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Special Deliverance
A college professor & other oddballs are dropped onto a bleak world near a giant blue cube with no clue how to proceed.
Intelligence, loyalty & friendship, the existence of god & souls, the unexpected benefits & harm of invention, tools as extensions of humanity & more questions are often explored by Simak's robots, used as surrogate humans. His robots begin as likable mechanical persons, but morph in surprising ways. Having achieved intelligence, robots move onto common themes such as, "Why are we here?" & "Do robots have souls"? Examples are the faithful butler Jenkins in City, the religious robot Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods, the frontier robots in Special Deliverance & A Heritage of Stars, & the monkish robots seeking heaven in Project Pope.
Simak throws in many sf fillips that remain unexplained. His characters encounter alien creatures & concepts they simply cannot understand & never will. For example, in Special Deliverance, the humans are stalked by The Wailer, which turns out to be a huge wolf-like creature that bells an infinitely-sad howl. They never learn what the creature is, why it seems sad or how it got there. Simak leaves mysteries hanging in his writing.
Intelligence, loyalty & friendship, the existence of god & souls, the unexpected benefits & harm of invention, tools as extensions of humanity & more questions are often explored by Simak's robots, used as surrogate humans. His robots begin as likable mechanical persons, but morph in surprising ways. Having achieved intelligence, robots move onto common themes such as, "Why are we here?" & "Do robots have souls"? Examples are the faithful butler Jenkins in City, the religious robot Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods, the frontier robots in Special Deliverance & A Heritage of Stars, & the monkish robots seeking heaven in Project Pope.
Simak throws in many sf fillips that remain unexplained. His characters encounter alien creatures & concepts they simply cannot understand & never will. For example, in Special Deliverance, the humans are stalked by The Wailer, which turns out to be a huge wolf-like creature that bells an infinitely-sad howl. They never learn what the creature is, why it seems sad or how it got there. Simak leaves mysteries hanging in his writing.
187 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
99 people are currently reading
616 people want to read
About the author
Clifford D. Simak
966 books1,063 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...
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February 18, 2025
„Търсачи на светове“ е доста мрачна и въздействаща фантастика... Професор по литература е захвърлен от игрална машина на тайнствен друг свят. Там той открива група от хора и един робот, които са от различни алтернативни светове и също са били неочаквано пренесени на непознатото място. Заедно тръгват да разучават къде са попаднали и да търсят смисъла на мистериозните събития, а малко след това им предстоят още по-шантави и страховити приключения...
„— Какво знаеш за свободата, Лансинг?
— Много малко, струва ми се. Човек не мисли за свободата, докато я има. В света, от който идвам, бяхме свободни. Не трябваше да правим усилия за свободата. Смятаме, че ни е гарантирана. Тя рядко навестява умовете ни.“
„— Някога ние, роботите, мислехме хората за богове — каза Юргенс. — В края на краищата в известен смисъл те са такива. Вие разбирате защо мислехме така, те ни създадоха. Но ние отидохме по-далеч. След време забелязахме, че те просто са друга форма на живот.“
„ — Откъде знаете какво иска художникът и какво средство е избрал той за творбата си? Може би тези прозорчета са един от начините да приближи зрителя до онова, което е направил. Да принуди зрителя да се съсредоточи върху самото изкуство, като го изключи от всички външни въздействия? Ами настроението — забелязахте ли, че всяко от прозорчетата има точно определено настроение и всяко от тях е различно, и всяко изисква различно емоционално участие? Даже взето само в този аспект, това може да е най-истинската форма на изкуството.“
„— Какво знаеш за свободата, Лансинг?
— Много малко, струва ми се. Човек не мисли за свободата, докато я има. В света, от който идвам, бяхме свободни. Не трябваше да правим усилия за свободата. Смятаме, че ни е гарантирана. Тя рядко навестява умовете ни.“
„— Някога ние, роботите, мислехме хората за богове — каза Юргенс. — В края на краищата в известен смисъл те са такива. Вие разбирате защо мислехме така, те ни създадоха. Но ние отидохме по-далеч. След време забелязахме, че те просто са друга форма на живот.“
„ — Откъде знаете какво иска художникът и какво средство е избрал той за творбата си? Може би тези прозорчета са един от начините да приближи зрителя до онова, което е направил. Да принуди зрителя да се съсредоточи върху самото изкуство, като го изключи от всички външни въздействия? Ами настроението — забелязахте ли, че всяко от прозорчетата има точно определено настроение и всяко от тях е различно, и всяко изисква различно емоционално участие? Даже взето само в този аспект, това може да е най-истинската форма на изкуството.“
July 5, 2011
A little more than a year ago, I moved from a city where I'd lived a third of my life to a city I'd only visited twice, and where I only knew a handful of people. I had no money, no job, no car and no specific purpose. I was low on options and one friend, 3000 miles from me, offered me a couch to sleep on. I took the offer.
Sometime last summer (or fall, or winter; I have no way of remembering in this temperate, seasonless place) said friend took me to a used bookstore in a town nearby the city that, while not being an especially great bookstore, had no small amount of charm. It was the sort of place where you can never find the book you came looking for but you find five other books that seem interesting enough to take home with you, even if you never read them. I vowed to return to the bookstore but, as it is with magic places, never quite remembered to do it.
Over the course of my first year in my new strange city, despite securing a car and a job and some money, my friend and I had a cataclysmic falling out. By that time I'd decided to go back to school for a masters in writing, and was biding my time until classes started in the fall. So this new city that still did not feel like my home became a place I knew I had to stay. I still only knew a handful of people, and the friend I fell out with claimed most of them on our separation. I found a new apartment and began to write in earnest. And I found new love, going so far as to purchase little symbols of the domesticity I thought we would share. A cookbook for us to make meals together. One more bath towel than I needed, kept under the sink.
But I wasn't ready for love, or domesticity. As much as I wanted to share my bare-bones life in my new strange city, something inside me wouldn't let me. I pulled away and have since spent a lot of time alone, writing furiously to fill the space.
But sometimes the quiet gets to be too much, and I explore my city on my own, looking both for new things and for things I thought I'd lost. And I do find myself in the middle of all manner of interesting times and surreal situations -- the kind that one can only come upon after being left alone long enough to wander down the alleyways of Modern-Day Weird.
And so today I finally found myself once more in a little used bookstore in a little nearby town, and while they didn't have the book I wanted, I came away with a few other things I'd never heard of but looked interesting enough to take home with me. One of these was an odd-looking paperback called Special Deliverance.
The few reviews that exist for Special Deliverance seem to count it as a fair-to-middling entry in the career of a somewhat respected science fiction writer that I, until today, had never heard of. Apparently he's written many other books, and apparently most of them are better than this one.
The story follows an English professor named Edward Lansing, who teaches at an unnamed but tweedy university. He lives alone, and his social circle consists of one male friend he doesn't much like, one female professor he doesn't know what to do with, and an apartment full of unread books and old records. One evening, instead of going home, he wanders into a basement room at the school and finds himself in another world.
