Thanks for the review! I do enjoy reading short stories every now and then as a change of pace from longer fiction. I've only read one Simak book so far, Why Call Them Back From Heaven, which I can definitely recommend if you fancy an outlandish sci-fi novel with satirical elements. I hope to read more of his works soon. Among his novels, City and Way Station are probably the most acclaimed.
Only a year late! Sorry Robin, missed this comment at the time. Don't you find the YT notifications regarding comments a bit clunky sometimes?! It should all go to the comments section on YT Studio, but loads get missed.
Yes, I agree with you on that. The golden age of scifi certainly arose out of the short story form published in scifi mags. I always find it so incredible that your way of thinking and imagination can be so stirred by a few thousand words. Cheers for commenting!
Ah, yes! I've heard of Waystation and that it is held in high regard. I'll be seeking out a copy of that. I heard that Netflix were supposed to be developing the book into a film or series, but I don't think it ever materialised.
@@newsfromthegelding yeah, that's what I heard as well, I reckon if done right, it would be a great movie. Could also make for an interesting series given all the alien races he meets.
I like short stories and self-contained novels. Don't really like sprawling epics. Although David Eddings' and Stephen Donaldson's stuff is worth reading for an epic.
Hi Rich! I got David Edding's Belgariad series when I was a teenager, but I've yet to read it. Interestingly, I've since learned that he and his wife both served time for child abuse; keeping their adopted children in cages allegedly. I've also read the six earlier books of the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson, which I really enjoyed despite it being a bit of a slog at times. As fantasy worlds go, I thought this one was one of the most believable and complex.
I recommend a collection of 4 longish short stories by Simak - the book is titled : The Marathon Photograph. 1. The Birch Clump Cylinder - a good start to the collection 2. The Whistling Well - from the famous "Dark Forces" edited by Kirby McCauley, anthology of dark fantasy - & my favorite of the bunch - classic colloquial Simak 3. The Marathon Photograph - roughly written in spots, but a really good story. 4. The Grotto of the Dancing Deer - perhaps not as strong as the Whistling Well & Marathon Photograph stories, but it did sweep the Hugo, Nebula, & Locus awards for that year, which I assume to mean that they liked the messages the story tried to convey. It's a solid read
Thank you very much for taking the trouble to suggest these other short story works by Simak, I've just added them to my growing list of book recommendations! Hopefully I'll be able to find a copy for a future book haul video. Much appreciated!
I do like novels, but as of late, short stories better match my attention span. John, I just bought your short story collection from Amazon. Looking forward to reading it! Keep up the great videos!
Crikey! Cheers for buying my book! May I ask, did you purchase a physical copy or an ebook? I only ask because I don't entirely trust Amazon's accounting on book purchases! According to them, no one has bought a copy in over a month. I'd be really interested to hear what you think about it and thanks for liking my videos!!
Hahaha! It's the gift that keeps on giving! Telegraph poles can be really pungent (the real-life ones) but I really love the smell... I think I've got a problem :D
I think the short story is making a comeback. The market (Amazon, really) continues to incentive authors into writing mammoth-sized books in a series with the hope of getting those "page reads." However, I have hunch more authors are going to use short stories, if anything, for marketing, for reader magnets, because hardly anyone keep pace with demands with writing novel a month without burning out. Also, I see novels in series getting shorter. But this is just my hunch. And, yes, I, too, instantly thought of Magritte, except the bowler is now 2 fedoras, and the apple, an eyeball. Personally, I prefer that sweetish Attic smell. LOL! I thought I was only one who smelled my books. Would make funny short story. The Book S(m)ellers.
Glad to find another fellow book-sniffer! I might have to add "sweetish attic" to my repertoire, I think it really nicely bridges the gap between "wood" and "decomposed leaf" :D I know what you mean about the book market, as influenced by Amazon. There is definitely a tendency amongst writers to create long-running series, it certainly makes sense if you're lucky enough to have gathered an eager and dedicated audience. Crime fiction is a perfect example of this, series' of books that run into the double digits. I've followed authors who are somehow able to publish 6 or more books in a single year, no idea how one would accomplish such a feat without the resulting novels being absolutely crap. I think that with the emergence of AI, there will be even more of this happening, people spitting out books every week instead of every month. I've self-published a few books now, but only last year wrote my first science fiction; a collection of six short stories. I really loved writing them and plan to write more, but it's always disheartening when new books become so quickly lost within the millions of other books on Amazon. I've considered possibly just publishing stories on here as mini audiobooks, but that's just another project I'm trying to find time for! haha! Cheers for your comment mate!
