Clifford D. Simak Books

Simak's City is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.

On a far future Earth, mankind's achievements are immense: artificially intelligent robots, genetically uplifted animals, interplanetary travel, genetic modification of the human form itself. But nothing comes without a cost. Humanity is tired, its vigour all but gone. Society is breaking down into smaller communities, dispersing into the countryside and abandoning the great cities of the world. As the human race dwindles and declines, which of its great creations will inherit the Earth? And which will claim the stars?

This replica of the October 1950 issue of GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION features a collection of compelling stories from renowned authors. Notable works include Clifford D. Simak's "TIME QUARRY," Theodore Sturgeon's "THE STARS ARE THE STYX," and Isaac Asimov's "DARWINIAN POOL ROOM." Each tale explores imaginative themes and thought-provoking concepts, showcasing the diverse voices of mid-20th-century science fiction. This edition is a treasure for fans of classic speculative fiction, offering a glimpse into the genre's rich history.

Continuing in the collection series of short stories by Clifford D. Simak, who was the 3rd SF Grand Master, as voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1977, and he's won 3 Hugos, a Nebula and a Locus Award for his work, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. For those wanting more Simak short stories, try the collection, "The Big Front Yard and Other Stories". Simak is well known for his novel, "City". Of interest is that Simak was a considerable influence on Asimov, who said Simak was his favourite SF author. Asimov noted that he loved Simak’s clear style and it helped shape Asimov’s writing. Contents: Introduction (Off-Planet) (1988) • essay by Francis Lyall Construction Shack (1973) / short story by Clifford D. Simak Ogre (1944) / novelette by Clifford D. Simak Junkyard (1953) / novelette by Clifford D. Simak The Observer (1972) / short story by Clifford D. Simak The World That Couldn't Be (1958) / novelette by Clifford D. Simak Shadow World (1957) / novelette by Clifford D. Simak Mirage (1950) / short story by Clifford D. Simak (variant of Seven Came Back) .

Contents: The Birch Clump Cylinder (1974) The Whistling Well (1980) The Marathon Photograph (1974) The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)

Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars. More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth's only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy...

Two explorers, a robot, a warrior, and even an inky "pond" are stuck on a dead-end planet because the star-tunnel is locked. Yet something is about to happen.

Clifford Donald Simak, an influential American science fiction writer, is celebrated for his significant contributions to the genre, winning three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. Recognized as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, he also received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writers Association. His works often explore themes of humanity, nature, and the future, establishing him as a key figure in both science fiction and horror literature.

People work. Folk play. That is the way it has been in this country as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need is a job to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, throw a horseshoe. But when Sam starts to wonder about why the world is this way, his life will never be the same. Along with the other stories in this collection, ?I Am Crying All Inside? is a compact marvel: a picture of an impossible reality that is not so different from our own

Without setting foot on another planet, people like Shep Blaine were reaching out to the stars with their minds, telepathically contacting strange beings on other worlds. But even Blaine was unprepared for what happened when he communed with the soul of an utterly alien being light years from Earth. After recovering from his experience, he becomes a dangerous man: not only has he gained startling new powers - but he now understands that humankind must share the stars. Hunted through time and space by those who he used to trust, Blaine undergoes a unique odyssey that takes him through a nightmarish version of small-town America as he seeks to find others who share his vision of a humane future. Blaine has mastered death and time. Now he must master the fear and ignorance that threatened to destroy him!

The Planet beckoned them from space—and closed 'round them like a Venus fly trap! Captain Mike Ross finds himself leading an interplanetary expedition to an anonymous planet that welcomes them with a homing beam and then seals shut around them. Their ship is sealed against them and they are hurled into a wholly inhospitable desert. "Assailed by strange perils and even stranger temptations, the little group stumbled towards its destiny—Mike Ross, the pilot, Sara Foster, the big game hunter, blind George Smith, and the odious Friar Tuck. Before them was a legend made flesh, around them were creatures of myth and mystery, close behind them stalked Nemesis. The doll, the little wooden painted doll, was to be their salvation. Or their damnation, for each might choose, and find, his own Nirvana."

The main character is the son of a noble house pursuing a quest vital to the future of civilization. His quest takes place in England in the 1970s but in this alternate world the Dark Ages never ended. He is accompanied by a strange fellowship which is opposed by forces of supernatural malignancy, the Evil, which five centuries previously laid waste to most of Europe.

