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Посетителите
ТО приличаше на голяма кутия — навярно петнайсет метра висока и шейсет метра дълга.
И се приземи направо върху колата на Джери Конклин. Местните хора първи го забелязаха и някой стреля по него. Но заплати с живота си.
И се приземи направо върху колата на Джери Конклин. Местните хора първи го забелязаха и някой стреля по него. Но заплати с живота си.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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803 people want to read
About the author
Clifford D. Simak
969 books1,059 followers"He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." (Wikipedia)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
July 26, 2020
“The Visitors” was first released as a three-part serialized story in Analog magazine in 1979. Clifford D. Simak then released it as a full novel in 1980. If you’re unfamiliar with Simak, he’s a Sci-fi Grand Master and won several Hugo awards and one Nebula. He grew up in Wisconsin and lived all his life in the Midwest. His writing is rustic, calm, and largely non-violent and this work is a fine example of his gentle style. While written in late 1970’s, it’ still came across to me as a 1950’s or 1960’s in terms of style and approach.
A primary theme, near and dear to Simak’s heart (he worked at newspapers), is media ethics. He argues for integrity and the resistance of sensationalism by the press. Simak also lightly takes on racism and sexism and draws a parallel with the history of the displacement of the Native Americans. However, his depictions of Blacks are somewhat stereotypical and distant and female characters are few and far between. I don’t think the novel passes the Bechdel test. Still, Kathy Foster is a main character and a smart, savvy reporter and there is certainly no sexism or racism other than what is intentionally shown as weakness in a few characters.
The story begins with the arrival of a large black rectangle in rural Minnesota. The objects sets down across a river, destroying a bridge and a car. The owner of the car, Jerry Conklin (closes we get to a MC), is taken inside and later expelled harshly. The story then follows the government, a Minneapolis newspaper, and the general population as they attempt to understand and deal with the arrival of these ‘Visitors.’ The conflict in this story is low key – the Visitors kill one person and only in self-defense. Still, Simak does well in building tension around the implications of the arrival of aliens and slowly revealing their nature and intentions.
I enjoy Simak’s ability to entertain largely using wonder and intrigue instead of aggression and bloodshed. His depiction of the alien’s makeup and motivation is unique and revealed with great pacing. His characters are adequately structured, although we really don’t have a main character and I think the story suffers a little from this. It also ends abruptly with many unanswered questions which was a disappointment to me, especially knowing there is no sequel.
A creative first contact story which drives the plot with intrigue and wonder with a sudden ending that leaves the reader wanting more.
A primary theme, near and dear to Simak’s heart (he worked at newspapers), is media ethics. He argues for integrity and the resistance of sensationalism by the press. Simak also lightly takes on racism and sexism and draws a parallel with the history of the displacement of the Native Americans. However, his depictions of Blacks are somewhat stereotypical and distant and female characters are few and far between. I don’t think the novel passes the Bechdel test. Still, Kathy Foster is a main character and a smart, savvy reporter and there is certainly no sexism or racism other than what is intentionally shown as weakness in a few characters.
The story begins with the arrival of a large black rectangle in rural Minnesota. The objects sets down across a river, destroying a bridge and a car. The owner of the car, Jerry Conklin (closes we get to a MC), is taken inside and later expelled harshly. The story then follows the government, a Minneapolis newspaper, and the general population as they attempt to understand and deal with the arrival of these ‘Visitors.’ The conflict in this story is low key – the Visitors kill one person and only in self-defense. Still, Simak does well in building tension around the implications of the arrival of aliens and slowly revealing their nature and intentions.
I enjoy Simak’s ability to entertain largely using wonder and intrigue instead of aggression and bloodshed. His depiction of the alien’s makeup and motivation is unique and revealed with great pacing. His characters are adequately structured, although we really don’t have a main character and I think the story suffers a little from this. It also ends abruptly with many unanswered questions which was a disappointment to me, especially knowing there is no sequel.
A creative first contact story which drives the plot with intrigue and wonder with a sudden ending that leaves the reader wanting more.
December 12, 2024
The Visitors was serialized in three parts in Analog magazine from October through December in 1979 and then published in book form by Del Rey the following year. Their hardback has a kind of dull fly-fishing painting, but their mass market edition has a good Martin Hoffman that goes back to the Vincent di Fate concept that was on the first Analog installment. It's set in a small town in Minnesota, and the setting is one of his most pastoral and friendly familiar small towns. It's a first contact/alien invasion story, and rather than the violence and adventure most writers of the time would have served up, it's an examination of politics and economic impact and the difficulty of communication and especially the importance of the Fourth Estate. (Simak, of course, was a long-time newspaper worker.) The characters are mostly bland, though I thought the female lead was smarter and feistier than usual. The ending is a little weak in that it left you wanting more detail and wondering what happened next, but I enjoyed the read... it's restful and nostalgic.
February 10, 2016
The Visitors is like a book out of time. It feels for the life of me like a novel written in 1945, yet it was published in 1980. Was this a lost manuscript? I searched throughout the book for evidence that Simak was playing a kind of trick, an ironic game, writing an imitation 1940's alien encounter book, replete with all the types and tropes of the genre, in order to comment on it, but there was none. Simak, apparently, was in total earnest. This is indeed 1980, seen through the eyes of a man who doesn't seem to understand that the world, and literature, had changed irrevocably over the previous 40 years. It’s quite charming, in its way.
And boy, does it have all the standard elements. You've got the stock characters, absolutely interchangeable due to their absence of depth or even a set of discernible characteristics - the student, the Senator, the Senator's daughter, the President, the newspaper editor, the plucky female journalist, her gentleman friend. The dialogue is mostly simple and expositional, straight out of a black and white TV show that used to play in the background at your grandfather's place. The characters call movies "the pictures." The most recent cultural reference anyone can think of is World War II. The gender politics are as dusty as a housewife’s rolling pin; one young woman tells her boyfriend, "Kiss me, you big lug!"; the men apologize sheepishly for swearing in front of the women; each male hero has a wife at home sitting up late at night worrying, begging to know when her husband will be home. And Simak treats his subject, the arrival of a fleet of mysterious alien spaceships to the United States, as though it were something new, something shocking and never before told. The novel goes through each inevitable moment, each hoary old step, as if it were not the cliche of a genre already a century old. The military general advises caution; the young woman intuits that the aliens are friendly; the President meets with his advisers; the student seeks to communicate with them. This is all, in the novel's view, incredibly interesting and unexpected.
And you know, gosh darn it, it almost works. There is a genuine sense of fascination and wonder about these aliens, no question. Some of the better scenes involve not the played-out stock characters but the presentation of a wider view. The aliens land in cornfields, in potato patches, in the middle of empty stadiums. Farmers and other locals witness these landings, and then tell stories. The aliens land by a river in a small town and then take off and fly into the woods. People stand outside their cars and watch as one of these ships lands in the middle of the highway. Many of these scenes are reminiscent of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, released only three years earlier, and the obviously benevolent intentions of the aliens further emphasize the similarities. One major subplot involves a character taken into one of the living spaceships, and he spends the rest of the book trying to understand his experience, even going so far as to seek the creature out again in an isolated farm in Iowa, pursuing an intuition he doesn’t understand. He doesn't quite sculpt the alien into his mashed potatoes, but he gets pretty close.
Still: there is powerful imagery here. In that memorable scene inside the creature, the man, Jerry, experiences a “coldness of the mind.” He finds this feeling inexplicable. Another character places her hand on the surface of a creature and feels that same “coldness.” The creature's skin then suddenly reaches out and surrounds her hand, gently, like a handshake, or a kiss. This same character wakes up in a hotel room in the middle of the night, worrying about the loneliness the aliens must have felt in the vast reaches of uncaring space. The narrative returns again and again to this notion of loneliness, of the cold distances, the emptiness between the stars, and the realization that these aliens must have come here seeking a new beginning, a chance at survival for their race on a warm planet in an otherwise cold and unforgiving universe. The aliens are merely looking for a home, for security, for belonging. Here, we have Simak’s regular theme played out, the empathy of intelligent beings, the need for companionship among all thinking creatures, the realization that all sentient beings desire the same things. The narrative follows two seemingly incompatible species coming to feel for one another, even communicate with one another in an oblique way, even if they can never comprehend each other.
If that sounds too sentimental and idealistic for you, then check out these characters. Just about everyone in this book, with the exception of the bigoted barber who amusingly gets himself killed in the first three pages, is studiously decent and reasonable. The reporters discuss, in detail, how to avoid all hints of sensationalism in their reporting; the President’s advisers, even the Military General, are subdued and careful in their response to this visitation; the town drunk, upon finding one of the creatures dead, falls down on his haunches and weeps for the loss of a friend. There are no villains, not even any selfish ordinary people, in this story, which keeps the focus of the conflict, whatever of it there is, strictly on the attempts to understand, on the breaching of the divide between human and alien.