In this new world he happens upon a small group of fellow travelers, all with equal confusion about where they are or what they should do next. They are all from Earth, but different Earths, and must work together to understand their purpose in the strange land where they find themselves. For the majority of the book, the characters work at convincing themselves that this new world has been created with some purpose; they find clues and artifacts that make them believe the randomness of their new existence has been somehow constructed and that, if they think and explore long enough, the truth will reveal itself. But always, always, is the lurking fear that this is a place that has been abandoned by sense and reason, and that there is no meaning to be had save desperation and loneliness.
Most of them, as well as the other inhabitants they meet, never find any answers. Instead they succumb to destruction and death, often seemingly voluntarily -- the ambitious leader who throws himself into the unknown, the artist who drowns herself in beauty, the automaton who gives himself to the yawning void. Edward does survive, but not by being a hero -- in the end he is told he only pulled through "by making the right choices," despite having no direct hand in the world-puzzle's ultimate solution. And it is never said -- but it is strongly implied -- that Edward's true saving grace in the face of despair is hope.
It's safe to say that I did not find Special Deliverance a fair-to-middling book. Nor is it perfect -- the ending is pat, and specific in its explanation of itself in a way that is as familiar to me as Ray Bradbury's short fiction, or as the big reveal of 1984.
But of its emotional journey, I will say this: in this summer I spend waiting for classes to begin, as I write copiously and embark on spontaneous night adventures looking for trouble in the dark, sometimes I like to imagine myself as a low-key Hunter Thompson, or Spider Jerusalem, or Hank Moody -- with no need of social structure or universal meaning, content to busy myself with my own words and splashes of Modern-Day Weird.
But maybe I'm Edward Lansing, too -- lost, but sticking to hope and reason, holding onto the possibility that I will someday find a place where I fit in a puzzle-like world.
And maybe someday I will be okay enough to be simply be myself: recovering from a decade in New York by typing on a laptop in San Diego, with a cookbook in the cupboard, and an extra towel under the sink.
Sometime last summer (or fall, or winter; I have no way of remembering in this temperate, seasonless place) said friend took me to a used bookstore in a town nearby the city that, while not being an especially great bookstore, had no small amount of charm. It was the sort of place where you can never find the book you came looking for but you find five other books that seem interesting enough to take home with you, even if you never read them. I vowed to return to the bookstore but, as it is with magic places, never quite remembered to do it.
Over the course of my first year in my new strange city, despite securing a car and a job and some money, my friend and I had a cataclysmic falling out. By that time I'd decided to go back to school for a masters in writing, and was biding my time until classes started in the fall. So this new city that still did not feel like my home became a place I knew I had to stay. I still only knew a handful of people, and the friend I fell out with claimed most of them on our separation. I found a new apartment and began to write in earnest. And I found new love, going so far as to purchase little symbols of the domesticity I thought we would share. A cookbook for us to make meals together. One more bath towel than I needed, kept under the sink.
But I wasn't ready for love, or domesticity. As much as I wanted to share my bare-bones life in my new strange city, something inside me wouldn't let me. I pulled away and have since spent a lot of time alone, writing furiously to fill the space.
But sometimes the quiet gets to be too much, and I explore my city on my own, looking both for new things and for things I thought I'd lost. And I do find myself in the middle of all manner of interesting times and surreal situations -- the kind that one can only come upon after being left alone long enough to wander down the alleyways of Modern-Day Weird.
And so today I finally found myself once more in a little used bookstore in a little nearby town, and while they didn't have the book I wanted, I came away with a few other things I'd never heard of but looked interesting enough to take home with me. One of these was an odd-looking paperback called Special Deliverance.
The few reviews that exist for Special Deliverance seem to count it as a fair-to-middling entry in the career of a somewhat respected science fiction writer that I, until today, had never heard of. Apparently he's written many other books, and apparently most of them are better than this one.
The story follows an English professor named Edward Lansing, who teaches at an unnamed but tweedy university. He lives alone, and his social circle consists of one male friend he doesn't much like, one female professor he doesn't know what to do with, and an apartment full of unread books and old records. One evening, instead of going home, he wanders into a basement room at the school and finds himself in another world.
In this new world he happens upon a small group of fellow travelers, all with equal confusion about where they are or what they should do next. They are all from Earth, but different Earths, and must work together to understand their purpose in the strange land where they find themselves. For the majority of the book, the characters work at convincing themselves that this new world has been created with some purpose; they find clues and artifacts that make them believe the randomness of their new existence has been somehow constructed and that, if they think and explore long enough, the truth will reveal itself. But always, always, is the lurking fear that this is a place that has been abandoned by sense and reason, and that there is no meaning to be had save desperation and loneliness.
Most of them, as well as the other inhabitants they meet, never find any answers. Instead they succumb to destruction and death, often seemingly voluntarily -- the ambitious leader who throws himself into the unknown, the artist who drowns herself in beauty, the automaton who gives himself to the yawning void. Edward does survive, but not by being a hero -- in the end he is told he only pulled through "by making the right choices," despite having no direct hand in the world-puzzle's ultimate solution. And it is never said -- but it is strongly implied -- that Edward's true saving grace in the face of despair is hope.
It's safe to say that I did not find Special Deliverance a fair-to-middling book. Nor is it perfect -- the ending is pat, and specific in its explanation of itself in a way that is as familiar to me as Ray Bradbury's short fiction, or as the big reveal of 1984.
But of its emotional journey, I will say this: in this summer I spend waiting for classes to begin, as I write copiously and embark on spontaneous night adventures looking for trouble in the dark, sometimes I like to imagine myself as a low-key Hunter Thompson, or Spider Jerusalem, or Hank Moody -- with no need of social structure or universal meaning, content to busy myself with my own words and splashes of Modern-Day Weird.
But maybe I'm Edward Lansing, too -- lost, but sticking to hope and reason, holding onto the possibility that I will someday find a place where I fit in a puzzle-like world.
And maybe someday I will be okay enough to be simply be myself: recovering from a decade in New York by typing on a laptop in San Diego, with a cookbook in the cupboard, and an extra towel under the sink.
April 4, 2020
In una società, verosimilmente degli anni ’80, Edward Leasing è un tranquillo docente universitario specializzato in studi shakespeariani.
E’ un semplice colloquio con uno studente (per ammonirlo dopo la presentazione di una tesina palesemente copiata) quello che dà l’avvio ad una storia che parla di altri mondi ed altre realtà.
Leasing si troverà catapultato in terre sconosciute a condividere con una variegata compagnia un incredibile destino dove ogni supposta certezza della propria percezione del reale vacilla.
Un’ottima storia dove la fantascienza è strumento di riflessione sul destino dell’umanità:
” — Uno di questi giorni — disse Andy, — ci accorgeremo improvvisamente... non so in che modo si produrrà questa specie di rivelazione, ma ci accorgeremo che tutti i nostri sforzi umani, compiuti finora, sono futili, perché sono stati compiuti nella direzione sbagliata. Da secoli cerchiamo la conoscenza, perseguendola in nome della ragione, ma con la stessa ragionevolezza con cui gli alchimisti dell'antichità insistevano nella ricerca di un metodo che trasformasse in oro i metalli vili. Potremo scoprire che tutta questa conoscenza non è altro che un vicolo cieco, che oltre un certo punto ogni significato cessa di esistere. Nel campo dell'astrofisica, sembra, ci stiamo avvicinando a questo punto. Tra pochi anni tutte le vecchie, solide teorie sullo spazio e il tempo potrebbero crollare nel nulla, lasciandoci in mezzo alle macerie che, allora lo riconosceremo, non hanno valore e non ne hanno mai avuto. Forse allora non esisterà più una ragione per continuare a studiare l'universo. Potremmo scoprire che in realtà non esistono leggi universali, che l'universo funziona forse in base alla pura e semplice casualità, o anche peggio. Tutti questi studi frenetici, questa ricerca della conoscenza, e non solo per quanto riguarda l'universo ma anche per molte altre cose, esistono perché noi cerchiamo di trarne un vantaggio pratico. Ma domandiamoci se abbiamo diritto di cercare un vantaggio. Può darsi che, fondamentalmente, non abbiamo il diritto di pretendere qualcosa dall'universo.”
