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Summary: Dogs, Robots and Ants Inherit the Earth
Review: The thing that makes this book just a little difficult to get into at first is that the perspective is that of those who inherited the Earth from Mankind. The introduction at the beginning of the story is the kind of introduction you might find today in a book about legends and their sources. While the introduction slows down the reader's entry into the book, the reader later uses the introduction to help tie the eight short stories in the book together into a more coherent framework. What the introduction infers is that the storyteller is an intelligent canine, and the eight stories are the remaining fragments of stories regarding the perhaps mythic creatures called Man. The canine writing the story notes that there are conflicting viewpoints as to whether Man in fact ever existed, or was used to explain the origins of the intelligence of dogs. The perspective of the narrator in the initial introduction and in the introduction of each of the stories is quite interesting and gives the reader a unique perspective.The stories themselves are interesting, but venture beyond science fiction in a variety of ways. An explanation for ghosts is provided briefly. There are so many elements introduced that are beyond our current knowledge that the story is closer to fantasy. The stories cover genetically engineering dogs to have intelligence comparable to Man's. We see a society that is so wealthy that cities are no longer required and everyone lives on a country estate. Energy is abundant and incredibly cheap. Man has the ability to transform himself into other creatures. A class of man has mutated into incredibly intelligent and powerful beings that build doors to other worlds, and then they left the rest of mankind behind. Incredibly intelligent robots also appear throughout these stories. I kept wondering why a robot would serve man for millennia when it had intelligence that appeared to surpass man's, however, I had to suspend logic just a bit, though I also assumed that perhaps the robots had laws similar to those that Isaac Asimov later created for robots. A sort of toss in side story that appears in a couple of places is apparently advanced ants. The one flaw with that side story is that ants have existed for millennia in the tropics and have not had to hibernate, and they had all the advantages of the ants in the story. Once again Simak has included another fantastic story element. These stories were written in the 40s during a time of transition and development of modern science fiction. Science fantasy had yet to be defined, and many early works of science fiction were so bizarre that were they to be published today they might well be considered fantasy versus the previously all-encompassing science fiction category. However, even with the fantastic elements of the story the book is a good read. The perspective of the dogs in the later stories is plausible and interesting. I was most intrigued by the conclusion of the collection. I had anticipated several endings, and yet the actual ending was disturbing and somewhat sobering. Clifford D. Simak tried his very best not to be egocentric with respect to his species. I think that during the time these stories were written this collection was likely one of the more innovative and interesting works. Today the stories are a bit dated because we have accumulated another 60 years of knowledge. We have learned that hibernation is more difficult that we thought it would be at that time. We have learned that Jupiter does not have a solid surface, and the temperature on the planet is quite hot. It does not appear that cities are likely to be abandoned any time in the near (and from what we can tell, even the far) future. If you can ignore that knowledge, the stories turn out to be quite a bit of fun.
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Summary: Are you tired of bleak urban science fiction???
Review: Then Simak's for you. Like Bradbury he's a rural Midwesterner, but the similarities sort of end there. Simak tends to be even more rural, folksy, more genrestyle, & didn't write much horror or Gothic. Why do I give this book only 3 stars? Well it tended to verge more toward whimsical folk tale then I like & was too strange. It is haunting though. The comparison I've told people is imagine mixing the movies "The Brave Little Toaster" & "The Planet of the Apes" now imagine a book predating even the stories they were based on.
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Summary: well worth reading
Review: this book was excellent! comparable in scope to the martian chronicles. Definitely worth picking up, if you can find a copy. It's worth the time spent hunting!
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Summary: The original post human study.
Review: This book was originally published in 1952. It is an anthology of sorts, consisting of "City", "Huddling Places", and "Census" (1944). "Paradise" and "Hobbies", 1946, "Asoep", 1947, and "Trouble with Ants", 1951. It is extremely interesting how insightful Simak was about the impact of technology on the decentralization of knowledge. Witness the present medium. I orginally read the book about 25 years ago..... it seemed an unlikely although entertaining scenario. Still is but highly entertaining. Probably one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi along with "Earth Abides" and "The Postman".
