Good Night, Mr. James: And Other Stories

(Paperback)

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Strange, poignant tales of life in outer space and on tomorrows Earth from the multiple Hugo Awardwinning Grand Master of Science Fiction.

Virtually every major author from science fictions fabled golden ageincluding Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinleinagreed that Clifford D. Simak was one of the greatest among them. Named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, the award-winning author created enduring visions of future worlds, perilous space explorations, and weird alien encounters as rich in emotion and humanity as they are in ingenious invention. This is an essential collection of short fiction from the remarkable mind and heart of a true giant of twentieth-century speculative fiction, featuring powerful examples of literary science fiction at its very best.

Beginning with the unforgettable title storya wry and chilling horror tale about cloning and alien invasion that inspired the classic teleplay The Duplicate Man from the television series The Outer LimitsSimak propels the reader on a breathtaking journey across the galaxies and into the future. He then enthralls us with the strange chronicle of twin siblings, one tied to the Earth, the other drawn to the stars; imaginings of a volatile reunion of two former enemies who must join forces on Jupiters moon or face extinction; and the story of a house in the middle of nowhere that serves as a gateway back to prehistoric times.

With his wondrous tales of a journalists miraculous discovery of fairies and sprites in the world, a census three centuries in the making that uncovers an unknown leap forward in human evolution, and the nightmare realities of future elder care, Simak demonstrates once again that he is not only one of the greatest science fiction writers of the twentieth century, but also one of the greatest of all time.

Reviews

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

"Good fantasy--and that includes science fiction--takes off from the known for its flights into the new. Cliff Simak was a master of the art." --Jack Williamson, award-winning author of Terraforming Earth

"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

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.