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I Am Crying All Inside: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Clifford D. Simak (Author), David W. Wixon (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 530 ratings

Book 1 of 14: The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak

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From the Nebula Award–winning author of Way Station: Ten stories—including one never before published—of mystery and imagination in a world that cannot be.

People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.

Along with the other stories in this collection, “I Am Crying All Inside” is a compact marvel—a picture of an impossible reality that is not so different from our own.

Also included in this volume is the newly published “I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air,” originally written for Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions.™

Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“To read science fiction is to read Simak. A reader who does not like Simak stories does not like science fiction at all.” —Robert A. Heinlein

“Like Olaf Stapledon and SF’s later mystics, Simak could dream on a grand scale. . . . Thoreau or Wordsworth would feel at home in his isolated houses rooted in natural landscapes.” —Locus

“Simak is the most underrated great science fiction writer alive, and has never written a bad book.” —Theodore Sturgeon

“I read [Simak’s] stories with particular attention, and I couldn’t help but notice the simplicity and directness of the writing—the utter clarity of it. I made up my mind to imitate it, and I labored over the years to make my writing simpler, clearer, more uncluttered, to present my scenes on a bare stage.” —Isaac Asimov

“Without Simak, science fiction would have been without its most humane element, its most humane spokesman for the wisdom of the ordinary person and the value of life lived close to the land.” —James Gunn

About the Author

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 book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was 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 Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B010EMZW06
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (October 20, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 20, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4475 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 347 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #113,157 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #113 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store)
- #1,051 in Short Stories Anthologies
- #1,528 in Science Fiction Adventure

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4.5 530 ratings

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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 book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was 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 Association's Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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Karl Janssen

Visionary storytelling from a sci-fi Grand Master

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2016

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Clifford D. Simak is one of the most respected and award-winning science fiction authors of the 20th century. I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories, published in 2015, is the first volume in a projected fourteen volume series of Simak’s complete short fiction, currently in the works from publisher Open Road Media. The series is edited by David W. Wixon, a good friend of Simak’s and his literary executor. Wixon provides an introductory essay and a brief introduction to each of the stories. This added material not only provides a mini-biography of Simak but also offers an interesting look into the career of a working writer during the pulp fiction era. Although Simak’s stories are great, Wixon’s contributions make the book even better.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to Wixon’s arrangement of the stories and novellas within the series. The ten selections in Volume One are not ordered chronologically. They run the gamut from 1939 to 1969, plus one story which was previously unpublished. There is no thematic cohesion to the entries either. In fact, there’s even one Western tale included among all the science fiction. As someone who appreciates vintage sci-fi but has had little experience with Simak, the grab-bag approach worked just fine for me. It was a joy to begin each story with no expectation of where Simak would go with it. By putting himself in Simak’s hands, the reader straps himself in for a roller coaster ride of visionary speculation, thrilling entertainment, and intellectual stimulation.

Simak’s range of subjects and interests is admirably diverse. “Installment Plan” is a tale of economic competition and industrial espionage, but on a distant planet. “Ogre” deals with intelligent plant life and alien music. “Small Deer” and “Gleaners” are two great time travel tales, the former horrific and the latter almost comic. There’s a whole lot of weird science going on in “Call from Beyond,” but it comes across as a film noir set on Pluto. The previously unpublished selection, “I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air” is a brilliantly creepy sci-fi/horror masterpiece. “Madness from Mars” is the one story that feels a little antiquated and formulaic, but Simak still manages to inject it with some thought-provoking ideas.

There’s a strain of dark pessimism that runs through a lot of the stories, even the Western, “Gunsmoke Interlude.” However, there’s also a resilient and enduring humanity that shines through, regardless of whether the characters are human, animal, vegetable, or synthetic beings. What separates Simak from so many of the sci-fi writers of his era is his ability not only to create fantastic worlds but also to enrich them with moving emotion. “I Am Crying All Inside” and “All the Traps of Earth” both feature robot protagonists who are more sympathetic and heartbreaking than many of their human counterparts in literature.

This is quite simply one of the best short story collections I’ve read in years, science fiction or otherwise. I’m definitely down for Volume Two. Kudos to Wixon and Open Road for putting together this comprehensive series of the Grand Master’s work. If this first volume is any indication of the quality to expect in volumes to come, I may just work my way through all 14 books.

35 people found this helpful

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Austin C. Beeman

The 1st of 14 Volumes from a Science Fiction Grand Master. Rated 80% Positive

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2020

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In 1977, Clifford D Simak was only the third person to ever be named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. He had been writing short science fiction for over 40 years. This book is the first of a 14-volume project by Simak’s estate to collect all of his short fiction.

This collection contains stories originally published between 1943 and 1969, plus one short first published in this 2015 book.

I find this to be a very strong collection, filled with invention, golden age excitement, and better-than-Golden-Age character development. I will definitely read and review more of Simak’s work. I’m also tempted to pick up his two most famous novels City and Way Station.

