La croisade de l'idiot

by Clifford D. Simak, Élisabeth Gille (Translator)

Quand on s'embarque pour une expédition interstellaire sur un astronef-robot, omniscient et tout-puissant, il est déconseillé de le traiter en personne humaine et de lui appliquer le diminutif trop féminin de « Lulu ». Sait-on jamais quelles illusions romantiques, quelles nostalgies sentimentales peuvent rôder sous la carapace métallique d'un robot qui a trop lu de romans d'amour ?n

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 1987

About the author

"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...

Reviews

[Cheryl A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note that different editions have different content.
My (university) library copy has no jacket, but otherwise resembles perfectly the edition to which I attach this review, with the full dozen stories. Yay, because I do love me some Simak.

"Dusty Zebra" Silly funny. Of course the dust had to go somewhere. And what, indeed, is the Trader doing with millions of zebra charms?
"Honorable Opponent" Well if it's not dust disappearing, it's whole ships, right? Humans have a lot to learn about battle tactics.... More wry than funny.
"Carbon Copy" Simak didn't share with Brunner the fear that Earth was becoming overpopulated. I wonder what Brunner would have thought of 'Mister Steen's` solution. A little awkwardness in the telling, though.
"Founding Father" Oh no - one father for a thousand incubators?! And he's lost himself in his entertainment immersion? Those poor babies....
"Idiot's Crusade" Literal title. Village idiot is given a paranormal power and quickly learns how to use it to do Big Good. Spend a moment thinking about the What If that continues after the last paragraph....
"The Big Front Yard" One of the most widely anthologized that uses three of Simak's tropes: the portal, the dim-witted hired hand who turns out to be able to communicate with those beings on the other side of the portal, and the reactions of the citizens of the small town to the revelation that ETs are real.
"Operation Stinky" What do you call a skunk that purrs? An alien, of course! In this case the everyman who befriends it is not simple-minded, though, but a drunk. Hm... until this volume I hadn't realized just how often Simak uses certain ideas... this collection may not be the best intro. to his work for new readers.
"Jackpot" For some reason I really liked this story of a ragtag bunch of explorers, even before they analyzed their consciences.
"Death Scene" Before Denton Little's Deathdate and They Both Die at the End there was this very brief, very adult take on the motif. Ironic, in a genre often pejoratively accused of being 'juvenile.' Lovely.
"Green Thumb" Poignant. What is even more basic than diagrams and math, when establishing communication with an alien? Kindliness, courage, brotherhood....
"Lulu" Silly funny. Even more loaded with slang (now stale) than the others.
"Neighbor" Is it a Utopia or a Dystopia? Did this pastoral inspire the classic Twilight Zone episode that I cannot specify because of spoilers? It does serve well as coda.

Well, as a whole, I'm glad I could find and read this. But it's not the best representation of the author's works by a long shot. See what you can find on librivox or gutenberg or elsewhere before trying to track this down.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the second collection of Simak's short fiction and appeared in 1960. (The first was Strangers in the Universe from 1956.) Death Scene, the shortest story included, appeared in Larry Shaw's Infinity Science Fiction magazine, and The Big Front Yard and Neighbor were both from John Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, and the other nine were all from the H.L. Gold edited Galaxy Magazine. The Big Front Yard is a classic; it showcases Simak's trademark Midwestern pastoralism and middle-class, comfortable and optimistic values, as does Neighbor, Carbon Copy, the hilarious Dusty Zebra, and Green Thumb. Founding Father and Death Scene are short, sharp counterpoints to these, and Operation Stinky, Jackpot, and Lulu are more straight forward interstellar exploration tales. Simak's characters lacked diversity for the most part, but he told warm and amusing stories that featured clever rather than hardware-inspired solutions, told with humor and tolerance rather than dogmatic pronouncement. I enjoyed the whole dozen.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simak always gives me a folksy sort of feel, as if a bit of human decency and some good common-sense can solve most of his problems. Except that really doesn't do justice to his story-telling or his awareness that sometimes human decency is in short supply. In this collection, a Yankee trader discovers "The Big Front Yard" is a gateway for alien commerce, the lovesick spaceship "Lulu" carries off her crew, conniving space pirates try to find a "Jackpot" plus several more.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simak was a SF Grandmaster and contemporary of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. Unfortunately, he never gained the acclaim those authors did. His stories--and my favorites are "The Big Front Yard", "Neighbor" and "Lulu"--are mostly set in small towns or the country. Very few women are in these stories or in any of his writing, and then as ancillary characters. There is certainly no romance! But the stories are timeless and thoughtful. And "Lulu" is pretty funny!

