Search Worlds Without End

One night in July, 2135, there were some eight billion people on Earth. The next morning there were perhaps 400. There was no clue to what had happened to the world's population -- but, over the centuries that followed, still stranger things occurred.

The human lifespan now stretched to millenia instead of decades, and much of the remaining population developed the ability to move at will among the stars -- and abandoned their homeworld for a life in deep space.

Then, after 3000 years, a star-rover discovered what had happened to Earth's original inhabitants -- and that they were coming to reclaim their heritage. Those who had stayed behind knew, with a growing fear, that the mystery of what had been done to Earth and why was about to be solved ... in a way that would change humanity forever.

A knowledge-hungry young man sets out on a quest to locate a legendary spaceport in a far-future society that has reverted to primitive tribalism.

More than a thousand years have passed since humankind intentionally destroyed its treacherous technology, choosing to revert back to a primitive tribal state. In this society the rusting brain cases of long-inert robots are considered trophies, and the scant knowledge that has survived is doled out to an inquisitive few in monastery-like "universities." It is at one such center of learning that young Tom Cushing first reads of the legendary "Place of Going to the Stars," rumored to exist on a high butte somewhere in the western part of the land. Driven by enthusiasm and an insatiable need to track the myth to its source, Tom sets out on an amazing trek across what was once called "America," teaming up with a witch, the world's last remaining robot, and other odd companions. But all the astonishing discoveries and dangers they encounter along the way will pale before the revelations that await them at journey's end.

Clifford D. Simak, award-winning science fiction Grand Master, offers a breathtaking vision of the future that is both dystopian and hopeful in equal measure. In A Heritage of Stars, he boldly displays the heart, intelligence, and awesome imaginative powers that have established him as one of the all-time greatest authors of speculative fiction.

(US and UK editions vary in content, the following is the US edition)

Contains:

• All the Traps of Earth
• Goodnight, Mr. James
• Drop Dead
• No Life of Their Own
• The Sitters
• Crying Jag
• Installment Plan
• Condition of Employment
• Project Mastodon

Contents:

• Founding Father - (1957)
• Immigrant - (1954)
• New Folks' Home - (1963)
• Crying Jag - (1960)
• All the Traps of Earth - (1960)
• Lulu - (1957)
• Neighbor - (1954)

The cities of the world are deserted and automation has invaded every aspect of human life. The robots make spaceships, the ants create huge buildings on the remains of old towns and the dogs take over the earth.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Worlds of If, January-February 1973. The story can also be found in the anthologies The 1974 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Third Annual Collection (1974), edited by Lester del Rey, and Worlds of If: A Retrospective Anthology (1986), edited by Joseph D. Olander, Martin H. Greenberg and Frederik Pohl. It is included in the collections Off-Planet (1988) and Over the River and Through the Woods (1996).

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.

Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1939.

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.

A scholar, a goblin, and a gnome, among others, pursue the secrets of a vanished ancient race through a wasteland of dark magic in this enthralling fantasy quest adventure

On an Earth that is different from ours, the young scholar Mark Cornwall becomes a target of the Inquisition, and specifically its most evil and obsessed agent, Beckett. Damned for asking questions, Mark is forced to escape over the border into the Wastelands, a magical realm that is home to all manner of flesh-devouring monsters. Luckily he will not have to make his journey alone. He is accompanied by a cadre of stalwart companions, including the rafter goblin Oliver, Snively the gnome, and secretive Mary from one of three parallel planes. Somewhere beyond the vengeful, blood-hungry Hellhounds, somewhere past the horrific legacy of the now-destroyed Chaos Beast, the mysteries of the Old Ones are waiting to be revealed--and only those with the courage to seek them will be able to alter the destiny of their worlds.

In Enchanted Pilgrimage, Clifford D. Simak ingeniously blends elements of science fiction into a savory fantasy stew. The award-winning Grand Master of science fiction spreads his wings and takes glorious flight into a bold new realm of magic and adventure, demonstrating why he remains one of the most acclaimed storytellers in the literature of the remarkable.

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award winning short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, April 1980. The story can be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #10 (1981), edited by Terry Carr, Nebula Award Stories Sixteen (1982), edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, The Hugo Winners, Volume 5: (1980-82) (1986), edited by Isaac Asimov, The Best of the Nebulas (1989), edited by Ben Bova, Immortals (1998), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, and The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1 (1999), edited by Frederik Pohl. It is included in the collections The Marathon Photograph and Other Stories (1986), Over the River and Through the Woods (1996) and Grotto of the Dancing Deer and Other Stories: The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (2016).

Two present-day investigators race across time to escape malevolent aliens from the future and their terrible "gift" of immortality in this science fiction classic.

