Status
Available
Call number
Publication
London : New English Library, 1979.
Description
In this classic novel by the Science Fiction Grand Master, a writer searching for explanations uncovers the existence of mutants and multiple Earths: "First-rate Simak" (The New York Times). Author Jay Vickers would like nothing more than to be left alone so he can finish his next book. But "there's something strange going on," as his peculiar neighbor, Horton Flanders, says. For instance, the market is filling with new inventions that supposedly last forever--cars, razors, cigarette lighters, and more. Individuals and whole families are disappearing. Soon, even Mr. Flanders vanishes--but not before leaving Vickers a note. Following Flanders's advice, Vickers travels to his childhood home, where he makes a fantastic discovery. It is a mere child's toy, a brightly colored whistling top. But for Jay Vickers, it leads to other worlds and answers all his questions. What happened to all the vanished people? Who is behind these helpful inventions? And what sort of being would want to stop them. . . ? "Unforgettable." --New York Herald Tribune "Solid entertainment, with plenty of startling plot twists." --The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction "Some of the most ingenious plot twists in recent science-fiction." --Galaxy… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member DenzilPugh
Simak is one of the most important Science Fiction writers of the early 1960's, mostly because he created novels of marvelous ideas, ones with much potential and meat on them, if you understand. But Simak didn't always create great characters and plots to go along with those ideas (like so many
In the story, Jay Vickers, on his way to a meeting with a Mr. Crawford, sees a shop selling Forever Light Bulbs, as well as a razor that never needs sharpening, a car that runs forever...etc... This, explains Crawford, is crippling the industries of the world, causing chaos and fear. Vickers is supposed to investigate it and expose it in articles to be published. But it's not all that simple, because the people behind the Forever Light Bulb are trying to save the world, not destroy it.
A fabulous book, one that I've read twice now. It's very rare for me to do that. The other books I've read twice include LOTR, Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson, Dragonriders of Pern by McCaffrey, and Dandelion Wine by Bradbury. Simak's book easily ranks among these.
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other science fiction novels, the ideas are more important than the story). However, Ring Around the Sun is not one of those. It is a marvelous sci-fi novel, centering around the very idea that Currie used in Everything Matters, that the Earth is only one of millions of Earths existing in multiple space-time planes. This book is mentioned in Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis and influenced King in his Dark Tower series. It is, in my opinion, a book that should be included in the modern Western Literary Cannon, mainly because it merges literature and science in a way that most high school students could easily understand it and enjoy it. In the story, Jay Vickers, on his way to a meeting with a Mr. Crawford, sees a shop selling Forever Light Bulbs, as well as a razor that never needs sharpening, a car that runs forever...etc... This, explains Crawford, is crippling the industries of the world, causing chaos and fear. Vickers is supposed to investigate it and expose it in articles to be published. But it's not all that simple, because the people behind the Forever Light Bulb are trying to save the world, not destroy it.
A fabulous book, one that I've read twice now. It's very rare for me to do that. The other books I've read twice include LOTR, Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson, Dragonriders of Pern by McCaffrey, and Dandelion Wine by Bradbury. Simak's book easily ranks among these.
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LibraryThing member johnnyapollo
I came across a copy at Goodwill and decided I needed to read this (I knew I owned a couple of editions but had no memory of having read it - must have been when I was very young). It mentioned on the cover of this edition (Masters of Science Fiction) that the novel was selected by David Pringle as
The first review provides the story details so I won't repeat - I thought the story was very fast paced, with a few improbable parts but still within what's commonly acceptable in old SF. It's also, as mentioned, pure Simak (SF blended seamlessly with Fantasy) - if you like the style of his writing you'll definitely like this book. I like how he made it all come together in the end and I also liked the dialog (seemed very 50's movie). I think this would have made a most excellent Outer Limits episode had someone cared to condense into a screenplay.
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one of the 100 best SF novels so that prompted me to purchase - besides at $.50 It would provide me with a bit of inexpensive distraction. The book is a relatively quick read dated by many references to the Cold War. For those of you who weren't around to experience any of that (and I was a kid of the 60's so I didn't experience the McCarthy Era-version, just the tail-end) the book may seem rather strange (well, stranger than the narrative), since much of the premise comes from that era of threat/paranoia. Also the story comes from an time when men wore hats (people don't realize that before JFK most men and women wore hats than not), men wore collared shirts with ties - that post-war look you see in old movies, so hold that in your mind.The first review provides the story details so I won't repeat - I thought the story was very fast paced, with a few improbable parts but still within what's commonly acceptable in old SF. It's also, as mentioned, pure Simak (SF blended seamlessly with Fantasy) - if you like the style of his writing you'll definitely like this book. I like how he made it all come together in the end and I also liked the dialog (seemed very 50's movie). I think this would have made a most excellent Outer Limits episode had someone cared to condense into a screenplay.
