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Feb 17, 2012

Nancy rated it:

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. Way Station is a very qui More...

6 comments like (36 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Adam rated it:

Way Station is an exceedingly charming science fiction story. Enoch Wallace, the protagonist, is a very earnest, endearing character made eccentric and quite wise by years spent alone or in the company of traveling aliens. Finishing the book, I was left most strongly with this impression of Enoch's character. There are several other levels on which this book is brilliant. It is not, as I was led to believe by a miscommunication, a mere exposition of Enoch's unique character and situation. I More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2008

D_Davis rated it:

Enoch Wallace fought in the American Civil War. It is now the 1960's and Enoch is still alive, which would make him at least one-hundred years old. However, Enoch doesn't look a day older than his mid-thirties. What's more, Enoch still lives in the same house that he grew up in, and it, too, has conquered the effects if gravity and decay. But that's not all. Enoch is also the caretaker of a Way Station, an intergalactic embassy/terminal, a mysterious rest stop, a place for alien lifeforms to rel More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

Well, interesting little book. I somehow missed the "wonder" I think we were supposed to get...I also sort of lost interest as I got into it. The story is of a man who apparently hasn't aged since the Civil War and catches the interest of a government intelligence agent. Taking place in 1960s the point of view is interesting.

The farm house/Way Station of the stars (not referring to Hollywood stars here) is the staging point of the story. Told in a sort of flashback manner More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Nathaniel rated it:

I consider myself an avid sci-fi fan, but I had never heard of Clifford D. Simak before I decided to read every novel to win the Hugo award. This novel took the prize in 1964, but it turns out Clifford had novels nominated for consideration in 1962, 1969, 1973 and 1988. He was the third Grand Master of science fiction. And yet: I'd never heard of him.

It's really sort of sad--and quite sobering as an aspiring author--to realize how quickly you can be forgotten even by those in yo More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Simon rated it:

My first Simak novel I was quite impressed. The first half of the book is setting up the situation, back story and character. The plot only begins to unfold in the second half.

The book culminates in a global and (unbeknownst to the rest of humanity) a galactic crisis at which the protagonist Enoch Wallace finds himself the centre of.

Enoch single handedly mans a way station on a galactic highway in which a galactic confedation of alien beings traverse at faster than light More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 30, 2007

Aili rated it:

Don't get me wrong -- I really enjoyed this book. But since City, also by Clifford Simak, is one of my favorite, favorite books of all time, I was unfortunately comparing it. And Way Station, though it has an awesome premise and a psychologically complex main character, unfortunately falters in the narrative department about halfway through the book and never quite recovers.

Short version: a soldier in the American Civil War comes home to Wisconsin and is randomly tapped to secretly r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2011

Jane rated it:

На окраине крохотного американского городка живет вот уже лет сто живет человек, которые эти же сто с лишним лет не стареет. Соседи уже к нему привыкли и относятся с пониманием. Да и человек этот, Инек Уоллис, нечасто показывается на людях, периодически только забирает почту и продукты из города. Разумеется, за Инеком следят агенты ЦРУ, но узнать у них ничего не выходит, и в дом Инека им попасть не удается. А они бы сильно удивились, узнав, что старинный дом уже и не дом вовсе, а перевалочный пу More...

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Aug 29, 2011

Fungus rated it:

Not long after the Civil War, Enoch Wallace, who fought in it, is approached by a space alien to serve as the custodian of a way station (his house) for interstellar travelers from a variety of alien races. Now, almost a century later, Enoch’s pleasant existence is threatened by neighbors and intelligence agents who wonder at his reclusive existence and his failure to age like everyone else.

With the exception of a few of the book’s short chapters in the early going, the story is t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 24, 2011

Tim rated it:

I was a little disappointed by this book. I like Simak, but I want to like him better than I do. His stories are thoughtful, have an interesting premise, and the plots resolve in unexpected ways. This book has some nice writing as well, with inviting descriptions of nature.

But somehow, the book feels like it is missing connections. The protagonist is first seen as a soldier in a bloody war, but that experience don't seem to have a significant bearing later in the book. And Enoch's More...

