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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A Death in the House and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak

Published by Open Road Media on July 5, 2016

A Death in the House is volume 7 in the Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series published by Open Road. The introduction attributes Simak’s apparent hiatus from science fiction in the mid-1930s to his work as a newspaper editor, moving from town to town in the Midwest after being hired to save sinking newspapers. At the same time, shrinking markets for sf left him with few places to which he could submit his work. Fortunately, the hiatus did not last long and Simak went on to produce some of science fiction's most memorable stories.

The stories (with publication dates) collected in this volume are:

"Operation Stinky" (1957) - A smelly alien meets a drunken human. This is an amusing story that previews themes that Simak developed in greater depth in “A Death in the House,” also collected in this volume.

"Green Thumb" (1954) - This intelligent alien plant story that also previews “A Death in the House.”

"When it’s Hangnoose Time in Hell" (1946) - A western.

"The Sitters" (1958) - Aliens prove to be twisted babysitters. Those who benefit might approve of the aliens’ approach but parents will be horrified.

"Tools" (1942) - An intelligent cloud of radon from Venus is messing with humans, but the radium industry is big business and profits matter more than people. Like many of Simak’s stories, “Tools” is optimistic even as it cautions against greed and other deadly sins.

"Target Generation" (1953) - A generation ship story with some twists. The story has some features in common with Brian Aldiss’ excellent 1958 novel, Non-Stop.

"War is Personal" (1945) - A “pilots behind enemy lines” war story.

"Nine Lives" (1957) - A time travel story with cats.

"A Death in the House" (1959) - A farmer finds a smelly plant-like alien that soon dies -- or does it? Simak’s humanity shines through in this story, as well as his sense that aliens (and by extension, humans who are different from us) are just as capable of empathy and kindness as we are. It’s my favorite story in the volume and one of Simak’s best.

"The Birch Clump Cylinder" (1974) - An alien starship drive that uses time as a source of energy falls to Earth, setting up a clever time travel story.

None of the stories in this volume are duds and all except the war story entertained me, but only one -- the title story -- shows Simak at this best. It’s interesting, however, to see how two of the earlier stories shaped the title story.

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Grotto of the Dancing Deer and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak

Published by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy on March 1, 2016

Grotto of the Dancing Deer is one of several books in a series that will collect all of Clifford D. Simak’s short stories. The stories in this volume are representative of Simak’s range as a writer. Most of them are quite good.

In “Over the River and Through the Woods,” two children show up to visit their grandparents, but the grandparents have never seen the children before. The boy says his father is a temporal engineer, a phrase the grandmother doesn’t understand. Well, you can see where this is going, although the story takes an interesting turn. The story reflects Simak’s love of simple country lifestyles as well as the moral dilemma inherent in time travel. The story is short but powerful. It shows Simak at his best.

“Grotto of the Dancing Deer” is about a 20,000-year-old man. He’s the original survivalist and he does it without a bug-out bag, because survival is about instinct and judgment, not gear and guns. The story’s well-deserved awards include a Hugo and a Nebula. Its point, I think, is that having a friend who understands you, even if the friendship is fleeting, is the true key to survival.

“The Reformation of Hangman’s Gulch” is one of Simak’s westerns. It has the hallmarks of a classic western, including the theme of good versus evil, but the good guy isn’t all that good, giving the story the kind of subtlety that Simak brought to much of his fiction. The dialog could have been better but the story is entertaining.

In “The Civilization Game,” the human race is striving to preserve its culture (everything from art to politics to war) as humans become a minority in the galactic matrix. Those who try to preserve human achievements discover that many of them (like political assassination) are quite ugly. Simak gives a clever twist to the notion of cultural preservation as the story ends.

“Crying Jag” is about an alien (and his robot) who comes to a small town and listens to the sad stories people love to tell about their lives. They feel better after confessing their sorrows, making the alien seem like a priest or psychiatrist, but the alien listens to the stories because they have the same effect on aliens that alcohol has on humans. The gentle humor and the twisted ending are typical Simak, but the story is also typical of Simak’s ability to make a profound point with a simple story.

