When I was a kid just starting out as a read of SF of all kinds, Clifford Simak's City was one of my favorite books. It was composed of previously published short stories, and one of those, "Desertion," knocked me for a loop. It remains one of my very favorite stories and has perhaps my favorite last line of any story ever. If I were to make a list of my favorite SF writers, Simak would be in the top 5.
I've said all this before, of course. City was the subject of my very first "forgotten books column." That was back in 2008, and I'm revisiting it here because I just read Robert Silverberg's intro to it in the Easton Press edition, thanks to a mention at SF Signal. It's a wonderful essay, not just on City but on Simak as well. Here's the link, and I highly recommend it as the one of the best things you'll read today about a forgotten book: Clifford Simak's City. I hope you'll check it out.
4 comments:
Great article on Simak by Silverberg! I hadn't read this before. CITY is one of my favorite SF novels. I'm also a big fan of WAY STATION.
Simak is in my top two or three SF authors, and CITY is indeed a classic. Thanks for posting this again!
Thanks for posting this. I've had an old copy of CITY for decades, but only got around to reading it maybe a year ago; this essay (of which I was previously unaware) gives me a new angle from which to appreciate that flawed but lovely and fascinating collection of tales.
Thanks for your comments on Simak and your ref. to the wonderful Silverberg essay! I'd read it before, but had forgotten how good it is.
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