Project Pope

Simak characters speak with a gracious mid-20th century mid-western formality of speech. Most of the characters speak similarly. There is little to tell between them, but it is enough. I like his short sentences. Each sentence is a complete, clear thought. I think a fine radio play might be made of this story, which is largely dialogue. What little is not, could be made so, or assigned to a narrator.

Clifford Simak has always struck me as a gentle writer. I’m not quite sure what I mean because people kill and are killed, hurt and are mistreated, and there is danger physical and ideological. But always there seems to be a goodness in everything and things work out. Everyone is likeable, villians can be pitied. There is mystery: enough is explained, but never everything.