A Death in the House: And Other Stories

(Paperback)

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Ten thrilling and intriguing tales of space travel, war, and alien encounters from the multiple Hugo Awardwinning Grand Master of Science Fiction.

From Frank Herberts Dune to Isaac Asimovs Foundation series to Philip K. Dicks stories of bizarre visions of a dystopian future, the latter half of the twentieth century produced some of the finest examples of speculative fiction ever published. Yet no science fiction author was more highly regarded than Grand Master Clifford D. Simak, winner of numerous honors, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

This magnificent compendium of stories, written during science fictions golden age, highlights Simak at his very best, combining ingenious concepts with his trademark humanism and exploring strange visitations, remarkable technologies, and humankinds destiny in the possible worlds of tomorrow. Whether its an irascible old mans discovery of a very unusual skunk that puts him at odds with the US Air Force, a county agents strange bond with the sentient alien flora he discovers growing in his garden, the problems a small town faces when its children mature too rapidly thanks to babysitters from another galaxy, or the gift a lonely farmer receives in exchange for aiding a dying visitor from another world, the events detailed in Simaks poignant and beautiful tales will thrill, shock, amuse, and astonish in equal measure.

One of the genres premier literary artists, Simak explores time travel and time engines; examines the rituals and superstitions of galactic travelers who have long forgotten their ultimate purpose; and even takes fascinating detours through World War II and the wild American West in a wondrous anthology that no science fiction fan should be without.

Reviews

Praise for Clifford D. Simak
"One of the best-loved authors in SF." --Publishers Weekly on Highway of Eternity

"To read science fiction is to read Simak. The reader who does not like Simak stories does not like science-fiction at all." --Robert A. Heinlein, Hugo Award-winning author of Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers

"Just about any work by Simak deserves to be considered a classic." --SFBook.com

Author Bio

During his fifty-five-year career, CLIFFORD D. SIMAK produced some of the most iconic science fiction stories ever written. Born in 1904 on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin, Simak got a job at a small-town newspaper in 1929 and eventually became news editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune,writing fiction in his spare time.

Simak was best known for the bookCity,a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novelWay Station.In 1953Citywas awarded the International Fantasy Award, and in following years, Simak won three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 1977 he became the third Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and before his death in 1988, he was named one of three inaugural winners of the Horror Writers Associations Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

DAVID W. WIXON was a close friend of Clifford D. Simaks. As Simaks health declined, Wixon, already familiar with science fiction publishing, began more and more to handle such things as his friends business correspondence and contract matters. Named literary executor of the estate after Simaks death, Wixon began a long-term project to secure the rights to all of Simaks stories and find a way to make them available to readers who, given the fifty-five-year span of Simaks writing career, might never have gotten the chance to enjoy all of his short fiction. Along the way, Wixon also read the authors surviving journals and rejected manuscripts, which made him uniquely able to provide Simaks readers with interesting and thought-provoking commentary that sheds new light on the work and thought of a great writer.