I Read: Worlds Without End

I found this collection of three Clifford D. Simak short stories at a flea market near Nihan's. I was quite excited to find it as Clifford D. Simak is quite a hard writer to find these days. I think he was fairly popular in the 60's and 70's but he's almost disappeared in the last twenty years or so which is sad since the sci-fi he tends to tackle is one that's pretty untouched. Clifford D. Simak works in rural landscapes and life into his science fiction stories and from the books I've read tends to delve into concepts of time and telepathy. So anyway, the stories in this collection are; Worlds Without End, The Spaceman's Van Gogh, and lastly Full Cycle.

The titular story, Worlds Without End, follows Norman Blaine who works for the Dreams department. Dreams department puts people in like a catatonic state for extended periods of time and chooses what they'll dream about. Naturally, some kind of conspiracy pops up and at the end I was kinda unclear as to what the hell happened. Another problem? It's missing all that rural life stuff that I like in Simak.

The next story is entitled The Spaceman's Van Gogh. This story is very quiet and subdued. It's about this guy who follows this recently deceased artist throughout the galaxy and ends up at his final subject planet. The artist in question was partially through a painting when he died and the explorer wanted to find out what he was painting and why. This is more inline with what I like about Simak. It's not a rural Earth setting but it still retains that feel since you're seemingly on a barren planet. This story was merely ok as it was again confusing and convoluted at the end. My problem with writers like Simak is I don't know when they're being literal or when they're being metaphoric especially with trippy 50's 60's sci-fi. Does he feel like a rainbow colored bird? or is he really a fucking bird?

The final wrap up story is Full Cycle, which in my opinion is the strongest story. It's about this history professor who is forced into retirement and therefore leave his small town to travel around the country in search of community. He meets interesting characters and even has a great inventive sci-fi thrown in. I honestly think it could make a good movie. Anyway, a strong finish to an otherwise weak anthology.

Full Cycle even sounds like it'd be a cool movie. If you find any Clifford D. Simak on your travels be sure to pick it up. It's rare and decent and definitely deserving of greater things. Sigh, if only someone would adapt one of his stories into a movie...