Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

Are there any recent discussions of the books of Clifford Simak?

"Way Station" is one of his best, IMO.

not yet!

but i think he's brilliant. my most recent Simak was City. love that one!

My little Yorkie, picture next to this posting, absolutely loved sitting around the campfire listing to the stories found in the book "City by Clifford Simak".

dogs should love that book!

One of my favorite sf authors. Way Station and City are considered his masterpieces but I have a soft spot for The Goblin Reservation and All Flesh Is Grass.

The Goblin Reservation is my favorite as well.

"Strangers In the Universe" is a favorite.

Just finished reading my interlibrary loan A Heritage of Stars by the amazing Clifford D. Simak. How I managed to make the half-century mark without being exposed to this author, I can't imagine.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Dennis wrote: "One of my favorite sf authors. Way Station and City are considered his masterpieces but I have a soft spot for The Goblin Reservation and [book:All Flesh I..."

Loved All Flesh is Grass! Wonder if Stephen King read it before he wrote The Dome?

I was in a used bookstore in Mishawaka , Indiana and found 2 books,

The Visitors and Our Children's Children.

In addition to "Way Station", "Mastadonia" was always one of my favorite Simaks.

I just read A Choice of Gods--loved it. It's earned a place in my "read this again" shelf. Here's the review -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Happy Birthday, Cliff!

1904 Born: Clifford Donald Simak, renowned American science fiction and fantasy writer honored with three Hugo Awards and with one Nebula Award.

May I also suggest Simak's "Mastadonia"? A great time-travel story set in a wonderfully rural environment.

I don't think I have ever read anything by Simak that I didn't love. Goblin Reservation is one of my favourites that I have re-read a few times. I am actually quite excited to have got my hands on a copy of The Werewolf Principle.

I remember loving it when I first read it.

Just finished re-reading and it had been years since I read it! I reviewed it here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But although in the beginning I kept thinking "Midwich Cuckoos" it is fascinating how very divergent the two stories are, aside from one being so very American and the other so very English.

Ring Around the Sun is another absolutely terrific book by Clifford D. Simak that never seems to get any attention. The story involves parallel worlds interacting with the Earth. This was the first Simak book I read and was for a long time, until I read City, my favorite of his books. The book has a great feel for what life was like in America in the early 1950s.

David, I am going to read that one! thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Thanks, Mark. I hope you like it! I originally came across the title because it was on David Pringle's list of 100 best science fiction novels (https://www.worldswithoutend.com/list...).

Sort of like City and Way Station, the book is quite pastoral and philosophical. Reading through the reviews here on Goodreads, a lot of people appreciate that approach, but there are a lot that don't as well.

I thought City was wonderful. I remember enjoying Way Station as a kid and should re-read that one soon.

Even after nearly forty years of reading Simak's work just the thought of some of his story lines still weaves a certain "spell" for me that is un-matched. (And, I haven't quite read everything by this grand master.) Simak is the epitome of "Golden Age" science fiction and fantasy. "Destiny Doll", "Enchanted Pilgrimage" and (one of his early collections) "Strangers In The Universe" come to mind.

It's terrific to see some renewed interest in this neglected author here on GR. I hope we can keep this dialogue going.

Enchanted Pilgrimage was my first Simak and I was pretty hooked. City and Goblin Reservation were standby re-reads for years. Now, I am trying to get back into them.

Deborah wrote: "Enchanted Pilgrimage was my first Simak and I was pretty hooked. City and Goblin Reservation were standby re-reads for years. Now, I am trying to get back into them."

Deborah,
I can't recommend "Way Station" more strongly.

Dennis wrote: "One of my favorite sf authors. Way Station and City are considered his masterpieces but I have a soft spot for The Goblin Reservation and [book:All Flesh I..."

Thank you. I read Goblin Reservation many many years ago but could not remember the name until you posted it. Now if I could recall the name of a book by A.E. van Vogt that I read about the same time.

Way stations you say? Looks like I do not have that one. Next book fair I will try to acquire it.

Yes, 'Way Station' 'City' 'All flesh is grass' all very good.

Didn't Simak a series of stories with the premise that mankind had left for somewhere, save for one old man, and the world was now inhabited by intelligent dogs?

