Project Mastodon

by Clifford D. Simak

Going back 50,000 years in time, opportunists found "Mastodonia" to make millions selling access to their country and its resources. Can anything go wrong?..

Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, March 1955 (see first edition).

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Time Travel, Audiobook

56 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1955

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

[Kevin Kuhn]

This is a typical 1955 sci-fi novella. Simak is like comfort food for me. It’s not exotic or spicy, but it’s cozy and satisfying. With reality being so Orwellian and dystopian these days, I find I don’t need as much intricacy, cynicism, or gloom in my sci-fi which seems to be popular lately. "Project Mastodon" has a touch of humor, a unique twist on the implications of time travel, and it’s sturdily written. Bottom line, I enjoyed it.

[Bradley]

This old time-travel novella was quite cute. Definitely bare-bones, but it was light and breezy as a temperate day fifty-thousand-years ago.

Let's offer a foolproof bomb-shelter to the US government, shall we? We can just spirit away the president to the past! :) Don't believe us? Maybe 25 years from now, a new regime will believe. :)

What can I say? It was cute and almost poetical. It was definitely well written. :)

And it was also the kick-off to a full novel written almost 30 years later.

On to see the sabertooths and mastdodons! :)

[Cheryl]

Lots of fun. This librivox recording is about 1.5 hrs, iirc. (I listened to it on a rural road trip w/out internet access but w/ plenty of road noise.) I would have liked more development, as it does just end, but it's worth reading or listening to, anyway. I am already a big fan of Simak, and now I am a fan of this narrator, too.

[Manuel Alfonseca]

ENGLISH: A short science-fiction story (about 40 pages), previously published in Galaxy magazine, with a simple story about time travel and its consequences for world politics (in a cold-war environment) plus the consequences for the travellers themselves when their time machine stops working and they get marooned in the past.

ESPAÑOL: Una breve historia de ciencia ficción (unas 40 páginas), publicada anteriormente en la revista Galaxy, con un relato sencillo sobre los viajes en el tiempo y sus consecuencias para la política mundial (en un entorno de guerra fría), además de las consecuencias para los propios viajeros cuando su máquina del tiempo deja de funcionar y quedan abandonados en el pasado.

[Lyn]

Project Mastodon was first published by Clifford Simak in 1955 and would later be the impetus for his 1978 novel Mastodonia. Like most of Simak’s works, this displays an inventive approach to a science fiction study, in this case time travel. Three associates have devised a way to go back in time and Simak describes a unique problem with the scheme. Vaguely reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s classic 1952 short story “The Sound of Thunder” Project Mastodon is an easy but enjoyable science fiction short story and a good introduction to Simak’s journalistic but expansive prose.

[Oliver Pike]

A novelette with a good concept but so-so realization. It has more the feel of a sketch than a full work—an idea posing as a story. The prose and characterizations are both a bit lacking. An okay little read but it makes one wish for more. It's a take-it-or-leave-it story, no recommendation one way or another.

[James Morpurgo]

Project Mastodon is a decent time travel novella and is my first experience with some Simak.

The sci-fi trope of colonising and exploiting resources in time rather than space is one that I enjoy, from reading the 2000AD comic story 'Flesh' or watching the TV series 'Tera Nova'. Not sure if Project Mastodon is the first to explore this concept but it certainly does a good job at examining the themes around this.

I will hopefully get round to some longer form fiction by Simak in the near future...

[Ralph McEwen]

I enjoyed listening to the story. It is a fun tale, with no violence and interesting characters. The narrator is easy to listen to and the recording is clear, with plenty of volume.

[DJ]

This was a fun time-travel novella (maybe even a novelette?) that struck me as a combination of Jurassic Park and Primer: creatures from two eras collide + time machine invented, basically, in some dude's garage.

As it is, the story focuses far more on how people would react to the advent of the technology rather than the possibility of the technology itself.

Short, to the point, and quite amusing!

[William]

Entertaining fantasy listening 🎶🔰

A will written interesting short story by Clifford D. Simak about travel into the past where the Madison and the saber tooth tiger live. An accident prevent their return to the present day until it works one day. Now it has been five years since their friend left. I would recommend this novella to readers of fantasy Sci-Fi adventure novels. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶to Alexa as I do. 🏡🔰😕🗽2022

[charles whitcomb]

3.5

Time travel is fun but this needs a lot more adventure. Disbelieving bureaucrats do not make exciting reading. The setting could use more description after all your in the Pleistocene.

