Page 1 of 1

City, by Clifford Simak

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:38 pm
by Omphalos
Image


Clifford Simak's masterpiece novel City is an episodic future history of mankind, told in the form of scholarly analysis of myth by our successor race to the planet Earth, intelligent dogs. Although it is in substantial part magical tale, it's mostly science fiction told from the perspective of a far-future intelligent canine who is analyzing fable-like stories of a predecessor race called "men," most of which seem to be of dubious origin, though the narrator thinks that there is some truth to them. Collectively they tell the story of the attempts and failures of the pivotal Webster family which over the years saw the way to human enlightenment, but failed in their quests to achieve it, leaving the human race to instead seek solace through happiness. I have a lot to say about this one; I have literally been thinking about it for decades, so I think I will start with some focused comments on the work in general, then follow with a breakdown of the individual stories, and wrap up with some general comments...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..