Simak is one of the best story tellers ever! You will want to read his storys over again.
This edition published 1973
In a distant future, Earth is ruled by dogs. They are able to speak and they like to study the old legends describing a world ruled by Humans. These legends, that cover thousands of years, are about the Webster family who produced an impressive number of scientists and politicians during the course of time. They are also about Jenkins, a robot who served all the Websters who lived in the family home.
After having found a way to produce food for the entire population and master the atomic energy, Humans had started to leave the cities and to live without central governments. Later, when the first pioneers found out that life on Jupiter, after the necessary and adequate physical conditioning, was way better than on Earth, the whole population left the Earth, leaving it to mutants and homeless robots. Anticipating the inevitable decline of the human race, the scientist Jon Webster modified then the vocal cords of the dogs, trained them and asked Jenkins the robot to look after them in the future in order that the dogs avoid making the errors the human civilization did.
In a distant future, Earth is ruled by dogs. They are able to speak and they like to study the old legends describing a world ruled by Humans. These legends, that cover thousands of years, are about the Webster family who produced an impressive number of scientists and politicians during the course of time. They are also about Jenkins, a robot who served all the Websters who lived in the family home.
After having found a way to produce food for the entire population and master the atomic energy, Humans had started to leave the cities and to live without central governments. Later, when the first pioneers found out that life on Jupiter, after the necessary and adequate physical conditioning, was way better than on Earth, the whole population left the Earth, leaving it to mutants and homeless robots. Anticipating the inevitable decline of the human race, the scientist Jon Webster modified then the vocal cords of the dogs, trained them and asked Jenkins the robot to look after them in the future in order that the dogs avoid making the errors the human civilization did.