I've always preferred the shorter story format for sci fi, horror & fantasy. (novelette, novella, & short story). I've read many of the Gardner Dozios Best Short SF of the Year volumes, as well as the older stuff by Kuttner, Sturgeon, Dick, Vance, Aldiss, & others.... Novels are nice, but I found that I get more satisfaction out of the shorter novels from other eras, than the padded novels from this era. The last fat sci fi novel that I've read & actually enjoyed, was Against a Dark Background by Iain Banks. Simak is different, in that he leans toward a mostly optimistic viewpoint - like the Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, & E.T. movies - which is OK. I like some of his novels, but I prefer his shorter works by a mile. Very underrated as a short story writer is Simak. In this era of role playing video games, which bore me senseless, I would much rather sit down read some decent SF.
That gave me a chuckle, in regards to modern RPG games boring you senseless! I have to agree. I used to dabble with this form of game, but as you say, the story is often very much lacking. Reading a self-contained work of fiction is always going to be more rewarding, i suppose. I also love the hard-hitting short story format, ideas that can expand your way of viewing the world in a mere few thousand words. As you put it, the 'padding' of the longer form sf is redolent of the era within which the story was penned. This can be a good and a bad thing, considering your own personal tastes. By and large, I enjoy becoming more enfolded within a longer novel and experiencing these past viewpoints/perspectives/writing styles etc. It's funny you mention the optimism of Simak's other work because this was an aspect of SF that I've only recently come to discern. I re-read Blood Music recently, and for such an incredibly apocalyptic scenario, the underlying feeling of the novel is unbelievably optimistic!
Will have to check this one out if I ever come across a copy!
Worth a gander I'd say!
Thanks for the review! I do enjoy reading short stories every now and then as a change of pace from longer fiction. I've only read one Simak book so far, Why Call Them Back From Heaven, which I can definitely recommend if you fancy an outlandish sci-fi novel with satirical elements. I hope to read more of his works soon. Among his novels, City and Way Station are probably the most acclaimed.
Only a year late! Sorry Robin, missed this comment at the time. Don't you find the YT notifications regarding comments a bit clunky sometimes?! It should all go to the comments section on YT Studio, but loads get missed.
@@newsfromthegelding No problem! I had forgotten all about this comment
Short story is really the heart and primary vessel of science fiction. I enjoy novels. I even enjoy the (unusual) well-written, star spanning epic.
Yes, I agree with you on that. The golden age of scifi certainly arose out of the short story form published in scifi mags. I always find it so incredible that your way of thinking and imagination can be so stirred by a few thousand words. Cheers for commenting!
P.s I love Simak, my favourite of his would have to be Waystation
Ah, yes! I've heard of Waystation and that it is held in high regard. I'll be seeking out a copy of that. I heard that Netflix were supposed to be developing the book into a film or series, but I don't think it ever materialised.
@@newsfromthegelding yeah, that's what I heard as well, I reckon if done right, it would be a great movie. Could also make for an interesting series given all the alien races he meets.
I like short stories and self-contained novels. Don't really like sprawling epics. Although David Eddings' and Stephen Donaldson's stuff is worth reading for an epic.
Hi Rich! I got David Edding's Belgariad series when I was a teenager, but I've yet to read it. Interestingly, I've since learned that he and his wife both served time for child abuse; keeping their adopted children in cages allegedly. I've also read the six earlier books of the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson, which I really enjoyed despite it being a bit of a slog at times. As fantasy worlds go, I thought this one was one of the most believable and complex.
I recommend a collection of 4 longish short stories by Simak - the book is titled : The Marathon Photograph.
1. The Birch Clump Cylinder - a good start to the collection
2. The Whistling Well - from the famous "Dark Forces" edited by Kirby McCauley, anthology of dark fantasy - & my favorite of the bunch - classic colloquial Simak
3. The Marathon Photograph - roughly written in spots, but a really good story.
4. The Grotto of the Dancing Deer - perhaps not as strong as the Whistling Well & Marathon Photograph stories, but it did sweep the Hugo, Nebula, & Locus awards for that year, which I assume to mean that they liked the messages the story tried to convey. It's a solid read
Thank you very much for taking the trouble to suggest these other short story works by Simak, I've just added them to my growing list of book recommendations! Hopefully I'll be able to find a copy for a future book haul video. Much appreciated!