What is the price of eternal life? Secret agent Jay Corcoran is about to learn the answer when his investigation into an inexplicable disappearance carries him and journalist friend Tom Boone hundreds of years into the past. Corcoran and Boone's powerful extrasensory abilities lead them to an advanced transportation system through time, and back to the bucolic eighteenth-century English countryside. There, they discover a family from the distant future that is hiding from the Immortals--an alien race that, many centuries on, is seducing human subjects with the promise of immortality. But the cost of life eternal is the corporeal self, and there is no place in the aliens' future for anyone unwilling to exist as mind alone. Now that the Evans family's sanctuary has been breached, escape is the only answer--for Tom Boone and Jay Corcoran as well--and the only way out is forward... far forward. But racing through space and time can be a hazardous occupation, especially with monstrous beasts, killer robots, and Immortal body-destroyers waiting at every juncture.

The last novel from acclaimed science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and numerous other awards, Highway of Eternity combines breathtaking action with provocative ideas and unparalleled ingenuity, the hallmarks of Simak's exceptional art. It is a fitting finale for the man who stands alongside Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke as one of the true giants of speculative fiction's Golden Age.

In rural Wisconsin, wonder clashes dangerously with corporate greed when an alien visitor opens up a gateway through time into a breathtaking prehistoric lost world.

On sabbatical from teaching at a small university, paleontologist Asa Steele is content to relax amidst the pastoral splendor of his Wisconsin farm. That is, until his dog starts bringing home unrecognizable artifacts and, strangest of all, fresh dinosaur bones. Since boyhood, Asa has heard the rumors of a UFO crash site nearby, and his encounter with a cat-faced alien life form proves the old story to be shockingly true. A gregarious immortal stranded on Earth for fifty thousand years, Catface has the power to create portals in time, and now he has opened a gateway into a prehistoric world of wonder and beauty, a place Asa calls "Mastodonia." But keeping this idyllic realm a secret from a prying government and the greedy corporate entities it serves could prove impossible--and perilous--when there are resources to drain, land to despoil, and gargantuan vanished beasts from a distant age to hunt down and destroy in the name of profit.

Clifford D. Simak's glorious vision of a gateway to the past and of the tantalizing commercial potential of all things prehistoric predates Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park by many years, yet it remains as provocative, enthralling, and fun for twenty-first-century science fiction lovers as it was for its original readers. Breathtaking, thrilling, imaginative, and awe-inspiring, Mastodonia is a world that, once entered, can never be forgotten, such is the unique creative genius of legendary science fiction Grand Master Simak, one of the most revered writers ever to dream the future... and the past.

Fleeing a carnivorous race of alien monsters, the entire surviving human population from five hundred years in the future escapes into the present in this thrilling science fiction adventure from one of the Golden Age greats.

Our human descendants from five centuries in the future are coming to visit--all one billion of them--arriving via tunnels through time. Even though the present is merely a stopover and their ultimate destination is the age of the dinosaurs, their arrival has caused a worldwide uproar. Some folks want them gone and some want to go with them, as governments and powerful corporations alike scheme to get their hands on remarkable, potentially profitable time travel technology. There is a dark and terrifying reason, however, for the visitors' abrupt arrival. Our frightened descendants are seeking sanctuary from carnivorous aliens who have descended upon the future Earth, a threat that could mean the rapid destruction of the entire human race. And the end could come sooner than anyone imagined--for some of the intelligent, rapidly breeding extraterrestrial monsters who have been devouring our children's children may well have followed their prey back to the now.

A speculative fiction master who stands alongside Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein in the pantheon of Golden Age science fiction gods, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Clifford D. Simak delivers an alien invasion tale that is at once wildly imaginative, seriously thought-provoking, and just plain fun.

A writer finds himself trapped in an isolated village where anything imagined becomes reality in this wildly inventive contemporary fantasy.

Hoping to write his book in quiet and seclusion, Horton Smith has returned home to Pilot Knob. Here, in the tiny village where he passed so many carefree childhood years, he is untroubled by the pressures of the big city and can freely answer the call of his muse. Of course, back in the city Horton didn't have to run from dinosaurs. There were no cartoon hillbillies offering him moonshine, Don Quixote was content to confine himself to the pages of a book, and the Devil himself was not on Horton's tail. Something very, very unusual is going on in Pilot Knob, and Horton Smith is determined to get to the bottom of it--if his own imagination doesn't kill him first!

In Out of Their Minds, science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak changes gears, treating his readers to a delightfully satiric flight of fancy and fantasy. An award-winning author renowned for his remarkable visions of the future, Simak brings creatures and characters from humankind's collective imagination to breathtaking life in this fast-moving and unforgettable tale.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Amazing Stories, May 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, and The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990, (1993), edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. It is included in the collections Brother and Other Stories (1986) and Over the River and Through the Woods (1996).

