I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories: The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Vol. 1

The first volume in this ambitious series, which promises to assemble award-winning SFWA Grand Master Simak’s entire short fiction catalogue, offers 10 iconic stories from the 1950s, including one never before published. Simak’s frequently revisited themes of first contact and what it means to be human stand at the forefront of many of the stories here, examined through the plant-based intelligence of “Ogre,” the misfit robots and humans left behind in the previously unpublished title story, and the motivations of aliens who’ve saved an injured human explorer by placing his mind in an alien body in “I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way up in the Air.” “Gleaners” and “Small Deer” explore conflicts created by time-traveling explorers. Simak walks a line between SF and horror with “Madness from Mars,” about the mysterious death of the crew on an expedition to Mars, and the almost Lovecraftian “The Call from Beyond.” The oddball here is the most commercial story, “Gunsmoke Interlude,” a western with a twist ending. This volume contains a smashing selection of excellent stories whose sophistication may surprise younger readers, even as they remind more seasoned fans of some of the best of Simak’s post-WWII work. (Oct.)