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The Marathon Photograph
Contents:
The Birch Clump Cylinder (1974)
The Whistling Well (1980)
The Marathon Photograph (1974)
The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
The Birch Clump Cylinder (1974)
The Whistling Well (1980)
The Marathon Photograph (1974)
The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
Clifford D. Simak
983 books1,102 followers"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...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 6, 2016
I thought these were four of Simak's better short stories. Very fun.
February 8, 2022
Another Simak short collection, and a relatively modest one. Four stories only, but two are closer to being novelettes. I enjoyed them all on some level, even though the first story gets quite a low rating (for reasons detailed below).
The Birch Clump Cylinder - 2.9
An initially pleasant, simple story that asks a little too much of the reader, kicks its heels a touch, and then ends on a 6-page exposition dump. In his introduction, Lyall talks about how the story is a great example of economic writing, how not a line is wasted, and that it is a story for aspiring writers to learn from. I strongly disagree. Characters talk around subjects for longer than necessary, sometimes repeating statements or re-emphasising a point, and they speculate and chat over things that don't further the plot in any way. "The Birch Clump Cylinder" is a short story, but it is not a tight story. It is moderately paced and liberal with sentences, even if it is Simak at his more restrained (which I wouldn't necessarily claim). As an aside, the character of Leonard I found to be pretty poorly drawn and an embarrassing example of tell-over-show; we are told that Leonard is "nasty" and "twerpy", but nothing he does or says demonstrates this beyond the protagonist/narrator saying that he says things "nastily" or in a "twerpy way".
The Whistling Well - 4.25
"The land was ancient. It had stood and watched and waited as ages swept over it, like cloud shadows passing across the land. Since time immemorial, it had stood sentinel above the river and had noted all that had come to pass."
Classic pastoral Simak. Slow-paced but beautifully written. Loosely fantastic, this is relatively grounded but an otherworldly atmosphere is cleverly conveyed, despite the naturalistic setting. There are some faintly Lovecraftian vibes in the final third, before Simak swaps horror for sentiment. As usual, he is more explicit than he needs to be, but thankfully not enough to mar this otherwise exceptional story.
The Marathon Photograph - 4
"There was nothing much to see. It was rather horrible, of course, but the body, the man reduced by the absence of life, was so small and insignificant that it had little impact. Balanced against the brawling stream, the sweeping extent of birch and pine, the deep silence of the wilderness, the fact of human death cancelled out to very little."
Novelette. A quiet, pastoral sci-fi mystery with smatterings of Way Station. Nicely written, good atmosphere. Simak eventually gives a big exposition dump through dialogue once again, informing us of many things that feel somewhat tangential and perhaps best left a mystery. Nevertheless, the narrative does get back on track (bridged by a curiously cerebral scene, seemingly implying some kind of soul-rape), and things are left on a fairly dark and poignant note. A little messy overall perhaps, but I liked it. I have a feeling I would gain more of an appreciation for it on rereads.
Grotto of the Dancing Deer - 3.5
A solid story, but a bit tame coming off the back of the previous two, especially considering the consistency of tone and thematic. Not bad by any means, but I'm surprised that it's so well regarded (it won the Nebula, Hugo and Locus award for Best Short Story). The first half felt a lot stronger to me.
Overall a good and well-curated collection. The thematic feels consistent and appropriate. A similar feel runs throughout, one of time immemorial, mysteries of the past, geology and genealogy. As Lyall notes in his introduction, there is a certain depth and authenticity that comes across in these stories, due to a clear channelling of Simak's own experience, lineage and country. This isn't necessarily anything unusual for him, but I felt that there was something distinctly more "life-like"/three-dimensional about the second and third stories, in particular.
Overall rating: 3.75/5
The Birch Clump Cylinder - 2.9
An initially pleasant, simple story that asks a little too much of the reader, kicks its heels a touch, and then ends on a 6-page exposition dump. In his introduction, Lyall talks about how the story is a great example of economic writing, how not a line is wasted, and that it is a story for aspiring writers to learn from. I strongly disagree. Characters talk around subjects for longer than necessary, sometimes repeating statements or re-emphasising a point, and they speculate and chat over things that don't further the plot in any way. "The Birch Clump Cylinder" is a short story, but it is not a tight story. It is moderately paced and liberal with sentences, even if it is Simak at his more restrained (which I wouldn't necessarily claim). As an aside, the character of Leonard I found to be pretty poorly drawn and an embarrassing example of tell-over-show; we are told that Leonard is "nasty" and "twerpy", but nothing he does or says demonstrates this beyond the protagonist/narrator saying that he says things "nastily" or in a "twerpy way".
The Whistling Well - 4.25
"The land was ancient. It had stood and watched and waited as ages swept over it, like cloud shadows passing across the land. Since time immemorial, it had stood sentinel above the river and had noted all that had come to pass."
Classic pastoral Simak. Slow-paced but beautifully written. Loosely fantastic, this is relatively grounded but an otherworldly atmosphere is cleverly conveyed, despite the naturalistic setting. There are some faintly Lovecraftian vibes in the final third, before Simak swaps horror for sentiment. As usual, he is more explicit than he needs to be, but thankfully not enough to mar this otherwise exceptional story.