“The Hunger Disease” was written when sf authors thought that Venus was just a rainy version of Earth. Colonists on Venus come down with a fatal disease that makes them insatiably hungry. A reporter wonders if there’s a connection between the disease and a visit by a colonist from Mars. Simak’s appreciation of agrarian life and its rigors is evident the story, as is his love of westerns. The story, in fact, gives a science fiction twist to a traditional western theme of a man fighting to save his land from swindlers who file an opposing claim. Add a Martian conspiracy, and you’ve got classic Simak.

“Mutiny on Mercury” is probably the first published story that Simak wrote, although it took him a while to sell it. It’s sort of a John Carter story that is easily skipped.

The spaceship crew in “Jackpot” spend their time plundering planets. They come across a planet with only one structure. It appears to be an immense library. This creates a moral dilemma -- should they rob the library, a prospect that will finally give them the wealth they want, or should they leave it for the rest of the galaxy to enjoy? Should education be freely available to benefit all of humankind or should it be sold at a profit to those who can afford it? Is honesty the most important value, even if it leads to complacency? Simak excelled at stories that ask moral questions. This one stands out.

Some aspects of “Day of Truce” reminded me of the first stories in City: the tension between city dwellers and those who are turning the country into cities with larger yards; the tension between generations; the difficulty of living in peace when people have their minds set on conflict. The story builds on a shrewd version of the angry old man who shakes a fist while yelling “you kids get off my lawn.” The story also asks whether a preemptive strike can ever be justified as self-defense. This isn’t one of Simak’s best, but it’s a good effort.

“Unsilent Spring” returns to one of Simak’s favorite themes -- the merits of simple country lifestyles. A rural doctor is asked to keep an eye out for a strange malady that is becoming epidemic. Symptoms include lethargy, abnormal blood sugar, and an increased appetite. Only townfolk complain of those symptoms; country and hill folk seem to be immune. The hill people, in particular, are healthy and self-sufficient, surviving on the food they grow, the fish and game they catch, the few cows and pigs they own. They are “happy, reliable, proud, and independent people, filled with dignity and inborn curiosity” -- the kind of people Simak extolled in his fiction. The story is sort of an ode to country doctors. The solution to the medical mystery might be a little silly, but it’s consistent with Simak’s lifelong interest in the process of evolution.

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Hap and Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale

Published by Tachyon Publications on March 1, 2016

Joe Lansdale has written eight or nine novels featuring the characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. Hap provides the narrative voice. He's sort of an East Texas liberal who has been on a long and unsuccessful quest to find himself. His buddy, Leonard Pine, is a black, gay conservative who has anger management issues. Whether Hap and Leonard have a knack for finding trouble or whether trouble finds them is a question they often ponder.

Hap and Leonard are now appearing in a series on Sundance TV. Apparently the episodes can be streamed online. I haven't done that yet due to my lousy internet service but I'll get around to it eventually. I assume that this collection of Hap and Leonard short stories was released in anticipation of the Sundance show.

A couple of the short stories in the volume are billed as novellas. I’m not sure they’re long enough to qualify as novellas rather than long short stories. The entire volume is relatively short, but most of the stories are entertaining, as you would expect from Joe Lansdale.

The first long story is “Hyenas.” A young man looking for someone to help him prevent his brother from committing a robbery has the misfortune of meeting the wrong guys before he finds Hap and Leonard. A couple of violent confrontations later and the problem is solved. This is a fun, straightforward story that is enlivened by Lansdale’s trademark wit.

“Veil’s Visit” is co-authored with Andrew Vachss. The story blends Vachss’ trademark darkness with Lansdale’s trademark humor. The darkness (involving kids, another Vachss trademark) comes at the beginning but the story becomes cheerier as it progresses. Veil is a lawyer and an old friend of Hap. He travels to Texas to help out Leonard, who is charged with burning down a crack house. Again. The trial is a masterpiece of wit and theatrics. It’s also deliciously funny.

“Death by Chili” is a very short story that was written as a promotional giveaway. Leonard solves the mystery of how a person died. The chili recipe at the end is more amusing than the story.