I do like novels, but as of late, short stories better match my attention span. John, I just bought your short story collection from Amazon. Looking forward to reading it! Keep up the great videos!
Crikey! Cheers for buying my book! May I ask, did you purchase a physical copy or an ebook? I only ask because I don't entirely trust Amazon's accounting on book purchases! According to them, no one has bought a copy in over a month. I'd be really interested to hear what you think about it and thanks for liking my videos!!
I bought the physical book. Ordered on July 23 and delivered on the 27th. Hope that helps!
@kevind5027 thanks for letting me know. It still isn't showing on the kdp dashboard, they're probably just slow, but I don't trust them! 😄
You've gotta love a short story and a telegraph pole blend.
Hahaha! It's the gift that keeps on giving! Telegraph poles can be really pungent (the real-life ones) but I really love the smell... I think I've got a problem :D
@@newsfromthegelding you had me sniffing a book the other day, tobacco, wood, vowed to never do it again lol 😁😁😁
@@thesci-fished that made me chuckle! Good on ya for giving it a go though mate! Sounded like a spicy number 😆
I think the short story is making a comeback. The market (Amazon, really) continues to incentive authors into writing mammoth-sized books in a series with the hope of getting those "page reads." However, I have hunch more authors are going to use short stories, if anything, for marketing, for reader magnets, because hardly anyone keep pace with demands with writing novel a month without burning out. Also, I see novels in series getting shorter. But this is just my hunch. And, yes, I, too, instantly thought of Magritte, except the bowler is now 2 fedoras, and the apple, an eyeball. Personally, I prefer that sweetish Attic smell. LOL! I thought I was only one who smelled my books. Would make funny short story. The Book S(m)ellers.
Glad to find another fellow book-sniffer! I might have to add "sweetish attic" to my repertoire, I think it really nicely bridges the gap between "wood" and "decomposed leaf" :D
I know what you mean about the book market, as influenced by Amazon. There is definitely a tendency amongst writers to create long-running series, it certainly makes sense if you're lucky enough to have gathered an eager and dedicated audience. Crime fiction is a perfect example of this, series' of books that run into the double digits. I've followed authors who are somehow able to publish 6 or more books in a single year, no idea how one would accomplish such a feat without the resulting novels being absolutely crap. I think that with the emergence of AI, there will be even more of this happening, people spitting out books every week instead of every month.
I've self-published a few books now, but only last year wrote my first science fiction; a collection of six short stories. I really loved writing them and plan to write more, but it's always disheartening when new books become so quickly lost within the millions of other books on Amazon. I've considered possibly just publishing stories on here as mini audiobooks, but that's just another project I'm trying to find time for! haha! Cheers for your comment mate!
I've always preferred the shorter story format for sci fi, horror & fantasy. (novelette, novella, & short story).
I've read many of the Gardner Dozios Best Short SF of the Year volumes, as well as the older stuff by Kuttner, Sturgeon, Dick, Vance, Aldiss, & others....
Novels are nice, but I found that I get more satisfaction out of the shorter novels from other eras, than the padded novels from this era.
The last fat sci fi novel that I've read & actually enjoyed, was Against a Dark Background by Iain Banks.
Simak is different, in that he leans toward a mostly optimistic viewpoint - like the Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, & E.T. movies - which is OK. I like some of his novels, but I prefer his shorter works by a mile. Very underrated as a short story writer is Simak.
In this era of role playing video games, which bore me senseless, I would much rather sit down read some decent SF.
That gave me a chuckle, in regards to modern RPG games boring you senseless! I have to agree. I used to dabble with this form of game, but as you say, the story is often very much lacking. Reading a self-contained work of fiction is always going to be more rewarding, i suppose.
I also love the hard-hitting short story format, ideas that can expand your way of viewing the world in a mere few thousand words. As you put it, the 'padding' of the longer form sf is redolent of the era within which the story was penned. This can be a good and a bad thing, considering your own personal tastes. By and large, I enjoy becoming more enfolded within a longer novel and experiencing these past viewpoints/perspectives/writing styles etc.
It's funny you mention the optimism of Simak's other work because this was an aspect of SF that I've only recently come to discern. I re-read Blood Music recently, and for such an incredibly apocalyptic scenario, the underlying feeling of the novel is unbelievably optimistic!