Lucky Thirteen
Volume 13 collects ten stories by Simak, nine of them science fiction and one a Western. The Western, a novella-length work entitled “The Fighting Doc of Bushwhack Basin,” is one of the longest entries in this volume, but it’s a pretty good one. A town doctor gets tired of patching up gunshot wounds caused by trigger-happy hired guns, so he decides to go after the wealthy rancher who hired them. The dozen-or-so Western stories that Simak published in his career tend to repeat a lot of the same elements, but if you haven’t read one of his Westerns in a while then this is an enjoyably suspenseful adventure.
The main attraction here, however, is the science fiction, and this volume contains at least half a dozen good stories in that vein. Habitual Simak readers will recognize “The Trouble with Ants,” a story that eventually became the penultimate chapter of his novel City. Thousands of years in the future, after mankind has left the Earth, the planet belongs to robots, dogs, and other animals, who barely remember the existence of man. In this installment of the City saga, ants also become a major player in the planet’s future. Like the other stories that went into the making of that classic novel, this is some of Simak’s most visionary and original work.
Volume 13’s title selection, “Buckets of Diamonds,” is like a comedic Twilight Zone episode in which the narrator’s goofy uncle mysteriously comes into possession of great riches. “The Marathon Photograph” entwines elements of mystery, horror, and science fiction into an ingenious story full of intriguing ideas, while “Infiltration” delivers good old-fashioned monster-movie fun. Perhaps the best story in the volume is “. . . And the Truth Shall Make You Free.” In a future in which mankind is just one insignificant inhabitant of a diverse galaxy, an interplanetary team of explorers discovers archaeological evidence of the first humans who left Earth thousands of years earlier. A human member of the team hopes the find will shed light on the glory and purpose of mankind. This story is quintessential Simak, a philosophical reconciling of his interest in futuristic sci-fi and his love of a pastoral Midwestern lifestyle.
“Horrible Example,” “Clerical Error,” and “Shadow of Life” are less successful entries by Simak standards but still pretty good for the genre. It’s hard to find a short story collection where every entry hits the ball out of the park. After having now read all 14 volumes of The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series, however, I can honestly say there isn’t a bad book in the bunch. Volume 13 isn’t the best volume in the series, but if you’re a science fiction fan you really can’t go wrong with purchasing any of these books, especially since they turn up so often as Kindle Daily Deals.
Stories in this collection
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