Some of the plot mechanics are creaky. The reliance on “cellulose” as the catch-all explanation for every mysterious thing the creatures do (“they’re made of cellulose!” “they’re seeking cellulose!” “they use cellulose to feed their young!”) feels shockingly amateur, as if Simak had Googled “what’s in trees?” and had a eureka moment. And as soon as it is discovered that the aliens are “making cars” (cars are literally coming out of their stomachs), you might feel the whole sombre thing has just tumbled over the cliff into silly-land. This silliness, though, is contrasted quite nicely when a character stumbles into the woods and finds the aliens are secretly learning how to build houses as well as cars; inside one of these “practice houses,” hidden in the woods, he swears he saw a shadow moving about the kitchen – are they practicing making people too?
As the book nears its end, there’s a halfhearted attempt to describe an economic collapse resulting from all these free cars and houses, clearly a stab at criticizing how flimsy and untenable our global economic system is, but this plot is unintegrated and superficial, as if Simak didn’t know much about how economics works, and oh fiddlesticks, really didn’t care. And there seems to be no climax, either, just a message tacked on to the last quarter of the book. When Kathy says, “The way we live is wrong” and follows up with, “I don’t know enough history to guess where that particular time of going wrong might be,” it’s as if she speaks for Simak – he doesn’t understand the world, or how it works, or why it’s changed from the hazy perfect world he remembers from his childhood, but he just doesn’t like it, knows it’s wrong. Something to do with money and greed or something.
And by the very end, it’s obvious that a satire of global economics is not where this book’s interests lie; the financial collapse is a red herring. It’s the people, the people in the kitchen, the people the aliens are secretly making in their practice houses in the middle of the woods that are the real issue here, and it’s on that haunting image that the novel cleverly ends.
Whether you like this book will depend greatly on how much you can stomach Simak’s refusal to perceive the passage of time, or to try to understand the complexities of the modern world. There is a gentle, homey feel to the novel, as if the entire world grew up on the same 1920’s farm in rural Wisconsin, as well as some genuine emotion and mystery in the depiction of the aliens. For me, that was more than enough to make this an enjoyable read.
And boy, does it have all the standard elements. You've got the stock characters, absolutely interchangeable due to their absence of depth or even a set of discernible characteristics - the student, the Senator, the Senator's daughter, the President, the newspaper editor, the plucky female journalist, her gentleman friend. The dialogue is mostly simple and expositional, straight out of a black and white TV show that used to play in the background at your grandfather's place. The characters call movies "the pictures." The most recent cultural reference anyone can think of is World War II. The gender politics are as dusty as a housewife’s rolling pin; one young woman tells her boyfriend, "Kiss me, you big lug!"; the men apologize sheepishly for swearing in front of the women; each male hero has a wife at home sitting up late at night worrying, begging to know when her husband will be home. And Simak treats his subject, the arrival of a fleet of mysterious alien spaceships to the United States, as though it were something new, something shocking and never before told. The novel goes through each inevitable moment, each hoary old step, as if it were not the cliche of a genre already a century old. The military general advises caution; the young woman intuits that the aliens are friendly; the President meets with his advisers; the student seeks to communicate with them. This is all, in the novel's view, incredibly interesting and unexpected.
And you know, gosh darn it, it almost works. There is a genuine sense of fascination and wonder about these aliens, no question. Some of the better scenes involve not the played-out stock characters but the presentation of a wider view. The aliens land in cornfields, in potato patches, in the middle of empty stadiums. Farmers and other locals witness these landings, and then tell stories. The aliens land by a river in a small town and then take off and fly into the woods. People stand outside their cars and watch as one of these ships lands in the middle of the highway. Many of these scenes are reminiscent of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, released only three years earlier, and the obviously benevolent intentions of the aliens further emphasize the similarities. One major subplot involves a character taken into one of the living spaceships, and he spends the rest of the book trying to understand his experience, even going so far as to seek the creature out again in an isolated farm in Iowa, pursuing an intuition he doesn’t understand. He doesn't quite sculpt the alien into his mashed potatoes, but he gets pretty close.
Still: there is powerful imagery here. In that memorable scene inside the creature, the man, Jerry, experiences a “coldness of the mind.” He finds this feeling inexplicable. Another character places her hand on the surface of a creature and feels that same “coldness.” The creature's skin then suddenly reaches out and surrounds her hand, gently, like a handshake, or a kiss. This same character wakes up in a hotel room in the middle of the night, worrying about the loneliness the aliens must have felt in the vast reaches of uncaring space. The narrative returns again and again to this notion of loneliness, of the cold distances, the emptiness between the stars, and the realization that these aliens must have come here seeking a new beginning, a chance at survival for their race on a warm planet in an otherwise cold and unforgiving universe. The aliens are merely looking for a home, for security, for belonging. Here, we have Simak’s regular theme played out, the empathy of intelligent beings, the need for companionship among all thinking creatures, the realization that all sentient beings desire the same things. The narrative follows two seemingly incompatible species coming to feel for one another, even communicate with one another in an oblique way, even if they can never comprehend each other.
If that sounds too sentimental and idealistic for you, then check out these characters. Just about everyone in this book, with the exception of the bigoted barber who amusingly gets himself killed in the first three pages, is studiously decent and reasonable. The reporters discuss, in detail, how to avoid all hints of sensationalism in their reporting; the President’s advisers, even the Military General, are subdued and careful in their response to this visitation; the town drunk, upon finding one of the creatures dead, falls down on his haunches and weeps for the loss of a friend. There are no villains, not even any selfish ordinary people, in this story, which keeps the focus of the conflict, whatever of it there is, strictly on the attempts to understand, on the breaching of the divide between human and alien.
Some of the plot mechanics are creaky. The reliance on “cellulose” as the catch-all explanation for every mysterious thing the creatures do (“they’re made of cellulose!” “they’re seeking cellulose!” “they use cellulose to feed their young!”) feels shockingly amateur, as if Simak had Googled “what’s in trees?” and had a eureka moment. And as soon as it is discovered that the aliens are “making cars” (cars are literally coming out of their stomachs), you might feel the whole sombre thing has just tumbled over the cliff into silly-land. This silliness, though, is contrasted quite nicely when a character stumbles into the woods and finds the aliens are secretly learning how to build houses as well as cars; inside one of these “practice houses,” hidden in the woods, he swears he saw a shadow moving about the kitchen – are they practicing making people too?
As the book nears its end, there’s a halfhearted attempt to describe an economic collapse resulting from all these free cars and houses, clearly a stab at criticizing how flimsy and untenable our global economic system is, but this plot is unintegrated and superficial, as if Simak didn’t know much about how economics works, and oh fiddlesticks, really didn’t care. And there seems to be no climax, either, just a message tacked on to the last quarter of the book. When Kathy says, “The way we live is wrong” and follows up with, “I don’t know enough history to guess where that particular time of going wrong might be,” it’s as if she speaks for Simak – he doesn’t understand the world, or how it works, or why it’s changed from the hazy perfect world he remembers from his childhood, but he just doesn’t like it, knows it’s wrong. Something to do with money and greed or something.
And by the very end, it’s obvious that a satire of global economics is not where this book’s interests lie; the financial collapse is a red herring. It’s the people, the people in the kitchen, the people the aliens are secretly making in their practice houses in the middle of the woods that are the real issue here, and it’s on that haunting image that the novel cleverly ends.
Whether you like this book will depend greatly on how much you can stomach Simak’s refusal to perceive the passage of time, or to try to understand the complexities of the modern world. There is a gentle, homey feel to the novel, as if the entire world grew up on the same 1920’s farm in rural Wisconsin, as well as some genuine emotion and mystery in the depiction of the aliens. For me, that was more than enough to make this an enjoyable read.
June 30, 2025
Golden-Age sci-fi legend Clifford Simak published this gem in 1980, which is one of the more interesting alien invasion novels I've read. But of all his notable works, this one seems to not be discussed very often.
A giant black monolith descends on a man who is fly fishing near a protected wilderness area in Minnesota, crushing his car and straddling the entire width of the river. Instead of rainbow trout, he unwittingly caught the moment earth civilization would change forever, and becomes the man who makes first contact.
This is one of those books that really works when you know as little about it as possible, so I won't go into any detail. It is the mystery behind the visitors--where they come from, their biology, the purpose behind their behaviors--that keeps both the human characters and the reader engaged. But it's not meant to be weird fiction. Simak doesn't just throw a bunch of unexplained set pieces into each page in order to spook the reader with a sense of awe and wonder. The crux of the novel is the dilemma that the visitors pose, and much of the length is dedicated to military personnel, political leaders, and media journalists trying to figure out what to do. It reminds me very much of the 2016 film "Shin Godzilla" mixed with Arthur C. Clark's "Rendezvous with Rama".
If that sounds boring to you, I'll be honest that there are moments where the book drags. Most of the meetings and discussions are ineffectual and repetitive. But this is not meant to simply pad out the length. It is, in essence, much of the point. While our leaders fret and debate, nothing is done to actually communicate with our visitors who are very different from us in almost every conceivable way.