E’ un semplice colloquio con uno studente (per ammonirlo dopo la presentazione di una tesina palesemente copiata) quello che dà l’avvio ad una storia che parla di altri mondi ed altre realtà.
Leasing si troverà catapultato in terre sconosciute a condividere con una variegata compagnia un incredibile destino dove ogni supposta certezza della propria percezione del reale vacilla.
Un’ottima storia dove la fantascienza è strumento di riflessione sul destino dell’umanità:
” — Uno di questi giorni — disse Andy, — ci accorgeremo improvvisamente... non so in che modo si produrrà questa specie di rivelazione, ma ci accorgeremo che tutti i nostri sforzi umani, compiuti finora, sono futili, perché sono stati compiuti nella direzione sbagliata. Da secoli cerchiamo la conoscenza, perseguendola in nome della ragione, ma con la stessa ragionevolezza con cui gli alchimisti dell'antichità insistevano nella ricerca di un metodo che trasformasse in oro i metalli vili. Potremo scoprire che tutta questa conoscenza non è altro che un vicolo cieco, che oltre un certo punto ogni significato cessa di esistere. Nel campo dell'astrofisica, sembra, ci stiamo avvicinando a questo punto. Tra pochi anni tutte le vecchie, solide teorie sullo spazio e il tempo potrebbero crollare nel nulla, lasciandoci in mezzo alle macerie che, allora lo riconosceremo, non hanno valore e non ne hanno mai avuto. Forse allora non esisterà più una ragione per continuare a studiare l'universo. Potremmo scoprire che in realtà non esistono leggi universali, che l'universo funziona forse in base alla pura e semplice casualità, o anche peggio. Tutti questi studi frenetici, questa ricerca della conoscenza, e non solo per quanto riguarda l'universo ma anche per molte altre cose, esistono perché noi cerchiamo di trarne un vantaggio pratico. Ma domandiamoci se abbiamo diritto di cercare un vantaggio. Può darsi che, fondamentalmente, non abbiamo il diritto di pretendere qualcosa dall'universo.”
May 7, 2018
Caveats: If you don't like Clifford Simak's body of work then you might not like this book either. I do, and I do. Also, I have re-read this book many times over many years so my "reading" of it, and hence this review, do not come from a first reading, but from a long time of pondering and absorbing.
I think this is one of Simak's finest books for several of the same reasons that other people dislike it. The ending that many people dislike because it is not a big revelation or particularly interesting, is, on the level of metaphor, a perfect fit for real life. Real life isn't about the ending; it is about the characters, conversations, and choices one makes along the way. So is this book.
The essential arc of the book concerns how human beings choose to relate to the Other and whether or not that makes them valuable to the Universe. Reduced to its bare bones, the main character makes crucial choices that demonstrate that Humanity is not lost. The other supposedly "stock" characters (which are stereotypical because they are primarily illustrative archetypes) have moments where they reveal their true depths and humanity but ultimately fail to evolve out of their narrow preconceptions about the Universe, and therefore, also fail to enter the realm of possibilities that the Universe offers.
In an age riddled with science fiction dystopian visions (that are insulting as well as tired and cliche) Simak's thoughtful and thought-provoking optimism is refreshing.
I think this is one of Simak's finest books for several of the same reasons that other people dislike it. The ending that many people dislike because it is not a big revelation or particularly interesting, is, on the level of metaphor, a perfect fit for real life. Real life isn't about the ending; it is about the characters, conversations, and choices one makes along the way. So is this book.
The essential arc of the book concerns how human beings choose to relate to the Other and whether or not that makes them valuable to the Universe. Reduced to its bare bones, the main character makes crucial choices that demonstrate that Humanity is not lost. The other supposedly "stock" characters (which are stereotypical because they are primarily illustrative archetypes) have moments where they reveal their true depths and humanity but ultimately fail to evolve out of their narrow preconceptions about the Universe, and therefore, also fail to enter the realm of possibilities that the Universe offers.
In an age riddled with science fiction dystopian visions (that are insulting as well as tired and cliche) Simak's thoughtful and thought-provoking optimism is refreshing.
December 8, 2024
Special Deliverance is one of Simak's least serious books on the surface, but he does examine some weighty topics involving religion and the existence of souls and the development and evolution of artificial intelligence. The plot reminds me of something like The Breakfast Club crew (a pleasingly diverse cast of characters representing different classes and social levels) being stuck in a fantasy world escape room environment rather than in a library detention hall. There are some things that are never quite explained completely, a device Simak employed with some frequency in his latter works, which was occasionally annoying and at other times quite fitting. It's a sense-of-wonder book, after all, both from the gosh-wow science fiction side as well as from the mystical viewpoint. I thought he struck a good balance between philosophical debate and action/adventure in this one, though the ending may be a little weak. Del Rey published it first in 1982 with one of Michael Whelan's gorgeous covers that's more whimsical than his usual. It's a fun read.
February 2, 2023
This wasn't nearly as good as Way Station, which I read back in 2020 and gave five stars, but I still had a good time with it and will continue my project of collecting all of Simak's books in their vintage janky paperback editions.
Special Deliverance was once of the last books Simak published before his death, and it does bear the hallmarks of a later work in his career, with a revisiting of themes, and a bit of tiredness in sections of the plot (something that feels obvious to me, having read only a book published early in his career before this). But it's also got a unique and kooky premise that made it an interesting reading experience. So far in my journey to read classic sf authors, Simak remains the only one whose books I genuinely enjoy, as opposed to reading them and finding them intellectually interesting but devoid of emotional interest for me, which is what has happened so for with my forays into Heinlein, Asimov, Bester, Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, and Walter M. Miller, Jr; coughcough you will notice the lack of women coughcough. Of the authors listed, I liked Philip K. Dick the best but that's because he wrote wackadoo shit, and that's always an entertaining time.
Simak stands apart for me because he wrote about human kindness and the future of humanity in a way that had a hopeful bent rather than a cynical one. And at least so far (knock on wood) his books have had the least amount of weird sexism and gender fuckery of any of the authors I listed above. He also had an incredibly imagination, finding the incredibly in very mundane things.
Apparently this book isn't very well beloved in his body of work, but I had a good time with it, and unless I come across a stinker that totally turns me off, I will be reading much more from him.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
Special Deliverance was once of the last books Simak published before his death, and it does bear the hallmarks of a later work in his career, with a revisiting of themes, and a bit of tiredness in sections of the plot (something that feels obvious to me, having read only a book published early in his career before this). But it's also got a unique and kooky premise that made it an interesting reading experience. So far in my journey to read classic sf authors, Simak remains the only one whose books I genuinely enjoy, as opposed to reading them and finding them intellectually interesting but devoid of emotional interest for me, which is what has happened so for with my forays into Heinlein, Asimov, Bester, Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, and Walter M. Miller, Jr; coughcough you will notice the lack of women coughcough. Of the authors listed, I liked Philip K. Dick the best but that's because he wrote wackadoo shit, and that's always an entertaining time.