"First-class entertainment" (The Sunday Times) from a classic SF author. En route to an interplanetary research mission, a scientist is abducted by a strange, shadowy race of aliens and taken to a previously uncharted planet, a storehouse of information that would be invaluable--even to an Earth so advanced that time travel allows goblins, dinosaurs, even Shakespeare to coexist.

One day Mankind disappeared... A few human beings were left on the deserted earth along with countless robots. The human beings - including a small tribe of American Indians - made do. The Indians returned to ancient tribal ways, the others stubbornly tried to rebuild technology. The robots - some stayed with the humans performing their service functions, some went off to create a religiously-based society of their own. Millennia later, a star-traveler returns from the center of the universe. The people of earth had been found and were planning to return. But something else had been found, too - the central intelligence of the universe!

Immortality - The ultimate reward: To come back to life - and never die again - that's what Forever Center promises the human race. And that's why, in the year 2148, people spend their whole lives in poverty, giving all their money to Forever Center to ensure their happiness and comfort in the next eternal life. Daniel Frost is a key man at Forever Center. When he accidentally stumbles onto some classified documents, Dan incurs the wrath of an unseen enemy who has him framed and denounced as a social outcast. With the notorious mark of ostracization on his forehead, he is condemned to the desperate life of a hunted animal. But a few people will risk their lives to help him: Ann Harrison, the beautiful renegade lawyer who is convinced of his innocence, and Mona Campbell, the brilliant mathematician who has discovered some shattering information about Forever Center...and the essence of life itself.

Andrew Blake is found in a space capsule on a distant planet and is brought back to an unfamiliar Earth, where antigravity devices have replaced the wheel. Slowly Blake becomes aware of the long hushed-up "Werewolf Principle," a scientific theory buried in the past, which holds the key to his own fate

The narrative follows a writer on a quest for understanding, leading to the discovery of mutants and the existence of multiple Earths. Renowned for its imaginative scope, this classic work by a Science Fiction Grand Master delves into themes of reality and existence, showcasing the author's first-rate storytelling.

Carter Horton and three other crew members are sent on a mission to find a planet which would be suitable for human life. They are put in a deep sleep until they arrive. However, due to a systems malfunction, Carter is the last one left alive. When he makes it to the planet he finds that he has been in deep sleep for about two thousand years and that the ship he made it there with refuses to return to earth. The only living thing he discovers is Carnivore, who claims that there is an inter-space tunnel which is the only way to leave the planet.

On an obscure planet called End of Nothing, a robot and human society harbors a project to gather all information that could exist in order to construct a computer to be the ultimate Pope.

"The time trails led him to mastodons, money and the most amazing mystery of all: time." Published as Catface in the UK. A cat-faced alien stranded in drift-free Wisconsin befriends locals and time-engineers portals into prehistoric epochs, where they establish a new nation: Mastodonia

A mysterious invisible barrier suddenly encloses a small, out-of-the-way American town. It's been put there by a galactic intelligence intent on imposing harmony and cooperation on the different peoples of the universe. But to the inhabitants, the barrier evokes stark terror.

"A lovely and terrible world 100 centures in the future--Earth, graveyard to a galaxy." Earth: expensive, elite graveyard to the galaxy. Ravaged 10,000 years earlier by war, Earth was reclaimed by its space-dwelling offspring as a planet of landscaping and tombstones. None of them fully human, Fletcher, Cynthia, and Elmer journey through this dead world, discovering human traits and undertaking a quest to rebuild a human world on Earth.

Coming from the future, our children's children walked through holes in the air. The holes were time tunnels and down them were fleeing our after-generations, escaping from an invasion of intelligent yet murderously savage aliens.

From Cover Flap:It all began simply enough. A client had vanished, and Jay Corcoran went to investigate the man's hotel suite, which seemed empty. But Corcoran's trick vision spotted what no one else could see- a room-sized bos stuck somehow to the outside wall of the suite. There was no way to get into the box, however, so Corcoran cabled his longtime pal Tom Boone in Singapore to fly to New York.Boone had a talent. When threatened, he could "step around a corner" into some otherwhere until the danger passed. Maybe he could step around a corner into the box.He could and did, taking Corcoran with him.The box turned out to be a time traveler machine that transported them almost instantly back to 1745 in Shropshire, England, where they found a strange family of refugees from a million years in the future.There, in that far future, the alien Infinites were converting humanity to incorporeal form, promising that would give them immortality. When the family refused conversion, the had been forced to flee in their time travelers. Now, for more than a centure they had lain hidden in their time bubble around Hopkins Acre. But they had reports of something sniffing at the bubble. Then, suddenly, the Infinites' killer monster broke through. After that, things grew complicated as they fled to the distant past and the farther future.

