Creator

Simak, who died in 1988, was a staple--often the staple--of drugstore paperback racks in the mid-1970s ( A Heritage of Stars ; Way Station ). Though working within the strictures of traditional hard SF (see the answers in ``The Answers''), his characters, from the robot protagonist of ``All the Traps of Earth'' to Dr. Kelly in ``Shotgun Care,'' never glorify technological progress. Instead they worry more about what will be lost than what will be gained as the world lurches ahead. Rash action, like that in the title story, is almost always negative. A few stories, especially ``The Money Tree,'' drag on, yet never so much as to lose the reader. Most of them place humans in First Contact situations, highlighting the undercurrent in Simak's fiction: the extraordinary is a prospect that informs even the most ordinary lives. While not Simak's absolute best, this compendium is a first-rate display of what a good SF writer can accomplish. (Mar.)