outside our solar system but also a world that still uses type writers. It isn't the best thing I've read but it is a good time travel yarn and the plot does not stall.

Destiny. It lives in us, in all living, from amoebas, humans to androids. Destiny is a personal companion to everybody. It's also an abstract idea that lives and liberates; it bereaves the exclusivity of superiority from humanity. Asher Sutton has returned from dead, from 60 years back, from dark light years with no working engines in his ship. No one knows how and if he is a human any more. And he is destined to write the book about Destiny's presence. A book that will cause a fierce time war to eradicate, subvert or dispute his message. This is the story of Asher Sutton.

Asher got a new body by some enigmatic race and become more than human. The religious theme about Destiny and its power to liberate androids, to make then equals to their human masters, is a captivating idea. The android rebellion and a war in time circles around Asher, who does not know reasons for all the events. He is used by both sides as a pawn in this chess game to the very end. The story also reflects Simak's rural roots by placing the time paradox events near his birthplace Wisconson, Millville. In the story Simak refers to Bridgeport which is only 15km away. The fondness he feels for those familiar places comes through very clearly. The hero is an average people, with an average life, who experience something quite extraordinary which makes him only part human. Unfortunately the the characters are not adequately fleshed out for reader to understand or immerse in them them. The story dances high on an abstract wire and is not easily approachable.

Two (2) stars. Written in 1951 when Simak was 22 year old. There are a lot of coincidences in this novel. Only after 3/4th of the book the reader learns to understand all the vague remarks to time war that is going on around Asher. The writing is pleasant and relaxed but it is possible to skip several pages without missing anything relevant. The reader follows more about river of consciousness than a clear cut plot. The android and human confrontation about the soul, religion and continuity of race is really beautiful, but overall this book is spongy read.

I have read twenty or so of Simak's novels and this is unquestionably the finest (even better than City).

The other reviews have said it better than I could, but this might be one of the best, if not the very best, novels that I have ever read.

Time and Again is an exciting, thought-provoking, and deeply religious work. If you like science fiction and you like to think, do not pass this one up.