There's also a strong anti-colonial message that revolves around Native Americans. The indigenous peoples of the Americas had all experienced a similar situation. They found strangers using their ancestral land as if they owned it. At first, it seemed harmless, but more and more visitors came, until the great replacement was complete and their way of life destroyed. The allegory here is not subtle. I know that many genre fans have felt their TV, movies, and books have grown insufferably preachy in the last decade, but Simak was an early example of an artist who simply told it like he saw it.
One last thing I should mention is the ending. There isn't a traditional climax or denouement to this story. At first, I thought my copy was missing the final pages, but no, the book just abruptly ends on a final note of mystery, leaving the reader to imagine the endless possibilities of how this story might continue. I personally thought the ending was appropriate, but I know many readers will not like the lack of conclusion.
So, though the alien intelligence represented here is fascinating, you can't go into this book expecting "War of the Worlds". This is more of a critique of the fragility of American foundations, the nature of communication, and what constitutes a living being. Yes, it's preachy and sometimes boring, which are traits that always cause me to peace out. But in this case, I was kept enthralled with the ideas, and overall I think these ideas are worth anyone considering.
SCORE: 3.5, rounded to 4 squished Chevrolets out of 5
A giant black monolith descends on a man who is fly fishing near a protected wilderness area in Minnesota, crushing his car and straddling the entire width of the river. Instead of rainbow trout, he unwittingly caught the moment earth civilization would change forever, and becomes the man who makes first contact.
This is one of those books that really works when you know as little about it as possible, so I won't go into any detail. It is the mystery behind the visitors--where they come from, their biology, the purpose behind their behaviors--that keeps both the human characters and the reader engaged. But it's not meant to be weird fiction. Simak doesn't just throw a bunch of unexplained set pieces into each page in order to spook the reader with a sense of awe and wonder. The crux of the novel is the dilemma that the visitors pose, and much of the length is dedicated to military personnel, political leaders, and media journalists trying to figure out what to do. It reminds me very much of the 2016 film "Shin Godzilla" mixed with Arthur C. Clark's "Rendezvous with Rama".
If that sounds boring to you, I'll be honest that there are moments where the book drags. Most of the meetings and discussions are ineffectual and repetitive. But this is not meant to simply pad out the length. It is, in essence, much of the point. While our leaders fret and debate, nothing is done to actually communicate with our visitors who are very different from us in almost every conceivable way.
There's also a strong anti-colonial message that revolves around Native Americans. The indigenous peoples of the Americas had all experienced a similar situation. They found strangers using their ancestral land as if they owned it. At first, it seemed harmless, but more and more visitors came, until the great replacement was complete and their way of life destroyed. The allegory here is not subtle. I know that many genre fans have felt their TV, movies, and books have grown insufferably preachy in the last decade, but Simak was an early example of an artist who simply told it like he saw it.
One last thing I should mention is the ending. There isn't a traditional climax or denouement to this story. At first, I thought my copy was missing the final pages, but no, the book just abruptly ends on a final note of mystery, leaving the reader to imagine the endless possibilities of how this story might continue. I personally thought the ending was appropriate, but I know many readers will not like the lack of conclusion.
So, though the alien intelligence represented here is fascinating, you can't go into this book expecting "War of the Worlds". This is more of a critique of the fragility of American foundations, the nature of communication, and what constitutes a living being. Yes, it's preachy and sometimes boring, which are traits that always cause me to peace out. But in this case, I was kept enthralled with the ideas, and overall I think these ideas are worth anyone considering.
SCORE: 3.5, rounded to 4 squished Chevrolets out of 5
August 1, 2023
3.5 ⭐
Приятна фантастика, но не ме впечатли колкото други книги на големия Клифърд Саймък...
Приятна фантастика, но не ме впечатли колкото други книги на големия Клифърд Саймък...
June 20, 2024
“But now, suddenly, a horde of the things had descended on the Earth. Well-behaved, of course, not really causing trouble, but posing an uneasy wonder as to what kinds of things they were…”
It all starts in the quiet town of Lone Pine, Minnesota. It’s when the visitors started showing up. But what were they and what did they want?
So apparently this was a work from grandmaster science fiction novelist Clifford D. Simak at the twilight of his career. I’ve heard some great things about some of his other works like “City” but “The Visitors” I felt pretty much lukewarm about.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the novel is the one-on-one moments where the humans are approaching the visitors. I like aspects also of how Simak creates a small-town alien-encounter kind of ambience, especially in the beginning stages of the novel where Jerry gets abducted. One interesting element to the story is just trying to figure out why the visitors (who are in the shape of a giant black box) are there in the first place
However, there are too many problems with this book.
For one, this book is very dialogue heavy, with far too many unremarkable secondary characters jabbering all the time. The dialogue itself and character interactions are very artificial and wooden feeling. All the behind-the-scenes stuff with all the big wigs and political mumbo-jumbo with various organizations got a little tiresome. A lot of important people sitting around arguing about what they should do with the visitors or bickering about the visitors’ intentions.
Also, the novel goes off onto meandering paths sometimes by trying to focus on too many revolving subplots with some characters who just are not that compelling to follow around. And the whole environmental angle to the novel felt very forced/heavy-handed.
I wanted to see how the book finishes with the humans and visitors, but even the conclusion felt a little inconclusive and flat in my opinion.
All this being said, hearing others say that this is not one of Simak’s best encourages me to still try another one of his novels.
Overall, a so-so science fiction experience here.
It all starts in the quiet town of Lone Pine, Minnesota. It’s when the visitors started showing up. But what were they and what did they want?
So apparently this was a work from grandmaster science fiction novelist Clifford D. Simak at the twilight of his career. I’ve heard some great things about some of his other works like “City” but “The Visitors” I felt pretty much lukewarm about.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the novel is the one-on-one moments where the humans are approaching the visitors. I like aspects also of how Simak creates a small-town alien-encounter kind of ambience, especially in the beginning stages of the novel where Jerry gets abducted. One interesting element to the story is just trying to figure out why the visitors (who are in the shape of a giant black box) are there in the first place
However, there are too many problems with this book.
For one, this book is very dialogue heavy, with far too many unremarkable secondary characters jabbering all the time. The dialogue itself and character interactions are very artificial and wooden feeling. All the behind-the-scenes stuff with all the big wigs and political mumbo-jumbo with various organizations got a little tiresome. A lot of important people sitting around arguing about what they should do with the visitors or bickering about the visitors’ intentions.
Also, the novel goes off onto meandering paths sometimes by trying to focus on too many revolving subplots with some characters who just are not that compelling to follow around. And the whole environmental angle to the novel felt very forced/heavy-handed.
I wanted to see how the book finishes with the humans and visitors, but even the conclusion felt a little inconclusive and flat in my opinion.
All this being said, hearing others say that this is not one of Simak’s best encourages me to still try another one of his novels.
Overall, a so-so science fiction experience here.
March 21, 2025
A quick read by one of the authors I've been reading since elementary school--Clifford Donald Simak (1904-1988). "The Visitors" is one of his later books, published in 1980. It's a first contact story, which is my favorite SF trope. In this story, a huge black box appears in the sky near the small northern Minnesota town of Lone Pine. When one of the local Earthpeople shoots at it, he pays for his rashness with instantaneous death....In a short time, humans realize they are dealing with some kind of aliens. But what do they want? And is there a way to communicate with them?
In many ways, this is a typical Simak story. I enjoyed it. But it's not outstanding. A good fast science fiction read. 3 stars.
In many ways, this is a typical Simak story. I enjoyed it. But it's not outstanding. A good fast science fiction read. 3 stars.
November 15, 2018
Фантастика, излязла през 1979 и към момента безнадеждно остаряла, НО - грамотно написана, все пак това не е кой да е, а Клифърд Саймък. Срещата с чужда цивилизация, оказала се агресивна по един, хм, миловиден начин, реакциите на отделните прослойки на обществото, откритите въпроси, неясното бъдеще на човечеството...
April 10, 2023
Доста оригинален роман за, кхъ-кхъ, посещение на Земята от извънземни. Пришълците са доста нестандартни - огромни черни кутии, които могат да пътуват в космоса. Срещата с хората не е обичайна - комуникация почти няма, а посетителите гледат да не смущават хората и ядат дървета :).
При все това, Саймък поставя в центъра на романа си човечеството, отношенията между хората, че и глобалната политическа обстановка на позатоплила се студена война. Основните нишки проследяват не самия контакт, а как той се възприема от хората - независимо дали става въпрос за журналистката Кати и нейния приятел Джери, които изграждат специална връзка с посетителите или за президента на САЩ и неговото прес-аташе, изправени пред най-сериозните решения от ВСВ насам.
На повърхността финалът идва насред нищото, но всъщност е гениално-отворен!
Отличен пет за майстора!