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1996) - essay by Poul Anderson
• A Death in the House - (1959) - shortstory
• The Big Front Yard - (1958) - novella
• Good Night, Mr. James - (1951) - novelette
• Dusty Zebra - (1954) - novelette
• Neighbor - (1954) - novelette
• Over the River and Through the Woods - (1965) - shortstory
• Construction Shack - (1973) - shortstory
• Grotto of the Dancing Deer - (1980) - shortstory

On the Rim planet fittingly called End of Nothing, a bizarre society of robots and humans toiled for a thousand years to perfect a religion that would create a new and all-embracing faith--no novelty in a galaxy crowded with religions. But one project was hidden from the hordes of pilgrims welcomed at Vatican-17 on End of Nothing.

A group of trained human sensitives were sending their minds ranging through all of time and space gathering all the information that could exist. With that information , a computer of infinite knowlege, wisdom and infallibility was being constructed in secret--the ultimate Pope.

Of the three outsiders allowed residence on End of Nothing, one was tolerated at a distance by Vatican-17, one was welcomed and one was a threat to be countered....

After a thousand years in space, the earth vessel lands on a remote planet capable of supporting human life. Inside the explorer ship an almost inaudible hum fills the silence; computer lights blink softly, signaling the awakening of the cryogenically preserved crew.

But only one crew member awakens from his artificial sleep. A systems malfunction has killed the others. Carter Horton is alone.

Horton learns almost immediately that the planet is inhabited by a bizarre creature who calls himself Carnivore. And the creature addresses him in English, the language he had learned from an earlier traveler who called himself Shakespeare. Now, Shakespeare is dead, and Horton soon learns that he and Carnivore, too, face certain peril unless they can get away from this strange planet.

Leaving is no simple affair. Carnivore, and before him, Shakespeare, had come to the planet via an inner-space tunnel, one of many such tunnels that exist throughout the galaxy. But this tunnel has broken down and works only one way--the wrong way--and there is no exit. And Horton's explorer ship is a thousand years obsolete--incapable of returning them to civilization.

The creature called Carnivore and the earthman, Horton, are marooned on a planet of mysterious ruins bespeaking a catastrophic end to a once-grand civilization. The portentous signs they begin to encounter intimate some dire, ominous happening will soon befall them--unless they can repair the inner-space tunnel and leave Shakespeare's Planet.

A motley collection of humans and one robot, all from alternate universes, must make their way through a strange alien puzzle-world of danger and mystery in this classic science fiction allegory by an award-winning maestro.

Following a conversation with a talking slot machine, Professor Edward Lansing finds himself mysteriously transported to a tavern on a long and empty road. It is immediately obvious to the educator that he is no longer on campus--or even Earth--and that he is not alone. Lansing's new companions--a female engineer, a military officer, a humorless priest, a poetess, and a robot named Jurgens--all hail from separate alternate realities and share Lansing's confusion. What is clear, however, is that they must continue down the road together, encountering a series of bizarre sights, dangerous obstacles, and perplexing puzzles along the way: an abandoned, decaying city; a set of doorways; a large blue cube; a tower that sings. Soon it is apparent they are all being tested for some eerie, inexplicable reason, and the choices each must make will determine his or her future. For those who fail, the alien trail will never be seen again.

A provocative science fiction allegory, Special Deliverance is Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Clifford D. Simak's Pilgrim's Progress--a tale of great trials and hidden agendas that expose the foibles of humanity and a fantastic exploration of the human condition. A science fiction classic brimming with intelligence, invention, and wonder, it is yet another extraordinary creation from one of the genre's most revered grandmasters.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1971. The story can also be found in the anthology SF: Authors' Choice 4 (1974) edited by Harry Harrison. The story is included in the collections The Best of Clifford D. Simak (1975), The Autumn Land and Other Stories (1990) and The Ghost of a Model T: And Other Stories (2015).

Despite the fact that The Big Front Yard is a novella, it won the 1959 Hugo Award for best novelette. It originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, October 1958. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Hugo Winners, Volume 1 (1962), edited by Isaac Asimov, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B (1973), edited by Ben Bova, and The Great SF Stories 20 (1958) (1990), edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. It is included in the collections The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1960), Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1977), Over the River and Through the Woods (1996) and The Big Front Yard: And Other Stories (2015).

