The Trouble with Tycho
By Clifford Simak
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
In his classic 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
builds the centerpiece of his narrative around the discovery of
magnetic aberration centered on the moon crater
Tycho. Further investigation uncovers a large
black slab hidden beneath the lunar surface—a
puzzling artifact not made by humans. The
mystery of this monolith links the different
elements of Clarke’s plot, which span some three
million years of history, and more than 300
million miles.
Yet seven years before Clarke’s novel, Clifford
Simak wrote his taut adventure story The
Trouble with Tycho which also presents a
mysterious alien relic on the moon—and one
centered in the exact same crater later chosen by Clarke. What are
the odds that two different authors would select the same plot of lunar
real estate—only fifty miles in diameter—as the epicenter of activity
for extraterrestrial intelligent life?
Simak’s novel is more compact than Clarke’s, and more limited by
pulp fiction conventions. Simak blends in a love story—never Mr.
Clarke’s strong suit, thank you very much—and a hero who (in time-
honored sci-fi fashion) takes on the worst that the universe can throw
at him. In this case, the protagonist is Chris Jackson, who is working
over the deserted lunar landscape the way prospectors took on
California in the wake of the Gold Rush.
Funded by a syndicate back on earth—really just the banker, barber,
and assorted retailers from his home town—Jackson is hoping for the
big strike in uranium or diamonds that will make him some serious
money and please his backers. But the “eureka moment” eludes our
ambitious treasure hunter. His prospecting trips have yielded little—
mostly a few strange moon lichens which contain microbes that can
be used for medical treatment. These strange quasi-life forms seem
to be concentrated in the area around Tycho.
But none of the moon prospectors are willing to visit this ominous
crater. Thirty years before our story begins, the Third Lunar
Expedition landed in Tycho, only to vanish—two ships and eleven
astronauts gone without a trace. Further attempts to survey the area
led to further disappearances. Nowadays lunar residents give the
area wide clearance.
Jackson runs into Amelia Thompson, another prospector who is an
illegal immigrant on the moon—yes, they probably need a big fence
up there too—who thinks she can find her way to the remnants of the
missing Tycho expedition parties. If Jackson will accompany her, they
could be on top of the story of the century, and pick up some
valuable odds and ends along the way. Fame, money, adventure,
maybe romance too—what self-respecting moon prospector can turn
that down?
Simak works all the angles on his story, which makes up for lackluster
writing with its pacing and endearing details. A master of sci-fi pets—
Simak’s City is the Lassie of speculative fiction—our author
hypothesizes a type of free-floating lunar energy which resembles a
hound dog, at least in its loyalty to humans and skill in hunting
(lichens in this instance). He also takes time to add commentaries on
the best places to construct a building on the moon, or the best of
way of exiting from your lunar rig (“like a worm wriggling from an
apple”). Simak’s imaginative immersion into his story and setting are
often best demonstrated in the asides and throwaway passages.
Other sly details add to the texture of the book. On the moon, you
never need to send your spacesuit out to the cleaners, no matter how
stinky and sweaty it has become; just leave it on your doorstep,
exposed to the atmosphere-free outdoors, and the next day it is clean
as a whistle. And did you know that the booze on the moon is always
the best?—given how ridiculously expensive freight costs are, no one
saves money to buy a lesser brand.
Simak has put enough thought into these particulars to flesh out an
otherwise thin story. Our hero and his lady friend, needless to say,
decide to journey into the depths of Tycho to find out the source of all
the trouble—and create some of their own. They don’t run into a big
black slab. But leave the monoliths to Arthur Clarke. Simak likes
extraterrestrial intelligent life forms that bring better special effects
along with them on their journeys. Probably more than few readers
will as well.


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Abbott, Edwin A.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Report on Probability A
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The House of the Spirits
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Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
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Time's Arrow
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The Foundation Trilogy
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I, Robot
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The Handmaid's Tale
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The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
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Crash
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The Crystal World
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
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The View from the Seventh Layer
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The Master and Margarita
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Moderan
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A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
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The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
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Childhood's End
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A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
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Little, Big
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The Fifty Year Sword
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House of Leaves
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Babel-17
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Dhalgren
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The Einstein Intersection
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Nova
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
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The Man in the High Castle
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Ubik
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VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
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The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
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Dangerous Visions
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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
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Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
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Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
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Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
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The End of the Affair
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The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
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Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
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Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
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The Lathe of Heaven
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The Left Hand of Darkness
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The Big Time
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Conjure Wife
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Swords & Deviltry
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The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
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Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
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Wittgenstein's Mistress
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Hell House
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What Dreams May Come
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Behold the Man
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Beloved
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Gravity's Rainbow
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Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
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Store of the Worlds
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Frankenstein
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City
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The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
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Snow Crash
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Some of Your Blood
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Gulliver's Travels
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Warm Worlds and Otherwise
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Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
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Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
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Cloudstreet
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Lord of Light
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