При все това, Саймък поставя в центъра на романа си човечеството, отношенията между хората, че и глобалната политическа обстановка на позатоплила се студена война. Основните нишки проследяват не самия контакт, а как той се възприема от хората - независимо дали става въпрос за журналистката Кати и нейния приятел Джери, които изграждат специална връзка с посетителите или за президента на САЩ и неговото прес-аташе, изправени пред най-сериозните решения от ВСВ насам.
На повърхността финалът идва насред нищото, но всъщност е гениално-отворен!
Отличен пет за майстора!
February 18, 2009
I believe I am totally biased and therefore my review may not be worth a whole lot to anyone. First, I grew up in Minnesota and felt really comfortable with the setting of the book. Second, I read "City" as a young person, later bought it, and re-read it over and over. Finally, I kept putting off reading this book. It was on the library shelf at my small-town library, but the description of it just seemed too dumb. I looked past that book for two years before breaking down and checking it out. I think my relief that it was not terrible makes me like it a lot more than it actually warrants.
I thought the pace was fine. The aliens quite interesting. The ending left me wanting to know more, but in a good way.
It was a fun read and I certainly would read it again.
I thought the pace was fine. The aliens quite interesting. The ending left me wanting to know more, but in a good way.
It was a fun read and I certainly would read it again.
October 17, 2018
I have to wonder if this was an earlier -- and rejected -- novel pulled out and dusted off and released after the huge success of Close Encounter of the Third Kind. Or maybe an only half-thought-out plot that Simak rushed to write to take advantage of said movie's success. Although both theories would have made more sense if the book had been released a year or two earlier.
Every Simak novel I've read, many of the main characters have a nice-guy sameness to them, and Simak doesn't have the best ear for dialogue, especially for someone who uses dialogue to convey so much information, but usually I don't care because the story carries me along. But in this story, the cadence of the dialogue was driving me nuts, and it felt like a very few things actually happened, with every event padded out with all kinda talking. Once in a while an interesting scene or idea would pop up, but they never went anywhere. While some of his other books I have read certainly meandered, there seemed to be an over-all plan to them and they felt cohesive. This one, the closer you get to the end, the more you feel like he doesn't know what he's doing or where he's heading or what the point of it all is.
I don't expect Simak to offer me brilliant ideas and I don't expect his books to particularly challenge me, and heaven knows his characters are never stand outs, but usually I find his books a pleasant and reasonably entertaining exploration of some idea or concept. This one, not so much.
Every Simak novel I've read, many of the main characters have a nice-guy sameness to them, and Simak doesn't have the best ear for dialogue, especially for someone who uses dialogue to convey so much information, but usually I don't care because the story carries me along. But in this story, the cadence of the dialogue was driving me nuts, and it felt like a very few things actually happened, with every event padded out with all kinda talking. Once in a while an interesting scene or idea would pop up, but they never went anywhere. While some of his other books I have read certainly meandered, there seemed to be an over-all plan to them and they felt cohesive. This one, the closer you get to the end, the more you feel like he doesn't know what he's doing or where he's heading or what the point of it all is.
I don't expect Simak to offer me brilliant ideas and I don't expect his books to particularly challenge me, and heaven knows his characters are never stand outs, but usually I find his books a pleasant and reasonably entertaining exploration of some idea or concept. This one, not so much.
May 19, 2025
(ελληνική κριτική μετά τους αστερίσκους)
The Visitors is one of those science fiction novels that stands out not for its intensity or action, but for its sobriety, its contemplative nature, and its exploration of values and priorities (or the lack thereof) that underpin humanity. Equally distinctive is the peculiar atmosphere it evokes — something one might expect if one is even passingly familiar with the author. Clifford Simak, renowned for his humanistic tone and literary sensitivity, offers here yet another work situated firmly in the realm of the quietly uncanny and most certainly the reflective.
The plot revolves around the arrival of alien beings — the so-called Visitors — who bear little resemblance to anything commonly encountered in the genre. They are not threatening, they do not communicate with words, and their intentions are, at first, wholly inscrutable. This ambiguity may well be the novel’s strongest attribute: the uncertainty, the awkwardness, the genuine perplexity humans experience in the face of something truly Other. No, they have not come to abduct our princesses (not that we have many left), nor to force reproduction upon them, nor do they incinerate cities with “cosmic” rays.
The narration is calm, unfolding at a pace more akin to Buddhist introspection than to hard science fiction (yes, I know — I’m treading familiar ground here). Simak chooses not to focus on the spectacle of first contact but instead on its moral, philosophical, and practical ramifications. How do societies respond? Where is the boundary between fear and understanding? What does hospitality mean when no common mode of communication exists? These are the questions that arise from the narrative.
Admittedly, in some passages the pace becomes excessively slow and the plot loses the momentum one might expect from a science fiction novel. Yet this does not detract from the value of the work. On the contrary, it deepens the meditative effect the author seeks to instil.
The book might have earned a modest three-star rating, were it not for the ending gifted to it by old Clifford
The ending leaves a bittersweet sense of ambiguity. There is no conclusive revelation, but rather a suggestion: that communication, understanding — even co-existence — with the radically Other may never unfold on the terms we expect. Perhaps the best we can hope for is to one day learn how to read the "shadows" — even if we can never fully understand them. Only Simak himself knows, and I imagine him gazing down at us from the heavens like the ghost of a venerable Jedi (alternatively, Jaga from Thundercats or Mufasa), smiling.
A deeply poetic and quietly unsettling finale, one that lingers in the mind.
Conclusion: The Visitors is an idiosyncratic, introspective, and genuinely “deep” novel, devoid of pretence or pseudophilosophical grandiosity. It eschews the clichés of science fiction and offers an alternative perspective on the concept of contact with the Other. It may not satisfy readers in search of intense action, but it will reward those who appreciate slow, thoughtful storytelling and rich layers of meaning (sic). A work that, though not perfect, remains especially noteworthy.
* * * * *
Το The Visitors είναι ένα από εκείνα τα μυθιστορήματα επιστημονικής φαντασίας που ξεχωρίζουν όχι για την ένταση ή τη δράση, αλλά για τη νηφαλιότητα, την σκέψη που εμβαθύνει σε αξίες και προτεραιότητες της ανθρωπότητας (ή την έλλειψή τους) αλλά και την ιδιότυπη ατμόσφαιρα που προσφέρει (κάτι που θα έπρεπε να ξέρετε, αν έχετε έστω και ακουστά τον συγγραφέα). Ο Clifford Simak, γνωστός για τον ανθρωπιστικό του τόνο και τις λογοτεχνικές του ευαισθησίες, παραδίδει εδώ ένα ακόμα έργο που κινείται στον χώρο του μάλλον αλλόκοτου και σίγουρα του «στοχαστικού».
Η υπόθεση περιστρέφεται γύρω από την άφιξη εξωγήινων όντων –οι λεγόμενοι Visitors– οι οποίοι δεν μοιάζουν με τίποτα απ’ ό,τι έχουμε συνηθίσει στη λογοτεχνία του είδους. Δεν είναι απειλητικοί, δεν επικοινωνούν με λέξεις, και οι προθέσεις τους είναι, αρχικά, εντελώς ακατανόητες. Αυτή η αμφισημία είναι ίσως το πιο δυνατό στοιχείο του βιβλίου: η αβεβαιότητα, η αμηχανία, η απορία των ανθρώπων απέναντι σε κάτι αληθινά ξένο. Όχι, δεν έχουν έρθει για να απαγάγουν πριγκίπισσές μας (όχι ότι μας έχουν μείνει και πολλές) και να τις εξαναγκάσουν σε αναπαραγωγή μαζί τους, όχι, δεν αποτεφρώνουν πόλεις με «κοσμικές» (ούτε θεολογικές) ακτίνες.
Η αφήγηση είναι ήρεμη, με ρυθμό που παραπέμπει περισσότερο σε βουδιστική ομφαλοσκόπηση παρά σε Hard Scifi (OK, αναμασάω τα προφανή εδώ). Ο Simak επιλέγει να εξερευνήσει όχι τόσο τις επιπτώσεις της πρώτης επαφής στο επίπεδο του θεάματος, αλλά τις ηθικές, φιλοσοφικές και πρακτικές προεκτάσεις της. Πώς αντιδρούν οι κοινωνίες; Ποιο είναι το όριο μεταξύ φόβου και κατανόησης; Τι σημαίνει φιλοξενία όταν δεν υπάρχει κοινός τρόπος επικοινωνίας; Αυτά είναι τα ερωτήματα που αναδύονται μέσα από το κείμενο.
Παρότι σε κάποια σημεία ο ρυθμός γίνεται υπερβολικά αργός και η πλοκή χάνει μέρος της έντασης που περιμένει κανείς από ένα sci-fi μυθιστόρημα, αυτό δεν αφαιρεί από την αξία του έργου. Αντιθέτως, ενισχύει τον διαλογισμό που επιδιώκει ο συγγραφέας.