In an alternate world where the Dark Ages never ended, "the Evil" that arises every five hundred years has prevented all manner of technological advancement, even well into the twentieth century. The son of a powerful English noble, young Duncan Standish has always longed to be a soldier of the Lord, and now he's been offered a rare opportunity to fulfill his dream. Entrusted with the delivery of an ancient manuscript--purported to be irrefutable evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ--to a noted Oxenford scholar, Duncan must journey many perilous miles in the company of a motley group of fellow travelers, including a goblin, a ghost, and other magical and non-magical companions. But the road they traverse together is fraught with terrible trials that would test even the most devout, for the Evil is strong in this place of dark wonders.

Multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winner and SFWA Grand Master Clifford D. Simak moves easily from science fiction to quest fantasy in this enthralling tale of magic, peril, and discovery on an Earth that never was. Rich in color, thrills, and wild invention, and populated by a highly original and unforgettable cast of characters, Fellowship of the Talisman showcases the author's peerless storytelling skills, demonstrating once again that the great Simak had few equals in the realm of twentieth-century speculative fiction.

Contains:

• The Night of the Puudly
• Crying Jag
• Installment Plan
• Condition of Employment
• Project Mastodon

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally Worlds of If, March 1970. The story can also be found in the anthology World's Best Science Fiction: 1971, edited by Terry Carr and Donald A. Wollheim. It is included in the collections The Best of Clifford D. Simak (1975), Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D.Simak (1977) and The Creator and Other Stories (1993).

An alien invasion which begins with the landing on Jerry Conklin's car of what looks like a huge black box changes life in Lone Pine, Minnesota, and threatens to destroy Earth's civilization, An alien invasion which begins with the landing on Jerry Conklin's car of what looks like a huge black box changes life in Lone Pine, Minnesota, and threatens to destroy Earth's civilization.

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!

Asher Sutton has been lost in deepest space for twenty years. Suddenly arrives a warning from the future, that he will return- and that he must be killed. He is destined to write a book whose message may lead to the death of millions in centuries to come. For this reason Sutton is hounded by the sinister warring factions of the future who wish to influence or prevent the writing of this book he has not yet begun to write. Yet already a copy has been found in the burnt-out wreckage of a space-craft on Alderbaran XII.

A telepath inadvertently acquires a powerful alien consciousness and must run for his life to escape corporate assassins and hate-filled mobs in this enthralling science fiction masterwork

Space travel has been abandoned in the twenty-second century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient--and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries," human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe. On what should have been a routine assignment, however, loyal Fishhook employee Shepherd Blaine is inadvertently implanted with a copy of an alien consciousness, becoming something more than human. Now he's a company pariah, forced to flee the safe confines of the Fishhook complex. But the world he escapes into is not a safe sanctuary; Its people have been taught to hate and fear his parapsychological gift--and there is nowhere on Earth, or elsewhere, for Shepherd Blaine to hide.

A Hugo Award nominee, Time Is the Simplest Thing showcases the enormous talents of one of the true greats of twentieth-century science fiction. This richly imagined tale of prejudice, corporate greed, oppression, and, ultimately, transcendence stands tall among Simak's most enduring works.

Enoch Wallace survived the carnage of Gettysburg and lived through the rest of the Civil War to make it home to his parents' farm in south-west Wisconsin. But his mother was already dead and his father soon joined her in the tiny family cemetery. It was then that Enoch met the being he called Ulysses and the farm became a way station for space travellers. Now, nearly a hundred years later, the US government is taking an interest in the seemingly immortal Enoch, and the Galactic Council, which set up the way station is threatening to tear itself apart.

The empty Lands lay waiting - empty of humans but full of sleepless malice, and harbouring one power more dreadful than anything in myth. Other titles by this award-winning science fiction writer include "Cosmic engineers", "So Bright the Vision" and "Highway of Eternity".

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.

Contains three stories:

• "Worlds Without End" (1956)
• "The Spaceman's Van Gogh" (1956)
• "Full Cycle" (1955)

Bring Back Yesterday

Second Officer John Peterson is finished as far as the Galactic clippers are concerned. Branded a deserter, stranded on Carinthia and desperate for a job, there are few places left to go. Private detective Steve Vynalek needs Petersen. Has a fanatical scientist on the planet Wenceslaus really found a way to beat the time travel problem, a way to bring back yesterday?

The Trouble with Tycho

A Treasure Hunt in a Haunted Crater

Prospecting on the Moon was grim, dangerous and usually unrewarding. Only most of the greenhorns who came to try didn't find out until after they got there.

Chris Jackson was no exeption. He put everything he owned and could borrow into this, and he'd be ruined if he failed.

His only chance meant going into Tycho - where three expeditions had already disappeared. He could try... but would he come out again...?

