Destiny Doll

by Clifford D. Simak, Richard M. Powers (Illustrator)

"Assailed by strange perils & even stranger temptations, the little group stumbled towards its destiny--Mike Ross, the pilot, Sara Foster, the big game hunter, blind George Smith & the odious Friar Tuck. Before them was a legend made flesh, around them were creatures of myth & mystery, close behind them stalked Nemesis. The doll, the little wooden painted doll, was to be their salvation. Or their damnation, for each might choose, & find, his own Nirvana."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Space Opera, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

"He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." (Wikipedia)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very surprised to discover I had never read a book by this author. Maybe I have back in the dim and distant past, before I used Goodreads to record my reading, but if so none of the titles sound at all familiar.

So I happened to pick up a copy of Destiny Doll which turned out to have a couple of good ratings and a whole lot of average ones. It also has an incredibly horrible cover which I tried not to look at.

Despite all this I found the book to be good. Simak ranged freely through aspects of science fiction and fantasy. When the intrepid main characters landed on their first planet to be met by sentient rocking horses I thought this is going to be good. Then we moved on to giant trees which attacked the 'invaders' by hurling seed pods at them. Better and better:)

All in all it was a lot of fun and an entertaining read. I have already added Way Station to my list of books I want to read.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Either, I thought, the one who'd carved it had been a primitive who, by sheer chance, had fashioned the sorrow in it, or a skilled craftsman who, with a few simple strokes, evoked the hopelessness and anguish of an intellectual being facing the riddle of the universe and overwhelmed by it."



Riddle, indeed. Overwhelmed, indeed. Pity the poor sentient being, human or not, forced to confront the inescapably unknowable quality of this cluster of stars, scraps of debris, and grains of life tossed apparently at random into a great dark void... this question mark called the universe. Is it any wonder religion was created, and other comfort items?



Destiny Doll is an odd, often off-putting book. The plot appears easy to encapsulate: a small number of humans land on a remote planet, encountering strange traps and stranger aliens and dying or disapearing one by one - maybe. I was reminded at first of Lem's absorbing Eden, with its sinister mysteries and bleak perspective on human nature. But Destiny Doll's reach is wider: this is not an analogy for human history. And it is even stranger than that strange book. The writing is not pretty; the narrative is not straightforward; the characters are not friendly. This is Simak at his most stark and also at his most hallucinogenic.

The protagonist is carcinogenic. A tough character to spend time with, let alone see the other characters and this bizarre world through his disgusted, closed-minded, excruciatingly reactionary yet prosaic tunnel vision. A toxic fellow, to say the least. Nor does he live in what I'd call an "enjoyable" book. But it is one that is dense with meaning, hidden between lines and implicit within journeys. Implications of what "life" is can be inferred by the silent, furious alien that compels our characters out of one place, in the hostile alien tree that attempts to kill our characters and then reveals itself to be a host for two soon-to-die civilizations, in the lonely suicide of yet another alien, perhaps the last of his kind. And in the mounds of bones and in the silent white city and in the transporter to various hellscapes and in the beating of many wings heard flying far above our characters' heads, flying or fleeing, from whom and to where, sounds from another dimension.



What is this dimension they live in, humans and aliens alike? Better yet, what dimension have they made? Can another dimension be made, be lived in, that is not so toxic to life? One can only hope. And Simak being Simak, that hope is alive and well, if only in the last, most hallucinatory of its pages. But thank the sweet Lord for those pages, and for the possibility of another kind of life. 'Twas a comfort!

[Ira (SF Words of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out a book discussion with Shawn D. Standfast, Scott Danielson, and Matt HERE.
A motley crew set out to a distant and mysterious planet, they are following a signal that is being received by a blind man. Once they get to the planet, they find themselves trapped. This is where the adventure really begins. Simak once again throws out so many ideas both familiar and new, lots of philosophy and ideas about destiny and reality. I really enjoyed this one but be prepared not to have many questions answered.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird batch of reviews here. *I* found this to be one of the better Simak, not only imaginative but also coherent, and also with well-developed characters. I did find myself reading more closely than I do sometimes; perhaps that's key. For example, why is Ross such a jerk? Think about it. Don't draw your conclusion too tightly until the very end. Are the hobbies robots, or not? What is the significance of the doll?

I read the cover with the pink hair and hand 'mirror' and that, too may have influenced appreciation of the book because I had to work to figure out what the illustrator was going for. A more literal cover is currently the default here on GR, the wooden doll, background of sparkly tall city, deep blue star-studded sky.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

„А и в лагерния огън изобщо има нещо хубаво — около него може да се седи и да се разговаря.“


Много симпатична приключенска фантастика, макар според мен да не е от най-великите книги на Клифърд Саймък. В „Куклата на съдбата“ авторът разглежда темите за силата на митовете, различните слоеве реалност и други любопитни въпроси, разказвайки историята на група космически пътешественици, попаднали на непозната планета. Участниците в тази експедиция търсят легендарен герой, а пък атмосферата на планетата се оказва твърде мистична и съответно им предстоят загадъчни перипетии...