Ίσως το βιβλίο να αποσπούσε ένα χαλαρό τριάρι σε αστέρια, αν δεν είχε το φινάλε που του χάρισε ο γερο Clifford
Ένα βαθιά ποιητικό, σιωπηλά ανατριχιαστικό φινάλε, που μένει στο μυαλό.
Συμπέρασμα: The Visitors είναι ένα ιδιόρρυθμο, εσωστρεφές και «βαθύ» χωρίς προσποιήσεις και ψευδοσοβαροφάνειες μυθιστόρημα που αποφεύγει τα κλισέ της επιστημονικής φαντασίας και προσφέρει μια εναλλακτική ματιά στην έννοια της επαφής με το Άλλο. Μπορεί να μην ικανοποιήσει όσους αναζητούν έντονη δράση, αλλά θα ανταμείψει τους αναγνώστες που εκτιμούν την αργή, φιλοσοφημένη αφήγηση και τη βαθιά νοηματοδότηση (sic). Ένα έργο που, αν και όχι τέλειο, παραμένει ιδιαίτερα αξιόλογο.
The Visitors is one of those science fiction novels that stands out not for its intensity or action, but for its sobriety, its contemplative nature, and its exploration of values and priorities (or the lack thereof) that underpin humanity. Equally distinctive is the peculiar atmosphere it evokes — something one might expect if one is even passingly familiar with the author. Clifford Simak, renowned for his humanistic tone and literary sensitivity, offers here yet another work situated firmly in the realm of the quietly uncanny and most certainly the reflective.
The plot revolves around the arrival of alien beings — the so-called Visitors — who bear little resemblance to anything commonly encountered in the genre. They are not threatening, they do not communicate with words, and their intentions are, at first, wholly inscrutable. This ambiguity may well be the novel’s strongest attribute: the uncertainty, the awkwardness, the genuine perplexity humans experience in the face of something truly Other. No, they have not come to abduct our princesses (not that we have many left), nor to force reproduction upon them, nor do they incinerate cities with “cosmic” rays.
The narration is calm, unfolding at a pace more akin to Buddhist introspection than to hard science fiction (yes, I know — I’m treading familiar ground here). Simak chooses not to focus on the spectacle of first contact but instead on its moral, philosophical, and practical ramifications. How do societies respond? Where is the boundary between fear and understanding? What does hospitality mean when no common mode of communication exists? These are the questions that arise from the narrative.
Admittedly, in some passages the pace becomes excessively slow and the plot loses the momentum one might expect from a science fiction novel. Yet this does not detract from the value of the work. On the contrary, it deepens the meditative effect the author seeks to instil.
The book might have earned a modest three-star rating, were it not for the ending gifted to it by old Clifford
The ending leaves a bittersweet sense of ambiguity. There is no conclusive revelation, but rather a suggestion: that communication, understanding — even co-existence — with the radically Other may never unfold on the terms we expect. Perhaps the best we can hope for is to one day learn how to read the "shadows" — even if we can never fully understand them. Only Simak himself knows, and I imagine him gazing down at us from the heavens like the ghost of a venerable Jedi (alternatively, Jaga from Thundercats or Mufasa), smiling.
A deeply poetic and quietly unsettling finale, one that lingers in the mind.
Conclusion: The Visitors is an idiosyncratic, introspective, and genuinely “deep” novel, devoid of pretence or pseudophilosophical grandiosity. It eschews the clichés of science fiction and offers an alternative perspective on the concept of contact with the Other. It may not satisfy readers in search of intense action, but it will reward those who appreciate slow, thoughtful storytelling and rich layers of meaning (sic). A work that, though not perfect, remains especially noteworthy.
* * * * *
Το The Visitors είναι ένα από εκείνα τα μυθιστορήματα επιστημονικής φαντασίας που ξεχωρίζουν όχι για την ένταση ή τη δράση, αλλά για τη νηφαλιότητα, την σκέψη που εμβαθύνει σε αξίες και προτεραιότητες της ανθρωπότητας (ή την έλλειψή τους) αλλά και την ιδιότυπη ατμόσφαιρα που προσφέρει (κάτι που θα έπρεπε να ξέρετε, αν έχετε έστω και ακουστά τον συγγραφέα). Ο Clifford Simak, γνωστός για τον ανθρωπιστικό του τόνο και τις λογοτεχνικές του ευαισθησίες, παραδίδει εδώ ένα ακόμα έργο που κινείται στον χώρο του μάλλον αλλόκοτου και σίγουρα του «στοχαστικού».
Η υπόθεση περιστρέφεται γύρω από την άφιξη εξωγήινων όντων –οι λεγόμενοι Visitors– οι οποίοι δεν μοιάζουν με τίποτα απ’ ό,τι έχουμε συνηθίσει στη λογοτεχνία του είδους. Δεν είναι απειλητικοί, δεν επικοινωνούν με λέξεις, και οι προθέσεις τους είναι, αρχικά, εντελώς ακατανόητες. Αυτή η αμφισημία είναι ίσως το πιο δυνατό στοιχείο του βιβλίου: η αβεβαιότητα, η αμηχανία, η απορία των ανθρώπων απέναντι σε κάτι αληθινά ξένο. Όχι, δεν έχουν έρθει για να απαγάγουν πριγκίπισσές μας (όχι ότι μας έχουν μείνει και πολλές) και να τις εξαναγκάσουν σε αναπαραγωγή μαζί τους, όχι, δεν αποτεφρώνουν πόλεις με «κοσμικές» (ούτε θεολογικές) ακτίνες.
Η αφήγηση είναι ήρεμη, με ρυθμό που παραπέμπει περισσότερο σε βουδιστική ομφαλοσκόπηση παρά σε Hard Scifi (OK, αναμασάω τα προφανή εδώ). Ο Simak επιλέγει να εξερευνήσει όχι τόσο τις επιπτώσεις της πρώτης επαφής στο επίπεδο του θεάματος, αλλά τις ηθικές, φιλοσοφικές και πρακτικές προεκτάσεις της. Πώς αντιδρούν οι κοινωνίες; Ποιο είναι το όριο μεταξύ φόβου και κατανόησης; Τι σημαίνει φιλοξενία όταν δεν υπάρχει κοινός τρόπος επικοινωνίας; Αυτά είναι τα ερωτήματα που αναδύονται μέσα από το κείμενο.
Παρότι σε κάποια σημεία ο ρυθμός γίνεται υπερβολικά αργός και η πλοκή χάνει μέρος της έντασης που περιμένει κανείς από ένα sci-fi μυθιστόρημα, αυτό δεν αφαιρεί από την αξία του έργου. Αντιθέτως, ενισχύει τον διαλογισμό που επιδιώκει ο συγγραφέας.
Ίσως το βιβλίο να αποσπούσε ένα χαλαρό τριάρι σε αστέρια, αν δεν είχε το φινάλε που του χάρισε ο γερο Clifford
Ένα βαθιά ποιητικό, σιωπηλά ανατριχιαστικό φινάλε, που μένει στο μυαλό.
Συμπέρασμα: The Visitors είναι ένα ιδιόρρυθμο, εσωστρεφές και «βαθύ» χωρίς προσποιήσεις και ψευδοσοβαροφάνειες μυθιστόρημα που αποφεύγει τα κλισέ της επιστημονικής φαντασίας και προσφέρει μια εναλλακτική ματιά στην έννοια της επαφής με το Άλλο. Μπορεί να μην ικανοποιήσει όσους αναζητούν έντονη δράση, αλλά θα ανταμείψει τους αναγνώστες που εκτιμούν την αργή, φιλοσοφημένη αφήγηση και τη βαθιά νοηματοδότηση (sic). Ένα έργο που, αν και όχι τέλειο, παραμένει ιδιαίτερα αξιόλογο.
July 15, 2021
Enjoyable older science fiction novel (published originally in 1980), that had a real Golden Age feel to it. Though some elements are a bit dated, other elements felt either timeless or still quite fresh and original. I have only read one other work of Clifford D. Simak’s, his book _Mastodonia_ (a childhood favorite of mine) but this novel compares favorably to it (despite very different subject matter).
The novel is about aliens coming to Earth, which they do in the first chapter, the first one arriving in the northern Minnesota town of Lone Pine. It is an alien invasion, though not like any popularly imagined in fiction. The alien, soon dubbed a Visitor, is a featureless matte black box, rectangular, longer side parallel to the ground, about fifty feet high and two hundred feet long. Though it quickly kills in retaliation a rather unsavory character in the first chapter, it was self-defense and it seems the Visitor is pretty peaceful, content at first to just hang around over a nearby stream (though destroying a bridge and the car of one of the book’s characters, this does appear to be by accident as that was where it landed). It isn’t long before the Visitor starts harvesting trees, just consuming whole trees in a wilderness area next to Lone Pine. Also soon other Visitors appear, all enigmatic black boxes, in other parts of the United States (and a few in Canada).