Cosmic Manhunt

Meet Victor Hasselborg, easily the most miserable Private Investigator in the entire galaxy. More comfortable with the dull routine of investigating insurance frauds than interstellar adventure, Hasselborg is bound by duty to chase a runaway heiress across known space to the primitive world called Krishna. Clad in kilt and sword, his hair dyed green, riding a buggy driven by a six-legged monster of a beast, Hasselborg's quest takes him through the volatile world of feudal Krishna politics and into the presence of... The Queen of Zamba.

Ring Around the Sun

Everlasting products have started to be released onto the world market and at a price that vastly undercuts their shorter lived rivals. At first the products were small - light bulbs, cigarette lighters, razor blades - but when the mysterious corporation behind these products expands and starts to produce everlasting cars, and modular houses and then clothing for ridiculously low prices, businessmen begin to see this as a deliberate attack on the world's economy.

Soon afterwards more and more people begin to see these as threats to their livelihoods and violence against these and their mysterious manufacturers begins to start.

Jay Vickers is a writer. He is approached by a businessman to write propaganda material to help traditional industries fight the infiltration of these products. But Vickers declines and sets off on his own personal quest to discover if there is any truth in a memory he has from his childhood of a kind of fairyland, and whether this has any connection to what is happening in the world.

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

This man must die - or the futre wil never be!

So Bright the Vision

Collection containing:

• The Golden Bugs - (1960) - novelette
• Leg. Forst. - (1958) - novelette
• So Bright the Vision - (1956) - novelette
• Galactic Chest - (1956) - novelette

Spencer Chambers wants to make the solar system his own personal Empire. A trillionaire and industrialist he owns the ships that can carry humanity to freedom and plenty in the untapped riches of the solar system. In return he wants to charge exorbitant prices making it so that he will end up owning every planet and asteroid. Gregory Manning has a different idea. He sees a solar system open to everyone. Only one man's vision for the future of humanity can come true: slavery or freedom. Gregory Manning has an ace up his sleeve--a scientific ace.

This novel is set in a future world where the equipment of ordinary, everyday life has become indestructible; there are everlasting lightbulbs and infallible cars, but no-one knows where they have come from.

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.

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.

The strange but beautiful purple blossoms now grew wild in his backyard. One day Brad Carter tripped and fell into an alternate world, a world peopled by these very flowers.

After several years' absence and the loss of his memory, Andrew Blake returns to earth only to find himself accused of being a werewolf.

Clifford D. Simak (1904-88) was a prolific science-fiction/fantasy author and, in addition, an editor for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Newspapers for over 36 years.

This informative bibliography is an extremely helpful tool for students, researchers and the curious admires of his many highly regarded novels and stories.

An informative introduction and an interview with the author add greatly to the detailed listings of Simak's published works.

When asked by Muriel Becker which of his stories pleased him more that others, Simak answered "A Choice of Gods" - his 1971 fictional rumination of the future of mankind.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Nebula Award Stories 6) - (1971) - essay by Clifford D. Simak
• Science Fiction and Literary Tradition - (1971) - essay by Thomas D. Clareson
• Slow Sculpture - (1970) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• In the Queue - (1970) - short story by Keith Laumer
• The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories - (1970) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Ill Met in Lankhmar - (1970) - novella by Fritz Leiber
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• By the Falls - (1970) - short story by Harry Harrison
• The Second Inquisition - (1970) - novelette by Joanna Russ

A collection of ten stories by Simak that date from 1939 to 1971. It also includes a six-page introduction by Simak, and a three-page bibliography of his science fiction books. The book is edited by Angus Wells.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1975) - essay by Clifford D. Simak
• Madness from Mars - (1939) - shortstory
• Sunspot Purge - (1940) - shortstory
• The Sitters - (1958) - novelette
• A Death in the House - (1959) - shortstory
• Final Gentleman - (1960) - novelette
• Shotgun Cure - (1961) - shortstory
• Day of Truce - (1963) - novelette
• Small Deer - (1965) - shortstory
• The Thing in the Stone - (1970) - novelette
• The Autumn Land - (1971) - novelette
• The Science Fiction Books of Clifford D. Simak - (1975) - essay by uncredited

Ten stories of mystery and imagination in a world that cannot be--including the never-before-published "I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air," originally written for Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions™

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.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Installment Plan - (1959)
• I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up In the Air
• Small Deer - (1965)
• Ogre - (1944)
• Gleaners - (1960)
• Madness from Mars - (1939)
• Gunsmoke Interlude - (1952)
• I Am Crying All Inside - (1969)
• The Call from Beyond - (1950)
• All the Traps of Earth - (1960)

Tales of the unknown in which a fix-it man crosses into another dimension--and more