Simak stands apart for me because he wrote about human kindness and the future of humanity in a way that had a hopeful bent rather than a cynical one. And at least so far (knock on wood) his books have had the least amount of weird sexism and gender fuckery of any of the authors I listed above. He also had an incredibly imagination, finding the incredibly in very mundane things.
Apparently this book isn't very well beloved in his body of work, but I had a good time with it, and unless I come across a stinker that totally turns me off, I will be reading much more from him.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
June 22, 2015
Clifford D. Simak was named the third winner of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, just after Robert Heinlein and Jack Williamson and he also won several Hugos and a Nebula as well as being named as one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. If writing awards were worn on the chest like military medals, then Clifford Simak would be one of our most decorated veterans.
And yet I had never read him. So when I recently acquired this novel along with several dozen other hand-me-downs, I moved it up to the top of my list. Published in 1982, this novel was very near the end of Simak’s writing career and it includes several of the science fiction themes for which he became known: a mostly rural setting, potential time travel with intersecting parallel universes, and robots that are the deep philosophical thinkers. In this book, the protagonist is Edward Lansing, a professor in our present day Earth. He is mysteriously manipulated into travelling to what appears to be another dimension, a completely unknown location in place and time. He is joined by others who have similarly been yanked from their worlds and times, all seemingly from different versions of Earth-like societies, all of certain archetypes (the military man, the priest, the engineer, the poet, and the companionable robot who may be more human than any of the others). Together they try to solve the puzzle of how to find a way back to their homes although they quickly conclude that they can’t really go back, only forward.
The book contains a fair amount of philosophizing as well as character interaction as the group tries to move forward. They do wear on each other’s nerves and, I must say, on mine as well from time to time. Not all mysteries are solved by the end of the story. Another signature feature of Simak’s work is his introduction of strange happenings that are never explained. For example, there is a mysterious creature that sort of stalks the group that they dub, “the Wailer” because of the sounds it makes. By the end of the book they do finally see what sort of creature it is but never an explanation of why it is included at all in the story.
While not my favorite read of the year, there was enough here for me to not say ‘no’ to another Simak novel. It was very readable, unlike many I have attempted from the “Grand Masters”. Perhaps I will look for his most famous novel, City at some point in the future.
And yet I had never read him. So when I recently acquired this novel along with several dozen other hand-me-downs, I moved it up to the top of my list. Published in 1982, this novel was very near the end of Simak’s writing career and it includes several of the science fiction themes for which he became known: a mostly rural setting, potential time travel with intersecting parallel universes, and robots that are the deep philosophical thinkers. In this book, the protagonist is Edward Lansing, a professor in our present day Earth. He is mysteriously manipulated into travelling to what appears to be another dimension, a completely unknown location in place and time. He is joined by others who have similarly been yanked from their worlds and times, all seemingly from different versions of Earth-like societies, all of certain archetypes (the military man, the priest, the engineer, the poet, and the companionable robot who may be more human than any of the others). Together they try to solve the puzzle of how to find a way back to their homes although they quickly conclude that they can’t really go back, only forward.
The book contains a fair amount of philosophizing as well as character interaction as the group tries to move forward. They do wear on each other’s nerves and, I must say, on mine as well from time to time. Not all mysteries are solved by the end of the story. Another signature feature of Simak’s work is his introduction of strange happenings that are never explained. For example, there is a mysterious creature that sort of stalks the group that they dub, “the Wailer” because of the sounds it makes. By the end of the book they do finally see what sort of creature it is but never an explanation of why it is included at all in the story.
While not my favorite read of the year, there was enough here for me to not say ‘no’ to another Simak novel. It was very readable, unlike many I have attempted from the “Grand Masters”. Perhaps I will look for his most famous novel, City at some point in the future.
March 2, 2009
I read another Simak book way back in high school (Enchanted Pilgrimage) and I remember it being pretty good, so I thought that I would give this author another go.
A great start to this book, but the ending left me feeling like I had just been robbed. You know the feeling... you read a book only to discover that the ending just doesn't cut it.
The first few chapters were captivating and really piqued my interest. As the book progressed though, I found myself wondering where it was headed. The characters didn't seem to progress at all and the end seemed nowhere in sight. However, after finishing, I understood why this was happening.
Unfortunately, the book was light on character development. It would have been nice if Simak would have included more of the emotional and mental states of the characters, revealing more of the strain that they were going through as they experienced the other-worldly situations that they had been cast into.
I would have given this 1 star, but I felt that the premise and the initial few chapters elevated it to 2 stars.
A great start to this book, but the ending left me feeling like I had just been robbed. You know the feeling... you read a book only to discover that the ending just doesn't cut it.
The first few chapters were captivating and really piqued my interest. As the book progressed though, I found myself wondering where it was headed. The characters didn't seem to progress at all and the end seemed nowhere in sight. However, after finishing, I understood why this was happening.
Unfortunately, the book was light on character development. It would have been nice if Simak would have included more of the emotional and mental states of the characters, revealing more of the strain that they were going through as they experienced the other-worldly situations that they had been cast into.
I would have given this 1 star, but I felt that the premise and the initial few chapters elevated it to 2 stars.
March 7, 2012
A mostly pleasant read with an engaging mystery. Unfortunately populated with stock characters, Lansing and Mary being more developed but still drawn in pretty broad strokes. I did very much appreciate Mary's importance to the plot (it is she that finally solves the puzzle), as well as the gender-role inversion of having Mary as the logical engineer and Lansing the more intuitive/emotional humanities professor. The mystery of the world and how they got there is the real star of the book and it certainly kept me turning pages. The resolution of the mystery is one of my least favorite of the standard sf tropes, so that was disappointing, but I do love that Lansing had much the same reaction as I did.
Not as good as Project Pope or City, the other two Simak books I've really enjoyed.
Not as good as Project Pope or City, the other two Simak books I've really enjoyed.
June 3, 2014
The concepts were fantastic and the delivery was as expected from a newspaper reporter born in the first half of the 20th century. There were moments that showed such great promise and then love came into the story which often seems like a useless tack on. At the heart of this though, it was an excellent story that explores the possibility of multiple alternate realities in operation at the same time and how those realities were created out of crisis. The author also clearly did not hold out much hope for the future of humanity and somehow managed to find an escape hatch. It reminds me of the critical mantra I try to apply to my life... "There is no way out, only in."
April 2, 2019
This 1982 novel could be seen as either a measure of the changing measures of quality in science fiction, or the sad fact that even great writers can decline as they get older. Clifford Simak was a big name from the late 30s and had major success in the 1960s - in my edition of this book, his name is even given a special logo. His Hugo Award winning Away Station was excellent. But, sadly, Special Deliverance is dire.
