Ring Around the Sun, Clifford D. Simak
Ring Around the Sun, Clifford D. Simak
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Ring Around the Sun

Author: Clifford D. Simak

Narrator: Chris Sorensen

Unabridged: 7 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/10/2024


Synopsis

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. 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, 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

About Clifford D. Simak

During his fifty-five-year career, Clifford D. Simak produced some of the most iconic science fiction stories ever written. Born in 1904 on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin, Simak got a job at a small-town newspaper in 1929 and eventually became news editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, writing fiction in his spare time.

Simak was best known for the book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was awarded the International Fantasy Award, and in following years, Simak won three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 1977 he became the third Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and before his death in 1988, he was named one of three inaugural winners of the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.


Reviews

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on July 05, 2018

Love this SO much! I remember reading it, 20-something years before and loving every moment of it! To get the full impact of this novel, one has to realise this was one of the very first sci-fi books in my life. I started reading it out of sheer curiousity, just to see what it was about, this book I......more

Goodreads review by Craig on December 06, 2024

Ring Around the Sun was serialized in H.L. Gold's Galaxy magazine in December 1952 through February of 1953 and then published in book form by Simon and Schuster with a rather uninspiring Paul Bacon cover. Set in the future world of 1978, it's an intelligent, quiet work, with more discussion than ac......more

Goodreads review by Brian on March 26, 2014

Simak writes very much like Ray Bradbury. His characters are not superheroes who save universes. They are everymen caught up in extraordinary circumstances. This is why I enjoy the works of Bradbury and Simak more than the modern writers who rely on technology and superheroes to drive their stories.......more

Goodreads review by Oscar on September 25, 2015

Este libro de Simak nos retrotrae a esos clásicos de la Edad de Oro de la ciencia ficción, ingenuos por una parte pero también muy entretenidos, ese tipo de lecturas que se leen con un gran placer. ‘Un anillo alrededor del Sol’ nos relata una historia sencilla a primera vista, pero en realidad toca......more

Goodreads review by Jason on February 15, 2023

The concept of this story is great. the parallel Earths and mutation of the humans, although that part surprised me at first I came to enjoy it. As I was reading this story I realized this was written decades ago and I used to think there are ways to hear the stars as well... didn't know others thou......more