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LibraryThing member nmele
This book was written about 60 years ago, but with the exception of a few references to the Cold War, it holds up very well as a dystopian/utopian novel that examines issues like tolerance and the perfectibility of humankind.
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Perhaps slightly dated, this book nevertheless delivers on what sci-fi is meant to deliver on: action and ideas. There's another world waiting for us if we're ready for it and Simak shows us how to get there.
LibraryThing member bkinetic
This is a clever science-fiction adventure story with unpredictable plot twists that nonetheless lead to an authentic outcome. It has an interesting political theme as well, with the necessity to remake Earth's flawed culture as a force that moves the story forward. This was written in the early
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50's, so there are some surface elements that are dated, but readers who set those aside will be rewarded by appreciation of the depth of the author's ideas. Simak had a workmanlike writing style that did not yield beautiful sentences and his characters are not fully developed, but his imagination and ability to create an unusual adventure shine here. Show Less
LibraryThing member andyray
an excellently paced story of a writer and his agent who find true love and a heluva lot more. It is pure Simak, e.g., a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. Einstein proposed the theory of multiple dimensions and multiple universes, but the fantasy is the ability to cross over to them within today's
Whatever, Jay Vickers is the protagonist and we are with hom all the way through.
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scienctific premises.Whatever, Jay Vickers is the protagonist and we are with hom all the way through.
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LibraryThing member johnnyapollo
I came across this later edition so picked it up and read it for the first time in many, many years. I thought it was still good if a bit dated. It has all of the typical Simak elements - I'd recommend it to anyone who is fond of the author.
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
Jay Vickers discovers that inhabitants of a parallel earth are attacking USA. They are operating by importing good long-lasting technology and destroying planned obsolescence. An evil plot in the eyes of American Shareholders.
LibraryThing member bragan
In this science fiction novel from the 1950s, our protagonist, Jay Vickers, learns about some fantastic new products on the market, from ridiculously cheap housing to a razor blade that never dulls to a car will run literally forever. Then he learns some even stranger things about the world, the
There are some interesting ideas at the heart of this book, and some also-interesting social commentary. The details, though, are a little bit silly and very woo-woo. Actually, it reminds me in a lot of ways of the last Simak novel I read, All Flesh Is Grass, although it lacks the oddball charm of that one.
In the end... Well, I'm not sorry I read it, but I can't really call it Simak's best.
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universe, and himself.There are some interesting ideas at the heart of this book, and some also-interesting social commentary. The details, though, are a little bit silly and very woo-woo. Actually, it reminds me in a lot of ways of the last Simak novel I read, All Flesh Is Grass, although it lacks the oddball charm of that one.
In the end... Well, I'm not sorry I read it, but I can't really call it Simak's best.
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LibraryThing member MacDad
Though I'm a longtime fan of science fiction, I have often found something a little formulaic about most of the novels from the "golden era" of the genre. The problem is not with the premise -- though that can crop up from time to time -- so much as with the plot, which typically functions in the
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standard pattern of boy-meets-girl, boy-fights-antagonists (usually against seemingly overwhelming but ultimately surmountable odds), boy-gets-girl. For a while, though, I thought that with this novel I had found one of the exceptions. For much of its length Clifford Simak kept me guessing as to who Jay Vickers was and the role he was going to play. Then I got to the end, and the last development -- where the girl Ann Carter, who Simak had hinted might be a fragment of Jay's splintered persona, was actually the long-lost love of his life after all -- just felt like a total cop out. It was as though Simak was at the brink of doing something that would have been incredibly daring and far-sighted for a novel of the early 1950s, then wavered and reverted back to the comfortable clichés of his time. It doesn't mean the novel isn't worth reading, but it left me with a sense of disappointment at having witnessed something that could have been so much greater than it turned out to be. Show Less
LibraryThing member ikeman100
Typical easy to read Simak style with Interesting ideas. I like this one more then most of his novels. As usual I will read anything he has written. I don't want to miss a good one.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1953
Physical description
205 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
0450033678 / 9780450033674