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Title: Clever and charming anti-Western diatribe
Review: A Choice of Gods covers some of the same ground as Crane's atrocious Hero's Walk and the overrated film, "Day the Earth Stood Still;" Simak suggests that humanity, or at least white people, are so monstrous that we would be better off if we were subordinate to invincible aliens. Fortunately for the reader, Simak is a charming writer, and emotionally and philosophically sophisticated (check out his complex and ambigious view of faith and religion in this book), so this novel is a good read, whatever you think of its politics and economics. Worthy of recommendation to any thoughtful SF fan, but especially to environmentalists, socialists, and people who think hunter-gatherer societies were (or should have been) the pinnacle of human development, who will love Simak's relentless attacks on industry, private property, and technology. In my opinion, not as good as Simak's City, but better than Cemetary World, the other Simaks I read in the last year or so.
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