City by Clifford Simak

The fear that human beings will be displaced by some other species has
been a major them in many science fiction stories. Usually this
usurping power comes from outer space, although occasionally it is
home-grown.

Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes is a representative example of the
genre, a classic account of homo sapiens finding themselves losers in
the Darwinian struggle for superiority. Boulle’s experiences as a
prisoner of war in World War II no doubt contribute to the ethos of this
work. (And it may be worth noting that this author’s other famous
book, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, is one of the great POW stories
of all time.)

But Clifford Simak takes this familiar theme, and turns it on its head.
The world of City is run by dogs. But instead of depicting them as vile
usurprers—as we have come to expect in books of this sort—Simak
makes them into nostalgic, tender-hearted creatures who miss the
“good old days” when a dog was man’s best friend. Simak plays on all
the positive canine traits of loyalty, dependability, protectiveness and
affection in creating his kennel of characters.

City is less a novel than a series of interlocking stories. In toto, they
represent chapters from the mythology and
folk tales of the ancient race of men, as pre-
served by the dogs. Simak, with surprising
deconstructive flair, even offers notes from
the canine editors, who sometimes struggle
to understand the tales of humans that have
been passed down to them, paw to paw,
through the ages.

Simak uses this framing device to show how
humans lost their edge, moving away from
the cities when the spread of family air
transports allowed them to live in more
isolated rural areas. The sociological models here are fuzzy and
unconvincing, and the human characters in the book fairly one
dimensional. Yet the book compensates for these limitations through
its conceptual originality, sketching man-and-dog symbiotic
relationships beyond the wildest dreams of Lassie or Rin-Tin-Tin.

Bruce Webster is an especially cherished human in this folklore. He
made the surgical modifications that allowed dogs to speak (although
with a bit of a Scooby Do lisp), and later generations of Websters
become so important in the canine imagination that homo sapiens come
to be called websters. Into this mix, Simak tosses in other characters—
dogs, robots, mutants and even some very smart ants.

This book is more noteworthy for its individual parts than for its
overall coherence. I can’t help thinking that Simak took several
different story ideas, and tried to force them together into a single
narrative. Some of the best parts of the book—for example, an
interesting interlude focusing on a scientist and his dog on Jupiter—
could have worked just as well as a short story, and the attempt to fuse
them into an over-arching plot seems strained.

Nonetheless, this is an inventive book, with no shortage of interesting
twists and turns. The pacing and constant plot shift keep City
interesting, and while this may not be the great sci-fi masterpiece that
some have made it, it will continue to charm readers. Especially those
who buy dog-food in bulk.

City

by Clifford Simak

Reviewed by Ted Gioia

conceptual
fiction

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