Aside from obviously wanting trees, which are slowly harvested one at a time, what else do the Visitors want? Is there anyone inside these ships? Are they ships or are they giant robotic craft? Or are they alive, the vessel a creature itself? Are they a threat? Should humanity fight back? Can they fight back, given how quickly and easily that one character was dispatched in the first chapter (and how did that happen exactly)?
There is a pretty large cast of characters, for the most part either characters in Minnesota connected with the first Visitor or in Washington relating to Big Picture events. We get the ostensible main character (at least according to the back of the book’s blurb), forestry grad student Jerry Conklin, his girlfriend, reporter Kathy Foster of the _Minnesota Tribune_ sent to cover the story, various people connected to her paper such as several editors and a photographer (the author himself was a newspaper journalist in addition to a novelist), a few townsfolk in Lone Pine like Stiffy Grant (the town drunk, happy to help visiting reporters for a few bucks or a bottle), and a bunch of people in D.C. including President Herbert Taine, military aide Jack Clark, press secretary David Porter, and David’s girlfriend Alice Davenport, daughter to a senator who himself also appears a few times in the story. As is common with many golden age of science fiction style books, there isn’t a great deal of depth to most of the characters, that while a few characters can have some rather deep thoughts, the characters themselves aren’t especially very well detailed. I was never confused with what character was what, but they seemed to exist either to move the plot along, showing what the Visitors were doing at different points in the storyline, or ways for the author to say some philosophical things. Not a huge complaint mind you, as this was once a very common trope in science fiction.
Lots of themes explored in the book, usually either ruminations in the character’s heads, or conversations either at the newspaper between editors or editors and reporters or in the White House. Topics ranged from how cold, dark, and lonely deep space is (at one point deep space was referred to as “the great uncaring”), the duty of journalists to be responsible (as one editor said at Kathy’s paper, “Our concern then, of course, was not to go beyond the most factual and objective reporting…We can’t go off half-cocked.”), particularly avoiding bias (another editor at Kathy’s paper: “No matter how well the story was written, no matter how objectively, we would be accused of bias.”), and having greater responsibilities to society as a whole (“We think of ourselves as a public service institution. We do nothing willingly to harm or debase our cultural system. We talk a lot about digging out the truth and reporting the truth and that’s an easy one in those cases where we can determine the truth. But there is something else that goes beyond the truth. And that’s the power we hold. We have to use that power as wisely as we can.”), and that when the world radically changes the powers that be will think first and foremost about money and the economy (to quote Kathy, “And when I told the President about this, he was interested – most interesting, he said. But he wasn’t interested, nor were any of the others. All they can think of is their precious economy.”). Sigh.
Oh! And there were some interesting if not quite drawn out as well as I would have liked parallels between the disruptive arrival of European settlers in North America as far as the Native Americans went, and the disruption caused by the Visitors. I think it could have been underlined a bit more and a lot of the potential disruption was more speculation or for the future, but I did like that element.
Dated elements (technology aside of course) include that it is mostly men most of the time (“boys” and “men” are referred to a lot in different parts of the book when talking about groups of people, while it’s always “girl” never “women” as far as I can recall and only then to specific individuals) and the vast majority of the characters are men. I will point out that though it seems Jerry Conklin is set up to be the main character, he at least equally shares the spotlight with his girlfriend Kathy Foster (and at times she is the dominant character) and she is always treated with respect and as capable and an equal. Also between her and Alice Davenport, frequently these two women are again and again the voice of reason in the book, pointing out greater truths other characters don’t ponder at all or quickly dismiss. There is also one very racist character, one we meet right away in chapter one, but sorry if that is spoiler, he is also not only called out on his racism but also almost immediately killed (pretty much the only character in the book to die, though towards the end “off camera” a few deaths are mentioned from Visitor-related social disruptions).
The book also marks a time when people were still struggling with saying or writing Native American instead of Indian (with the author firmly coming down on the side of saying Native American, though depicting many who still refused or were at least not used to it). There is some minor Cold War elements and references to the Soviet Union but they do not form a huge plot element.
It is not a book packed with action though it is not I think slow-paced either. It is definitely not a shoot ‘em up alien invasion story. There are few plot threads that either went nowhere (like one about testing weapons on the Visitors) or were unresolved (spoiler to mention). I liked it, definitely has a different feel than what science fiction written in the 21st century has.
The novel is about aliens coming to Earth, which they do in the first chapter, the first one arriving in the northern Minnesota town of Lone Pine. It is an alien invasion, though not like any popularly imagined in fiction. The alien, soon dubbed a Visitor, is a featureless matte black box, rectangular, longer side parallel to the ground, about fifty feet high and two hundred feet long. Though it quickly kills in retaliation a rather unsavory character in the first chapter, it was self-defense and it seems the Visitor is pretty peaceful, content at first to just hang around over a nearby stream (though destroying a bridge and the car of one of the book’s characters, this does appear to be by accident as that was where it landed). It isn’t long before the Visitor starts harvesting trees, just consuming whole trees in a wilderness area next to Lone Pine. Also soon other Visitors appear, all enigmatic black boxes, in other parts of the United States (and a few in Canada).
Aside from obviously wanting trees, which are slowly harvested one at a time, what else do the Visitors want? Is there anyone inside these ships? Are they ships or are they giant robotic craft? Or are they alive, the vessel a creature itself? Are they a threat? Should humanity fight back? Can they fight back, given how quickly and easily that one character was dispatched in the first chapter (and how did that happen exactly)?
There is a pretty large cast of characters, for the most part either characters in Minnesota connected with the first Visitor or in Washington relating to Big Picture events. We get the ostensible main character (at least according to the back of the book’s blurb), forestry grad student Jerry Conklin, his girlfriend, reporter Kathy Foster of the _Minnesota Tribune_ sent to cover the story, various people connected to her paper such as several editors and a photographer (the author himself was a newspaper journalist in addition to a novelist), a few townsfolk in Lone Pine like Stiffy Grant (the town drunk, happy to help visiting reporters for a few bucks or a bottle), and a bunch of people in D.C. including President Herbert Taine, military aide Jack Clark, press secretary David Porter, and David’s girlfriend Alice Davenport, daughter to a senator who himself also appears a few times in the story. As is common with many golden age of science fiction style books, there isn’t a great deal of depth to most of the characters, that while a few characters can have some rather deep thoughts, the characters themselves aren’t especially very well detailed. I was never confused with what character was what, but they seemed to exist either to move the plot along, showing what the Visitors were doing at different points in the storyline, or ways for the author to say some philosophical things. Not a huge complaint mind you, as this was once a very common trope in science fiction.
Lots of themes explored in the book, usually either ruminations in the character’s heads, or conversations either at the newspaper between editors or editors and reporters or in the White House. Topics ranged from how cold, dark, and lonely deep space is (at one point deep space was referred to as “the great uncaring”), the duty of journalists to be responsible (as one editor said at Kathy’s paper, “Our concern then, of course, was not to go beyond the most factual and objective reporting…We can’t go off half-cocked.”), particularly avoiding bias (another editor at Kathy’s paper: “No matter how well the story was written, no matter how objectively, we would be accused of bias.”), and having greater responsibilities to society as a whole (“We think of ourselves as a public service institution. We do nothing willingly to harm or debase our cultural system. We talk a lot about digging out the truth and reporting the truth and that’s an easy one in those cases where we can determine the truth. But there is something else that goes beyond the truth. And that’s the power we hold. We have to use that power as wisely as we can.”), and that when the world radically changes the powers that be will think first and foremost about money and the economy (to quote Kathy, “And when I told the President about this, he was interested – most interesting, he said. But he wasn’t interested, nor were any of the others. All they can think of is their precious economy.”). Sigh.
Oh! And there were some interesting if not quite drawn out as well as I would have liked parallels between the disruptive arrival of European settlers in North America as far as the Native Americans went, and the disruption caused by the Visitors. I think it could have been underlined a bit more and a lot of the potential disruption was more speculation or for the future, but I did like that element.
Dated elements (technology aside of course) include that it is mostly men most of the time (“boys” and “men” are referred to a lot in different parts of the book when talking about groups of people, while it’s always “girl” never “women” as far as I can recall and only then to specific individuals) and the vast majority of the characters are men. I will point out that though it seems Jerry Conklin is set up to be the main character, he at least equally shares the spotlight with his girlfriend Kathy Foster (and at times she is the dominant character) and she is always treated with respect and as capable and an equal. Also between her and Alice Davenport, frequently these two women are again and again the voice of reason in the book, pointing out greater truths other characters don’t ponder at all or quickly dismiss. There is also one very racist character, one we meet right away in chapter one, but sorry if that is spoiler, he is also not only called out on his racism but also almost immediately killed (pretty much the only character in the book to die, though towards the end “off camera” a few deaths are mentioned from Visitor-related social disruptions).
