Why Simak?

[[deleted user]]

I've started this group as a way of encouraging myself to read more Simak.

Who was Simak?

Simak was one of the most popular and respected science fiction authors of the 20th century. He is now largely forgotten and even his most important books are currently out-of-print in the U.S. (it looks like the UK's Gollancz has put out several Kindle editions and City is currently in the Masterworks collection).

Simak is often referred to as a "pastoral" science fiction author. His sturdy midwestern American sensibilites, a folksy humanism and a strong sense of place and community, are evident in his writing. His professionalism as a journalist is present in his no-nonsense writing style.

But, I'm just winging it with that description. I haven't read enough Simak to know any better and I'd like to remedy that now.

You're all better off reading Silverberg's introduction to City than read any more of my ramblings:
http://www.enter.net/~torve/higher/si...

This group is open to anyone interested in Simak.

This thread will be pinned as an introduction thread.

Once you've joined the group, answer below:

Why are YOU interested in Simak? And what is your previous experience and history of reading Simak (or maybe meeting the man!)? Let us know.

[[deleted user]]

Here's my confession: I have a really terrible memory when it comes to stories.

I'm not familiar with Simak's short fiction, but I have many of the issues of Galaxy in which they first appeared. I'm eager to check them out. As for his novels, I've read Time and Again, Ring Around the Sun, The Werewolf Principle, and A Choice of Gods.

I'm pretty sure that I first read those first three novels the summer before I got married. I was 21 and going through a period of rediscovering a love for classic sf. On our honeymoon to Boston, my wife and I stopped in at the NESFA Clubhouse (because that's the nerd thing to do to impress your new bride). I can't now remember much more than the tone of those novels, but I do remember trying to convince Mark Olson (editor with his wife of the NESFA Zenna Henderson collection) to get NESFA Press to put out a Complete Simak Collection. No such luck.

Years later, I gave my friend Fred some old sf paperbacks that I knew I wasn't ever going to get around to reading. He can correct me, but I'm pretty sure that one of these was A Choice of Gods. A few years later, Fred told me how great A Choice of Gods is. Eventually, I got around to reading it. And I could only agree that it is a fantastic small novel of big ideas. The trees! The robots! The malevolent deity! Oh my!

I'm attracted to Simak's style for the reasons that it has probably gone out of style. Simak seems to me to have been concerned with humanity, with small kindnesses and common cruelties, the stuff of everyday life set against the stars. His novels humbly tackle big ideas and leave this reader feeling that trademark sf sense of wonder, that the universe really is more startlingly wonderful than we have yet imagined.

[Lawrence]

Hello John - thanks for the invite (over on the Yahoo group). For me Simak was hauled up as part of the trawl when I began to read science-fiction around 2005 or 2006. Well, I say began - I'd read a reasonable quota of SF prior to that (most of Philip K. Dick for example) but had never really branched out from that which I knew, and I wanted to start taking chances. Simak (along with van Vogt) seemed to be a name I recall seeing all over the place as a kid in book stores fascinated by those covers, but he seemed to have dropped off the radar, which intrigued me. I began with the Sphere best of collection of short stories and decided this was definitely someone of whom I wanted to read more. read a few novels, and unsated - carried on, essentially doing the same as you are now doing, working through from Cosmic Engineers onwards - I have about six full length novels still to read.

His style, like that of Dick I would say, is pleasantly uncomplicated without being simplistic, the style of an author who feels no need to show off and who is keen to communicate. I'd say the greatest appeal for me is a pleasant and honest tone to the stories, and particularly that his tales can be incredibly unpredictable, flying off in an unusual narrative direction without warning much in the same way as a good van Vogt, but without the headaches.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome, Lawrence. Thanks for joining. I look forward to reading your perspective on the novels as I work my way through them.