7 - The Golden Bugs (1960) novelette 47 - Leg. Forst. (1958) novelette 88 - So Bright the Vision (1956) novelette 133 - Galactic Chest (1956) novelette

Out of their minds and the force of their imagination, men have created countless beings, from demons and monsters of legend to comic-strip characters. What if their world were real--if dragons, devils and Don Quixote hobnobbed with Dagwood Bumstead and Charlie Brown? Such a world would have its facinations..and its dreadful perils--if it existed. Horton Smith found out that it did..and that he was right in the middle of it!

Unknown Guests is Clifford D. Simak's collection of alien contact stories. The author tells fascinating stories of human/alien relations both on Earth and distant planets. Empire The World That Couldn't Be Hellhounds of the Cosmos

Going back 50,000 years in time, opportunists found "Mastodonia" to make millions selling access to their country and its resources. Second Childhood: Achieving immortality is only half of the problem. The other half is knowing how to live with it once it's been made possible-and inescapable!

The preservation of Mr. Meek-Musketeer highlights its significance in human history, ensuring its legacy endures for future generations. Alpha Editions has retyped and reformatted the text, presenting it in a modern, clear, and readable format, rather than relying on scanned copies. This effort emphasizes the book's importance and accessibility for contemporary readers.

The book has been meticulously reformatted and retyped to ensure clarity and readability, preserving its significance throughout history. Alpha Editions aims to maintain its legacy by presenting it in a modern format, making it accessible for both current and future readers. This effort highlights the importance of the work while ensuring it remains a valuable resource for generations to come.

Set against the backdrop of a desolate Mars, the story follows a lone pioneer who must navigate the harsh landscape after his ship has been destroyed. With the haunting legacy of fifty-five predecessors who perished on the "bridge of bones," he faces an urgent mission: to send a warning back to Earth about an impending doom. The tension mounts as he races against time, highlighting themes of survival, isolation, and the dire consequences of human exploration.

Enthält folgende Stories: Larry Niven: Der Defekt Clifford D. Simak: Über den Fluß und durch die Wälder James H. Schmitz: Planet des Vergessens David I. Masson: Urlaub von der Front Jonathan Brand: Fluchtpunkt R. A. Lafferty: Wir machen alles Ron Goulart: Der Patient

Der junge Adlige Duncan Standish lebt in einer Alternativwelt, die auch im 20.]ahrhundert nicht über die Kultur des Mittelalters hinausgekommen ist. Schuld daran sind böse Geister und außerirdische Einflüsse, die die Menschen ständig in Angst versetzen und so jeden Fortschritt verhindern. Duncan soll dem Bischof von Oxenford ein Dokument überbringen, das die historische Gestalt Jesu Christi beweist und den Menschen dadurch neuen Mut macht. Doch der Weg ist schwierig. Duncan muss das »Öde Land«, Versammlungsort der Außerirdischen, durchqueren, die ihre Krieger und Geister auf ihn hetzen. Ihm zur Seite stehen sein Jugendfreund, ein Eremit, ein Gespenst, eine Hexe, ein Kobold und ein Mädchen, das auf einem Vogel Greif reitet. Und keiner in dieser merkwürdigen Reisegesellschaft weiß: Duncan verfügt über einen mächtigen Talisman!

Es sah aus wie eine riesige schwarze Kiste , an die siebzig Meter lang und fünfzehn Meter hoch und breit. Die Bewohner des idyllischen Ortes Lone Pine in Minnesota sahen es zuerst - und der Dorffriseur verlor die Nerven und schoß mit seinem Gewehr darauf. Es war das letzte, was er tat. Innerhalb weniger Stunden wußten Presse, Regierung und Öffentlichkeit, daß sich in Lone Pine seltsame Dinge taten, und man gelangte mehr und mehr zu der Überzeugung, daß die Erde von einem außerirdischen Schrecken heimgesucht wurde. Aber was war es? Eine Maschine? Eine fremdartige Lebensform? Niemand konnte darauf Antwort geben. Nur der Forststudent Jerry Conklin wußte mehr: Der fremde Besucher hatte ihn stundenlang gefangengehalten und ihm seltsame Gefühle und Gedanken übermittelt, woraus zu schließen war, daß es sich um ein intelligentes Wesen handelte. Und mehr und mehr dieser unheimlichen schwarzen Kisten kamen auf die Erde und stellten die Menschheit vor ihre größte Bewährungsprobe...