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Summary: Sci-Fi Masterpiece
Review: This is one of the most creative and intriguing books ever written
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Summary: an extraordinary view of the future of Man and other animals
Review: This masterwork tells of the history of Man, beginning with the fall of modern cities through Man's disappearance into planetary space. This history represents the mythology of the current dominant species, the dogs. So brilliantly told and so logically laid out, you are forced to believe this unbelievable premise. You will never see dogs (or ants) in quite the same way. Simak is a genius.
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Summary: It's a dog's world
Review: Thousands of years in the future, the canine population of planet Earth, along with their robot helpers, sit around campfires and tell each other fables that relate, most controversially, how they owe their ascendance to an extinct and perhaps mythical species of benevolent, if misguided, humans. A bleak, melancholy portrayal of humanity's prospects for survival, "City" is unusual not only for its dystopian vision but also for its often pastoral storytelling.
Originally published during the 1940s as a series in Astounding Science Fiction, these eight stories were gathered into a novel in 1952. For the book, Simak made a few revisions and added a framework of "textual commentaries," featuring remarks from canine critics who debate both the meaning of the tales and the likelihood that humankind ever even existed. The stories themselves focus on the role of the (human) Webster family, whose descendants during the course of thousands of years influence the future of humans, dogs, robots, and even ants. The only character common to all the tales is a robot named Jenkins, who serves first human, then canine masters as various threats present themselves over the course of numerous millennia.
The first three tales describe a deteriorating human society that retreats from urban blight and escapes to remote family outposts, relying almost entirely on robots for supplying the labor and on the wired world for communication and supplies. (Simak's prescient vision of the Internet is one of the most hauntingly accurate prophecies in this book.) As a result, many of the earth's inhabitants suffer from agoraphobia--a combination of simple lethargy and a fear of leaving their homes--and this isolation is amplified in the form of nearly immortal human mutants that live entirely on their own, "disdaining all the artificiality of society."
The most memorable (and most original) pair of tales portrays a few humans who venture outside their homes to other worlds and who inadvertently discover a form of nirvana by assuming the genetic makeup of a mysterious, gas-based life-form on Jupiter. Humanity is thus confronted by a choice: either perpetuation of their own species or the allure of paradise under a different guise.
Simak's initially relaxed pace soon surrenders to a more riveting style, especially because the later stories are more interrelated (both by common characters and by plot devices) than the first three almost-standalone tales. The book's underlying hopelessness, which often flirts with a subtle misanthropy, is hard to explain, however; there's no real apocalypse. Instead of doom or destruction, the future of humanity according to Simak is a world of isolation and loneliness, and perhaps that's the most depressing vision of all.
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Summary: Storytelling at it's best!
Review: What a treasure! Better not miss this one or you'll miss a SF classic. Too bad it's out of print. What a shame. Should you find a copy keep it under lock and key.
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Summary: A Fantastic Read
Review: While Simak's theories about future decentralization are a bit far-fetched in today's society, the book is still a great read with interesting characters and a unique perspective in writing. Simak manages to span centuries, while still creating fascinating characters. Stories capture the human condition in an original manner. A true sci-fi classic.
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Summary: Smartest Animals in the World
Review: You would think that a sci-fi world in which humans are no more and dogs are the masters of the Earth would be found in a fanciful book for kids. Instead, Clifford Simak turned that deceptively lightweight premise into this poignant, melancholy, and even creepy collection of tales. And these are actually tales within tales, presented as snippets of folklore that have trickled down into an advanced society of dogs, tens of thousands of years in the future. In a fascinating mode of storytelling, Simak posits how dog scholars of the future place doubt on the folktales that they were once pets to man, and even doubt if humans ever existed. Dogs claim to have proven scientifically that outer space is not possible, but that inter-dimensional worlds are, and that's because of the different intellects of dogs and humans. (Though in one familiar mental twist, dogs still really hate fleas and advocate exterminating them, or possibly placing them on reservations!) There are a couple of problems with Simak's mode of presentation, as the mutant humans and wild robots who supposedly have such a large hand in these future developments are barely explained; while having the Webster family represent all of humanity and shape its course for thousands of years is implausible. But otherwise, this book offers very compelling explorations on the nature of humanity and its possible futures, philosophical differences and similarities between humans and the creatures of the natural world, and especially the processes of thought and society. Simak's unique storytelling methods here add great depth and insight to these ruminations. [~doomsdayer520~]
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