This novel, classified as pastoral science fiction, won the Hugo Award in 1964. Pastoral science fiction is pretty much just as it sounds, with a science fiction story taking place on Earth in a rural environment in which an alien presence intrudes. Simak's books aren't hard science fiction, but they take a hard look at what Mankind has done and will do to itself with technology and weaponry too advanced for it, ethically and morally speaking. This is because The Cold War had a big effect on Sim...

Charming. Way Station by Clifford Simak is a very good, classic science fiction yarn. A bit dated, just a little and not hurtfully so, similar to a more modern language than that used by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A great mix of hard science fiction and the softer social sciences cousin of the genre; like Heinlein, without the sexual aggression and with an almost Bradburyesque idyllic sentimentality. Way Station was first published in 1963 and won the Hugo Award for best Novel in 1964. This was certa...

Teenage Tadiana: YES! Way Station! All the stars! I love this story of Enoch Wallace, a Civil War veteran whose home is being used as an interstellar way station, a stopping point for alien travelers journeying from one part of the galaxy to another. As part of the deal, Enoch never ages while he is inside his home. For 100 years Enoch isn't bothered by anyone--he lives in the backwoods and the local people leave him alone--but eventually the government becomes suspicious of Enoch's agelessness

Posted at Shelf Inflicted This spare little story is set in a small Wisconsin town. Despite the pastoral setting and the narrow-minded, clannish inhabitants of the town, Enoch Wallace, keeper of an intergalactic transport system known as the Way Station, is a very likeable and open character.This wonderful, thought-provoking book is a fast and easy read. There is no action, no alien battles in the stars, no government agents surrounding the Way Station and bundling Enoch off in an unmarked van.

Q:He needed sun and soil and wind to remain a man. (c)Q:We realized that among us, among all the races, we had a staggering fund of knowledge and of techniques - that working together, by putting together all this knowledge and capability, we could arrive at something that would be far greater and more significant than any race, alone, could hope of accomplishing. (c)Q:A man... must belong to something, must have some loyalty and some identity. (c)Q:A million years ago there had been no river he...

I've been reading this book on and off for several years (first time I read it in Portuguese...). Once in a while I get the urge to pick it up again. It happened again... lolStorytelling, movie making, painting are all art forms. There is no right or wrong way to make art. There's no inherently proper or improper, no right or wrong, no appropriate or inappropriate way to craft artistic expression. Simak had his way. Heinlein had his way. Bach had his way. Eça de Queiroz had his way. Nick Ray had...

This is a SF novel from the mid-1960s that hasn’t aged a lot. It was nominated and won Hugo for Best Novel in 1964 (another title is Here Gather the Stars), beating such famous authors as Frank Herbert, Andre Norton, Robert A. Heinlein and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.! Later, in 1987 it ranked 25th in Locus Best All-Time SF Novels (out of 45), and #31 in 1998 Locus Best All-Time SF Novels (out of 52).The novel starts with the protagonist Enoch Wallace fighting in the US Civil War. Fast forward to the prese...

The book started out with the protagonist executing two horses in anger over his father’s death. The horses had nothing to do with it. It was dark and petty and predisposed me to disliking this book.The raccoon torture scene described sealed my dislike.Then I started thinking about the way the women were portrayed. There's Mary, the sentient hologram created solely for the protagonists pleasure. “She had been an ideal and perfection. She had been his perfect woman, created in his mind.” Instead...

I am going to cheat and give a picture of one of the book covers which summaries the main idea perfectly: Rarely do I see such a fitting cover picture on a book: it does not show any particular scene, but the plot itself. There is a way station for intergalactic travelers somewhere deep in the rural USA. The following picture shows exactly what I think the inside of the said station looks like: And this is outside view:The book is interesting in the sense that it packed a lot of interesting ide...

I'll be brief, because there's really not much to say - despite a couple of interesting ideas, this book left an impression of repetitive, monotonous read, with quite too much pacifism for my taste and generally a sense of a kind of failed utopia. I know, complaining that a sci-fi is not "real" enough seems awkward, but that's what I felt. This book seemed too naive, too... artificial, too fake or at least not genuine enough. And all that Galaxy Central's politics reminds me current wave of mult...

2019 UPDATEAn adaptation is underway for genre powerhouse Netflix! Now may this be the one that breaks the Netflix-Original Curse of Crappiness (eg, Another Life, the mediocre reboot of Lost in Space).

I may have a new favorite classic sci-fi author – Clifford D. Simak. It’s a tragedy that I’m just discovering him now – a glitch that quickly needs to be rectified. I loved Way Station and Simak’s writing. I found it to be warm, unpretentious, and distinctly midwestern. Lately, I’ve been rereading Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov and some of the luster of my youthful idolization has worn away. Simak might be just the one to restore the patina of my love of the golden age of Science Fiction.Way Stati...

The first science fiction book I have ever read was All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak. I was so astonished and entertained that I immediately looked for more sf to read and to this day I still prefer reading sf than any other form of fiction. Yes, I should broaden my horizon and read more literary fiction or classics which I do from time to time but I will always favor sf. So I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Simak for helping me find my reading comfort zone. Anyway, All Flesh Is Grass is n...

the fool known as Man is too slow to learn, too fast on the draw, too committed to staying still. the man known as Enoch Wallace stays to watch and mind the way, to live and so learn, to dream beyond those fools known as Men. but he is a man still, and a loyal one, to Men. he'll learn and he'll fight for them, his fellows, living beside them but always aside from them, in his lonely way station, his alien friends coming and going and seldom returning. he'll mind that way and he'll chart the fall...

Way Station: A solitary Midwesterner holds the key to the starsOriginally posted at Fantasy LiteratureWay Station is Clifford D. Simak’s 1964 Hugo Award-winning novel. By many readers it is considered his best, and it features some his favorite themes: a rugged Midwesterner who shuns society, human society flirting with nuclear disaster, a more enlightened galactic society that is wary of letting unruly humans join in, an appeal to common sense and condemnation of man’s penchant for violence. Ha...

My first read of Clifford D. Simak and what a pleasure this was!Some of these old sci-fi books usually lose their flavor in time, because the new ones are simply amazing with all the new technology and concepts brought. Not the case with one.Through the astounding ideas for those years (new type of teleportation, some truly strange alien species, the whole concept of the way station) it deals mainly with human nature and its inclination toward destruction. But it does not lack the bright side of...

Four paragraphs:"And there she sat, with the wild red and gold of the butterfly poised upon her finger, with the sense of alertness and expectancy and, perhaps, accomplishment shining on her face. She was alive, thought Enoch, as no other thing he knew had ever been alive. The butterfly spread its wings and floated off her finger and went fluttering, unconcerned, unfrightened, up across the wild grass and the goldenrod of the field.""They would say he was a madman; that he had run them off at gu...

Not quite 5 stars but rounding up for the humor and prose and overall otherworldly-ness of it all. This is one book I will have to have on my shelf so that I can revisit at least once a year.

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Clifford Simak deserves to be remembered along side the giants of Science Fiction writers. His unique blend of pastoral settings, "middle America" characters and deeply emotional plots that explore important questions about the human condition is something special and places him firmly within the "must read" category. This is arguably his finest novel (along with the excellent City) and I highly recommend it. Winner: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1964)

"And yet he had learned to submerge that sense of horror, to disregard the outward appearance of it, to regard all life as brother life, to meet all things as people."I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. "Golden Age Sci-Fi" isn't always something that personally resonates with me. A lot of it is very dated, or rooted in the time period it was written in, or focuses on ideas and themes that aren't as interesting to me as more modern sci-fi. But this book feels almost timeless, an...