Way Station (no spoilers for anything past page 40, or the back of the book)

[andrewducker]

Finished re-reading Clifford D Simak's Way Station, a Hugo/Nebula winner from 1963. The plot is clunky in places, with various different crises all coming to a simultaneous head for no particular reason (or at least no reason which is ever explained within the book). However, this doesn't prevent the book being staggeringly good.

Enoch lives alone, in the backwoods of rural America. His neighbours rarely see him, and his only regular contact with the outisde world is the postman who delivers his daily newspapers and groceries. As far as the outside world his life is a perfectly dull routine.

He is 124. A survivor of the American Civil War. And he mans a way station on an interstellar route, welcoming aliens in transit from one star to the next as they stop off for a few hours along the way.

The book is filled with interesting ideas, many of them there purely to move chunks of plot along or to illuminate some aspect of Enoch's character. And it's his character that really matters. This is a mature book, written by a mature writer. It's not concerned with war or excitement, except as things which intrude, unwelcome, into the lives of ordinary people. And it's the inside of Enich's mind that we spend most of the book in. Simak draws us in from the very start, and the choices and thoughts that Enoch faces are ones that are easy to empathise with.

It's a slow book, but short, filled with marvellous writing on lost chances, grief, hope and the importance of shared humanity. I felt oddly touched by it. and I'd recommend it to anyone at all.

(Now going back to the sofa, that having used up my brane for the evening)

Comments

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

Could I borrow at some point?
Trade you for say.... Lots of B5 DVDs.....

[andrewducker]

I'm sure we can exchange hostages :->

[nwhyte]

Yeah, it grabbed me too, for reasons I couldn't fully explain.

[andrewducker]

I think it's the feel he gets across. While he gets in various ideas that may or may not be ahead of their time (the virtual reality shooting range, for instance) they're almost beside the point of the questions he raises about what it means to be human, and how much we can change without losing who we really are.

I find that as I get older I value that kind of thing far more than "ray guns and rocket ships", although I'm looking forward to a large dose of both of those things when the new Banks comes out...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Given how poorly so much SF holds up after a few decades and the even more problematic truth that books like this that I loved when I was a child or teen often turn out to be complete junk when I reread them as an adult, I remain impressed by Way Station, and in fact by most of Simak's work from the 60s & early 1970s. Some are also surprising to reread. When I was 13, Destiny Doll was merely puzzling and mildly enjoyable. I reread it a few years ago and was both impressed and very pleased with it.