The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak is rated 80%.

7 good / 2 average / 1 poor.

Installment Plan

Good. A business man and his robot team find difficulty on a trade mission to a semi-primitive planet.

I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air

Good. Original written for the Harlan Ellison collection “Last, Dangerous Visions.” A man comes to exploit a planet, but finds himself the victim of a horrible vengeful forced transformation. A great story full of violent energy.

Small Deer

Good. A man invents a time machine and discovers the real reason the dinosaurs went extinct.

Ogre

Good. Earth audiences are enraptured by the music created by alien singing trees. A group of men try to capitalize on this situation, but find that the alien trees might have plans of their own.

Gleaners

Good. A time-travel company grabbed artifacts from the path for profit. This story details an unusual day in the life of one of the executives that manage this program.

Madness from Mars

Good. A beautiful and haunting story of a spaceship that returns from Mars with a crew that went mad an killed themselves. The reason why and the solution will break your heart.

Gunsmoke Interlude

Poor. A non-scifi western story about a stranger that would give up his gun.

I Am Crying All Inside

Average. Robots and rednecks make moonshine.

The Call from Beyond

Average. A fun little action story of a man who arrives on Mars to discover that people he thought we dead are actually alive. And they are up to no good.

All the Traps of Earth

Good. Wonderful tale of a robot who has been illegally allowed to keep his memories for 600 years, instead of the normal human lifespan. He flees earth and discovers a new purpose and mission to his life.

From ShortSF Reviews

5 people found this helpful

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JAK

A delightful visit with the past.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2020

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I've been reading science fiction for over 50 years now and my childhood (I was in 3rd grade when I fell in love with the genre) was immeasurably enriched by it. I read many of Clifford D. Simak's stories and books years ago. I don't recall having read these however. Sitting here in 2020 AD, these stories have a quaint character to them. The language and its use has changed quite a bit since the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Maybe not as much since the 60s, although that could be my own bias.

Each of these stories is worthwhile. Not a clunker among them. There are some rather antiquated ideas, a fair amount of unconscious sexism where women are mostly background accessories and men do the important things, and then there are the robots. Their dialogue is pretty much what you'd expect from humans of the time, except for the robots in one of the stories. These are not Asimov's robots by any means. But they do provide another perspective and sometimes comic relief. I'm not getting into all the social issues and what robots might be representing here. But suffice it to say they seem a lot like the servants, porters, cooks, and menials played in Hollywood movies by many African Americans in movies of that era. There was one racist comment that I noticed but in those days no white person would have had any problem with it. So our perspective has changed since the days when Simak was writing. He is a product of his time as are his stories. If we look at it from this perspective, then the stories can be enjoyable and also provide a look into the mindset of e day gone by.

18 people found this helpful

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Ann Gilbert

One of the greats of science fiction.

Reviewed in Australia on June 17, 2020

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Beautiful and sensitive short stories from one of the greats of the 20th Century. Perhaps a little dated in style compared to today's science fiction tastes but great to revisit.

David Stover

Wonderful to see a Grand Master back in print ...

Reviewed in Canada on March 24, 2016

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Much of sf grand master Clifford D. Simak's work has been out of print for many years, so it's wonderful to see the Collected Stories project going forward. Those readers familiar with Simak will find both old favourites and stories that have seldom if ever appeared in book form, and those not aware of his work -- he died in 1988 -- are in for a treat.

carlo arrighi

Un'operazione assolutamente meritoria

Reviewed in Italy on August 5, 2016

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Questo è il primo volume dei racconti completi di Simak e l'unico ad aver avuto anche un'edizione cartacea (Gli altri sono solo ebook). Ho voluto comprarlo anche in questa forma perché contiene I have no eyes... che è l'ultimo inedito di Simak, ma anche il racconto del titolo è notevolissimo. In questa edizione compaiono anche i racconti western e di guerra di Simak, che sono modesti, salvo quello che figura in questo volume, che è l'ultimo in ordine cronologico ed è interessante. Ma dopotutto, questa è una raccolta completa. Una splendida occasione per rileggere le storie che ci hanno affascinato in passato, o addirittura per scoprirle per chi si accostasse a Simak per la prima volta. Le sue storie, a parte quelle del periodo di apprendistato, reggono benissimo agli anni, al contrario di altri autori della Golden Age. Raccomando di leggerli tutti e nove (quelli finora usciti) visto che il pezzo non è proibitivo. Una bella sorpresa!
L'unico difetto della raccolta è che i racconti non sono in ordine cronologico, ma forse questo era inevitabile se si volevano fare volumi omogenei...

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James Bowman

Classic SF by a Master Storyteller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2016

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Superb book, only hope the publishers get their finger out and release the other volumes in the series in the UK as they are available in the US

FWAX

A master of the short story form.

Reviewed in Canada on December 1, 2016

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Beautifully written, intelligent tales from the wonderful Clifford Simak, a master of the short story form.

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I Am Crying All Inside: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 1) Kindle Edition

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