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Jun 05, 2011

Perry rated it:

Enoch Wallace is a seemingly out of place frontiersman living in a log cabin near the Wisconsin River in Cold War era America. The government discover that remarkably he was a soldier in the Civil War a hundred years previously, and that he is still alive and looks no older than thirty years age. How is this?
It turns out that Wallace was visited by an unusual stranger who turns out to be a bizarre alien who enlists him to become porter for an interplanetary way station, where the various sp More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Lloyd rated it:

Though I don't think the then current year was mentioned in "Way Station", we begin with certain government officials becoming a bit curoious about a fellow named Enoch Wallace who's a Civil War veteran and still alive, apparently aged 124 years but looking as though he might be 30.

Enoch lives a solitary life in a tiny house in rural Wisconsin. When the "Watchers" (as the government investigators come to be called) find an alien grave in Enoch's family burial plo More...

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Nov 13, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

It is surprising and this book is a Hugo award winner, and is ranked in the top 100 of all time. A The premise a is somewhat interesting, which I won't repeat here, but Simak does very little with it. The main problem with this novel, as is the case with most science fiction novel, lies in the flat characters and the wooden dialogue. The alien itself, other than having a different physical appearance and penchant for coffee, isn't all that interesting either. The a “big decision ” that has More...

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Oct 07, 2011

Ron rated it:

In the early 1980's I read a lot of Clifford Simak's fiction. He rather quickly established himself as one of my favorite authors. I read most of his works that I could find but found I didn't care all that much for some of his last books, which seemed to veer more towards fantasy than science fiction. A lot of Simak's good science fiction, though, does contain what could be considered as fantasy elements. His writing at times has reminded me a bit like Ray Bradbury's in the storytelling and set More...

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May 19, 2010

Marvin rated it:

Many readers consider Way Station to be Simak's best book. After all, it beat the much more popular Dune in the Hugo awards for 1964. While I prefer City, I still think Way Station is a marvelous merging of science fiction and subtlety. Again, the setting is Simak's much beloved rural Wisconsin. Enoch Wallace is manning a way station on Earth for galactic civilizations yet Earth is still oblivious to their presence. The fact that Wallace hasn't aged for a hundred years does nothing to hide certa More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 21, 2010

Becky rated it:

I "read" this as an audio book and will remember it as a great story. The premise is simple (aliens build a stop-over station on Earth to facilitate galactic travel and find a man to run it), but Simak manages to build a very large universe around a small corner of rural Wisconsin. His descriptions of the aliens and their gifts are fascinating, and I love the attention he pays to detail of the natural world. While the medium of sound did draw my attention to a few flaws in the stylin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 07, 2010

Amy added it

What a beautifully wrought story. Simak's story about a U.S. Civil War veteran who seems to live a prolonged hermit's existence in the house his parents built in rural Wisconsin, but in fact manages a busy way station for intergalactic travelers, is deceptively cozy and simple on its surface. Yet in his gentle, pastoral narrative, Simak couches a serious meditation on war and human frailty. My tastes usually run darker, to the dystopian and apocalyptic, and yet I found myself welcoming Simak's q More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2010

Charles Dee rated it:

Of my recent forays into mid-century sf, this has been the most disappointing. There's a deadening, earnest tone to the writing that I actually remember from reading sf magazines as an adolescent. There is no irony and not a scrap of humor. When Simak describes nature he gets a little woozy. When he strives for a sense of the cosmic, he ends up sounding like the ponderous narration to some film you might have been shown in social studies class. The common theme to the few books from period I hav More...

1 comment like

Jul 11, 2011

Arwen rated it:

I debated about rating this one two stars but it did get me thinking, if only thinking how much I disagree with the author. First, the system of travel was disturbing, leaving a trail of dead clones across the universe as your consciousness "jumped" from body to body. Second, the author seemed to reject the idea that humanity as a whole had anything to offer the galactic community but that Earth is worth the trouble for a few special humans. Third, Earth's religions were all hokey a More...

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Aug 13, 2009

Richard rated it:

A personal story about a man who becomes the caretaker of an interstellar transporter station. The aliens who run the galactic transit system need a station on Earth because of its location. They approach Enoch Wallace and build the station inside his house. He doesn't age while in the house, so he remains young from the Civil War to modern times. Enoch meets diverse alien individuals as they arrive and depart the station, learns tidbits of their knowledge and philosophies, and accepts gifts fro More...

