Reviews for Journeys in Science Gr6

The average rating for Journeys in Science Gr6 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-04 00:00:00 John Mcclanahan The only thing wrong with this collection of Simak stories is the title. The same holds true for any collection of stories or songs by anyone, of course; your selection of tracks that belong on the best of any band will not match mine or anyone else's, for example. I can't see how they called anything the best of Simak without including The Big Front Yard or anything from City or...or...or... But, it is a good collection of good stories by Simak. Founding Father is an atypically (for Simak) dark story of interstellar expansion, Immigrant is a good tale of first contact and illustrates how The Prime Directive should have been applied, New Folks' Home is a touching look at aging and incorporates his pastoral philosophies excellently, and Crying Jag is a very funny tale of common sense versus intellectual arrogance. All the Traps of Earth is an excellent robot story that examines artificial intelligence with warmth and compassion, as does the next story, Lulu, which takes a comedic look at the same subject with some insight into interstellar exploration. The final story, Neighbor, is another classic with a feel-good message of togetherness that would have made a terrific episode of The Twilight Zone. All The Traps of Earth originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1960 and New Folks' Home was from Analog (formerly known as Astounding SF Magazine) in 1963, and all of the rest appeared in the 1950's in either Astounding or Galaxy Magazine. Simak was a terrific storyteller and had the knack of making the reader feel like he was your pal and you were both there to have a good time.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-07-21 00:00:00 Marybeth Mallios Definitely an enjoyable easy-reading anthology of sci-fi shorts Clifford D Simak’s thumbnail bio on Wikipedia tells us, “Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.” His laid-back, unassuming, folksy, distinctly and identifiably American style of pastoral, uncomplicated story-telling earned him a well-deserved place in the pantheon of science fiction’s Golden Age of celebrated authors. So unless the minds of the editors or publishers of this particular anthology were somewhere else, far, far, away, it’s a sure bet that BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES OF CLIFFORD D SIMAK will be a winner. Be assured it doesn’t disappoint. You might have and Joe might have and I might have picked other stories from Simak as better and more worthy of the term “best” but … it is what it is and you won’t be sorry for spending the time on this set of sure-fire winners. Two asides: First, Isaac Asimov’s CAVES OF STEEL was first published as a serial in Galaxy magazine, from October to December 1953. ALL THE TRAPS OF EARTH, the particular story featuring robot Richard Daniel’s clearly sentient quest for a safe permanent home and autonomy was published in 1960. Richard Daniel? R Daneel Olivaw? Mighty close, wouldn’t you say? I wonder if Simak was offering a tip of the hat and a small bit of homage to a colleague who made robots and robotics in sci-fi such a rewarding staple! Second, in NEIGHBOR, also first published in 1960, Simak took a few words to characterize the mental outlook of the USA’s Midwest rural farming population: “I’m afraid that we may be a bit provincial, for it’s fairly hard to get us stirred up much about world happenings … we haven’t got the time to worry about all those outside things. I imagine you’d call us conservative, for most of us vote Republican without even wondering why … ” Hmmm, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, n’est-ce pas? Enjoy! Paul Weiss