Bill, that sounds like City.

Oops, John not Bill.

C. John wrote: "Didn't Simak a series of stories with the premise that mankind had left for somewhere, save for one old man, and the world was now inhabited by intelligent dogs?"

You're thinking of City, and it is an amazingly great book. The old man you mention is actually an android named Jenkins.

I read about them in Alva Rogers' Requiem for Astounding but couldn't recall all the details. Thanks guys. Wonder if Chapters has it available.

I loved "City" it is still there on a bookshelf and gets re-read every few years.

Is Simak's The Werewolf Principle a werewolf story?

Dan wrote: "Is Simak's The Werewolf Principle a werewolf story?"

Certainly not a traditional warewolf story.

It's great to see some renewed interest in this wonderful author. It always seems(to me, at least!) that when the "foundations" (no pun intended) of modern science fiction are discussed the conversation seems to revolve around authors such as Bradbury (whose work I love dearly), Asimov, Heinlein and countless others..... but Simak gets lost in the shuffle somehow.
Let's keep the interest in his work alive.

I really like Clifford Simak. I don't know how I hadn't heard of this author until recently. He's wonderful.

I agree Robert, a really underrated author these days and it is kind of hard to see why. In a lot of ways his work has actually aged better than much of Asimov or Heinlein, his attitudes were decidedly more egalitarian than most authors of his era and his concepts are often unique.

Incidentally, Dan - I write reviews for most books I read or re-read these days and mine for The werewolf principle is here;
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and it may give you a better answer to your question of whether it is a werewolf story. Incidentally, this is not self advertising in any way. I don't review professionally only for recreation.

There are a number of writers from the Golden Age and later who at one time were quite popular but seem to have faded somewhat these days. Heinlein and Asimov still get the coverage because so much of what they did was influential on later authors. As well I swear at times there was a whole cottage industry of academic studies of those two, especially Heinlein.

I wonder if Simak's use of "robots" (as we used to call them) or synthetic humans that had the best of human nature installed into their circuitry often was viewed as somewhat "cliche" by today's modern science fiction readers. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas was ingesting a great deal of writers like Simak during the formative years of his magnum opus. (although some might consider SW lacking in credibilty within a science fiction framework.)

C. John wrote: "There are a number of writers from the Golden Age..."

Yeah. And that number is three. In fact, they have been called "The Big Three" for over forty years now. Surely this isn't news to you?
https://www.sfandfantasy.co.uk/php/th...
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-only-Is...
https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/defi...

And my favorite because I agree with Sawyer's points here:
http://www.sfwriter.com/rmdeatho.htm

Perhaps Simak deserves to belong to the second tier. I don't know. I've only read one short story by him, "Hellhounds of the Cosmos", available on Gutenberg, which I liked so much I made it the basis of a computer game script I wrote for a class. This thread reminds me to read more of his writing.

Deborah wrote: "Incidentally, Dan - I write reviews for most books I read or re-read these days and mine for The werewolf principle is here; "

Thanks Deborah. I read your review, among others. The only question I am left with at the end of it is, "Does this book feature werewolves?" Your answer suggests it does not, but nothing in your review then offers a supposition as to why the author might have titled the book as he does.

Here is my review of a book that was supposed to feature werewolves but in actuality does not. See how I don't leave the reader of my review wondering? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Dan wrote: "C. John wrote: "There are a number of writers from the Golden Age..."

Yeah. And that number is three. In fact, they have been called "The Big Three" for over forty years now. Surely this isn't new..."

Actually when I was growing up and reading stf in the sixties Clarke wasn't a major name in SF circles, at least not until 2001 hit the cinemas. This may have been because he was British and did not have a lot of interaction with the North American SF community. I recall getting bogged down with the 2001 novel but did enjoy some of Clarke's short stories.
The Toronto area SF community of course idolized Asimov and Heinlein but there were other authors who were important: Poul Anderson, Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Gordon R. Dickson to name a few. Mind you I think Judith Merrill's presence may have influenced the Toronto Science Fiction group's preferences somewhat (and that is all I will say about Ms. Merrill, although I will give her credit for the formation of what was once called "The Spaced Out Library").
Interesting that Pournelle is included in that item you posted. I have a book by him in my personal library but it is a collection of his science columns for Galaxy. I think it fair to say that early in his career Pournelle had published more science fact that science fiction. I sometimes wonder how many Sci-Fi readers got most of their science education from those science columns in the various SF magazines.

