Wild goose chase in an alternate universe
Edward Lansing is a professor of English literature at Langmore College in New England. Through a series of odd circumstances best left unspoiled, he finds himself transported to a mysterious forest he knows not where. After wandering a bit, he eventually finds an inhabited inn and meets up with a handful of displaced individuals like himself. Together they form a band of six: a professor, an engineer, a parson, a military man, a poet, and a sentient robot. They ascertain that they have all been abducted from different universes—Earths with alternate histories—and brought together in this place, though none of them have any idea the reason why. Convinced that they have been brought together to undertake some mission that might allow them to return to their homes, the half dozen characters explore this unknown world looking for clues to the mysterious purpose of their involuntary journey.
Though the setup involving the exploration of the unknown has the potential for an intriguing premise, the problem with Special Deliverance is that too much remains unknown throughout the length of the book. The travelers wander about looking for answers, occasionally experiencing some unusual phenomena, but nothing much is really learned along the way. It’s kind of like a long and poorly conducted role-playing game in which the players roam blindly through terrain they can’t see. Only when they accidentally bump into something interesting does the narrative pick up a little. Simak occasionally inserts a device, a monolith, or a creature that demonstrates his knack for original visionary concepts. Only in the final chapter is all conveniently explained; everything up until that point is merely the blind leading the blind. One can’t help thinking that all this aimless wandering could have been avoided or at least condensed for the reader’s benefit. Simak should have parcelled out bread crumbs of knowledge throughout the narrative instead of dumping all the answers in the final act.
Despite the theory about alternate universes, this novel is more fantasy than science fiction—not Dungeons and Dragons-type fantasy but something like Twilight Zone fantasy. There isn’t really much scientific rationale given for any of the happenings in the plot. The narrative is just a string of cool ideas strung sparsely along a meandering thread. By Simak standards, Special Deliverance is a novel of average quality. If you are a Simak fan it may be worth a read, but it is not a book to go out of your way for. If you are new to Simak and haven’t done so already, check out any of the volumes in The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series. Each volume is quite good, and they often pop up as Kindle Daily Deals.
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I am a longtime fan of Mr. Simak’s speculative fiction, which shows to best advantage in his shorter fiction, not in his novels. The most famous of his novels, Way Station, is sort of an expanded and rethought version of his best-ever work, the novella The Big Front Yard, my all-time favorite. It’s the story that brought me into the world of science fiction back in 1979. I’m so passionate about it that on 8 December 1985 I wrote to Mr. Simak, telling him my thoughts about the meaning of TBFY. Briefly, it’s a story about the importance of ideas, especially ideas that are essential to civilization. He agreed with me, which he expressed in his correspondence of 28 February 1986. His letter is one of my dearest possessions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I want to turn anyone on to Mr. Simak’s speculations, I refer them to six of his best examples (in my opinion, that is), to wit: The Big Front Yard, Desertion, Immigrant, New Folks’ Home, Drop Dead, Skirmish. Two others I might add are A Death in the House and The Thing in the Stone. I never recommend any of his novels; long-form fiction is not his best work.