The book also marks a time when people were still struggling with saying or writing Native American instead of Indian (with the author firmly coming down on the side of saying Native American, though depicting many who still refused or were at least not used to it). There is some minor Cold War elements and references to the Soviet Union but they do not form a huge plot element.
It is not a book packed with action though it is not I think slow-paced either. It is definitely not a shoot ‘em up alien invasion story. There are few plot threads that either went nowhere (like one about testing weapons on the Visitors) or were unresolved (spoiler to mention). I liked it, definitely has a different feel than what science fiction written in the 21st century has.
January 2, 2013
I've only read two books by Clifford Simak, this one and Special Deliverance. Either he is a remarkably mediocre author, or I've simply read the two worst books in his bibliography. Whereas Special Deliverance is at times amusing, The Visitors struggles to find any redeeming value at all. Which is sad, because on the surface it has all the ingredients of a great story. Alien invasion. Political intrigue. Romance. Small-town politics. International politics. Race relations. Class warfare. Religion. Fishing. How can anyone take all of that and making something boring? Somehow, Simak manages to do it.
The basic premise is wonderful. What would happen if aliens landed, but they were so alien from us that communication was impossible? The answer, sadly, seems to be "Not much." They eat some trees. Someone shoots at one, and gets blasted to atoms. They poop out some cars. A newspaper story gets edited, then printed. Credits roll, curtain drops. This entire story could be told in a few pages.
The characters are all so flat and lifeless they may as well be interchangeable. By the dialogue you cannot tell one from another. Except for "Stiffy" who is the wacky town drunk, so most of his dialogue concerns alcohol. And the people described as living in a "ghetto." They say "them" instead of "those." Such a keen insight into regional dialogue, has our Cliff Simak.
And the dialogue itself! One comes away with the idea that Simak has never actually had a conversation, but only heard legends about them. I could almost believe he was writing a parody of bad writing. Case in point: "For." Yes, the word "for" can be used in place of the word "because" in certain situations. "Which situations?" you might as? When singing "For he's a jolly good fellow." Use it any other time, and you sound like you're putting on airs. I mentioned in a previous status update that he sounded like a gym coach who dreamed of being a playwright. I'm not trying to insult his intelligence (or that of the average gym coach) but there's an important lesson to be learned here: The thesaurus should be an acquaintance, not a best friend.
Finally, the Native American angle. This had so much promise! It's set up perfectly in the first few chapters. Aliens come to Earth and "settle" it the way Europeans came to the "New" World. Treat all of humanity the same way the white man treated Native Americans. The parallels are perfect. I had such hopes for this plotline. Apart from one or two mentions in-text, nothing. There are a few occurrences that you can draw your own parallels from, but basically Simak just lets the whole idea trickle right down his leg. And it was such a perfect set-up that I had to assume this was the original idea behind the story in the first place. Had to.
From his Goodreads Profile page (apparently lifted from Wikipedia) "He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." How does that even work? I'm assuming that the list of potential Grandmasters for 1977 was abnormally short? I look further down the profile at his bibliography, and almost everything he's written averages about four stars and some better than that. Even this book gets nearly three and a half. This is quite possibly the worst book I've not given up on. And I kinda wish I had.
As I said once before, Could I have done better? No. Absolutely not. Does that make this good? Again, no. Absolutely not. I think I can safely say that this is the last Simak book I will ever read.
The basic premise is wonderful. What would happen if aliens landed, but they were so alien from us that communication was impossible? The answer, sadly, seems to be "Not much." They eat some trees. Someone shoots at one, and gets blasted to atoms. They poop out some cars. A newspaper story gets edited, then printed. Credits roll, curtain drops. This entire story could be told in a few pages.
The characters are all so flat and lifeless they may as well be interchangeable. By the dialogue you cannot tell one from another. Except for "Stiffy" who is the wacky town drunk, so most of his dialogue concerns alcohol. And the people described as living in a "ghetto." They say "them" instead of "those." Such a keen insight into regional dialogue, has our Cliff Simak.
And the dialogue itself! One comes away with the idea that Simak has never actually had a conversation, but only heard legends about them. I could almost believe he was writing a parody of bad writing. Case in point: "For." Yes, the word "for" can be used in place of the word "because" in certain situations. "Which situations?" you might as? When singing "For he's a jolly good fellow." Use it any other time, and you sound like you're putting on airs. I mentioned in a previous status update that he sounded like a gym coach who dreamed of being a playwright. I'm not trying to insult his intelligence (or that of the average gym coach) but there's an important lesson to be learned here: The thesaurus should be an acquaintance, not a best friend.
Finally, the Native American angle. This had so much promise! It's set up perfectly in the first few chapters. Aliens come to Earth and "settle" it the way Europeans came to the "New" World. Treat all of humanity the same way the white man treated Native Americans. The parallels are perfect. I had such hopes for this plotline. Apart from one or two mentions in-text, nothing. There are a few occurrences that you can draw your own parallels from, but basically Simak just lets the whole idea trickle right down his leg. And it was such a perfect set-up that I had to assume this was the original idea behind the story in the first place. Had to.
From his Goodreads Profile page (apparently lifted from Wikipedia) "He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." How does that even work? I'm assuming that the list of potential Grandmasters for 1977 was abnormally short? I look further down the profile at his bibliography, and almost everything he's written averages about four stars and some better than that. Even this book gets nearly three and a half. This is quite possibly the worst book I've not given up on. And I kinda wish I had.
As I said once before, Could I have done better? No. Absolutely not. Does that make this good? Again, no. Absolutely not. I think I can safely say that this is the last Simak book I will ever read.
November 30, 2023
I absolutely loved this book and read it in 4 days, it's not your usual cliche alien visitation plot, this is clever and keeps you in suspense. I thought it was cleverly written and most importantly it's innovative for the genre, Simak is a superb science fiction writer in my opinion and has a knack of drawing you into the small off the beaten track logging community in which the story is centred around when their usual daily lives are all of a sudden thrown up in the air with the arrival of the visitors. This book is a treasure on my shelf and I urge you to seek out this superb novel by Simak you won't be disappointed.👌
May 1, 2015
This was the first Clifford D. Simak book i had read and found the story quite intriguing. i dearly love these old sci-fi tales!!
January 13, 2020
In the late 70s and early 80s, I was reading through the backlog of Clifford Simak novels.
June 28, 2025
I loved this gentle invasion. It made me think of the series 'V' or Roddenberry's lesser known 'Earth: Final Conflict' both of which had their aliens as wolves in sheep's clothing (almost literally.) The aliens in this story are nothing at all like that, but the humans constantly go about creating scenarios which seemed just like that.
In fact, the visiting aliens undertake about a half dozen specific activities but otherwise seem to have nothing direct to say to the native Earthlings. They inspect a small variety of the native fauna, they develop a taste for trees, they begin planting replacement trees, then they seem to start spitting out nifty gifts for humanity.
Meanwhile, humans who feel their relevancy being threatened, gad about discussing the arrival of the end times. The end of the times they've known anyway. They organise weapons tests against the perceived threat and they decry the alien gifts as the tools that will dismantle the future of the economy.
All classic dumb-human stuff, with a genuinely fascinating alien presence at the centre of it.
In fact, the visiting aliens undertake about a half dozen specific activities but otherwise seem to have nothing direct to say to the native Earthlings. They inspect a small variety of the native fauna, they develop a taste for trees, they begin planting replacement trees, then they seem to start spitting out nifty gifts for humanity.
Meanwhile, humans who feel their relevancy being threatened, gad about discussing the arrival of the end times. The end of the times they've known anyway. They organise weapons tests against the perceived threat and they decry the alien gifts as the tools that will dismantle the future of the economy.
All classic dumb-human stuff, with a genuinely fascinating alien presence at the centre of it.
November 27, 2014
This is a very interesting book. If is typical Simak in that most of the action takes place in the rural United States. A sleepy town finds a large black object settling down just outside town. It then goes on to eat trees and excretes cellulose. It then buds and gives birth to miniature versions of itself that eat the cellulose and that's pretty much all we get to know about the visitors.
The story is about how the humans interact and react to them. What effects they have on people. What the government does or doesn't do to deal with them. Its a really well put together story and very enjoyable. I can't find any fault in it, except perhaps that I wanted more.
In some ways this reminded me of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. The aliens/artifact is the main cause of the story yet its not really about them but about the effect they have. I loved this book.
The story is about how the humans interact and react to them. What effects they have on people. What the government does or doesn't do to deal with them. Its a really well put together story and very enjoyable. I can't find any fault in it, except perhaps that I wanted more.
In some ways this reminded me of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. The aliens/artifact is the main cause of the story yet its not really about them but about the effect they have. I loved this book.
