Book Review: Clifford D. Simak’s The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1960)

Richard Powers’ cover for the 1961 paperback edition 3.25/5 (collated rating: Above Average) At this point in my reading adventure, I approach Clifford D. Simak’s science fiction with a clear intention to expand my understanding of his economic, political, and technological critiques of American society. This culminated in 2024 with my article “’We Must Start Over Again and Find Some Other Way of Life’: The Role of Organized Labor in the 1940s and ’50s Science Fiction of Clifford D. Simak.” Since then, albeit at a slower pace, I’ve continued to cover his science fiction, speeches, and additional interviews I’ve been able to track down. I find him a deeply fascinating author who’s often pigeonholed as “bucolic” or “pastoral” with no real attempt to read beyond his tendency to set a few of his narratives in a rural simulacrum of his childhood corner of America. If you’re new to his work, this a solid but unspectacular collection despite the inclusion of his best-known short story “The…