Hiram Taine is a handyman who can fix anything. When he isn't fiddling with his tools, he is roaming through the woods with his dog, Towser, as he has done for as long as he can remember. He likes things that he can understand. But when a new ceiling appears in his basement--a ceiling that appears to have the ability to repair television sets so they're better than before--he knows he has come up against a mystery that no man can solve.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, "The Big Front Yard" is a powerful story about what happens when an ordinary man finds reality coming apart around him. Along with the other stories in this collection, it is some of the most lyrical science fiction ever published.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• The Big Front Yard - (1958)
• The Observer - (1972)
• Trail City's Hot-Lead Crusaders - (1944)
• Junkyard - (1953)
• Neighbor - (1954)
• Shadow World - (1957)
• So Bright the Vision - (1956)

Tales of nostalgia and loss in a world overrun by technology

Hank is walking home from the bar when the Model T pulls alongside him. It's been decades since he saw a car this old, and the sound of it takes him right back to his twenties. The door is open, and when he climbs in, the car takes off--without a driver. Before he knows what's happened, Hank is right back at Big Spring Pavilion, where he spent his youth drinking bootleg whiskey and chasing pretty girls. He will find the past is not quite as he remembered it, but still a lovely place to go for a drive.

This collection includes some of the finest short fiction Clifford Simak ever wrote, including "City," the story that became the basis for his beloved novel of the same name. In the history of science fiction, no author has ever better understood that the Great Plains and the cosmos are closer together than we think.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Leg. Forst. (1958)
• Physician to the Universe (1963)
• No More Hides and Tallow (1946)
• Condition of Employment (1960)
• City (1944)
• Mirage (1950) (aka Seven Came Back)
• The Autumn Land (1971)
• Founding Father (1957)
• Byte Your Tongue! - (1980)
• The Street that Wasn't There (1941) - with Carl Jacobi (aka The Lost Street)
• The Ghost of a Model T (1975)

This volume contains ten stellar short stories by science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak. In "Grotto of the Dancing Deer," a man carrying an ancient secret finally speaks up, unable to bear any longer the loneliness he has experienced for millennia. In "Over the River," which Simak wrote in memory of his beloved grandmother Ellen, children from an embattled future are sent back for safekeeping to their ancestors in the peaceful past. And in "Day of Truce," the inhabitants of a suburban subdivision must barricade themselves against bands of roving attackers. On only one day each year do the gates open wide....

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Over the River and Through the Woods (1965)
• The Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980)
• The Reformation of Hangman's Gulch (1944)
• The Civilization Game (1958)
• Crying Jag (1960)
• Hunger Death (1938)
• Mutiny on Mercury (1932)
• Jackpot (1956)
• Day of Truce (1963)
• Unsilent Spring (1976) with Richard S. Simak

Clifford D. Simak had a sublime ability to evoke a lost way of life. He spent his youth in rural Wisconsin, a landscape filled with mysterious hollows, cliffs, dark forests, and the Wisconsin River flowing in its deep-cut valley. As Simak wandered the countryside and the ridges, he peopled them with imaginary characters who later came to life in his stories. One such individual is Johnny, the orphaned farm boy of "The Contraption," who stumbles upon a wrecked starship and receives a priceless gift from its owners. Another is the old prospector Eli, whose surprising discoveries on Mercury get him killed in "Spaceship in a Flask." In "Huddling Place," a man with paralyzing agoraphobia is the only one who can save the life of a dear friend on Mars--if he can bear to make the trip. And in the title story, aliens slowly take over Earth while humans leave it behind and head for the Homestead Planets.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

In the collection's title story, Frederick Gray is closing in on seventy and has outlived his usefulness as a professor of law. He has no family; his best friend, fellow faculty member Ben Lovell, has recently died. Before Gray moves into a retirement home, he takes a final canoe trip to a favorite fishing spot he and Lovell had visited many times, only to find that someone has built a house on the remote riverside. When an accident leaves Gray stranded and in pain, he returns to the shelter seeking aid and instead finds a new reason for living.

Nine additional tales showcase Clifford D. Simak's talent for spinning stories that allow us to glimpse the possibilities of life beyond Earth as well as expand our wisdom of what it means to be human.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook

Ten thrilling and intriguing tales of space travel, war, and alien encounters from multiple Hugo Award-winning Grand Master of Science Fiction Clifford D. Simak.

