One of the strategies which helps City work as a novel is Simak's gentle parody of a critical literary debate between canine scholars about the authenticity of the stories. It is cleverly and engagingly done. Simak writes the debates as connecting links between the tales, what Tweet calls "narrative bridges" (515), all the more important because some stories on their own appear to have few if any links with the others. The notes to the tales, if brought together, would form a short story in themselves as a science fiction dog's colloquy (with a sidelong acknowledgment to Cervantes). They add an element of mythologising to City the novel and in mood reflect the good-heartedness attributed to Simak. They are also a means of bringing into prominence Simak's main themes. The canine Editor's Preface makes use of the parodic formula of newly discovered literary fragments that may throw light on a controversy, whether the oral tales told to the pups, "when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north" (5)--that is, the north American winter--have any basis in fact: namely that Man (humankind) did exist and had a close association with the Dogs of old. It is a poetic opening, moving because it elicits in the reader deep-seated feelings about origins that are both mythological (legendary to the Dogs) and religious (Man as god) and are the objects of speculation among animals with which we have strong emotional ties. By this means Simak introduces from the start three themes uppermost in his mind: cities, war, and the family. The first two concepts are meaningless to the Dogs of this far future world, and the third is extended to the idea of a community of all animals. City is a collation of nine short stories that were first published separately in Astounding Science Fiction. Most were written in the mid-1940s: " City," "Huddling Place," "Census" and "Desertion" in 1944; "Paradise" and "Hobbies" in 1946; "Aesop" in 1947; and "Trouble with Ants" in 1951 (retitled "The Simple Way" in 1952). Almost all stand in their own right, and several, such as "City," "Huddling Place," and "Desertion," often appear separately in anthologies. The ninth addition, "Epilog," was published more than twenty years later in 1973 under special circumstances. It was not of course included in the book version when that came out for the first time in 1952. "Epilog" is the weakest offering in the series. City can be analysed either as a novel in itself, or as separate short stories.
