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A review by tastybourbon
Time and Again by Clifford D. Simak
3.0
This was such a mixed bag...it starts so mysteriously when Sutton, an astronaut who has been gone for twenty years, returns to Earth. The reader is led to believe this will be a story about time travel and the unraveling of the mystery of what happened to Sutton. The focus of the plot jumps tracks several times before settling on the theme of whether androids should be considered equal to humans. The angling of the human and android factions to win over Sutton was probably the best part of the story.
My biggest beef with the book? It was Sutton’s supposed greatness. The reader is told he’s destined to write a book that will ultimately change the world for both humans and androids...it’s why they’re all fawning over him. When the reader is introduced to one of Sutton’s core concepts that will supposedly reshape everything, my reaction was “that’s it? WTF!!” Seriously. A Chicken Soup for the Soul book may have more depth. Another issue is that the writing was clunky and meandered a bit, especially in the first half or the book in which Simak kept introducing new threads to the story. Other things were just weird. Seriously, what was with humanity loving dueling so much?
I’ve read a major critique of Simak, especially in his novels, is that he tries to juggle too many concepts and introduce too many interesting quirks and details to where things devolve into a mess. I think that’s a fair description of Time and Again. The story could have been much more interesting and meaningful if Simak had kept things more focused and if he had paired down the message(s) he conveyed. Overall though, the book was engaging and thought provoking enough, and it had a fun plot twist at the end that I’ll probably read more of Simak’s work eventually.
If anyone can provide some recommendations from his other novels and short stories, please do so!
My biggest beef with the book? It was Sutton’s supposed greatness. The reader is told he’s destined to write a book that will ultimately change the world for both humans and androids...it’s why they’re all fawning over him. When the reader is introduced to one of Sutton’s core concepts that will supposedly reshape everything, my reaction was “that’s it? WTF!!” Seriously. A Chicken Soup for the Soul book may have more depth. Another issue is that the writing was clunky and meandered a bit, especially in the first half or the book in which Simak kept introducing new threads to the story. Other things were just weird. Seriously, what was with humanity loving dueling so much?
I’ve read a major critique of Simak, especially in his novels, is that he tries to juggle too many concepts and introduce too many interesting quirks and details to where things devolve into a mess. I think that’s a fair description of Time and Again. The story could have been much more interesting and meaningful if Simak had kept things more focused and if he had paired down the message(s) he conveyed. Overall though, the book was engaging and thought provoking enough, and it had a fun plot twist at the end that I’ll probably read more of Simak’s work eventually.
If anyone can provide some recommendations from his other novels and short stories, please do so!