Clifford Simak

[Dan]

Thanks Deborah and Laure for taking the time to answer my question in detail. From your descriptions I think I'd enjoy reading Simak's werewolf book. Thank you also John for the Jack Williamson recommendation.

I think for my Goodreads werewolf group's next read, we're going to make the category "science fiction werewolves". I have my two nominations already! That's going to be a good read indeed--getting to combine two genre loves!

[Haaze]

Dan wrote: "I think for my Goodreads werewolf group's next read, we're going to make the category "science fiction werewolves". I have my two nominations already! That's going to be a good read indeed--getting to combine two genre loves!"

You're in a werewolf group?!?!?!? Don't you run out of books after a year or so? By the way - do you know of any werewolf themed books originally written in French?

[Roddy]

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

That is 'City'. A fix up from a series of stories.

[Roddy]

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

No, it's more of a shapeshifting concept, but one of the shapes the protagonist can shift into is wolflike. Along with 'Way Station' it has always been one of my favourites. I've done a review here on Goodreads that will give you a clearer idea.

[Deb]

Randall Garrett's Lord D'Arcy series! now there is one author and his work I had virtually forgotten, it was a kind of magic realism wasn't it?

[mark, personal space invader]

I think more like urban fantasy, of the alternate history stripe, rather than magic realism.

[Dan]

I was surprised over the weekend to find a Clifford D. Simak short story in Asimov's anthology Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s. That's pre-1938! The story was "The World of the Red Sun". 1938 is Superman's birth year. He comes from a planet with a red sun, but Simak's story was published in the December 1931 issue of Wonder Stories. Anyway, it's nice to know Asimov himself was a Simak fan.

[C. John]

Dan wrote: "I was surprised over the weekend to find a Clifford D. Simak short story in Asimov's anthology Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s. That's pre-1938! The story was "The W..."

1938 is actually the first year Superman saw publication. He had been floating around for years. He first appeared in a fanzine that Seigel and Schuster put out. Then they tried to sell him to just about every publisher imaginable. I don't have my comic reference books close at hand but if interested I can dig the dates out I suspect.

[Dan]

Right. I knew it took them some years for them to get Superman into print and that it's a convoluted story in how they finally did. Since Simak's red sun story was published in 1931 I have to wonder if it was the inspiration for that part of the Superman legend, not that there is anything wrong with borrowing.

Here's the cover of the magazine in which Simak's first published work appeared. (See bottom right of cover.)

[Dan]

I spent much of the weekend reading Simak's first five short stories listed in his Wikipedia bibliography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffor...). They were published between Dec. 1931 and November 1932. Simak published one more story in 1935 and then began writing regularly in 1938 when John W. Campbell became editor at Astounding Stories.

All five short stories have recently become available online for free. The second through fifth are at archive.org (search terms are magazine title plus month and year). "The World of the Red Sun" I have in an Asimov story collection (Before the Golden Age 1) but is also online here: https://royallib.com/read/Simak_Cliff...

I don't recommend the stories as being all that entertaining or worthwhile, but they were interesting, especially from a historical perspective for pulp in general and Simak's roots in particular. The first and fifth story I would give four stars; the other three, three stars.

One of the main influences on Simak was H. G. Wells's novels. You can see the influence of The Time Machine very clearly in "The World of the Red Sun." Simak starts from the same premise of a time traveler going too far into the future. What the two travelers find there is very different though.

The fourth story, "Hellhounds of the Cosmos," is clearly derived from The War of the Worlds.

My favorite story is the fifth and final story of the group, which seems the closest to modern. It contains the very common science fiction trope of seeking mineral wealth in the asteroids, a vein still being mined today (for example, Leviathan Wakes). The reason I like it so much is that the story is the only one where character is written in a way that is as important to Simak as the attention given the plot. I take it as a sign of Simak's greatness to come.

[Lena]

Just finished my first Simak, City. Loved it!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jim]

Dan wrote: "Right. I knew it took them some years for them to get Superman into print and that it's a convoluted story in how they finally did. Since Simak's red sun story was published in 1931 I have to wonde..."

I love those old pulp Sf magazine covers !!

[Jim]

C. John wrote: "Dan wrote: "I was surprised over the weekend to find a Clifford D. Simak short story in Asimov's anthology Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s. That's pre-1938! The stor..."

This was Simak's first SF story. It was published by Hugo Gernsback in the December 1931 issue of Wonder Stories. Here's a link that talks about the story.
http://darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas.o...