Clifford Simak's "TIME AND AGAIN"
Book review by Dennis D. McDonald
This classic 1951 science fiction novel incorporate dated technological concepts but the overall story and its thoughtfulness hold up extremely well.
I should not have been surprised given my positive reaction to author Simak’s Way Station. As with that novel, Time and Again has less to do with action than with character development, philosophy, and psychology.
In Time and Again, a long lost space traveler of the far future, Ash Sutton, returns to Earth from a decades-long stay on a distant planet. There he apparently came under the influences of an alien race that possesses not only psychic powers to impact physical reality but also the ability to share consciousness with other living things.
He returns to Earth to find that, while Earth is apparently a near paradise of physical beauty and comforts, he is now being pursued by warriors from his time’s future. They are intent on preventing his writing of a book that will have profound and—to some, unsettling—impacts on society.
This “time war” he gradually learns about just as he is also learning about the current state in his time of android and robot rights and responsibilities. Androids, originally created in human form but without the ability to reproduce, are beginning to demand equal rights. Robots are apparently near-slaves but do not share android demands for equality; they do, however, appear to control access to long distance communication and access to stored data and information.
Ash is caught in the middle of all this since, having been transformed mentally by the distant aliens, he sees that he is walking a tight rope among opposing societal forces.
It’s tempting to call Simak’s writing “old fashioned.” To some extent that is accurate. Nevertheless, this novel’s ideas are presented deftly and maturely. Today we are familiar with many of its themes. One sees echoes in properties as varied as Heinlein’s STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND as well as Christopher Nolan’s TENET.
Reading this novel was enjoyable and thought provoking. I was regularly impressed with the author’s clever and original interweaving of the story’s concepts and themes. This novel is deservedly referred to as a “classic.”
Review copyright (c) 2023 by Dennis D. McDonald