There have been a few threads on Clifford D. Simak over the years, though not much for about 6 years, according to my searching, and a recent thread on forgotten and near-forgotten SF authors brought his name up a number of times. I thought it would be nice to read (or re-read) some Simak books to get to know his output better and help me to rediscover him myself. Partly because it seems all wrong that someone who made such an impression on the filed should be read so little these days.
So, for those who aren’t so familiar with Simak, who was he? Well, he was the 3rd SF Grand Master, as voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1977, and he won 3 Hugos, a Nebula and a Locus Award for his work. He was born in 1904 and wrote throughout the golden age; his first published story appeared in Wonder Stories in 1931 and he published up to his death in 1988. Of interest to me is that he was a considerable influence on Asimov, who said Simak was his favourite SF author. Asimov noted that he loved Simak’s clear style and it helped shape Asimov’s writing.
Little of Simak’s output is still available in print form (which I much prefer over e-books), so I have been acquiring some old Simak books from used book stores to read. I’ve come up with a list of books, some of which that I intend to read. Extollager, J-Sun and hitmouse have already made suggestions in the Sept 2014 ‘what are you reading thread’ and these have been very helpful in determining what the best books might be to try. The following list is quite lengthy now, but it includes those books I already own, that I’ve ordered or that come recommended, so I will be seeking them out over time.
Cosmic Engineers [1950 novel; 1939 serial]
City [1952] (got it, needs a re-read)
Ring Around the Sun [1953] (need to source this, lost my copy 30 years ago)
Time is the Simplest Thing [1961]
All the Traps of Earth [1962 Coll.]
Way Station [1963] (ordered it)
All Flesh is Grass [1965] (ordered it)
The Werewolf Principle [1967]
Goblin Reservation [1968]
Destiny Doll [1971] (own it, not yet read)
Cemetery World [1973] (currently reading)
Shakespeare’s Planet [1976]
Catface [1978]
Special Deliverance [1982]
I’ll post brief thoughts about some of these books on this thread, and if anyone else wants to join in the Simak fun (reading any book of course, not just from my list), please post here too so we can get a collection of brief reviews and comments on this rather overlooked author. The title thread suggests a reading challenge, and I think it would be great if others do read some Simak, but I’m not exactly a disciplined reader myself, so if we don’t all read 10 books I won’t be disappointed! I do intend on reading 6 books over the next couple of months though, and that’s the challenge I’ve set myself first off, and once I’ve knocked those off I may set up a second challenge after a short break.
As you can see from the list above, I’ve already started with “Cemetery World” and I’ll post on that shortly. It’s from 1973, so I’m already doing badly as far as chronology goes, so perhaps reading in order isn’t that important to me.
So, for those who aren’t so familiar with Simak, who was he? Well, he was the 3rd SF Grand Master, as voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1977, and he won 3 Hugos, a Nebula and a Locus Award for his work. He was born in 1904 and wrote throughout the golden age; his first published story appeared in Wonder Stories in 1931 and he published up to his death in 1988. Of interest to me is that he was a considerable influence on Asimov, who said Simak was his favourite SF author. Asimov noted that he loved Simak’s clear style and it helped shape Asimov’s writing.
Little of Simak’s output is still available in print form (which I much prefer over e-books), so I have been acquiring some old Simak books from used book stores to read. I’ve come up with a list of books, some of which that I intend to read. Extollager, J-Sun and hitmouse have already made suggestions in the Sept 2014 ‘what are you reading thread’ and these have been very helpful in determining what the best books might be to try. The following list is quite lengthy now, but it includes those books I already own, that I’ve ordered or that come recommended, so I will be seeking them out over time.
Cosmic Engineers [1950 novel; 1939 serial]
City [1952] (got it, needs a re-read)
Ring Around the Sun [1953] (need to source this, lost my copy 30 years ago)
Time is the Simplest Thing [1961]
All the Traps of Earth [1962 Coll.]
Way Station [1963] (ordered it)
All Flesh is Grass [1965] (ordered it)
The Werewolf Principle [1967]
Goblin Reservation [1968]
Destiny Doll [1971] (own it, not yet read)
Cemetery World [1973] (currently reading)
Shakespeare’s Planet [1976]
Catface [1978]
Special Deliverance [1982]
I’ll post brief thoughts about some of these books on this thread, and if anyone else wants to join in the Simak fun (reading any book of course, not just from my list), please post here too so we can get a collection of brief reviews and comments on this rather overlooked author. The title thread suggests a reading challenge, and I think it would be great if others do read some Simak, but I’m not exactly a disciplined reader myself, so if we don’t all read 10 books I won’t be disappointed! I do intend on reading 6 books over the next couple of months though, and that’s the challenge I’ve set myself first off, and once I’ve knocked those off I may set up a second challenge after a short break.
As you can see from the list above, I’ve already started with “Cemetery World” and I’ll post on that shortly. It’s from 1973, so I’m already doing badly as far as chronology goes, so perhaps reading in order isn’t that important to me.