Clarke's being one of the big three comes up in the second paragraph of Heinlein's Wikipedia page with three references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...

A biography page lists a lot of Clarke achievements in the 1950s and 1960s, including winning Hugos and Nebulas, that would make me think he was a major presence during the time: https://www.biography.com/people/arth...

However, I admittedly was not around in the 1950s and not yet reading science fiction in the 1960s. Perhaps your memory of Clarke's relative insignificance vis a vis the achievements of Poul Anderson, Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Gordon R. Dickson, and even Clifford Simak is more accurate.

Could be Clarke is more important than I think. I just know that back then when the discussions turned to SF Clarke only came up in regards 2001, at least in the circles I traveled in. I have the two indexes that came out after the Day index. If I can locate them I should take a look and see how often Clarke was appearing in the US based science fiction magazines. Anthologies of new SF didn't really start to make their mark until the seventies, and the only UK magazine that seemed to have any sort of presence in North America back then was New Worlds, which at one point was heavily into New Wave SF, which I am not sure would have included Clarke.

Dan wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Incidentally, Dan - I write reviews for most books I read or re-read these days and mine for The werewolf principle is here; "

Thanks Deborah. I read your review, among others. The..."

OK. Well, I am starting to get the strong impression that you are asking about classic mainstream werewolves. Rending, howling at the moon, transmitted by biting, human vs wolf identity crisis ect ect as popularised by modern gothic and modern horror genera. If that is what you are after, then no, this does not have a 'werewolf' in the context you are looking for, so you will probably not want to read this book.

I was hesitant about answering your question directly because I was not certain entirely what you were asking. Werewolves are not a main focus in my reading.

The werewolf principle of the title relates to a bioengineering term in the book which allows 'open end' changing of androids/synthetic men to allow to incorporate characteristics of alien races they come into contact with to better understand them. One of the aliens that gets incorporated resembles the human myths of wolves (extinct in this future scenario) and people react accordingly.

This novel to my way of thinking addressed many of the same identity questions, rights, intelligence and society questions that make a more traditional werewolf novel interesting. So, I don't feel that my review was ambiguous at all.

C. John wrote: "Could be Clarke is more important than I think. I just know that back then when the discussions turned to SF Clarke only came up in regards 2001, at least in the circles I traveled in. I have the t..."

I am going to agree with you John; Clark was pretty obscure even when I started reading sci-fi, you might find one book of his for 3-4 of Asimov or Heinlein, there was a lot more variation in authors too, especially since people had not yet started differentiating between sci-fi and fantasy, A E Van Vogt and Jack Vance on the same shelf - I suspect you would not see that today.

Most of Van Vogt's writing is science fiction, or at least the material I have read. Vance on the other hand is harder to categorize. The Dying Earth series might be considered SF as it takes place on our Earth (I think) at the end of its life cycle. At the same time its use of magic might cause it to be considered fantasy.
By the way, if you like genre-crossing then you might like to try Randall Garrett's Lord D'Arcy series, which works as SF, Fantasy and Mystery. I especially recommend Too Many Magicians. It is a locked room mystery where the victim has apparently been killed by black magic, and the hotel where this takes place is hosting a convention of magicians, including Lord D'Arcy's Forensic Wizard, who is a chief suspect in the crime.

Dan wrote: "Is Simak's The Werewolf Principle a werewolf story?"

Dan, to answer your question, no, probably not in the sense that you mean.

I read this book years ago, so I forget the details, but the main character has multiple identities and physically transforms between them - one of which is wolf-like in form and appearance.

So, metaphorical werewolf, not literal werewolf. If you're looking for werewolf stories specifically, this is probably not what you want.

I recall reading a werewolf novel years ago that I think was written by Jack Williamson. Can't recall the title, but with a bit of digging I might be able to find it.

Well that didn't take long. Jack Williamson was the author (another old-timer sadly neglected these days). The novel is entitled 'Darker Than You Think'. Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of this work (a product of moving from Ontario to British Columbia).