City, by Clifford Simak

[Omphalos]

Clifford Simak's masterpiece novel City is an episodic future history of mankind, told in the form of scholarly analysis of myth by our successor race to the planet Earth, intelligent dogs. Although it is in substantial part magical tale, it's mostly science fiction told from the perspective of a far-future intelligent canine who is analyzing fable-like stories of a predecessor race called "men," most of which seem to be of dubious origin, though the narrator thinks that there is some truth to them. Collectively they tell the story of the attempts and failures of the pivotal Webster family which over the years saw the way to human enlightenment, but failed in their quests to achieve it, leaving the human race to instead seek solace through happiness. I have a lot to say about this one; I have literally been thinking about it for decades, so I think I will start with some focused comments on the work in general, then follow with a breakdown of the individual stories, and wrap up with some general comments...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..

 

[Scifi fan]

It's an incredible work. I read it awhile ago, and I can still remember how good it was.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hmm..I may have to add this to my list then. I've got a Simak collection but not any novels.

 

[j d worthington]

Hmm..I may have to add this to my list then. I've got a Simak collection but not any novels.

You definitely should, Mr. G. For someone who has a taste for the classics of the sff genres, this is definitely one you won't want to miss....

 

[dask]

CITY is great. Wouldn't hesitate for an instant recommending this to someone who has never read sf before.

 

[GOLLUM]

You definitely should, Mr. G. For someone who has a taste for the classics of the sff genres, this is definitely one you won't want to miss....

Thanks, I've located a local copy....

 

[Omphalos]

CITY is great. Wouldn't hesitate for an instant recommending this to someone who has never read sf before.

I have given it to non-SF reading friends before and all of them loved it.

 

[dask]

I have given it to non-SF reading friends before and all of them loved it.

Same with my brother who wasn't reading any sf at the time. He does now periodically but, alas, is no fan.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I'm not generally a great fan of Simak, most of his works have a kind of folksy approach which is peculiarly American, but City was his stand-out book. It's on my top-ten best ever SF novels list.

 

[GOLLUM]

Scurries off to local supplier.....

 

[Omphalos]

I'm not generally a great fan of Simak, most of his works have a kind of folksy approach which is peculiarly American, but City was his stand-out book. It's on my top-ten best ever SF novels list.

What do you think of Way Station?

 

[Anthony G Williams]

What do you think of Way Station?

It's good, but not as imaginative and outstanding as City.

 

[Fried Egg]

Wow, I'm bowled over by the high praise "City" gets. In my opinion, it was no where near as good as "Way Station". Here is my review:

"City" is basically a chronicle of mankind's demise, usually involving characters who are decendents of the Webster family who invariably end up involved in pivotal events in our future history. No single event or catastrophy here, rather it is a gradual decline. And the reasons are more social, cultural and psycological than anything else.

This is actually a collection of interelated stories, depicted as a set of legends that dogs tell each other around the camp fire. Yes, for dogs have inherited the earth and mankind is now no more than a myth disbelieved by all except their most crackpot scholars. There is a fictitious editorial introduction to each story, whom we are to think of as a dog, that briefly expounds various canine interpretations of the stories. Daft as this might sound, these parts were actually my favourite parts of the book.

Various things let this book down in my opinion. Firstly it just hasn't dated very well. Both in terms of the ideas and the dialogue. Okay, it was first published in 1951 but it must have seemed very far fetched even then. The ideas become more wild and ludicrous as we get further into the future until we end up in the realms of pure fantasy. The character's usually sounds like hillbillies, even when it's the animals who are talking (yes animals aquire a hereditary ability to talk through vivisection!)

The above might well have been largely forgiven but for the fact that the story lines are almost completely devoid of narative tension. Occaisionally I thought a story started out interestingly only to skirt around the moments that would help build and maintain the reader's interest to needlessly shift focus elsewhere (like a badly edited movie). Ultimately, it left me largely uninterested in the overall story arc and was a bit of a struggle to finish.

Many others seem to be quite fond of this book so perhaps I am being unkind but for me the flaws just kept getting in the way of my getting much out of it. And it's left me not to keep to try anything else by Simak.

 

[J-WO]

I found it rather beautiful, I'm afraid.

 

[Ian Whates]

I found it rather beautiful, I'm afraid.

I'm with you, Jim. I found it a wonderful, poignant work. Way Station is a great book, City even better.

 

[Fried Egg]

I guess this may just be one of my blind spots. I picked it up on the recommendation of so many people who's opinions I respect (and more often than not agree with). This book just didn't work for me.

I was wondering whether it had anything to do with not being American but since there are a few Brits here lavishing this book with praise that I guess it can't be that. I did quite like the stories "The Huddling Place" and "Desertion" (although I saw where this was going a mile off). But many of the ideas explored in the rest of the book just struck me as...well, silly.

There were some interesting irony's in there. Some spoiler's follow...Such as one of the Webster's lambasting "Rugged Individualism" in the opening story although it turned out to be where humanity was eventually headed (the mutants had no sense of social bonding). And mankind's inate tendency for violence was one of the reasons why mankind needed to step aside and leave it to the dogs to create a better world and yet Jenkins used their aptitude for violence in order to clear out a cobbly world of it's occupants, although he rejects their solution for dealing with the ants in the final story; one can only presume that the dogs eventually had to flee into a cobbly world to escape the ant's expansion.

But the wistful nostalgia and poignancy I just didn't feel (although I sensed the author was definitely trying to invoke such feelings) because I never was allowed to bond with the characters, or care that much about what happened to them due to the lack of narrative tension. On this point, I would constrast this book starkly with George R. Stewart's "Earth Abides" which far more achieved this effect far more effectively.

That said, I'm obviously in a minority here. Perhaps it's just a personal thing?

 

[Williamlk]

I am really digging that cover!
I will have to check this one out.

Best of luck with it.

 

[planetocean]

Sounds like it might be a good book to read.

 

[J Riff]

Simak sometimes avoided science by using locals, ordinary characters as narrator.
"I won't bore you with the details of how we finished the time machine..."
Cosmic Engineers, Destiny Doll, Werewolf Principle, haven't read for decades, but they were all great at the time, and so were his short stories, always easy to read Simak.
HELLHOUNDS of THE COSMOS 1932- starts with London being attacked by 'The Black Horror."- attacked from the 2nd Dimension. They send a dog into the 2nd dimension and what happens to it is arful.

 

[blacknorth]

That said, I'm obviously in a minority here. Perhaps it's just a personal thing?

I also preferred Way Station to City - though I do like the latter, I found Way Station had an unusual gravitas. It's a strangely depressing book.