Short Fiction · Chapters

Chapters explained

Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Clifford D. Simak.

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Chapter 1
Hellhounds of the Cosmos
The chapter opens with the world in chaos as the 'Black Horror' attacks major cities, including London, Paris, and Berlin. Reporter Henry Woods is sent to interview Dr. Silas White, who theorizes that the Horror is a fourth-dimensional lifeform invading Earth. Dr. White reveals he has built a machine capable of projecting three-dimensional matter into the fourth dimension, offering a potential counterattack.
Chapter 2
The Street That Wasn’t There
Mr. Chambers, a disgraced academic who wrote a heretical book about the power of collective human thought to maintain physical reality, witnesses the world dissolving around him. A plague has decimated humanity, and the remaining minds are too few to hold matter's form. As his street, his house, and his possessions fade into a gray nothingness, he realizes that a malevolent intelligence from another dimension is taking over. He makes a last stand in his living room, the place he has imbued with the most concentrated will, as the void closes in.
Chapter 3
Message from Mars
A mysterious message is received from Mars, sparking intrigue and concern among the characters as they attempt to decipher its meaning and implications for Earth.
Chapter 4
I
Gavin Duncan, a planter on the planet Layard, discovers that a creature called the Cytha has destroyed ten rows of his vua crop. Despite the warnings and fears of the native foreman Zikkara, Duncan resolves to hunt the Cytha. He forces Zikkara to provide a tracker, Sipar, and prepares for the chase, leaving the sociologist Shotwell behind at the farm.
Chapter 5
II
Duncan and Sipar track a wounded Cytha through the bush of Layard. Duncan gets his first shot late in the afternoon, but the beast escapes. They camp at a waterhole, and Duncan reflects on the strange nature of the native Sipar and the cosmic culture built from multiple planets. Sipar pledges to stay with Duncan to the death.

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Hellhounds of the Cosmos

The Street That Wasn’t There

Message from Mars

I

II