[Janet R. Lincoln]

Great story-telling!

Loved the premise and the execution. This started a little slowly but time travel is a great interest and this author painted it well.

[Vincent]

Fairly standard Golden Age time travel story

[Andy Hickman]

Project Mastodon, by Clifford D. Simak
Original premise on a well-used time-travel theme, but not one of Simak’s best. 3 stars.

[Lirio Dendron]

Okay, this is old, and rather typical for this age: A little confuse, short, with to many ideas at once.

[Craig Russo]

Another very good story by Clifford D. Simak.

[Harvey Dias]

A good story about time travelling to the ice age for natural resources and fame.

[Dan]

Brilliantly creative

This work is truly brilliant in It's drilling down to a focus on the powerful value of hope and purpose in the human life.

[Alian]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Forked Radish]

A shaggy mastodon story.

[Hadron Haizlip Beers]

Audiobook

I’m not sure how to feel about this book because there really is no plot. There’s nothing to get to. It’s short, so no regrets, just confusion

[Jim]

I enjoyed reading this time travel story

[Marcus Shaner]

To short! Dangit Clifford!

[Adam Smith]

A strange man approaches the US government claiming to be from the newly formed nation of Mastodonia. Nobody takes him serious, but it is not until after he leaves that they discover the truth about this fledgling nation. Mastodonia, population of three, is really a land 50,000 years in the past.

This was an interesting story. It had just the right level of humour and I’d love to see more of it. I’ve heard another book, Mastodonia, by this author is a longer retelling, but largely unrelated. Still I might just check it out when I have the chance.

Read as part of The Time Travel Megapack: 26 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Stories.

[Aditya Rallan]

Project Mastodon is one of those science fiction stories that have a solid scientific idea as their core, and a thin, but not necessarily uninteresting plot to cover it with. There are two definitely novel concepts here. One, how do you travel in time and yet make sure that the machine does not end up in a solid tree trunk or within a wall, and the political implications of time travel. I wish Simak had written a more voluminous book, because concepts apart, it is an engaging adventure story. Simak is not superfluous, so the story is a far better read than some of the shallow works by Burroughs, such as the Land that Time Forgot. Before you get bogged down by concepts, Simak rekindles your interest by bringing in a handful of American men isolated in time, with nothing but a few guns and a chainsaw as tools, and surrounded by hostile Mastodons and Sabertooths.

[Patrick Gibson]

Short novella from the classic Sci-Fi era of the 50's. Time travelers return from the age of Mastodons to the present and claim their discovery as their own county. Washington politicians of course think they are nuts. The time travelers return to the past and get stuck there while the politicians change their minds; both sides spend years trying to find each other. Sound silly? It's actually not. It's a clever little treatise on the sovereignty of nations -- and, of course, the dangers and drawbacks of time trave.

[Jeff Koeppen]

The novella upon which Mastodonia is based. Simak has always been one of my favorites, with his unique pastoral sci-fi tales. Like some of his other stories, this one was set where he grew up: in SE Wisconsin, in the area the glaciers missed. I'll have to pick up Mastodonia as this book had a neat premise but left me wanting more. Read the iBooks version.

[Benjamin Chandler]

A solid little time travel story that considers a few challenges that might arise from traveling into the ice age, from glacier positioning to erosion to the typical encounters with the fauna, as well as guessing how a modern, capitalist and military-strong society might want to use such a device. A pleasant surprise.

[Saya]

Lectura fácil, rápida y que engancha. A medida que iba leyendo me iban surgiendo dudas que a su vez iban siendo respondidas con un ritmo muy bueno. Eso sí, me he quedado con ganas de más. Creo que tras esta historia escribió una novela sobre Mastodonia; tendré que buscarla. A ver cómo soluciona ciertas paradojas temporales... Muy recomendable.

[Lauren]

Quite decent to read while falling asleep or sick, which is an important category of book in my life! This turned out to be either a long short story or a short novella. Sturdy if undistinguished SF, good for downtime reading.