Joanna Russ - Picknick op Paradijs (Picknick on Paradise) Paradijs is uit economisch oogpunt een volkomen nutteloze planeet. Maar het woeste onontgonnen gebied zal dienst doen als toeristenoord. Transtemp-agente Alyx krijgt de opdracht acht belangrijke mensen door de wildernis te gidsen: een tocht vol verrukkingen en verschrikkingen, die sommigen niet zullen overleven... ========== Clifford D. Simak - De bouwers van de kosmos (The Cosmic Engineers) Wanneer buiitenaardse signalen een titanische botsing van twee universa aankondigen, die tot de ondergang van het heelal zal leiden, komt een handjevol Aardlingen de kosmische Bouwers te hulp om een onmogelijke taak te volvoeren. Wat zijn de bouwers - en wat is de mens eigenlijk? ========== Sven Holm - Laatste uitweg (Termush, Atlanterhavkysten) Het Termush is een hotel aan de kust van de Atlantische Oceaan, dat in geval van een kernoorlog absolute bescherming kan bieden aan enkelen. De prijs is een vermogen. Nadat de Bom gevallen is trekken de welgestelden zich terug en isoleren zich tegen de straling... en tegen het woedende volk.

Paradies Erde Von einem Tag zum andern verschwanden sie spurlos - acht Milliarden Menschen, die bislang die Erde bevölkert hatten. Eine unbegreifliche Macht ergriff sie, riss sie mit sich und versetzte sie auf ferne Welten in die Tiefen des Alls. Nur wenige blieben zurück: Ein Indianerstamm, eine Familie mit ihren Freunden - und die Robotdiener der Menschen. Ihnen gehört jetzt die Erde, die mit dem Zusammenbruch der Technologie zur Idylle, ja zum Paradies geworden ist. Doch dann kehrt ein Mensch von den Sternen zurück. Er bringt eine schwerwiegende Nachricht, und die letzten Erdbewohner erkennen, daß ihre Existenz gefährdet ist.

Ein zunächst harmlos erscheinender Zwischenfall ist nur der Anfang: Bowser, der Hund von Asa Steele, kommt mit einem Speer im Hinterlauf von einem seiner Streifzüge zurück. Die Wunde ist ungefährlich, aber die Speerspitze muß aus prähistorischer Zeit stammen, wie der ehemalige Archäologe Steele unschwer erkennt. Auch andere seltsame Dinge nehmen nun plötzlich eine neue Bedeutung an: Steele erinnert sich an die riesigen Knochen, die sein Hund immer anschleppt, und an den nahegelegenen Krater, aus dem er schon öfter fremdartige Metallteile geborgen hat. Handelt es sich vielleicht um Saurierknochen und die Absturzstelle eines Raumschiffes von fremden Sternen? Bei einem eher zufälligen Erkundungsgang in seinem Garten trifft Steele auf ein unbekanntes Wesen mit Katzengesicht und findet sich plötzlich im Pleistozän wieder, mitten unter grasenden Mammuts und gefährlichen Säbelzahntigern. Damit beginnt für ihn ein Zeitabenteuer, das die Lösung eines interstellaren Geheimnisses bringt ...

Enthält folgende Stories: Eric Frank Russell: Maschinenwelt Michael G. Coney: Kommunikationsproblem Clifford D. Simak: Live von Stella IV Norman Spinrad: Die Super-Show

Tausend Jahre in der Zukunft bedecken zahllose Schädel zerstörter Roboter die Prärien des amerikanischen Kontinents. Sie allein erinnern an das untergegangene Zeitalter technologischer Zivilisation. Da macht sich Thomas Cushing, Waldläufer und Bauer, wie seine Zeitgenossen auf die Wanderung nach Westen, um das Wissen der Vergangenheit aufzuspüren und das verlorene Erbe der Menschheit wiederzugewinnen. Vor allem aber sucht er jenen sagenumwobenen Ort, wo einst die Menschen in Raumschiffen die Erde verliessen, um die Galaxis zu erforschen. Eine Schar wunderlicher Käuze begleitet ihn: der liebenswerte Roboter Rollo, die Hexe Meg und Andy, das Wunderpferd. Da tauchen intelligente Steine und wandernde Bäume auf, Zitterschlangen, lebende Schatten - fremdartige Wesen, vor Zeiten von Raumfahrern aus anderen Welten mitgebracht - Und es geht das Gerücht um, die Hüter des Wissens selbst lebten auf dem Donnerberg …

Two reporters looking for a story in the outer reaches of the Solar System come upon a derelict spaceship. Inside, they find the only inhabitant, a beautiful young woman who has been imprisoned for a thousand years in suspended animation, suspended but aware for the whole time. Together they set off on a grand adventure across the vastness of space and time in a search for a race known as the Cosmic Engineers on a mission to save the universe. Originally published as a short novel in Astounding Stories in 1939 and later expanded in this 1950 version, Cosmic Engineers shows the scope and imagination of one of science fictions true masters, Clifford Simak.