This book fits into the now largely defunct literary category of science fantasy (though it live on on the screen with Star Wars) which has fantastical happenings or devices that are given a scientific gloss that makes it seem feasible that they could be real. The main character, Edward Lansing is a university lecturer in an alternate Earth where, for example, education is funded by the income from slot machines. He is transported to another alternate Earth where he joins up with five others, each from a different version of Earth, on a quest that is, for most of the book, opaque. The quest members are given no guidance as to what to do and meander across a stock 'weird place' landscape.
So far, while nothing too original - it's reminiscent of outright fantasies like Heinlein's Glory Road, with a touch of Away Station's theme of being taken out of your own world to do a role selected for you by aliens - as a concept it has some promise. But the dialogue (of which there's a lot, much of it bickering) would, frankly, be wooden in the 1930s, let alone the 1980s - it doesn't so much creak as collapse under its own dead weight. The characters have 1950s attitudes and the whole plot seems dreamed up as the author went along with very little structure or point.
There's surely no way a book like this could be published today, even by a well-known author. It's a real shame. But it is a reminder to go back and rediscover some of Simak's better titles.
This book fits into the now largely defunct literary category of science fantasy (though it live on on the screen with Star Wars) which has fantastical happenings or devices that are given a scientific gloss that makes it seem feasible that they could be real. The main character, Edward Lansing is a university lecturer in an alternate Earth where, for example, education is funded by the income from slot machines. He is transported to another alternate Earth where he joins up with five others, each from a different version of Earth, on a quest that is, for most of the book, opaque. The quest members are given no guidance as to what to do and meander across a stock 'weird place' landscape.
So far, while nothing too original - it's reminiscent of outright fantasies like Heinlein's Glory Road, with a touch of Away Station's theme of being taken out of your own world to do a role selected for you by aliens - as a concept it has some promise. But the dialogue (of which there's a lot, much of it bickering) would, frankly, be wooden in the 1930s, let alone the 1980s - it doesn't so much creak as collapse under its own dead weight. The characters have 1950s attitudes and the whole plot seems dreamed up as the author went along with very little structure or point.
There's surely no way a book like this could be published today, even by a well-known author. It's a real shame. But it is a reminder to go back and rediscover some of Simak's better titles.
September 24, 2017
My experience of this book is two-folded: 200 pages of a basically average fantasy environment and a story-line (with some intriguing philosophical parts though) suddenly end with 10 pages of pure science-fiction with engrossing ideas and a great, unexpected ending.
One curious thing I stumbled upon is the comparison of the roaring wall of Chaos with the wall of China and the relevance of this to modern politics (Trump's wall) on the last page of the book:
"Chaos is a sophisticated Chinese wall," said D. "An utterly stupid thing to build. It was the last and greatest folly performed by the former people of this planet. It contibuted to their downfall..."
One curious thing I stumbled upon is the comparison of the roaring wall of Chaos with the wall of China and the relevance of this to modern politics (Trump's wall) on the last page of the book:
"Chaos is a sophisticated Chinese wall," said D. "An utterly stupid thing to build. It was the last and greatest folly performed by the former people of this planet. It contibuted to their downfall..."
December 19, 2013
Minor Simak. People from various alternate worlds, including a robot, are manipulated into exploring a mysterious land with strange objects for reasons none of them know and the survivors eventually discover. Simak usually excels at creating ordinary folk, but none of the characters here emerge as more than a caricature. I was a bit disappointed as some of his other books like City are so much better.
June 10, 2011
I have read other books by Mr. Simak, but this does not feel in the same league. The story was mildly interesting, but the dialogue was so rigid and formal that I almost put the book aside a few times. Hard to recommend this unless you just want to read the entire Clifford Simak library.
June 17, 2022
”I have a hobby,” said the robot, “of collecting crackpots. I have one who thinks he’s God whenever he gets drunk.”
“That lets me out,” said Lansing. “Drunk or sober, I never think I’m God.”
“Ah,” said Jurgens, “that’s but one road crackpottery can take. There are many others.”
“I have no doubt there are,” said Lansing.
I enjoy Clifford Simak’s stories—they intrigue without overstaying their welcome. He’s a science fiction writer in the 50s style: He posits an issue, explores said issue, resolves novel. No muss, no fuss; no irritating tangents vying for attention from the core story. Special Deliverance was written in 1982, but reads like something from 1952. A Shakespeare scholar is transported to an alternative world (Earth?) with a group of disparate characters from alternative Earths. They do not know why they have been sent here, nor do they know their purpose. They explore the landscape, comment on the transient nature of civilization, move on.
While the novel is full of interesting settings and conversations, it suffers from poor pacing. Too often, we have chapters where a character debates whether or not to do something we the reader know he or she is going to do because there’s no way the story can advance if they remain inactive.
These characters lack depth. The protagonist, for instance, is a Shakespeare scholar, becoming involved because he investigates how one of his students cheats on a college essay. Problem is, after arriving in the alternative world, he never mentions Shakespeare or reading. Not once—surprisingly—does he drop a Shakespeare quote or allusion. He’s able to build a fire from scratch, is well-versed on survival techniques when crossing hostile terrain, is adept at strategizing how to avoid potential conflicts. He acts like a Navy Seal, not a college professor.
I took two Shakespeare courses: Neither professor would last a day in this world. Furthermore, if my life were studying the works of Shakespeare and I found myself in a world without books, much less Shakespeare, I would articulate quite a monologue on the tragedy of my situation. Not here: Professor Lansing just moves on without once noting or acting like he’s out of his element. It keeps the novel moving, sure, but it stretches credulity quite thin. The other characters are also one-dimensional and merely serve as foils. Oddly enough, the final sentence of the novel quotes John Milton's Paradise Lost--not Shakespeare. Why not make Lansing a Milton scholar instead?
The one character I found interesting was Jurgens, the robot transported from an Earth where humanity has departed for the stars, leaving the machines behind with a handful of humans deemed unworthy of bringing on the voyage out. There’s a similarity in Jurgens to the robots in Simak’s Project Pope, written around the same time. Again, Simak hints at something provocative with his robot character but never fails to bring the story to any satisfying denouement. Simak is always on the cusp of writing a great robot novel, but, as far the novels I have read by him, has not done so.
If you’re interested in delving into Simak’s work, I highly recommend starting with Way Station as well as Mastodonia. I recommend reading The Pope Project prior this one. Actually, I only recommend this one if you want to read all the Simak out there.
“That lets me out,” said Lansing. “Drunk or sober, I never think I’m God.”
“Ah,” said Jurgens, “that’s but one road crackpottery can take. There are many others.”
“I have no doubt there are,” said Lansing.
I enjoy Clifford Simak’s stories—they intrigue without overstaying their welcome. He’s a science fiction writer in the 50s style: He posits an issue, explores said issue, resolves novel. No muss, no fuss; no irritating tangents vying for attention from the core story. Special Deliverance was written in 1982, but reads like something from 1952. A Shakespeare scholar is transported to an alternative world (Earth?) with a group of disparate characters from alternative Earths. They do not know why they have been sent here, nor do they know their purpose. They explore the landscape, comment on the transient nature of civilization, move on.
While the novel is full of interesting settings and conversations, it suffers from poor pacing. Too often, we have chapters where a character debates whether or not to do something we the reader know he or she is going to do because there’s no way the story can advance if they remain inactive.
