Clifford Simak’s "Ring Around the Sun," Summary

This book is a socio-philosophical science fiction story about the hidden evolution of humanity and a chain of parallel Earths existing in adjacent time quanta, shifted by fractions of a second. The author of the text received no special awards for it, no film adaptations have been made, and the plot remains a standalone narrative. The novel "Ring Around the Sun" was published in 1953.

Invulnerable items and the syndicate offer

In the quiet town of Cliffwood, writer Jay Vickers observes the emergence of strange technological innovations. The window of Hans the Shoemaker, a recently closed shop, displays razor blades that never go out of use, flint-less lighters, and indefinitely lasting electric lamps. Auto mechanic Eb offers the hero the chance to purchase a "evermobile" — a durable passenger car that runs without oil for $1,500. Down the street, a dealership begins selling prefabricated homes for $500 per room. On the flat roofs of these buildings, autonomous solar generators generate excess heat and clean energy, completely eliminating utility bills for the owners.

Literary agent Anne Carter arranges a meeting between the writer and George Crawford, head of the North American Research Bureau. In a spacious New York office, the immobile, corpulent industrialist reveals the background to current events. The production of durable manufactured goods is rapidly ruining the world’s metallurgy, energy, and transportation industries, while the free distribution of food cans at charity shops is depriving business owners of a docile workforce. Crawford spots a conspiracy. He offers the writer an exorbitant fee for a commissioned book about the dangers of cheap goods to the foundations of society. Vickers feels an unaccountable unease. The syndicate’s offer is decisively rejected without much consideration.

The Metal Mouse and the Flight to the West

That evening, an elderly neighbor, Gorton Flanders, starts a strange conversation on the writer’s veranda about telepathic communication with the stars and hidden factors that could save civilization from global military conflict. Later, a tiny mechanical spy with wires and vacuum tubes is discovered in a dark room. Vickers smashes the apparatus.

In the morning, old man Flanders vanishes without a trace. The villagers succumb to blind rage, groundlessly blaming the writer for their neighbor’s secret death and preparing to execute him. Ab rescues his friend. The mechanic hastily hands the fugitive a nightmobile with enough cash for the long journey. The car speeds west. The journey ends at his father’s abandoned farm in the Wisconsin hills.

A forgotten children’s spinning top with a brightly colored spiral engraved on it is discovered amid the dust in the attic of an old cowshed. Memory instantly transports the hero back to his distant eight-year-old childhood. As a child, he spent long hours watching the swirling colored stripes and one day, inexplicably, was transported to a pristine land of exotic flowers. Near the deserted Preston estate, the sight of boarded-up windows and rotted veranda boards displaces his former romantic dreams of his youthful lover, Kathleen.

Robot Factory and Pastoral Shelter

Crawford unexpectedly appears in a provincial hotel room. The magnate reports the work of special analyzers, which have identified the writer as a latent mutant of the highest evolutionary category. The guest spins a top. The toy vanishes into thin air for a second, after which the industrialist leaves the room with the urgent advice to avoid riding the Evenmobile.

The morning papers announce a manhunt. An enraged street crowd instantly smashes the abandoned Eveningmobile with heavy sledgehammers and crowbars. Vickers flees. Hiding in the dark basement of a hardware store from police gunfire, the fugitive unscrews the toy and casts off the weight of accumulated adult memories. The floor suddenly collapses.

The traveler finds himself on a hilltop amid a lush plain with peacefully grazing bison. This is Earth-2, a neighboring timeline of a planet devoid of a single indigenous inhabitant. A long trek northwest brings the wanderer to a colossal automated facility. Flying platforms deliver ore and timber, while hundreds of silent machines, illuminated by the sun’s rays, assemble products for the abandoned world.

In the Wisconsin River Valley, a traveler comes upon the Prestons’ well-kept mansion, where he is greeted by the polished robot Isaac. The voices of researchers echo in the hallway. An overheard conversation reveals a terrible truth: Jay Vickers and Anne Carter were created as artificial androids.

The stunned hero retreats into the forest and meets hunter Asa Andrews. A former factory worker, he lives happily on fertile land with his family, receiving advice from robot teachers and doctors. This pastoral lifestyle serves as a transitional stage for thousands of dispossessed settlers.

The Mystery of a Divided Life

That night, Vickers returns to the estate to see Flanders. His interlocutor confirms the widespread dispersal of people across an endless chain of worlds to rid humanity of the threat of mutual annihilation. In the archival folders, the robot finds documents of the writer’s parents. Charles Vickers and Sarah Graham were immersed in a state of suspended animation until the discovery of the formula for physical immortality. The image of Kathleen was merely an implanted memory to tie them to their home.

The identity of the original eighteen-year-old Jay Vickers was once transferred into an artificial shell and divided into three independent parts to perform different tasks. The hero’s unique gift lies in his unerring intuitive foresight. Having realized the nature of the time periods, the writer develops a plan to counter the syndicate.

The Exodus of the Romantics and the End of the Confrontation

The hero performs a reverse phase transition to the old Earth with the power of a single thought. In Cliffwood, it turns out that the mechanic, Eb, was killed by enraged rioters. After hittingchhiking to New York, the fugitive establishes contact with fantasy clubs. These people kept imaginary diaries about other eras to escape the stress of everyday life. Underground agitators urge them to move to a truly pure land.

Vickers finds Anne Carter and recognizes her as a developing telepath. Fleeing government agents, the writer transports his companion to a wild hill on Manhattan Island in the Second World.

Arriving at the bureau’s headquarters to the board of directors, the hero starts a film projector showing a spinning top. Anne distracts Crawford with a phone call. The tycoons present in the boardroom, unknowingly mutated, watch the screen and, one by one, are transported to neighboring Earth.

In the hallway, Vickers stops the returning Crawford. He confesses to his own childhood experience of being transported to a fairytale land. The writer realizes that the third part of his divided being was the formidable industrialist himself. The pistol is lowered, as a man is incapable of shooting himself.