“Dead Aim” is the best story in the collection. Hap and Leonard are asked to help out a woman whose husband is threatening her. That problem takes a couple of twists before turning into a bunch of new problems … the kind that Hap and Leonard like to solve with an axe handle, a few bullets, and nonstop banter.

In “The Boy Who Became Invisible,” Hap recalls an incident from his childhood. This is a very short, very serious story, quite unlike the other entries. Also from his younger days, Hap explains how he got to know Leonard in “Not Our Kind.” The story features some of the usual Hap and Leonard banter, but its subject matter -- racism and homophobia -- give it a serious edge.

“Bent Twig” is a fairly predictable story about Hap’s efforts to find the drug-addled daughter of his girlfriend, who regularly gets into trouble and disappears. The plot gains some zip toward the end, and the snappy dialog and amusing moments that characterize Hap and Leonard stories make it worth reading.

Rounding out the collection is Lansdale’s brief interview of Hap and Leonard. It comes across as filler. Lansdale also devotes a few pages to explaining how and when he penned the various Hap and Leonard novels and stories.

On the whole, this collection is something that Hap and Leonard fans (or, more generally, Lansdale fans) will appreciate. It doesn’t consistently showcase Lansdale at his best, but “Hyenas” and “Dead Aim” are worth the price of the volume.

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Condor in the Stacks by James Grady and The Little Men by Megan Abbott

MysteriousPress.com is publishing (in digital form) a series of stand-alone stories by popular crime authors in which books, bookstores, libraries, or manuscripts play a central role.  I don't usually review individual short stories, but I'm making an exception for the Bibliomysteries series because the concept is interesting and the authors are well known.

"Condor in the Stacks" by James Grady was published digitally on February 23, 2016.

Condor fans know from reading Last Days of the Condor that the Condor, sometimes known as Vin, was heavily medicated and given a (supposedly) safe and undemanding job at the Library of Congress, sorting books into bins for reshelving and recycling. Vin thinks pretty much all books should be saved. That attitude makes him well suited for the Bibliomysteries series.

Vin tries to kick back his sedation long enough to help a library employee named Kim who thinks she is being stalked. Meanwhile, he tries to solve the puzzle of why he packed seven coffins full of books for recycling but nine coffins are being hauled away.

The plot is beyond far-fetched and it isn’t fully developed. I'm not sure it even makes sense. Still, it entertained me. I liked the story, but not nearly as much as I liked the last Condor novel, which had a depth of character and intricacy of plot that can be difficult to achieve in a short story. I probably would not recommend this story to readers who did not read and enjoy Last Days of the Condor.

The text of the story mentions or alludes to about a dozen authors. James Grady acknowledges them at the end, which is helpful for readers who recognize, but can’t quite place, an allusion. I am one of the readers who benefitted from reading the acknowledgements.

Judging from Amazon reviews, some readers are turned off by Grady’s writing style, which is far from conventional. Odd punctuation, sentence fragments, and stream of consciousness sometimes take over the narrative. The frenzied, off-kilter style reflects Vin’s shaky mental status. I like it for that reason but I realize that it puts off readers who are looking for straight-forward prose. If you are one of those, be warned that this might not be the story for you.

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"The Little Men" by Megan Abbott was published digitally on September 15, 2015

In 1953, Penny went to Hollywood to pursue her dream of fame. Like most wannabe actresses, she found a less satisfying life that the one she pursued. At night, she consoles herself with the books that came with a surprisingly affordable bungalow that she rents in the canyon. Her neighbors soon reveal that the rent is affordable because nobody wants to rent the bungalow where the bookseller killed himself. Or did he?

This is a story of bad dreams and spooky nocturnal noises and shadows on the walls. A mystery with the flavor of a horror story. Like Psycho, the story asks the reader to divine the secrets of a spooky place. Are the horrors that Penny experiences real or imagined?

A well-crafted story, “Little Men” creates a visceral atmosphere and gives flesh to its characters. The story resolves with a couple of unexpected twists. Most of the stories in this series have been quite good, and this one is no exception.

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