No Life of Their Own
And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Volume 5)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stephen Bel Davies
About this listen
Twelve classic tales of the unknown from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Way Station.
Clifford D. Simak had a sublime ability to evoke a lost way of life. He spent his youth in rural Wisconsin, a landscape filled with mysterious hollows, cliffs, dark forests, and the Wisconsin River flowing in its deep-cut valley. As Simak wandered the countryside and the ridges, he peopled them with imaginary characters who later came to life in his stories. One such individual is Johnny, the orphaned farm boy of "The Contraption," who stumbles upon a wrecked starship and receives a priceless gift from its owners. Another is the old prospector Eli, whose surprising discoveries on Mercury get him killed in "Spaceship in a Flask." In "Huddling Place," a man with paralyzing agoraphobia is the only one who can save the life of a dear friend on Mars—if he can bear to make the trip. And in the title story, aliens slowly take over Earth while humans leave it behind and head for the Homestead Planets.
©2015 David W. Wixon (P)2023 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
I Am Crying All Inside
- And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Book 1)
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot, Jonathan Davis, Kevin T. Collins, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.
-
-
Classic science fiction short stories
- By Skipper on 05-04-20
-
Way Station
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he had done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.
-
-
A very special novel that will inspire you.
- By Noe on 08-08-10
-
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
-
-
Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
-
Special Deliverance
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a conversation with a talking slot machine, Professor Edward Lansing finds himself mysteriously transported to a tavern on a long and empty road. It is immediately obvious to the educator that he is no longer on campus - or even Earth - and that he is not alone. Lansing's new companions - a female engineer, a military officer, a humorless priest, a poetess, and a robot named Jurgens - all hail from separate alternate realities and share Lansing's confusion.
-
-
Gets better as you go along
- By NK on 07-06-24
By: Clifford Simak
-
Phantoms
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.
-
-
Great Fun!!
- By MARCIA on 01-30-09
By: Dean Koontz
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
I Am Crying All Inside
- And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Book 1)
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot, Jonathan Davis, Kevin T. Collins, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.
-
-
Classic science fiction short stories
- By Skipper on 05-04-20
-
Way Station
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he had done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.
-
-
A very special novel that will inspire you.
- By Noe on 08-08-10
-
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
-
-
Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
-
Special Deliverance
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a conversation with a talking slot machine, Professor Edward Lansing finds himself mysteriously transported to a tavern on a long and empty road. It is immediately obvious to the educator that he is no longer on campus - or even Earth - and that he is not alone. Lansing's new companions - a female engineer, a military officer, a humorless priest, a poetess, and a robot named Jurgens - all hail from separate alternate realities and share Lansing's confusion.
-
-
Gets better as you go along
- By NK on 07-06-24
By: Clifford Simak
-
Phantoms
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.
-
-
Great Fun!!
- By MARCIA on 01-30-09
By: Dean Koontz
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
A Canticle for Leibowitz
- By: Walter M. Miller Jr.
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of 20th-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a postapocalyptic future.
-
-
Introibo Ad Altare
- By richard on 03-20-13
-
The Midwich Cuckoos
- By: John Wyndham
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears, and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone awakens unharmed - except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant. The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde, all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others and brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside....
-
-
Stephen Fry is a national treasure!
- By Nathaniel A Day on 12-05-21
By: John Wyndham
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Time Is the Simplest Thing
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space travel has been abandoned in the 22nd century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient - and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries", human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.
-
-
An old SciFy story but a good one.
- By Bob Wilson on 01-26-18
By: Clifford Simak
-
From the Corner of His Eye
- A Novel
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bartholomew Lampion is born on a day of tragedy and terror that will mark his family forever. All agree that his unusual eyes are the most beautiful they have ever seen. On this same day, a thousand miles away, a ruthless man learns that he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew. He embarks on a relentless search to find this enemy, a search that will consume his life. And a girl is born from a brutal rape, her destiny mysteriously linked to Barty and the man who stalks him.
-
-
One of Koontz's best!!
- By hambrick91 on 04-15-23
By: Dean Koontz
-
The Collected Works of Philip K. Dick: 11 Science Fiction Stories
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Kevin Killavey
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Collected Works of Philip K. Dick is a collection of 11 science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick.
-
-
Good Stories...well read.
- By cindilla on 12-18-12
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
-
-
How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
-
Lovecraft's Monsters
- By: Neil Gaiman, Ellen Datlow - editor
- Narrated by: Bernard Clark
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations--Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more--appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas.
-
-
PURPLE WARMTH
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-04-17
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
-
The Book of Koli: Booktrack Edition
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will. Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong.
-
-
Unusual and exceptional!