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Jul 03, 2010

Mark rated it:

This book was fairly good. I liked the premise quite a bit. The mood of the main character is rather nostalgic, lonely and maybe a little depressing. Most of the book is about his coming to terms with his experiences, circumstances/opportunities and choices, and what he will make of them. There are lots of flashbacks. There are moral issues/concerns to think about. It's not an action/thriller, except maybe in one or two short parts. There are a fair amount of new aliens you may not have heard th More...

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Jan 03, 2010

Ben rated it:

The book is touted as a sci-fi classic, which is what initially drew my interest. It's important to take the date of authorship into consideration when reading the book, since sci-fi typically betrays the imprint of the author's own socio-cultural moment. But the book has aged well and hold its own fairly well against more recent works. Sci-fi at its best raises important questions about ethics and the nature and destiny of humankind, and Way Station is no exception. It's a hopeful book, not wit More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2011

Stef rated it:

Way Station is about a human man who has been chosen to run a small galatic transportation hub out of his home in a rural part of the U.S. He does not age when he is inside the hub so he's lived for well over 100 years. Meanwhile, elsewhere on Earth, it's looking like World War III is about to start.

In the science fiction of the 50s and 60s there are two broad philosophies. One focuses on how much more people will be able to know and do in the future. Another focuses on how many more More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 14, 2011

Julie rated it:

Rereading this for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, where Scott and I will be discussing it next week.

Here's what I said when I named it among my top fiction for 2009:

From SFFaudio's review: This story spans more than a century, but most of the ‘action’ takes place in the middle of the 20th century, over a couple of months. See, a friendly alien recruited Enoch Wallace to become something of a galactic station master shortly after the American Civil War. Now, with his neighbors ge

More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2008

Bill rated it:

I really enjoyed this.
Our hero is Enoch Wallace, US Civil War veteran, who has, for the past 100 years, been the custodian of a way station for galactic travelers.
He has aged only slightly during his tenure, and his backwoods neighbors have politely turned a blind eye to this mysterious fellow.

This was an interesting story, and with a character you can really feel for. The novel was written in the early 60s, and of course, the fear of global thermolnuclear war is ever pre More...

3 comments like

Oct 21, 2007

Nicholas added it

http://nhw.livejournal.com/156494.html[return][return]A really charming story. Reflects very much the Cold War environment when it was written, but also pulls in themes recognizable from a lot of other sf before and since - the galactic civilization judging Earth, also from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Have Space Suit, Will Travel; immortality crops up again in Simak's "Grotto of the Dancing Deer"; the disabled child who turns out to be the key to everything, of course a much olde More...

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Jul 15, 2011

David rated it:

I'd give this 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. I used to love golden age sci-fi, but for me, most of it just doesn't hold up today. This was my first Simak novel. I enjoyed the writing and the story, and I can understand why it was a Hugo winner -- in 1964. I wonder how much this novel influenced the writers of Star Trek. Today, of course, four decades later, the interstellar federation which Earth is just on the verge of being ready to join has been done and done and done in every possible variatio More...

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Jan 29, 2010

Lincoln rated it:

This was one of the first books I read when I decided to start reading all the Hugo books and what a great find. Light and easy read but with some startling concepts that have stood the test of time.

Some of the idea's in the book are classic tales of prejudice. Strange person keeping out of other's way inciting tall stories and ultimately fear in the red neck community. If they only knew the part he played in the universe and the stories he can tell..........

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 24, 2009

Tim rated it:

Another in my gleefully rediscovered "S-F from the 70's" collection. This one, like most of them, does not dissapoint, a clever tale of a Civil War fellow who seems to be living a very long time, and whose cabin has become a Way Station for a great number of aliens going hither and yon in the Galaxy. But it's more complex than that, with a befriended alien named Ulysses, meticulous journals, a woodcarving mailman, a deaf-mute woman who is MUCH more than she appears, a Talisman and worl More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Malquiviades rated it:

It was a long time since I read this. I remember it with warm memories and I liked it. Now I have liked it too, but not so much as then.

The story has the historical background at the coldest days of the Cold War, when there was little hope that we may survive an almost sure and complete obliteration. Now that threat has almost died and the new generations are free of the fear of an apocalyptic nuclear war.

Then, although the idea of global peace and friendship is still val More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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