These characters lack depth. The protagonist, for instance, is a Shakespeare scholar, becoming involved because he investigates how one of his students cheats on a college essay. Problem is, after arriving in the alternative world, he never mentions Shakespeare or reading. Not once—surprisingly—does he drop a Shakespeare quote or allusion. He’s able to build a fire from scratch, is well-versed on survival techniques when crossing hostile terrain, is adept at strategizing how to avoid potential conflicts. He acts like a Navy Seal, not a college professor.
I took two Shakespeare courses: Neither professor would last a day in this world. Furthermore, if my life were studying the works of Shakespeare and I found myself in a world without books, much less Shakespeare, I would articulate quite a monologue on the tragedy of my situation. Not here: Professor Lansing just moves on without once noting or acting like he’s out of his element. It keeps the novel moving, sure, but it stretches credulity quite thin. The other characters are also one-dimensional and merely serve as foils. Oddly enough, the final sentence of the novel quotes John Milton's Paradise Lost--not Shakespeare. Why not make Lansing a Milton scholar instead?
The one character I found interesting was Jurgens, the robot transported from an Earth where humanity has departed for the stars, leaving the machines behind with a handful of humans deemed unworthy of bringing on the voyage out. There’s a similarity in Jurgens to the robots in Simak’s Project Pope, written around the same time. Again, Simak hints at something provocative with his robot character but never fails to bring the story to any satisfying denouement. Simak is always on the cusp of writing a great robot novel, but, as far the novels I have read by him, has not done so.
If you’re interested in delving into Simak’s work, I highly recommend starting with Way Station as well as Mastodonia. I recommend reading The Pope Project prior this one. Actually, I only recommend this one if you want to read all the Simak out there.
January 21, 2019
This book reads EXACTLY like a home-brewed D&D campaign, written years before D&D was A Thing. I was laughing my butt off as the author checked off one stereotype after another, and toward the end I was shouting "don't split up the party! you never split up the party!" Rated only 3 stars because it needed more interesting NPCs and better guidance from the DM to keep the party from wasting hours poking and prodding meaningless locations that didn't advance the plot.
June 13, 2025
It’s not about the story it’s about the voices on the pilgrimage
The man of faith who has no faith
The businessman, the poetess, the robot. Classic Simack tropes,
6 pages of plot and then 200 pages of talking and camping on a journey to the unknown.
Ponderous, flat characters , rehashed ideas Simack has written about before.
If you are doing a completist tour of his work as I am in 2025, good luck, otherwise for sure skippable.
The man of faith who has no faith
The businessman, the poetess, the robot. Classic Simack tropes,
6 pages of plot and then 200 pages of talking and camping on a journey to the unknown.
Ponderous, flat characters , rehashed ideas Simack has written about before.
If you are doing a completist tour of his work as I am in 2025, good luck, otherwise for sure skippable.
July 8, 2020
DNFed at 70%
It is just a party with bunch of non essential characters walking on and on an on.
Almost nothing happenes in between and the dialogues are philosophical and weird.
The whole story world is weird.
Lost what little interest that was there.
It is just a party with bunch of non essential characters walking on and on an on.
Almost nothing happenes in between and the dialogues are philosophical and weird.
The whole story world is weird.
Lost what little interest that was there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2022
Early Bird Book Deal
September 5, 2025
Cinque umani e un robot, provenienti da Terre parallele, si ritrovano in uno strano mondo morente, costantemente messi alla prova da non meglio identificate entità.
Il cubo azzurro è un romanzo breve ma intenso, pieno al contempo di critica per le debolezze umane e di speranza per un futuro migliore. Simak, come al solito, è stupefacente nel raccontare una storia che, senza il clamore di spettacolari scene d’azione o di un’ambientazione particolarmente sorprendente, riesce a tenere alta la tensione dall’inizio alla — purtroppo un po’ affrettata — fine. Fantascienza classica fatta bene e invecchiata meglio: cosa chiedere di più?
Il cubo azzurro è un romanzo breve ma intenso, pieno al contempo di critica per le debolezze umane e di speranza per un futuro migliore. Simak, come al solito, è stupefacente nel raccontare una storia che, senza il clamore di spettacolari scene d’azione o di un’ambientazione particolarmente sorprendente, riesce a tenere alta la tensione dall’inizio alla — purtroppo un po’ affrettata — fine. Fantascienza classica fatta bene e invecchiata meglio: cosa chiedere di più?
September 6, 2022
This was my second dive into Clifford Simak's fantasy/science fiction works. And, like Enchanted Pilgrimage, Simak delivers a fairly well-crafted, enjoyable story. The good news in this case was that Special Deliverance stands on its own beginning to end (unlike Pilgrimage which felt incomplete).
What happens when a college professor travels through a portal to a mysterious planet along with others - all of who do not know why or how that arrived there? Each brings a different life perspective into their exploration of where they might be and why only they seem to have been transported. Deliverance poses a number of questions about our society, its direction and some of the philosophical/religious beliefs that drive our decisions.
Simak definitely has some cultural stereotypes that would be frowned upon today - but, knowing the age he grew up in and keeping that in mind as a reader, you can suspend judgement. Overall - a 3.5 star read rounded up to 4.
What happens when a college professor travels through a portal to a mysterious planet along with others - all of who do not know why or how that arrived there? Each brings a different life perspective into their exploration of where they might be and why only they seem to have been transported. Deliverance poses a number of questions about our society, its direction and some of the philosophical/religious beliefs that drive our decisions.
Simak definitely has some cultural stereotypes that would be frowned upon today - but, knowing the age he grew up in and keeping that in mind as a reader, you can suspend judgement. Overall - a 3.5 star read rounded up to 4.
March 22, 2016
After a hiatus of almost 45 years I have read five of Simak’s short novels in the past two months. The allure of nostalgia is now secondary to an interest in the drive that compels Simak to tell such similar stories right up until the day he dies at age 84. Now reading some of his later books (I hadn’t read anything beyond Goblin Reservation in 1969), I notice that he’d abandoned the paranoid flight trope for the quest trope, surrounding his protagonist with others who assist—or who serve as narrative complements or contrasts. In the earlier novels his reluctant protagonists were bearers of some great truth communicated by alien intelligences beyond human ken; in the later novels, the protagonists find themselves engaged in a pilgrimage, going from one station or trial to another until they have found enlightenment or deliverance.
English professor Edward Lansing is one of four humans and a robot from alternate Earths who simultaneously end up together on a desolate Earth-like planet. They travel together to discover means to return to their worlds, secondarily to understand what lies behind their predicament. Each member of the party is a type, an everyman who hails from an Earth that has developed along different historical lines. Mary, for instance, an engineer, comes from a world where the British Empire prevails and the U.S. never came to be. While Mary’s status as empiricist ends up possessing additional depth, the Brigadier, the Parson, and Clara the poetess never progress beyond serving as two-dimensional types. (The robot, however, is a special case; Simak has always had a soft spot for extra-human sentience, whether dogs or robots or even raccoons.)
The party travels and suffers trials at different stations along the way: two inns at different points in the quest (somehow maintained by humans ignorant of the agency that supports them and also brings the humans to the planet); a large building-sized blue cube that defies penetration; a deserted centuries-old city (in which there are means to escape to unknown worlds); a large, tall tower whose vibrations in the wind makes it sing; a dark impenetrable cloud mass called chaos; a vast desert emptiness; and a settlement of humans who’ve given up their quests.