From Frank Herbert's Dune to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series to Philip K. Dick's stories of bizarre visions of a dystopian future, the latter half of the twentieth century produced some of the finest examples of speculative fiction ever published. Yet no science fiction author was more highly regarded than Grand Master Clifford D. Simak, winner of numerous honors, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

This magnificent compendium of stories, written during science fiction's golden age, highlights Simak at his very best, combining ingenious concepts with his trademark humanism and exploring strange visitations, remarkable technologies, and humankind's destiny in the possible worlds of tomorrow. Whether it's an irascible old man's discovery of a very unusual skunk that puts him at odds with the US Air Force, a county agent's strange bond with the sentient alien flora he discovers growing in his garden, the problems a small town faces when its children mature too rapidly thanks to babysitters from another galaxy, or the gift a lonely farmer receives in exchange for aiding a dying visitor from another world, the events detailed in Simak's poignant and beautiful tales will thrill, shock, amuse, and astonish in equal measure.

One of the genre's premier literary artists, Simak explores time travel and time engines; examines the rituals and superstitions of galactic travelers who have long forgotten their ultimate purpose; and even takes fascinating detours through World War II and the wild American West in a wondrous anthology that no science fiction fan should be without.

Strange, poignant tales of life on tomorrow's Earth and in outer space from multiple Hugo Award-winning Grand Master of Science Fiction Clifford D. Simak.

Virtually every major author from science fiction's fabled golden age--including Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein--agreed that Clifford D. Simak was one of the greatest among them. Named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, the award-winning author created enduring visions of future worlds, perilous space explorations, and weird alien encounters as rich in emotion and humanity as they are in ingenious invention. This is an essential collection of short fiction from the remarkable mind and heart of a true giant of twentieth-century speculative fiction, featuring powerful examples of literary science fiction at its very best.

Beginning with the unforgettable title story--a wry and chilling horror tale about cloning and alien invasion that inspired the classic teleplay "The Duplicate Man" from the television seriesThe Outer Limits--Simak propels the reader on a breathtaking journey across the galaxies and into the future. He then enthralls us with the strange chronicle of twin siblings, one tied to the Earth, the other drawn to the stars; imaginings of a volatile reunion of two former enemies who must join forces on Jupiter's moon or face extinction; and the story of a house in the middle of nowhere that serves as a gateway back to prehistoric times.

With his wondrous tales of a journalist's miraculous discovery of fairies and sprites in the world, a census three centuries in the making that uncovers an unknown leap forward in human evolution, and the nightmare realities of future elder care, Simak demonstrates once again that he is not only one of the greatest science fiction writers of the twentieth century, but also one of the greatest of all time.

From tales of alien invasions and intergalactic war to visions of dystopian tomorrows, an astonishing collection from one of literary science fiction's all-time greats, Hugo Award winner Clifford D. Simak.

The twentieth century's so-called golden age of science fiction produced many great writers--including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein--yet none is greater than Clifford D. Simak, named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. His bold visions of and ingenious speculations about humankind's future, always enriched with empathy and a deep understanding of human strengths, foibles, and failings, have stood the test of time, remaining powerful, affecting, and relevant.

This sterling collection of fantastic stories by the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning master showcases some of Simak's finest short fiction, from his earliest published tales to his later masterworks. In the wry and wonderful title story, a science fiction writer of the far future returns to a nearly abandoned Earth in search of inspiration--and finds that the dying planet holds more wonder than he bargained for. The interdimensional invasion Simak imagines in "Hellhounds of the Cosmos" displays a conceptual ingenuity not typically seen in speculative fiction prior to World War II. And other tales in this marvelous compendium offer a wide range of wonders, from the surrender terms dictated by a cute and cuddly alien enemy and a get-rich-quick real-estate scam originating from another galaxy to the truth behind a series of strange disappearances on Jupiter and an explosion of ladybugs in a salesman's suburban home--an infestation quite possibly not of this Earth.

Whether he's rocketing us to another galaxy, leading us through the otherworldly shadows of small-town America, or preparing us for a Wild West shootout, every literary outing with Simak is an excursion to remember.

Named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Clifford D. Simak was a preeminent voice during the decades that established sci-fi as a genre to be reckoned with. Held in the same esteem as fellow luminaries Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury, his novels continue to enthrall today's readers. And his short fiction is still as gripping and surprising now as when it first entertained an entire generation of fans.

The title story is just one example of this. Cheviot Sherwood doesn't believe in miracles. They never seem to pay off. So when he's marooned on a planet with no plan for escape and no working radio, he takes it in stride and prepares for a long stay gathering food, making shelter, and collecting all the diamonds the world has to offer. But when a ship like none he's ever encountered lands, he sees his salvation--and an opportunity to take the priceless craft for himself. Unfortunately, his "rescuer" has the same idea...