The Marathon Photograph - 4
"There was nothing much to see. It was rather horrible, of course, but the body, the man reduced by the absence of life, was so small and insignificant that it had little impact. Balanced against the brawling stream, the sweeping extent of birch and pine, the deep silence of the wilderness, the fact of human death cancelled out to very little."
Novelette. A quiet, pastoral sci-fi mystery with smatterings of Way Station. Nicely written, good atmosphere. Simak eventually gives a big exposition dump through dialogue once again, informing us of many things that feel somewhat tangential and perhaps best left a mystery. Nevertheless, the narrative does get back on track (bridged by a curiously cerebral scene, seemingly implying some kind of soul-rape), and things are left on a fairly dark and poignant note. A little messy overall perhaps, but I liked it. I have a feeling I would gain more of an appreciation for it on rereads.
Grotto of the Dancing Deer - 3.5
A solid story, but a bit tame coming off the back of the previous two, especially considering the consistency of tone and thematic. Not bad by any means, but I'm surprised that it's so well regarded (it won the Nebula, Hugo and Locus award for Best Short Story). The first half felt a lot stronger to me.
Overall a good and well-curated collection. The thematic feels consistent and appropriate. A similar feel runs throughout, one of time immemorial, mysteries of the past, geology and genealogy. As Lyall notes in his introduction, there is a certain depth and authenticity that comes across in these stories, due to a clear channelling of Simak's own experience, lineage and country. This isn't necessarily anything unusual for him, but I felt that there was something distinctly more "life-like"/three-dimensional about the second and third stories, in particular.
Overall rating: 3.75/5
July 22, 2023
[Methuen] (1987). SB. 171 Pages. Purchased from Zardoz Books.
Introduced by Professor Francis Lyall (May 1985).
Four short stories. The usual Simak scenario - ropey writing but interesting and engrossing narratives.
Regarding the former, ironically (p. 103, “The Marathon Photograph”):
“…notes and half-written chapters… only roughed out… needing polishing and checking…”
Introduced by Professor Francis Lyall (May 1985).
Four short stories. The usual Simak scenario - ropey writing but interesting and engrossing narratives.
Regarding the former, ironically (p. 103, “The Marathon Photograph”):
“…notes and half-written chapters… only roughed out… needing polishing and checking…”
February 14, 2025
Four intriguing tales of time, all turning on the discovery of something incredible.
THE BIRCH CLUMP CYLINDER has a tightly conceived time paradox kicking off with a fascinating premise - the discovery of what might just be a spaceship drive powered by time itself.
THE WHISTLING WELL conveys an Algernon Blackwood feel with echoes of a pre-human evil and a protagonist drawn into communing with spirits of place from the deep past. The rumination re dinosaur religion seems to me quite startlingly original, the sort of wild idea which is speculative fiction at its best.
THE MARATHON PHOTOGRAPH has the most outwardly intriguing premise of the quartet, but also (unless I'm missing something) the dodgiest construction, which apparently relies on two major coincidences - the Marathon photo stumbled upon by a leading expert on the ancient battle, and the story's sought-after McGuffin found right near the seekers' base. Also, wouldn't the first supposition on finding such a photo be that it shows re-enactment rather than reality? That said, it's still a fine time-travel tale with some good twists and turns, and I like how Simak unfolds the incomprehensibility of the future people's motivations and attitudes, even if it risks a narrative dead-end or two.
A new kind of neolithic cave painting turns up in THE GROTTO OF THE DANCING DEER, a gentle, reflective tale of friendship, art and survival across the ages. It won Simak a Nebula (1980) and a Hugo (1981) for Best Short Story, and just might be the best story here too - which is saying something, because this really is a quality collection.
THE BIRCH CLUMP CYLINDER has a tightly conceived time paradox kicking off with a fascinating premise - the discovery of what might just be a spaceship drive powered by time itself.
THE WHISTLING WELL conveys an Algernon Blackwood feel with echoes of a pre-human evil and a protagonist drawn into communing with spirits of place from the deep past. The rumination re dinosaur religion seems to me quite startlingly original, the sort of wild idea which is speculative fiction at its best.
THE MARATHON PHOTOGRAPH has the most outwardly intriguing premise of the quartet, but also (unless I'm missing something) the dodgiest construction, which apparently relies on two major coincidences - the Marathon photo stumbled upon by a leading expert on the ancient battle, and the story's sought-after McGuffin found right near the seekers' base. Also, wouldn't the first supposition on finding such a photo be that it shows re-enactment rather than reality? That said, it's still a fine time-travel tale with some good twists and turns, and I like how Simak unfolds the incomprehensibility of the future people's motivations and attitudes, even if it risks a narrative dead-end or two.
A new kind of neolithic cave painting turns up in THE GROTTO OF THE DANCING DEER, a gentle, reflective tale of friendship, art and survival across the ages. It won Simak a Nebula (1980) and a Hugo (1981) for Best Short Story, and just might be the best story here too - which is saying something, because this really is a quality collection.