Each of the several different stations is endured both as threat and temptation, and members of the party die or vanish at various stages so that only Mary and Lansing succeed at last in meeting the entities behind their pilgrimage. The two are told that have earned the right to be delivered to a world where humans have the best chance to succeed as a species. The conclusion of the novel is particularly interesting for its understated religious and metaphysical suppositions.
Of the eight or so Simak novels I've read, Special Deliverance is the most direct statement of his religious and sociological sentiments. The novel has an engaging premise—provocatively initiated by taking a gamble with slot machines—and through the lens of parable and allegory, it gains some additional heft. There is about Simak’s style an easy affability, which he translates into the character of everyman Lansing: ultimately decent, the person whom others in the party found most empathetic and fair minded [if we can blot out the too casual use of the word “bitch” that he uses to characterize a late appearing female character]. Simak doesn’t make a big production about his characters’ ultimate progress, and his novel’s conclusions always seem a bit flat—but appropriate to a man who means only to while away the time fishing, that he not be too concerned whether he lands anything or not…
English professor Edward Lansing is one of four humans and a robot from alternate Earths who simultaneously end up together on a desolate Earth-like planet. They travel together to discover means to return to their worlds, secondarily to understand what lies behind their predicament. Each member of the party is a type, an everyman who hails from an Earth that has developed along different historical lines. Mary, for instance, an engineer, comes from a world where the British Empire prevails and the U.S. never came to be. While Mary’s status as empiricist ends up possessing additional depth, the Brigadier, the Parson, and Clara the poetess never progress beyond serving as two-dimensional types. (The robot, however, is a special case; Simak has always had a soft spot for extra-human sentience, whether dogs or robots or even raccoons.)
The party travels and suffers trials at different stations along the way: two inns at different points in the quest (somehow maintained by humans ignorant of the agency that supports them and also brings the humans to the planet); a large building-sized blue cube that defies penetration; a deserted centuries-old city (in which there are means to escape to unknown worlds); a large, tall tower whose vibrations in the wind makes it sing; a dark impenetrable cloud mass called chaos; a vast desert emptiness; and a settlement of humans who’ve given up their quests.
Each of the several different stations is endured both as threat and temptation, and members of the party die or vanish at various stages so that only Mary and Lansing succeed at last in meeting the entities behind their pilgrimage. The two are told that have earned the right to be delivered to a world where humans have the best chance to succeed as a species. The conclusion of the novel is particularly interesting for its understated religious and metaphysical suppositions.
Of the eight or so Simak novels I've read, Special Deliverance is the most direct statement of his religious and sociological sentiments. The novel has an engaging premise—provocatively initiated by taking a gamble with slot machines—and through the lens of parable and allegory, it gains some additional heft. There is about Simak’s style an easy affability, which he translates into the character of everyman Lansing: ultimately decent, the person whom others in the party found most empathetic and fair minded [if we can blot out the too casual use of the word “bitch” that he uses to characterize a late appearing female character]. Simak doesn’t make a big production about his characters’ ultimate progress, and his novel’s conclusions always seem a bit flat—but appropriate to a man who means only to while away the time fishing, that he not be too concerned whether he lands anything or not…
May 19, 2019
Given how let down I was by Simak’s “Where the Evil Dwells”, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one. A quick read that was fun and somewhat thoughtful.
I don’t think a lot of the criticisms I see here hold up very well. “Portal” stories like this are probably my favorite type of fantasy, because ultimately they are a metaphor for Jung’s internal universe. The author’s at least, and if well done, our own as well. That being the case, it’s only natural for it to be populated with what people are derisively calling caricatures. There is no indication that they were ever meant to be anything more; in fact I’d say the fact that two of them are only ever called The Parson and The Brigadier are pretty generous hints that they were intended as archetypes. Also, what’s to be expected in 200 pages, a full development arc for everyone?
I don’t feel disappointed at the ending either. I don’t need explanations for every little thing. Reckon Simak did waste a few pages explaining some invented mechanism to explain how a slot machine transported Lansing. What is there to get from that? It would be just as boring as when a fantasy novel describes every asinine step and chant of a magic ritual.
What I liked best was Lansing and Mary’s relationship. The best adventure novels for me are a couple working together throughout. And I like that to be simple. No love triangle with unpredictable (thrown in for the hell of it) twists. Being a fantasy novel, natural affinity works just fine as a motive for two characters to get together. Being attracted to someone in reality is not the same as in a dream, it does not need to be handled the same.
This has me interested to read more of his work and I definitely recommend it for a quick fun read. Apparently I need to check out “City”.
I don’t think a lot of the criticisms I see here hold up very well. “Portal” stories like this are probably my favorite type of fantasy, because ultimately they are a metaphor for Jung’s internal universe. The author’s at least, and if well done, our own as well. That being the case, it’s only natural for it to be populated with what people are derisively calling caricatures. There is no indication that they were ever meant to be anything more; in fact I’d say the fact that two of them are only ever called The Parson and The Brigadier are pretty generous hints that they were intended as archetypes. Also, what’s to be expected in 200 pages, a full development arc for everyone?
I don’t feel disappointed at the ending either. I don’t need explanations for every little thing. Reckon Simak did waste a few pages explaining some invented mechanism to explain how a slot machine transported Lansing. What is there to get from that? It would be just as boring as when a fantasy novel describes every asinine step and chant of a magic ritual.
What I liked best was Lansing and Mary’s relationship. The best adventure novels for me are a couple working together throughout. And I like that to be simple. No love triangle with unpredictable (thrown in for the hell of it) twists. Being a fantasy novel, natural affinity works just fine as a motive for two characters to get together. Being attracted to someone in reality is not the same as in a dream, it does not need to be handled the same.
This has me interested to read more of his work and I definitely recommend it for a quick fun read. Apparently I need to check out “City”.
March 21, 2018
I bought this book when it was published, in 1982. It is one of the few paperbacks that have survived and still exist in my library today. Very few physical books I've bought have earned that distinction, especially with e-reader versions so readily available. Special Deliverance is one in that group because it never fails to evoke a sense of wonder, even though I've read it many times.
For whose who grew up in the 70's and 80's, this novel may seem familiar because of the way it melds science fiction with the epic quests of role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. It's like playing The Legend of Zelda on SuperNES, going from place to place, returning to solve a puzzle that couldn't be solved upon the first visit to a location, and looking for information - sometimes to no avail - in an attempt to explain ones surroundings.
The actual reveal at the end of the story, though satisfying, isn't monumental. The answer to the central mystery is a bit obvious. It is the setting itself - an alternate earth comprising things at once familiar and very strange - that captivates. Simak doesn't explain everything, leaving some of the minor mysteries unsolved. This leaves the reader continuing to fathom the "why" of something long after the last page, very much like disturbing images in a horror/fantasy film that one can't dismiss from the mind for weeks after viewing. In Deliverance, it is the real purpose of the Singing Tower, the reason why the Wailer wails, and where the inn keepers go in the off season on a world that by definition exists only to capture the unwilling, sending many of them to deaths born of their own poor choices, that continue to niggle at the mind long after the book has been shelved.