- By MagicMike_MML on 07-29-23
By: M. R. Carey
-
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929-1964
- The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America
- By: Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, L. J. Ganser, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 28 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book contains 26 of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for the Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.
-
-
CHAPTER LIST to Help Find Stories
- By Lance on 06-07-18
By: Robert A. Heinlein, and others
-
Tales of the Al-Azif
- A Cthulhu Mythos Anthology
- By: C. T. Phipps, Matthew Davenport, David J. West, and others
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Necronomicon was not the first book by H.P. Lovecraft to terrify readers with tales of dark and twisted horrors from beyond. No, the Al-Azif, or Book of the Insect, is the first work that told mankind of Cthulhu, Azathoth, and other terrors. Indeed, it was the book that inspired "The Mad Arab" Abdul Al-Hazred to write its more famous successor.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Michael Davenport on 10-07-21
By: C. T. Phipps, and others
-
The Strange
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since Anabelle’s mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father’s diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher, as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.
-
-
Beautiful prose, good setting, flavorless and derivative and plodding plot.
- By BookWorm on 05-10-23
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
I Am Crying All Inside
- And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Book 1)
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot, Jonathan Davis, Kevin T. Collins, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.
-
-
Classic science fiction short stories
- By Skipper on 05-04-20
-
The Visitors
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Gary Noon
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forestry student Jerry Conklin is fly-fishing when something huge lands on his car, crushing it into the earth. It looks like a big black box-about fifty feet high and two hundred feet long-and the object stirs up quite a commotion among the townspeople of Lone Pine, Minnesota. One of them even shoots at it-and quickly pays for it with his life.
-
Ring Around the Sun
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
enchanting and surprising! I am mutant!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-26-24
-
Time Is the Simplest Thing
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space travel has been abandoned in the 22nd century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient - and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries", human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.
-
-
An old SciFy story but a good one.
- By Bob Wilson on 01-26-18
By: Clifford Simak
-
Why Call Them Back from Heaven?
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the dawn of mankind, immortality has been the ultimate reward. But by the year 2148, it requires no act of faith to believe in an afterlife. Forever Center promises to bring people back to a life beyond death. Now everyone spends their lives in poverty, giving all their money to Forever Center to ensure their happiness and comfort in the next eternal life.
-
-
narrator was awful
- By J Elsasser on 10-28-24
-
They Walked Like Men
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Josh Innerst
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a night out on the town, Parker Graves returns home to life-threatening danger. The science reporter for the local newspaper barely misses a bear trap sitting on his doorstep. Then, the object transforms into what looks like a bowling ball and rolls off into the night all by itself. He begins to obsess over the question—Who put the trap there? And why? The following day, there is strange news floating around at the newspaper office. Someone with limitless funds is buying up hundreds of homes and businesses, only to close them up and tear them down.
-
-
An unusual alien invasions which is impossible to fight
- By Thomas J. Mcmullan on 10-10-24
-
I Am Crying All Inside
- And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Book 1)
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot, Jonathan Davis, Kevin T. Collins, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.
-
-
Classic science fiction short stories
- By Skipper on 05-04-20
-
The Visitors
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Gary Noon
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forestry student Jerry Conklin is fly-fishing when something huge lands on his car, crushing it into the earth. It looks like a big black box-about fifty feet high and two hundred feet long-and the object stirs up quite a commotion among the townspeople of Lone Pine, Minnesota. One of them even shoots at it-and quickly pays for it with his life.
-
Ring Around the Sun
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
enchanting and surprising! I am mutant!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-26-24
-
Time Is the Simplest Thing
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space travel has been abandoned in the 22nd century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient - and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries", human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.
-
-
An old SciFy story but a good one.
- By Bob Wilson on 01-26-18
By: Clifford Simak
-
Why Call Them Back from Heaven?
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the dawn of mankind, immortality has been the ultimate reward. But by the year 2148, it requires no act of faith to believe in an afterlife. Forever Center promises to bring people back to a life beyond death. Now everyone spends their lives in poverty, giving all their money to Forever Center to ensure their happiness and comfort in the next eternal life.
-
-
narrator was awful
- By J Elsasser on 10-28-24
-
They Walked Like Men
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Josh Innerst
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a night out on the town, Parker Graves returns home to life-threatening danger. The science reporter for the local newspaper barely misses a bear trap sitting on his doorstep. Then, the object transforms into what looks like a bowling ball and rolls off into the night all by itself. He begins to obsess over the question—Who put the trap there? And why? The following day, there is strange news floating around at the newspaper office. Someone with limitless funds is buying up hundreds of homes and businesses, only to close them up and tear them down.
-
-
An unusual alien invasions which is impossible to fight
- By Thomas J. Mcmullan on 10-10-24