[Jim Mcclanahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nice collection of Clifford Simak's tales, many imbued with his trademark mid-western flavor. Includes "The Big Front Yard", one of his most intriguing stories. But all twelve are worthwhile.

[Mateo Tomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having not heard of this author or read his stuff before or heard of "pastoral sci fi", I had no idea what to expect. I was listening to a podcast on UFOs and one of the guest brought up Simack and I made a note.

Imaginative, funny, and fantasticly practicle. Ideas just oozed out .Each story pulls you in with its verisimilitude, even an off planet story . Hopeful as well as entertaining. No death of the planet, nightmare dystopia set up to any of them which feels like all science fiction since 1980.

I will for sure look into aome of his longer stand alone works.

[Ryan Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big 'thank you' to Dave from Storyphoria for sending me this.

I can't help but fall for Simak and his 'aw shucks' approach to science fiction. He's definitely a student of the Ray Bradbury school of speculative writing (if one has ever commented about the others work, I would love to read it) where spaceships fly on the power of apple pie instead of actual science. This is going to turn a ton of people off immediately. For some, I imagine this collection will be like pulling teeth. And to be fair, that charm doesn't carry all of the stories inside without buckling under the weight. But it was still enjoyable.

Simak definitely likes to take his time. This year I'm reading an exorbitant amount of modern SF short fiction and it's wild to see how much space he had to just stretch out. Granted, that was the way it was back then and when it's your own collection and not a magazine, it's your party and you get to make the rules. I wish more of these stories were quicker, and got to the point faster. Simak paints a pastoral picture like NOBODY else, but it's not like he's got the most amazing gift of language that can keep me entertained talking about various sheds and their quality of paint. His gift is understanding people. Regular, honest people.

The two longest stories, The Big Front Yard and Operation Stinky were two of my least favorite, which put kind of a lid on my enjoyment and killed the flow (kind of why I put it down for so long). But Honorable Opponent, Founding Father, Jackpot, and Lulu were tremendous. Green Thumb got a little too preachy for me but I greatly enjoy the sentiment. And Death Scene and Carbon Copy, while fairly surface level, are quality.

Lulu is really excellent. Worth singling out. I think it has the juice to get a SF comedy movie adaptation.

I'm a sucker for Simak so I may have graded a bit more favorably.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether it be through humorous “first contact” stories, an AI powers space-ship that falls in love, or even facing a reality where we can all see 24 hours into the future, Simak has a way of crafting his stories with a feeling of classic science fiction laced with humor and coziness that is a joy to read.

The biggest compliment I can give this book is that it’s a PERFECT entry for people that want to ease into science fiction but are worried they’ll feel overwhelmed or otherwise intimidated by some of the more traditional "HARD" sci-fi others may put in their hands.

It IS classic sci-fi, written in the late 50’s, so it DOES feel a tad dated at times. However, by and large, this collection holds up. But whether you are new to sci-fi as a genre you want to explore or you are an experienced sci-fi reader wanting a change of pace, I highly recommend you check out this collection.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

These twelve short stories are a good way to get to know Clifford Simak.

[Timothy]

12 stories:

(2/12 read)

**** Dusty Zebra (1954)
Honorable Opponent (1956)
Carbon Copy (1957)
Founding Father (1957)
Idiot's Crusade (1954)
The Big Front Yard (1958)
Operation Stinky (1957)
Jackpot (1956)
*** Death Scene (1957)
Green Thumb (1960)
Lulu (1957)
Neighbor (1960)