For whose who grew up in the 70's and 80's, this novel may seem familiar because of the way it melds science fiction with the epic quests of role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. It's like playing The Legend of Zelda on SuperNES, going from place to place, returning to solve a puzzle that couldn't be solved upon the first visit to a location, and looking for information - sometimes to no avail - in an attempt to explain ones surroundings.
The actual reveal at the end of the story, though satisfying, isn't monumental. The answer to the central mystery is a bit obvious. It is the setting itself - an alternate earth comprising things at once familiar and very strange - that captivates. Simak doesn't explain everything, leaving some of the minor mysteries unsolved. This leaves the reader continuing to fathom the "why" of something long after the last page, very much like disturbing images in a horror/fantasy film that one can't dismiss from the mind for weeks after viewing. In Deliverance, it is the real purpose of the Singing Tower, the reason why the Wailer wails, and where the inn keepers go in the off season on a world that by definition exists only to capture the unwilling, sending many of them to deaths born of their own poor choices, that continue to niggle at the mind long after the book has been shelved.
November 18, 2017
I'm catching up on Clifford D. Simak, a master writer that I've shamefully missed for far too long. Having said that, "Special Deliverance" does not nearly come up to the standard of "Way Station" or "City". It was readable, but not especially deep, and far shorter than it could have been. Had Simak taken the trouble to develop his characters and/or the mise en scene, it would have been much better. But then, he wrote this very late in his career, and may have just been tired.
Fortunately, there is a lot of his Golden Age writing that I haven't touched yet, so I have better things to look forward to!
Fortunately, there is a lot of his Golden Age writing that I haven't touched yet, so I have better things to look forward to!
March 22, 2013
Love this book... It is more than the words on the page. The ideals within spoke to me. I feel that many books or movies must find you at the right time in your life or they don't have impact. This one found me.
The only part of the book that bogs down a bit is when Lansing is out on the dunes alone for awhile. But somehow it conveys the right feelings by bogging down...
I think the message of the book is don't take the easy way out, Don't get distracted, Don't let this world consume you, Don't be closed minded, but do think about things...
My two cents.
The only part of the book that bogs down a bit is when Lansing is out on the dunes alone for awhile. But somehow it conveys the right feelings by bogging down...
I think the message of the book is don't take the easy way out, Don't get distracted, Don't let this world consume you, Don't be closed minded, but do think about things...
My two cents.
May 27, 2014
A college professor (of literature) is more or less abducted from our world and appears on a planet - a future Earth? somewhere else entirely? - along with a set of archetypal figures from other eras in Earth's history, or perhaps from the history of parallel Earths. Working and kvetching together, they have to deduce why they are there and where to go next. The story is enjoyable enough, but reads as an awkward cross between an allegory and a pulp adventure, and the gender roles are a bit fusty. Not Simak's best.
July 9, 2016
A good idea that goes on a bit too long--would have been just right as a short story.
January 22, 2014
Tutto ha inizio quando il professor Edward Lansing decide di scoprire chi ha realmente
scritto un magnifico saggio su Shakespeare consegnatogli da un suo studente e viene a
sapere che l’alunno l’ha comprato, pensate un po’!, da una slot machine. Una rapida
investigazione ed ecco che il professor Lansing si trova di fronte alla macchinetta: questa
gli dà due chiavi e lo manda alla ricerca di un’altra slot machine. La terza slot machine
infine si prende il suo denaro e lo trasporta in un nuovo mondo. Qui Lansing incontra uno
strano assortimento di compagni di viaggio, tra cui un prepotente brigadiere, un prete
pomposo, una donna ingegnere, una poetessa e un simpatico robot, tutti ignari e perplessi
come lui. Allontanati dalle loro linee temporali e scaraventati in questo nuovo mondo,
sono tutti giocatori in un gioco senza regole e apparentemente anche senza scopo.
Comincia così un viaggio straordinario che porterà i nostri forzati avventurieri prima a un
immenso cubo azzurro e poi a un’antica e misteriosa città: scopriranno allora di dover
risolvere un enigma fondamentale, la cui soluzione garantirà loro un ruolo di rilievo nello
sviluppo della società galattica.
September 18, 2024
I read Clifford Simak's Way Station a few years back, and remember finding it fascinating. Older science fiction can be hit-or-miss for me, but Simak's writing intrigued me enough that I wanted to give him another shot. And let's face it, for all we talk about not judging books by covers, that robot pouring itself a cup of tea on the cover was just quirky enough to catch my attention. I picked it up at a used book sale... and found it more bewildering than interesting. The author seems to refuse to explain anything that's going on in the book, and the characters and their journey are ultimately uninteresting.
Professor Lansing just wanted to find out where a student had purchased an essay that obviously wasn't his own work... but the student directs him to a mysterious slot machine that ultimately sends him to another world! He ends up at an inn where he joins a group of travelers -- a soldier, a parson, a poet, an engineer, and a robot -- as they try to discover why they've come to this world and how they can return home. Their quest will lead them to mysterious ruins, dangerous machines, and frightening creatures, and in the end not all of them will make it to the end of the journey...
There's so much that could have been done with this premise -- throwing six people from very different worlds together to solve a puzzle. The problem is that, when all is said and done, we learn nothing about how this puzzle is supposed to work. There are hints that these people are supposed to figure things out, but all that happens is that they wander around, stumble onto cubes and towers and old cities, and finally There's no attempt made to explain how the world works, the nature of the puzzle, or why certain things turn out to be threats. And though we get glimpses into the various worlds these people originate from, we never explore any in depth.
I might have been able to handle the lack of a plot if the characters had been at all enjoyable. But each one of them is given a single character trait and then never explored again. And I'm given no reason to care about any of them, which means Even the main character, Lansing, is so bland and personality-free that the plot's attempts to make me feel bad for him don't work.
I enjoyed Way Station, so I'm left scrambling to understand what happened here. I have one more book by this author sitting on my shelf at home, though, so I intend to give him one more chance...
Professor Lansing just wanted to find out where a student had purchased an essay that obviously wasn't his own work... but the student directs him to a mysterious slot machine that ultimately sends him to another world! He ends up at an inn where he joins a group of travelers -- a soldier, a parson, a poet, an engineer, and a robot -- as they try to discover why they've come to this world and how they can return home. Their quest will lead them to mysterious ruins, dangerous machines, and frightening creatures, and in the end not all of them will make it to the end of the journey...
There's so much that could have been done with this premise -- throwing six people from very different worlds together to solve a puzzle. The problem is that, when all is said and done, we learn nothing about how this puzzle is supposed to work. There are hints that these people are supposed to figure things out, but all that happens is that they wander around, stumble onto cubes and towers and old cities, and finally There's no attempt made to explain how the world works, the nature of the puzzle, or why certain things turn out to be threats. And though we get glimpses into the various worlds these people originate from, we never explore any in depth.
I might have been able to handle the lack of a plot if the characters had been at all enjoyable. But each one of them is given a single character trait and then never explored again. And I'm given no reason to care about any of them, which means Even the main character, Lansing, is so bland and personality-free that the plot's attempts to make me feel bad for him don't work.
I enjoyed Way Station, so I'm left scrambling to understand what happened here. I have one more book by this author sitting on my shelf at home, though, so I intend to give him one more chance...
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