December 14, 2010
Books and movies about alien visitation fall into one of two categories: the "E.T." variety or the "Independence Day" variety. The alien or aliens are ALWAYS either hostile or benign; there's never any middle ground....except in "The Visitors." If you're tired of looking at extraterrestrials as either vicious conquerors or innocent children, then this is the book for you. While the "aliens" in this book are truly alien, their motives, when revealed, are totally understandable. The book may be a bit dry and slow in spots, but the climax of the story is thought-provoking, its theme is relatable and the final reveal is a whammer.
May 13, 2012
Though not of the caliber of "Way Station" and the fix-up/collection "City" it has all the elements of the best of his early works. A awesome premise (though reminiscent of two A.C. Clarke novels "2001" and "Childhood Ends")a large, strange and mysterious floating monoliths appear over the mid-western United States. They consume huge amounts of cellulose and produce something that can be utilized as vehicles and after that houses. Some of the lead character are involved with the newspaper assigned to report on the phenomenon -Simak himself was once a news reporter.
It gets a little absurd as it moves along but somehow because of Simak's friendly writing style, still enjoyable.
It gets a little absurd as it moves along but somehow because of Simak's friendly writing style, still enjoyable.
August 15, 2023
Come for the alien invasion, stay for the politics.
This is an entertaining fable about the coming of a strange alien race interwoven with the response from the government and media.
A fun piece of science fiction from a master.
This is an entertaining fable about the coming of a strange alien race interwoven with the response from the government and media.
A fun piece of science fiction from a master.
January 2, 2017
Plodding pace and the ending was not satisfying.
November 17, 2023
A first contact novel. As usual with Simak’s work there are a lot of ideas to unpack and ponder.
April 18, 2021
"I Visitatori" pone in ballo molte questioni su di una possibile invasione aliena, questioni anche meno pratiche e comuni. Nonostante questo interessante lato e una descrizione superba di questi particolari UFO, il romanzo, però, non decolla mai. Sicuramente uno dei problemi principali sono i personaggi, che si suddividono tra giornalisti e politici, che non spiccano per interesse e non vengono mai approfonditi introspettivamente. Un finale quasi inesistente lascia definitivamente l'amaro in bocca. Consigliato solo agli appassionati dell'autore.
August 19, 2025
Slow, old fashioned but thought provoking.
January 23, 2025
The story felt quite incomplete, with numerous ideas not fleshed out. Could've easily been a short story.
September 14, 2018
Clifford Simak strikes me as possibly the most original of all science fiction writers. I do not mean the best — by no means! — but he certainly possessed a unique mind. There is something quirky about the concepts upon which he builds his stories.
This novel is very different from the previous Simak novels I have read or tried to read. There is very little description, here. It is mostly dialogue. And Simak juggles multiple characters — and unlike in previous stories by this author, there is no attempt to flesh these characters out into fully rounded heroes, villains, etc. Indeed, this is, essentially, written in standard pop novel fashion, the kind of which bestsellers are crafted. Like them, it is not only plot-driven but also stylistically unimportant and unmemorable, displaying the No Style style.
So this is very much an idea-heavy sf novel. A thriller of ideas. What stands out is that it is a most unusual First Contact/Alien Invasion story. The first alien entity appears on page six. What follows is a somewhat leisurely paced (but still quite intriguing) series of puzzling revelations that emphasize the sheer alien character of the . . . black monoliths from outer space.
Yes. Black monoliths.
But, unlike in 2001: A Space Odyssey, these monoliths present themselves horizontally.*
And then, very near the end, on page 224, the story takes a startling and rather puzzling turn. We seem to have lurched into a comedy of ideas. And, at the very end, it is almost as if we had landed in Fredric Brown territory, a shaggy dog of a story. A Surprise.
I closed the book not at all nonplussed, however. Definitely not annoyed: amused. Yes, I had been amused. Though I can imagine others finding cause for a very different reaction.
Had it been written more in the more finely crafted literary style of the other Simak novels I had read — Time Is the Simplest Thing and A Choice of Gods— the book it might most resemble could perhaps best be said to be Damon Knight’s Why Do Birds? But Knight’s novel is far more of a koan. This is something more of a trick.
So, I guess I judge it a deeply flawed piece of work. But still, a more comprehensible storyline than others I have encountered, so far, from this writer. Nevertheless, I think it serves as a breath of fresh air within the space it inhabits in the genre. You know, the First Contact realm. On its ideas alone it provides a memorable encounter with the Alien.
———
* Martin Hoffman’s cover art to the Ballantine #28387 paperback (Del Rey imprint) edition ably depicts the book’s description of The Visitors.
This novel is very different from the previous Simak novels I have read or tried to read. There is very little description, here. It is mostly dialogue. And Simak juggles multiple characters — and unlike in previous stories by this author, there is no attempt to flesh these characters out into fully rounded heroes, villains, etc. Indeed, this is, essentially, written in standard pop novel fashion, the kind of which bestsellers are crafted. Like them, it is not only plot-driven but also stylistically unimportant and unmemorable, displaying the No Style style.
So this is very much an idea-heavy sf novel. A thriller of ideas. What stands out is that it is a most unusual First Contact/Alien Invasion story. The first alien entity appears on page six. What follows is a somewhat leisurely paced (but still quite intriguing) series of puzzling revelations that emphasize the sheer alien character of the . . . black monoliths from outer space.
Yes. Black monoliths.
But, unlike in 2001: A Space Odyssey, these monoliths present themselves horizontally.*
And then, very near the end, on page 224, the story takes a startling and rather puzzling turn. We seem to have lurched into a comedy of ideas. And, at the very end, it is almost as if we had landed in Fredric Brown territory, a shaggy dog of a story. A Surprise.
I closed the book not at all nonplussed, however. Definitely not annoyed: amused. Yes, I had been amused. Though I can imagine others finding cause for a very different reaction.
Had it been written more in the more finely crafted literary style of the other Simak novels I had read — Time Is the Simplest Thing and A Choice of Gods— the book it might most resemble could perhaps best be said to be Damon Knight’s Why Do Birds? But Knight’s novel is far more of a koan. This is something more of a trick.
So, I guess I judge it a deeply flawed piece of work. But still, a more comprehensible storyline than others I have encountered, so far, from this writer. Nevertheless, I think it serves as a breath of fresh air within the space it inhabits in the genre. You know, the First Contact realm. On its ideas alone it provides a memorable encounter with the Alien.
———
* Martin Hoffman’s cover art to the Ballantine #28387 paperback (Del Rey imprint) edition ably depicts the book’s description of The Visitors.
May 5, 2016
Having just recently been introduced to the works of this "Golden Age of SF" author, I am beginning to detect a pattern. What often "makes" an SF book is the creativity of the basic SF-type idea that drives the plot. In "The Visitors" and "Way Station", the basic ideas are very creative. In this case, we have a very different take on the first encounter between humanity and an alien race, both in how the encounter develops and its consequences.
Another feature of both books it that the plot moves along rather slowly for most of the book, and finishes with a bang. In "Way Station", that wasn't a problem since the side-themes were all very interesting. In "The Visitors", not so much. Government secrecy as well as the responsibilities of a free press are both certainly as relevant today as they were when the book was written in 1980, but they had already been done to death even back then.
Accordingly, I give this book five stars for the main theme, and two stars for its slow pace and side themes, averaging out to something between 3.5 and 4.
Another feature of both books it that the plot moves along rather slowly for most of the book, and finishes with a bang. In "Way Station", that wasn't a problem since the side-themes were all very interesting. In "The Visitors", not so much. Government secrecy as well as the responsibilities of a free press are both certainly as relevant today as they were when the book was written in 1980, but they had already been done to death even back then.
Accordingly, I give this book five stars for the main theme, and two stars for its slow pace and side themes, averaging out to something between 3.5 and 4.
June 7, 2020
One of my split reviews — 1 for dialogue, 4.5 for the story.
The story: mysterious indestructible oblongs land on Earth, eat forests and pop out baby oblongs. Are they friendly? What do they want? How do we react? We get to see the newspapers (as a former reporter, though from a couple of decades later, I think Simak nailed it), the politicians and the military. At the end, everyone has to deal with the certainty that the aliens, without meaning to, will change everything
The dialogue: it's not so much that it's expository but it's a very flat, matter-of-fact discussion of what's happening. Nobody's ever emotional. Nobody ever reacts, they just talk through everything calmly. It's very unconvincing.
The occasional riots and the suggestion maybe capitalism is a blind alley seem oddly relevant to 2020.
The story: mysterious indestructible oblongs land on Earth, eat forests and pop out baby oblongs. Are they friendly? What do they want? How do we react? We get to see the newspapers (as a former reporter, though from a couple of decades later, I think Simak nailed it), the politicians and the military. At the end, everyone has to deal with the certainty that the aliens, without meaning to, will change everything
The dialogue: it's not so much that it's expository but it's a very flat, matter-of-fact discussion of what's happening. Nobody's ever emotional. Nobody ever reacts, they just talk through everything calmly. It's very unconvincing.
The occasional riots and the suggestion maybe capitalism is a blind alley seem oddly relevant to 2020.
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