Book Review

Book Review

City by Clifford D. Simak

     In the 21^st century, the human population begins to decline. Fear of nuclear war has driven people away from the cities. Advanced economics and new developments in atomic power allow people to live in countryside mansions for almost no money. Agricultural innovations have made the food supply abundant and better tasting. But Clifford D. Simak’s novel City is not utopian. This book is full of great ideas but like the future world as Simak imagines it, this novel lacks something fundamental.

     As City begins, talking dogs are debating the meaning and merits of some written stories that give accounts about the shrinking and disappearance of the human race. These Doggish academics can not be certain if the humans ever existed and some of them are convinced that people are a legendary and mythological species that grew from the imagination of primitive dogs. Each chapter is introduced by these intellectual canines and their individual interpretations of each story is explained. This framing device is clever for a number of reasons. One is that the readers, presumably people and not some other type of being, know the truth about what the dogs discuss. We see the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments. We can also see ourselves in them. The anthropomorphized dogs sound a lot like contemporary historians and theologians discussing the origins and meaning of the Christian Bible. By implication, our understanding of that and other ancient texts are incomplete and mostly the result of guesswork and speculation. We also learn through this framing that dogs survived when humans went extinct. Of course we are supposed to wonder how that happened and of course stories about dogs are always cute. Simak was reaching for the lowest hanging fruit when he wrote this.

     City is made up of eight chapters which were all originally short stories published in pulp sci-fi magazines. But “short stories” ought to be written in quotes because they are not really stories but more like situations, incomplete descriptions of the state of human affairs at different stages along the way to the end of the human race. Each story introduces some conflict such as whether people should be allowed to run their own farms or whether a man should remain at home or go to other places. At one point people discover that the planet Jupiter is a paradise compared to Earth so the human population thins out as massive amounts of people forsake their humanity and earthly home for a better life. (Is this another allusion to the Bible? Exodus or the conflict between Christ and Pontius Pilate?) Later on, people lose interest in reproduction altogether and succumb to a state of mind-numbing boredom.

     This novel does not have strong character development. There are actually very few real characters that do much after their initial introduction to the stories. One recurring character is Joe, a member of a mutant race that speciated out of humanity. They have telepathic powers, superior intelligence, and are condescending to ordinary humans. Joe does not actually do a whole lot except help some people solve technological problems when they reach an impasse. He also steals the book outlining the Juwain philosophy and then gives it back at a key monet for his own personal gain. He puts in a couple appearances but the effects of his actions play a bigger role in the drama than he actually does as a character.

     The robot Jenkins is the most complete character and appears in almost every chapter. His career as a servant to people spans 10,000 years. As he works for them, and robots start to become less dependent on humans, he takes on some of their characteristics like emotions, humor, and morality. He also tells some big lies for what he perceives to be ethical reasons.

     Otherwise the Webster family might be considered a character. The chapters move from one generation of the family to another, each generation representing a different era of human evolution. The Websters are masters of the technology and managers of the government even though the need for government grows increasingly obsolete throughout the book. Each member of the Webster family has the same problem, though; they all make important decisions that have a huge impact on the course of human destiny but each decision also causes a major problem. They are people characterized as taking giant strides but making terrible mistakes simultaneously. They all live in Webster manor (Solomon’s temple and the Ark of the Covenant? Look for the parallels).

     Then there are the dogs. After one of the Websters teaches a dog to talk, the pets begin to learn at an accelerated pace. Eventually they become the dominant species of the planet and teach all the other wild animals not to kill so that world peace is achieved (the lion lays down with the lamb). So the dogs and robots live on while humanity dwindles and then everything is threatened by the rise of ants who threaten to exterminate everything else on the planet due to an experiment once conducted by Joe the mutant.

     City introduces some amazing concepts. However, the characters are two-dimensional, shallow, and without any description of their physical appearance. In fact, most of the book is lacking in physical description. If you love reading because it transports you into an imaginary world, this book is not for you. It is difficult to travel to such an imaginary place when there is so little attention to what it actually looks like. As a novel, it also leaves out plot development, interesting dialogue, exciting action, and narrative tension. A lot of what happens takes place as either conversations or private thoughts in people’s heads. It is not a book with an action driven plot but more like a series of situations. A lot of conflicts are introduced but often only partially resolved if they get resolved at all. Reading City is like looking at a children’s coloring book that has not been colored in.

     Simak introduces some big ideas. They aren’t just big, they are intriguing and even grandiose. City could have been an epic science-fiction or fantasy classic along the lines of Dune or The Lord Of the Rings. Unfortunately, the end result is mediocre, bland, underwhelming, and rudimentary. It reads more like an outline than a complete novel. It seems as if Simak deliberately dumbed the whole thing down to make it more accessible to a wider and less intellectual audience. Because of its profound ideas it may be worth reading once but otherwise City proves that a great book can not be built out of great ideas alone. 

Simak, Clifford D. City. Ace Books Inc., New York: 1952.