∎ Download Gratis Grotto of the Dancing Deer And Other Stories The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D Simak Book 4 eBook Clifford D Simak David W Wixon

Grotto of the Dancing Deer And Other Stories The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D Simak Book 4 eBook Clifford D Simak David W Wixon

Download As PDF : Grotto of the Dancing Deer And Other Stories The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D Simak Book 4 eBook Clifford D Simak David W Wixon

Grotto of the Dancing Deer And Other Stories The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D Simak Book 4 eBook Clifford D Simak David W Wixon

I can’t say enough good things about The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series. This is the sixth volume I’ve finished in the series, having previously read and reviewed volumes One, Two, Three, Seven, and Eight. (Rather than reading them in order, I’m just buying whichever volumes pop up as Kindle Daily Deals.) The stories and novellas reprinted in these volumes are frequently excellent, and even the worst selections are usually quite good. The breadth and depth of Simak’s speculative imagination and literary talent is just amazing. Having said all that, I must regretfully admit that Grotto of the Dancing Deer (Volume Four) is my least favorite of the volumes I’ve read thus far.

The title selection is certainly not the problem. “Grotto of the Dancing Deer,” about a scientist studying prehistoric cave paintings, is a brilliant archaeo-sci-fi tale that manages to be both astounding and moving. Another excellent selection, in a more humorous vein, is “Crying Jag,” which features an alien who gets drunk on human sadness. “Hunger Death,” an exciting medical mystery that takes place on Venus, is also a strong entry, as is “Jackpot,” about a band of interplanetary thieves who stumble upon an enormous storehouse of goods that may or may not be priceless. Even this volume’s western novella (Simak wrote more than just science fiction), “The Reformation of Hangman’s Gulch,” is one of the author’s better efforts in that genre.

The collection falters on a few fronts, beginning with “Mutiny on Mercury.” Originally published in 1931, editor David W. Wixon surmises that this is probably the first story Simak ever wrote for professional publication. Though it presents an interesting vision of what life might be like at a mining colony on Mercury, it is heavy with the mindless violence of the pulp-fiction era and displays little promise of the author’s mature literary style. Clearly, he had some growing to do when he wrote this one, but thankfully he would later go on to greatness.

About half of the stories in the collection don’t really live up to their full potential. Simak establishes an interesting vision of the future or of another planet, but the story he builds upon that foundation just doesn’t do justice to the premise. The aforementioned “Jackpot,” which gets a little weak towards the end, is the best of such cases. “Day of Truce” would be the worst. In this story, Simak establishes a dystopian, militaristic vision of suburbia, then squanders the social commentary on a MacGyver-esque tactical scenario. “The Civilization Game” likewise tries to make insightful points about humanity’s future, but those points feel a bit overstretched in its wargames plotline. “Over the River and Through the Woods” is a short-short entry that feels like a preliminary sketch for other better Simak stories. “Unsilent Spring,” which Simak cowrote with his son Richard S. Simak, a chemist, is another medical mystery like “Hunger Death,” but it takes place on Earth. Resembling an episode of the television programs Quincy or House, it has a strong theoretical foundation, but once the problem is diagnosed the plot just fizzles to an end.

I’ve come to expect great things from Simak, so I’m being nitpicky here. With the exception of “Mutiny on Mercury” and “Day of Truce,” these are all four-star stories or better. You really can’t go wrong with this series, but if I had to recommend a single volume this would not be it. Volumes One, Two, Seven, and Eight are all closer to perfection than this one.


Tags : Grotto of the Dancing Deer: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 4) - Kindle edition by Clifford D. Simak, David W. Wixon. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Grotto of the Dancing Deer: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 4).,ebook,Clifford D. Simak, David W. Wixon,Grotto of the Dancing Deer: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 4),Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Grotto of the Dancing Deer And Other Stories The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D Simak Book 4 eBook Clifford D Simak David W Wixon Reviews

In the span of his fifty-five year career, Clifford Simak penned some of the most iconic science fiction ever written over a hundred short stories paired with a fistful of award-winning novels like City, Why Call Them Back From Heaven?, and Way Station. Simak’s writing is defined by his themes—robots, immortality, cave men, time travel, all underlined by a rich feeling of pastoral life and small-town Americana. His writing is often thoughtful and subdued, whether they are flights of whimsy or sad reflections on humanity’s shortcomings. Despite his many awards, Simak is considered one of the genre’s more underrated masters; it’s been a while since many of his stories were reprinted, a situation thankfully being rectified via a nine-volume series collecting all of Simak’s short fiction.

The title story, “Grotto of the Dancing Deer,” is a quiet tale that touches on many of Simak’s core themes. An archaeologist investigating a series of ancient cave paintings in France notices that his local laborer always seems to be in the right place to discover these pieces of art. He realizes that this laborer was the original painter, doomed to walk the earth as an immortal, but trapped by that secret in lonely isolation. Simak handles the subject with soft care and precision, and the story is rich in pastoral vibes tinged with loneliness. It won the Hugo and Nebula for best short story for a reason it’s a powerful but subtle piece.