November 2, 2024
This collection is a mixed bag containing only four stories (or rather, two novelets, one novella, and one short story). Fair warning: Spoilers abound.
"The Birch Clump Cylinder" 3/5 stars. I'm adding a star because Simak floats the idea of a spacecraft powered by a time machine, a device I don't think I've seen anywhere else. But unfortunately, he doesn't do much with the rest of the story.
"The Whistling Well" 1/5 stars. While I enjoyed Simak's description of an old farming community being reclaimed by nature, his central premise--that intelligent dinosaurs left gizzard stones inscribed with cryptic symbols, and then haunted the area as ghosts for millions of years--was so far-fetched that it marred the story beyond repair for me.
"The Marathon Photograph" 4/5 stars. Here a geologist encounters time travelers from the far future. This is a longer work--novella length--and an entertaining one, although it takes a while to get going. There are instances of sloppy writing that annoyed me ("I drove myself, literally drove myself, my feet not wanting to move but my brain making them move..."), and I was tempted to deduct a star for that reason. I suppose this was to be expected, because the narrator explains at the beginning that he's just a humble geologist, not a professional writer of fiction. Nevertheless, my interest was maintained. At another point, Simak writes this sentence: "I felt a scream rising in my throat, but I had no throat and I had no mouth and there was no way to scream." Was he deliberately referencing Harlan Ellison ("I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", 1967)? If so, to what end? Was he trying to be edgy? There is a sex scene of sorts here, which I don't recall from any other Simak work that I've read; to be fair, it's more of a meeting of minds or souls than bodies, so there isn't any nudity--but Simak explicitly states that it was like sex, and sexual in nature. ("Remember this," she said. "No woman will ever be quite the same again.") At the end, our narrator and his time-traveling device disappear, leaving only this enigmatic manuscript behind, shades of H. G. Wells.
"The Grotto of the Dancing Deer" 5/5 stars. A simple and well-done tale that won both a Hugo and a Nebula for the author. There is no fancy gadgetry here, and very little action, just a man encountering a survivor from the distant past, identifying him, and having a conversation. This is a master class in how to write fiction, sans all the bells and whistles.
"The Birch Clump Cylinder" 3/5 stars. I'm adding a star because Simak floats the idea of a spacecraft powered by a time machine, a device I don't think I've seen anywhere else. But unfortunately, he doesn't do much with the rest of the story.
"The Whistling Well" 1/5 stars. While I enjoyed Simak's description of an old farming community being reclaimed by nature, his central premise--that intelligent dinosaurs left gizzard stones inscribed with cryptic symbols, and then haunted the area as ghosts for millions of years--was so far-fetched that it marred the story beyond repair for me.
"The Marathon Photograph" 4/5 stars. Here a geologist encounters time travelers from the far future. This is a longer work--novella length--and an entertaining one, although it takes a while to get going. There are instances of sloppy writing that annoyed me ("I drove myself, literally drove myself, my feet not wanting to move but my brain making them move..."), and I was tempted to deduct a star for that reason. I suppose this was to be expected, because the narrator explains at the beginning that he's just a humble geologist, not a professional writer of fiction. Nevertheless, my interest was maintained. At another point, Simak writes this sentence: "I felt a scream rising in my throat, but I had no throat and I had no mouth and there was no way to scream." Was he deliberately referencing Harlan Ellison ("I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", 1967)? If so, to what end? Was he trying to be edgy? There is a sex scene of sorts here, which I don't recall from any other Simak work that I've read; to be fair, it's more of a meeting of minds or souls than bodies, so there isn't any nudity--but Simak explicitly states that it was like sex, and sexual in nature. ("Remember this," she said. "No woman will ever be quite the same again.") At the end, our narrator and his time-traveling device disappear, leaving only this enigmatic manuscript behind, shades of H. G. Wells.
"The Grotto of the Dancing Deer" 5/5 stars. A simple and well-done tale that won both a Hugo and a Nebula for the author. There is no fancy gadgetry here, and very little action, just a man encountering a survivor from the distant past, identifying him, and having a conversation. This is a master class in how to write fiction, sans all the bells and whistles.
January 5, 2025
Really a long Short Story more than a novella, this was, for the most part, a very compelling mix of Sci-Fi and Mystery, with just enough room for some political and religious commentary to go along with the plot, a captivating puzzle well unfolded. (SPOILER ALERT) I had a lot of issues with the main character’s actions once things were revealed to him, and I tend to dislike time-travel stories in general on principle and specifically when The Butterfly Effect is ignored, but everything else was great. Recommended, especially for fans of Sci-Fi Short Stories, and Short Stories in general. 89/100
February 22, 2026
4 stories:
**** The Birch Clump Cylinder (1974)
*** The Whistling Well (1980)
**** The Marathon Photograph (1974)
**** The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
**** The Birch Clump Cylinder (1974)
*** The Whistling Well (1980)
**** The Marathon Photograph (1974)
**** The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews