So they actually did it: They turned the sprawling, insane Cloud Atlas into a movie, one that actually makes the book look straightforward and uncontroversial. It just goes to show, no matter how unconventional or sprawling a book is, there's a way to adapt that sucker into a movie. Except sometimes, no.

Sometimes it seems like science fiction, and especially fantasy, are genres that lend themselves exclusively to trilogies and long-running series. But some of the greatest writers in speculative fiction have only written standalone novels, not series or trilogies.

Aliens! Immortality! Intergalactic intrigue! Government spies! Armageddon on the horizon! The 1964 Hugo winner, Way Station by Clifford D. Simak, has all of these things and much, much less.

There's an interesting discussion going on over at Media Bistro's Galleycat blog about when science fiction books should have dignified covers that look less pulpy and "skiffy." Case in point: Clifford Simak's The Way Station, which has had a host of lurid covers over the years (see left) and now has gotten reissued…