3.5 stars. Okay, how to describe this roller-coaster of a book. Well, to start with, take an Earth where: (i) humans live side by side with elves, fairies, trolls, goblins, banshees and other mythological creatures; (ii) time travel is not only possible, but commonplace (to the extent that the planetary university has a Time Travel Department), permitting Neanderthals, William Shakespeare (and at least one emotionally sensitive ghost) to live in modern times with the aforementioned mythological

A perfect mix of fantasy, murder mystery, and the hard sci fi Simak is famous for. It's probably one of the best sci fi books ever written. In the future, the entire planet Earth is the university of the galaxy, with a College of Supernatural Phenomenon, as well as, a College of Time travel. Shakespear drinks moonshine with a neanderthal, and there are goblins, trolls, banshees... and world's coolest ending.

There’d be discussion and argument and the telling of old tales, and the leisurely academic routine that gave one time to live.And that’s when you realize it’s all just a fantasy.It was a great pick me up read that took my mind off of actual academic routine. It starts up fairly seriously and then becomes just sillier and sillier. All character were extremely lovable, especially Sylvester. Now I want Sylvester too!

Some smartass said that the golden age of sci-fi is twelve. And personally I agree with such opinion. I've read this book for the first time when I was twelve years old and I simply loved it, and it made me read it again and again in years after, and look for other sf or fantasy books. I was seriously hooked on genre, obviously.Now that I was rereading it after so many years - it still worked for me! Yes, I admit there was a lot of plain silliness and some really cardboard characters there. But

Goofiness reigns supreme in this amusing, charming lark by Simak at his most relaxed and spontaneous. This book has it all: a fairly pleasant far-future that looks a lot like our own, where instantaneous space travel, poorly-funded time travel, visitors from the past, alien enigmas, a ghost, a rowdy Neanderthal, a robo-Sabretooth, a secret dragon, scifi explanations for faerie & goblins & trolls & banshees, lots of whiskey drinking (I approve), villainous wheeled buckets of insects, and more goo...

Simply a classic, and probably the best book that Clifford Simak ever wrote. It's short (particularly compared to modern novels), but fun, funny, and deeply enjoyable. The blending of fantasy and advanced science was not invented by Simak, but he handled it wonderfully well here. Not only is this a classic of fantasy and science fiction, but I consider it to be one of the funnier books in both genres as well!I can imagine that some might find the relatively second-class status of the heroine off...

Fantasy and science fiction tropes cross in this 1968 classic from Grandmaster Clifford Simak. The fanciful speculative concepts are not to be taken seriously as goblins, trolls, and a friendly ghost who can’t remember who he is the ghost of, mix it up with a Neanderthal buddy named Oop, a cybernetic saber-toothed cat, aliens, space and time travel. Professor Peter Maxwell returns from one of his interstellar field trips to find that another copy of him has previously returned and died the prior...

Some days, I need silly and yesterday, The Goblin Reservation fit the bill perfectly.Familiar with Simak through the beautifully pastoral Way Station, when I saw this for a mere dollar, I snapped it up. A madcap adventure set in a vibrant university setting, it echoed the feel of Doorways in the Sand. While it is set on a future Earth with alien races, aircars, moving sidewalks, and the like, it is also an Earth that is home to small populations of The Fae.Peter Maxwell, a professor in the Colle...

I’ll state right up front and for the record that Clifford D. Simak is one of my personal favorite science-fiction writers. He is often associated with the idea of “pastoral” sci-fi, and it is true that he typically brings an understated and relaxed tone to a good majority of his works. Simak often focused on the personal and psychological tribulations of his characters instead of relying strictly on the science to propel his tales along. Which is not to say that he was weak on the scientific as...

After having read a half dozen, mostly early Simak scifi novels and a handful of his short stories, I had the impression of an enjoyable 'laid back Bradburyesque country' style to his work. However, what I have not delved into, was his fantasy works - For unclear reasons, I tend to avoid this sub-genre... The very title of this novel, repelled me somewhat. However, I had the book and am determined to read as much of his work as I can get a hold of.I have to admit that I found this Hugo nominated...

Really light hearted, fast reading, maybe at times more fantasy than science fiction novel by one of the masters of science fiction. Though it is a kind of murder mystery, it is not a novel that takes itself seriously at all nor it is in the least bit dark or violent. Basically, if I had one word for the book, it would be the word shenanigans. Set in some indeterminate far future Earth, specifically at a college campus in Wisconsin, the main character is a college professor who has returned from...

I enjoyed the book and would have been happy to rate it 3 stars, but parts from it kept coming back into my and I even dreamt of it, so 4 stars for haunting me. The plot seems to turn down a fair few blind aleys as it meander to the finish line but I admired the architecture en route.

Lately I have been searching and searching for a book to read. Going around in circles.. around and around and never picking. One day while playing under the Explore tab on here (GR) under lists (Listopia) I ran across this: #readharder. So I checked out the books under each number for the challenge and realized that some books on my TBR were on the list.. and some I already read this year we also included... then I found out it was on BookRiot I totally got the PDF copy and am now working my wa...

A college professor Peter Maxwell went upon a routine interplanetary journey only to end up on an unknown planet for the reasons equally unknown. Finally returning back to Earth he learned that not only he came back earlier, but he was already killed in an accident. This by the way is the least puzzling part. Coming back to our good old planet, it was populated by all kings of supernatural creatures with humanity providing them sanctuaries (thus the title) with Maxwell happened to be the special...

'Himself again- Having just returned to Earth from an inter-galactic research mission, Professor Peter Maxwell, specialist in Supernatural Phenomena, finds himself in dire straits.Earth, as he is aware, is well-advanced in many areas; perfected time travel, for instance, enables all creatures (goblins, dinosaurs and Shakespeare!) to coexist. But Maxwell has accidentally discovered a mysterious crystal planet containing a storehouse of secret information not yet known on Earth.Knowing the value o...

1969 Hugo nominee for best novel.Maybe I'm a chump. I mean, I look at a title like this and I smack my lips and a slight thought drifts across my subconscious, "Satire". I remember loving Way Station, but not quite making the connection between that classic SF title and this. What was I expecting? A haunting exploration of old alien tech and a breath of injustice that makes me think of indigenous Americans and their troubles spiffed up in the mask of an alien? Well... yeah. Aren't assumptions fu...

This was a weird, wild ride and a whole other side to SFF grand master Clifford Simak than seen in his more widely known"pastoral", languid SF stories.

This novel is difficult to situate within the categories of today's science fiction and within Simak's oeuvre. It belongs to the genre of science fantasy, in that the fantastical beings, powers, and events receive a (sort of) scientific explanation. There is also an outrageous sense of humour that we associate more with Robert Sheckley or Douglas Adams, only a little slower as befits Simak's style. The whole story revolves around a man commissioned to broker a deal for the purchase of a reposito...

Storyline: 2/5Characters: 2/5Writing Style: 3/5World: 2/5Light-hearted, silly, unassuming, easy-going. Some will value that. I didn't. I had enjoyed Simak's Time is the Simplest Thing, enough so that I had been eager to read something else by him. I was later wowed by his Way Station and wanted to re-experience the pleasures I had found therein. In both those works Simak offered a penetrating ambience. He captured something of rural America and deftly inserted science fiction elements with the g...

Odd, whimsical and imaginative. This was a fun one!Definitely not for everyone.Also I have a feeling that the Goblin O'toole was an inspiration for Yoda, to quote him from the book;"Understand you do not"