This volume also includes the celebrated short works "Eternity Lost," "Shotgun Cure," and "Paradise," among others.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Introduction: Little Things: The Way Clifford D. Simak Wroteby David W. Wixon
• The Money Tree (1958)
• Shotgun Cure (1961)
• Paradise (1946)
• The Gravestone Rebels Ride by Night! (1944)
• How-2 (1954)
• The Shipshape Miracle (1963)
• Rim of the Deep (1940)
• Eternity Lost (1949)
• Immigrant (1954)

The long and prolific career of Clifford D. Simak cemented him as one of the formative voices of the science fiction and fantasy genre. The third writer to be named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, his literary legacy stands alongside those of Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. This striking collection of nine tales showcases Simak's ability to take the everyday and turn it into something truly compelling, taking readers on a long journey in a very short time.

In "Dusty Zebra," Joe discovers a portal that allows him to exchange everyday objects with an entity he can neither see nor hear, and soon learns that one man's treasure may be another dimension's trash. In "Retrograde Evolution," an interplanetary trading vessel tries to figure out how to deal with a remote society that has suddenly decided to become far less civilized. And in "Project Mastodon," an unusual ambassador from an unheard-of country offers amazing opportunities in a place the modern world can never compete with: the past. Simak's mastery of the short form is on display in these and six other stories.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Introduction: Clifford D. Simak: Opinions of a Reticent Author by David W. Wixon
• Dusty Zebra (1954)
• Hobbies (1946)
• Guns on Guadalcanal (1943)
• Courtesy (1951)
• The Voice in the Void (1932)
• Retrograde Evolution (1953)
• Way for the Hangtown Rebel! (1945)
• Final Gentleman (1960)
• Project Mastodon (1955)

Legendary author Robert A. Heinlein proclaimed, "To read science fiction is to read Simak. A reader who does not like Simak stories does not like science fiction at all." The remarkably talented Clifford D. Simak was able to ground his vast imagination in reality, and then introduce readers to fantastical worlds and concepts they could instantly and completely dig into, comprehend, and enjoy.

In the title story, a man's newfound ability to walk in the past allows him to dwell among dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers... and something even more timeless. In "Construction Shack," the first manned expedition to Pluto reveals that no matter how advanced aliens may be, even they don't always get everything right. And in "Univac 2200," the thin line between humans creating technology and humans becoming technology is about to be crossed--and there may be no going back.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Contents:

• Introduction: Clifford D. Simak: Seeker After the Truth by David W. Wixon
• The Thing in the Stone (1970)
• The World of the Red Sun (1931)
• Skirmish (1950)
• Aesop (1947)
• The Hangnoose Army Rides to Town! (1945)
• Univac: 2200 (1973)
• The Creator (1935)
• The Spaceman's Van Gogh (1956)
• Hunch (1943)
• Construction Shack (1973)

A pioneering voice in twentieth-century science fiction, Clifford D. Simak earned his place alongside such luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. While some of his stories imagined interplanetary space travel, many others depicted strange events in otherwise ordinary American towns--in what some readers would come to think of as "Simak Country." This volume contains examples of each.

In "Horrible Example," a small-town drunk reveals the extraordinary but essential role he plays in the community that shuns him. A space crew attempts to find substances on Jupiter that might help cure ailing humans back on Earth, in "Clerical Error." And in the title story, a seemingly miraculous pile of treasure is scorned by a mysterious man of God.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

CONTENTS:

• The Marathon Photograph (1974)
• Clerical Error (1940)
• Shadow of Life (1943)
• Buckets of Diamonds (1969)
• Horrible Example (1961)
• Lobby (1944)
• The Trouble with Ants (1951)
• ...And the Truth Shall Make You Free (1953)
• Infiltration (1943)
• The Fighting Doc of Bushwack Basin (1944)

One of the twentieth century's most pioneering science fiction authors, Clifford D. Simak had a special fondness for robots. Not only did these thinking machines represent the boundless possibilities of technology, they also had the potential to bring--in his words--"the kindness and the courage that I thought were needed in the world." The stories in this volume offer a variety of Simak's unique robot visions.

In "Lulu," a robot built for planetary exploration takes on a female identity, causing unforeseen challenges for her three-man crew. An examination of an unknown planet reveals the celestial body to be a single, gigantic computer whose origins and purpose are a mystery, in "Limiting Factor." And in the title story, Simak returns to his longest-running robot character, Jenkins, who reflects on all that has come and gone one last time.

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

CONTENTS:

• Lulu (1957)
• Smoke Killer (1944)
• Shadow Show (1953)
• Epilog (1973)
• A Bomb for No. 10 Downing (1942)
• Limiting Factor (1949)
• Masquerade (1941)
• The Fence (1952)
• Rule 18 (1938)
• Mr. Meek Plays Polo (1944)
• The World That Couldn't Be (1958)