Clifford D. Simak was named the third winner of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, just after Robert Heinlein and Jack Williamson and he also won several Hugos and a Nebula as well as being named as one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. If writing awards were worn on the chest like military medals, then Clifford Simak would be one of our most decorated veterans.And yet I had never read him. So when I recently acquired this novel along with several dozen other hand-me-downs, I moved it up to the top of my list. Published in 1982, this novel was very near the end of Simak’s writing career and it includes several of the science fiction themes for which he became known: a mostly rural setting, potential time travel with intersecting parallel universes, and robots that are the deep philosophical thinkers. In this book, the protagonist is Edward Lansing, a professor in our present day Earth. He is mysteriously manipulated into travelling to what appears to be another dimension, a completely unknown location in place and time. He is joined by others who have similarly been yanked from their worlds and times, all seemingly from different versions of Earth-like societies, all of certain archetypes (the military man, the priest, the engineer, the poet, and the companionable robot who may be more human than any of the others). Together they try to solve the puzzle of how to find a way back to their homes although they quickly conclude that they can’t really go back, only forward.The book contains a fair amount of philosophizing as well as character interaction as the group tries to move forward. They do wear on each other’s nerves and, I must say, on mine as well from time to time. Not all mysteries are solved by the end of the story. Another signature feature of Simak’s work is his introduction of strange happenings that are never explained. For example, there is a mysterious creature that sort of stalks the group that they dub, “the Wailer” because of the sounds it makes. By the end of the book they do finally see what sort of creature it is but never an explanation of why it is included at all in the story.While not my favorite read of the year, there was enough here for me to not say ‘no’ to another Simak novel. It was very readable, unlike many I have attempted from the “Grand Masters”. Perhaps I will look for his most famous novel, City at some point in the future.
A mostly pleasant read with an engaging mystery. Unfortunately populated with stock characters, Lansing and Mary being more developed but still drawn in pretty broad strokes. I did very much appreciate Mary's importance to the plot (it is she that finally solves the puzzle), as well as the gender-role inversion of having Mary as the logical engineer and Lansing the more intuitive/emotional humanities professor. The mystery of the world and how they got there is the real star of the book and it certainly kept me turning pages. The resolution of the mystery is one of my least favorite of the standard sf tropes, so that was disappointing, but I do love that Lansing had much the same reaction as I did.Not as good as Project Pope or City, the other two Simak books I've really enjoyed.
What do You think about Special Deliverance (1982)?
The concepts were fantastic and the delivery was as expected from a newspaper reporter born in the first half of the 20th century. There were moments that showed such great promise and then love came into the story which often seems like a useless tack on. At the heart of this though, it was an excellent story that explores the possibility of multiple alternate realities in operation at the same time and how those realities were created out of crisis. The author also clearly did not hold out much hope for the future of humanity and somehow managed to find an escape hatch. It reminds me of the critical mantra I try to apply to my life... "There is no way out, only in."
—Scot
Love this book... It is more than the words on the page. The ideals within spoke to me. I feel that many books or movies must find you at the right time in your life or they don't have impact. This one found me. The only part of the book that bogs down a bit is when Lansing is out on the dunes alone for awhile. But somehow it conveys the right feelings by bogging down... I think the message of the book is don't take the easy way out, Don't get distracted, Don't let this world consume you, Don't be closed minded, but do think about things... My two cents.
—Aric Brose
A college professor (of literature) is more or less abducted from our world and appears on a planet - a future Earth? somewhere else entirely? - along with a set of archetypal figures from other eras in Earth's history, or perhaps from the history of parallel Earths. Working and kvetching together, they have to deduce why they are there and where to go next. The story is enjoyable enough, but reads as an awkward cross between an allegory and a pulp adventure, and the gender roles are a bit fusty. Not Simak's best.
—Grady McCallie