The earliest stories in this collection are pieces of pure pulp entertainment, a bit ragged and archaic compared to the author’s more refined works. “Hunger Death” deals with a newspaper journalist investigating a killer disease where the infected starve to death, who discovers that a backwater Venusian colony-city—mostly down on their luck Okie-types, drawn to the planet by false advertising—is the only place immune to the sickness. It foreshadows where Simak was going with its folksy characters saving the day, but it feels quite primitive, both in Simak’s early writing and in the focus on print journalism. “Mutiny on Mercury” is one of the author’s earliest tales, and it’s almost unrecognizable, reading more like a draft from Otis Adelbert Kline. The mining planet of Mercury finds itself under a slave revolt when the traitorous Martians lead the strong-but-stupid moon men on a revolt against humanity, against which our bravo hero Tom Clark fights back with sword and gun. The story has good adventure and some harrowing thrills, but I found the slavery element quite distasteful and crude in its execution.

The stories I liked best come from the period of Simak’s high-water mark, the works he produced for Galaxy during the 1950s and 1960s. “Crying Jag” is one of the most effective a small-town drunk is visited by two aliens, who themselves get drunk—and become addicted to—humanity’s tales of woe and sorrow, sucking the sadness out of whoever they meet. It’s a strange tale, but a brilliant one told with pathos. The starship crew in “Jackpot” have searched many planets for untapped minerals, but finally strike it big when they discover alien relics—sort of an alien library—on an uninhabited world. But the men become conflicted on what to do with them, showing that Simak’s space exploiters could be humanists after all. And “Day of Truce” deals with an ongoing war between roving youth gangs and suburban adults who have fortified their house into an electrified stronghold. While this setup may seem hyperbolic, it’s handled very well as both a metaphor and a solid story.

This series collecting Simak’s work continues to be well worth your time and interest, though I wish they had been presented either chronologically—well, maybe not, given the quality of his ’30s fiction—or thematically. Or at least with Simak’s western stories devoted to a single volume, to make it easier on readers of that genre. Still, it’s hard to fault the series given that Simak’s work is of consistent high quality. Clifford Simak is one of those rare gems in the annals of science fiction history, a talented writer who penned thoughtful, deeply humane stories. I fear that Simak’s name is oft forgotten or overlooked because he didn’t write what many readers expect SF to look like—space opera, planetary adventure, hard science—so I hope that these volumes bring his works to a wider audience.
Solid short stories that seem older than their publication dates, but not entirely outdated.
The title story is a classic. As a long-time fan of Simak, I am happy to see that his shorter works are becoming available again.
This was a very enjoyable read. Relatively short stories, each of which can be read in 30-60 minutes. I had a good time!
I bought this book specifically to get "Grotto of the Dancing Deer". I remember the first time I read this story in one of the old science fiction magazines back in the early '80's and the story does not diminish after a reread. Clifford Simak is one of the great masters of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and he earned that distinction. If you want to dip your toes, so to speak, this book of collected short stories is perfect.
I can’t say enough good things about The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series. This is the sixth volume I’ve finished in the series, having previously read and reviewed volumes One, Two, Three, Seven, and Eight. (Rather than reading them in order, I’m just buying whichever volumes pop up as Daily Deals.) The stories and novellas reprinted in these volumes are frequently excellent, and even the worst selections are usually quite good. The breadth and depth of Simak’s speculative imagination and literary talent is just amazing. Having said all that, I must regretfully admit that Grotto of the Dancing Deer (Volume Four) is my least favorite of the volumes I’ve read thus far.

The title selection is certainly not the problem. “Grotto of the Dancing Deer,” about a scientist studying prehistoric cave paintings, is a brilliant archaeo-sci-fi tale that manages to be both astounding and moving. Another excellent selection, in a more humorous vein, is “Crying Jag,” which features an alien who gets drunk on human sadness. “Hunger Death,” an exciting medical mystery that takes place on Venus, is also a strong entry, as is “Jackpot,” about a band of interplanetary thieves who stumble upon an enormous storehouse of goods that may or may not be priceless. Even this volume’s western novella (Simak wrote more than just science fiction), “The Reformation of Hangman’s Gulch,” is one of the author’s better efforts in that genre.

The collection falters on a few fronts, beginning with “Mutiny on Mercury.” Originally published in 1931, editor David W. Wixon surmises that this is probably the first story Simak ever wrote for professional publication. Though it presents an interesting vision of what life might be like at a mining colony on Mercury, it is heavy with the mindless violence of the pulp-fiction era and displays little promise of the author’s mature literary style. Clearly, he had some growing to do when he wrote this one, but thankfully he would later go on to greatness.

About half of the stories in the collection don’t really live up to their full potential. Simak establishes an interesting vision of the future or of another planet, but the story he builds upon that foundation just doesn’t do justice to the premise. The aforementioned “Jackpot,” which gets a little weak towards the end, is the best of such cases. “Day of Truce” would be the worst. In this story, Simak establishes a dystopian, militaristic vision of suburbia, then squanders the social commentary on a MacGyver-esque tactical scenario. “The Civilization Game” likewise tries to make insightful points about humanity’s future, but those points feel a bit overstretched in its wargames plotline. “Over the River and Through the Woods” is a short-short entry that feels like a preliminary sketch for other better Simak stories. “Unsilent Spring,” which Simak cowrote with his son Richard S. Simak, a chemist, is another medical mystery like “Hunger Death,” but it takes place on Earth. Resembling an episode of the television programs Quincy or House, it has a strong theoretical foundation, but once the problem is diagnosed the plot just fizzles to an end.

I’ve come to expect great things from Simak, so I’m being nitpicky here. With the exception of “Mutiny on Mercury” and “Day of Truce,” these are all four-star stories or better. You really can’t go wrong with this series, but if I had to recommend a single volume this would not be it. Volumes One, Two, Seven, and Eight are all closer to perfection than this one.