Good Night, Mr. James by Clifford D. Simak

Published by Open Road Media on July 5, 2016

Volume 8 in the complete collection of Clifford E. Simak’s short stories begins with an introduction that discusses Simak’s non-fiction writing. Apart from his journalistic efforts, Simak wrote about nature. Of course, nature and the environment are common themes in Simak’s fiction. Not surprisingly, given Simak’s habit of working bits of his life into his stories, a character in the story “Brother” is a nature writer.

“Good Night, Mr. James” (1951) is different from Simak’s other “first contact” stories in that most of Simak’s aliens are benign or bewildered, while this story about an alien that hates all living things takes a decidedly grim view of aliens. But the story also suggests that humans can be equally nasty. The story takes a neat twist that results in one of Simak’s best surprise endings.

“Brother” (1977) is one of several Simak stories in which a character finds simple farm life preferable to the complexities of modern living, this time because spaceports are blocking the view. The evolution of humanity is a theme in this story, one to which Simak returned frequently during his career.

“Senior Citizen” (1975) presents a dark view of living a very long life, which might be telling given that Simak was in his 70s when he wrote the story.

“The Gunsmoke Drummer Sells a War” (1946) is a typical Simak western.

“Kindergarten” (1953) imagines aliens disguised as vending machines, but the story reveals one of Simak’s frequent themes: the probability that humans will respond violently to benign aliens, when peaceful interaction is more likely to benefit the human race.

“Reunion on Ganymede” (1938), like much of the fiction Simak wrote before he got old, contrasts with “Senior Citizen” by portraying an elderly man as wise and heroic. The story, involving robots and a killer, was written early in Simak’s career when he was churning out action stories.

“Galactic Chest” (1956) is one of the Simak stories to feature a journalist in a starring role (Simak worked as a journalist and newspaper editor during his writing career). This is another story in which aliens behave more charitably than humans.

“Death Scene” (1957) imagines that the world has finally achieved peace, but at a cost. People have traded freedom for security, a tendency that makes the story relevant to modern life.

“Census” (1944) is one of the stories that Simak “fixed up” into the novel City. It is the first talking dog story in the novel and it features themes (the decline of urban civilization, the rise of mutants, the evolution of ants) that become central to the later stories.

“Auk House” (1977) revisits a theme that Simak employed in many stories: the greedy and irresponsible nature of large corporations. Businesses use a kind of time travel to visit alternate worlds in an effort to exploit intelligent dinosaurs. This is one of Simak’s strongest “message” stories.

Like all the volumes in this collection, some stories are better than others. That’s the difference between a “complete” collection versus a “best of” collection. If you can’t get enough Simak, the complete collection is worth acquiring.

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