Mike Ross, ein erfahrener Raumpilot, ist bereit, die Leitung der Expedition zu übernehmen, die im Auftrag der reichen, exzentrischen Sara Foster nach dem legendären Lawrence Knight und seinem telepathischen Roboter Roscoe suchen soll. Führer der kleinen Gruppe ist der blinde, schwachsinnige George Smith, der die „Stimme" hört, die ihnen den Weg durch die Galaxis weist. Sie nähern sich einem Planeten, werden angepeilt und eingewiesen und landen auf einem riesigen Landefeld, auf dem Hunderte von weißen Raumschiffen stehen und an dessen Rad sich die hohen Türme einer Stadt erheben, überragt von Kilometer hohen „Bäumen des Wissens". Plötzlich - als die Expeditionsteilnehmer das Schiff verlassen haben - schließt sich hinter ihnen die Falle: Sie können nicht mehr an Bord zurück und müssen in der Stadt Schutz suchen - und damit beginnt ein Alptraum. Gegen die hoch entwickelte Rasse, die vor Jahrtausenden die „Bäume des Wissens" pflanzte und die unentrinnbare Falle baute, um ihr Geheimnis zu bewahren, scheint es kein Mittel zu geben. Doch es gibt die Puppe, eine kleine Skulptur, die aus einer noch älteren Kultur des Planeten stammt. Sie ist ein Symbol - und Schlüssel zum Verständnis dessen, was Realität ist. Ein packender und faszinierender Roman des weltweit bekannten Autors, der für Way Station mit dem„ Hugo" und für City mit dem „International Fantasy Award" ausgezeichnet wurde.

Amerika is het land waar de science-fiction, na een basis gevonden te hebben bij Westeuropese auteurs als Jules Verne en H. G. Wells, een periode van rijping en groei heeft doorgemaakt die uitliep in de bloeiperiode van de 'Golden Age'. In deze tijd (voor ons de oorlogsjaren) werd science-fiction - de bizarre vulling van tal van pulpmagazines - tot een nieuwe vorm van verhalend proza gesmeed, die behalve de drager van frisse en vernieuwende technische ideeën ook voertuig werd voor een emotionele inhoud en gedachten over bestaan en samenleving.Tot de belangrijkste auteurs van de Amerikaanse SF, zoals die zich in de jaren vijftig aftekende, behoren zeker de drie die in deze omnibus bijeen zijn gebracht. Samen met Bradbury en Heinlein, en Britse auteurs als Clarke en Wyndham, hebben zij op een bepalende manier vorm gegeven aan een periode in de SF-literatuur, die zeker als klassiek zal mogen gelden.Bevat de volgende 3 verhalen van Asimov:"Jeugd" (Orig. Youth), "De diepte" (Orig. The Deep) en "Lokaas" (Orig. Sucker Bait)Bevat ook de roman "Scheur in de ruimte" (Orig. The Crack in Space) van Philip K. Dick en de roman "De planeet van Shakespeare"(Orig. Shakespeare's Planet) van Clifford D. Simak.

Money was worthless; it had no value! It couldn't buy housing, clothing, or food. Someone with enormous quantities of cash was buying houses and tearing them down, buying stores and closing them. Perhaps a few people could have stopped the transactions before it was too late. They could have said that Earth was being taken over by alien beings in the shapes of bowling balls, talking dogs, and dolls that walked like men. In fact, they did say it. The trouble was, no one believed them!

(Goldmann ; 23310 : Science Fiction) DE, 127 S., farbig bedruckter Karton

Acht meesterwerkjes uit de science-fiction literatuur Inhoud: - Fata morgana - Clifford D. Simak - 'Arena' - Fredric Brown - Sam Hall - Poul Anderson - Wie de waarheid weer, wordt gek - Fredric Brown - Killdozer - Theodore Sturgeon - Een sprankje groen - Fedric Brown - Bruggehoofd - Clifford D. Simak - Want ik ben een naijverig God - Lester del Rey