Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Clifford Simak's Jupiter

Four men, two by two, had gone into the howling maelstrom that was Jupiter and had not returned. They had walked into the keening gale—or rather, they had loped, bellies low against the ground, wet sides gleaming in the rain. 
For they did not go in the shape of men. 
Now the fifth man stood before the desk of Kent Fowler, head of Dome No. 3. Jovian Survey Commission. 
Under Fowler’s desk, old Towser scratched a flea, then settled down to sleep again.

Although we await a copy of Clifford Simak's City ordered via eBay, we find the text online. You may read its opening paragraphs above.

Poul Anderson: "...wind...whooping...driving...ammonia dust..."

James Blish: "A screeching tornado..." (for both, see here)

Simak contributes: "...the howling maelstrom...," "...keening gale...," a ground and rain (above)

We notice:

similar descriptions in different words;

Simak's characters are not on Jupiter V but in a dome on the Jovian surface;

Simak's characters, like Anderson's Anglesey, venture onto the planetary surface "...not...in the shape of men";

Simak's characters include a dog - who will be important.

Is that enough for this evening? I need to do something different. 

Music is audible from somewhere out our back. Good night.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

Hmmm, we don't see many dogs in SF--some mentions of dogs but not often seeing them. ERB, with the obvious affection he had for the "dogs" of Barsoom, is one of the few SF writers I can think of who liked dogs.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Simak has three sets of intelligent dogs. James Blish disliked them and Simak's writing in general.

Paul.

S.M. Stirling said...

Dogs are the oldest domesticated animals; they've been living with us for 20,000 years. And wolves and hunter-gatherer humans bear a strong resemblance.

S.M. Stirling said...

Also, John W. Campbell just loved psionics and stories about it...

Jim Baerg said...

Dogs in SF:
One that comes to my mind is the 'uplifted' dog Sirius in the novel by that name by Olaf Stapledon.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Right on.

(Stapledon's weakest book, I think.)

Anonymous said...

Kaor, to All!

Paul: Not sure I read anything by Simak. I'm not a doggy guy but I disagree with Blish's dislike for dogs, remembering as I do with affection the pug my family had as a boy.

Mr. Stirling: It probably started with wolves lurking near the camps of hunter/gatherers, hoping for scraps of meat/offal.

I'm inclined to be skeptical of alleged psi powers.

Jim: I forgot about SIRIUS, which I read long ago.

Ad astra! Sean