„Тези високи земи излъчваха някаква възторжена мистичност и понякога ми се струваше, че вървя насън. Не се дължеше на самото високо плато, а на цялостното въздействие на планетата, което изглежда се бе стоварило върху ми.“


„— От кога сте тук? — попитах аз, като се мъчех да си представя откога ли датира легендата за него.
— Когато човек изживява пълно дните си — започна той — и след всеки отминал ден очаква с нетърпение следващия, времето не може да се изчисли. Всеки ден, всяка негова минута се превръщат в част от вечността. Мислил съм за това и вече не съм сигурен, че съществува такова нещо като време...“


„Балистичната пушка вече не бе у Сара, а аз бях оставил лазерната. Такива са правилата, помислих си. Имаше неща и мисловни постановки, които не биваше да се внасят тук.“

[Stephen Hermer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book that made me a Simak fan. It had a terrible cover (an ugly wooden doll tumbling over a desert) and a lousy name, so I avoided reading until I was laid up after surgery and ran out of other books to read.

When I finally did read it, I loved everything about it. The main character's cynical outlook, the quest/journey (a common theme in Simak's books), Hoot, the alien technologies and view points... all of it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blind man navigates an interplanetary journey for himself, a priest, a huntress, and a mercenary pilot based on the directions from the imaginary friend in his head. The pilot thinks the blind man is quite mad until a beacon guides them onto the planet the blind man has been searching for. The city they land in seems strangely empty. The buildings are all extremely tall and coated in a hard white substance. The trees of the city are even taller. They're soon greeted by robotic hobby horses that lure them away from their space ship just in time for an insect to cover their spaceship with the impenetrable white substance that seems to be on everything in the city.

As with most Simak novels, this one is filled with pastoral scenes and robots which co-exist beside humans. The story also features a dial-a-newly-formed-planet machine, a mile-high tree that throws deadly fruit, an alien with 3 selves, centaurs, a rhyming robot, weeping snails, a sad doll, and a paradise that isn't.

I can never resist a Simak book. This book was quite worn and was broken into at least 6 parts when I got it, but it still read the same. It was a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

[Иван Величков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Леко странна книга, дори за Саймък. Идеите вътре са изкристализирали в по-късната му „Планетата на Шекспир” и са поели в съвсем друга насока. Интересното тук е, че имаме доволно „твърда” фантастика, написана по каноните на епичното фентъзи и после обърната наобратно, но за разлика от по митичните му книги, тази е доста добра. Другото нещо е, че за първи път чета за един доста неприятен главен герой, който е и доста способен – и двете характеристики са нетипични за творчеството на чичо Клиф.
Майк Рос е врял и кипял междузвезден пилот изпаднал в доста съмнително положение. Закотявен на Земята, която отдавна е тъмен ъгъл на човешката цивилизация той е сигурен,м че няма да лети отново. Тогава получава предложение на което не може да устои и тръгва на експедиция с доста странен екипаж. Стигат до особена планета, на която хората му започват да изчезват един по един. Огато достигат желаната дестинация, нищо не е такова, каквото изглежда първоначално, а параметрите на времето и пространството стават напълно илюзорни. Тези на човешките въжделения и амбиции – също.
Една от по-филосовските книги на Саймък, което я прави малко неудобна при четене.
Корицата е потресаващо грозна и няма нищо общо със съдържанието, анотацията разваля кефа от цялата история, а идиоматичния речник явно някой го смятат за трамвайна спирка в Египет. Как да не обичаш деведесетте?

[The Scribbling Man · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

There are two separate Simak "to-read" piles that I mentally keep track of: the "I think this might be good" pile and the "completionist pile". Destiny Doll fell into the latter. The other three books I'd read from his '70s output did not impress me, and so while I was interested in the premise, I was expecting it to be an average romp with maybe some sprinklings of goodness, and at the end of the day I would be able to cross off another title on the bibliography.

Instead, Destiny Doll was a pleasant surprise and I'm not really sure why it isn't better regarded. We get a ragtag crew; a jerk captain-for-hire, a monk, and a telepathic blind man all along for the ride with a woman bent on chasing a legend on a distant planet. The scene is well set with a mysterious and seemingly malicious lost civilization, and hints of an even more ancient one before it. The world is populated with the bizarre likes of sentient rocking horses, centaurs, a single gnome and violently defensive trees, creating a vibe of nightmarish whimsy. It's not unheard of for Simak to inject fantasy elements into his science fiction, but while it typically can feel a little silly, here it's nicely contrasted with a cynical protagonist and a dark air of mystery. The part-fantasy aesthetic and mystical/spiritual nature of the story does, I feel, bring it into the realm of being more than just science fiction.

As far as Simak goes, and even the genre, the characters here are fairly well-drawn. They have personality, traits that make them unique, flaws that make them relatable, and I sometimes found myself physically reacting to the circumstances that befell them. Although Destiny Doll is quite a pensive work, it was still a breeze to read through and if I'd had the time I probably would have consumed it in a day. The prose is effective in conveying an atmosphere and the internal philosophising doesn't feel pretentious (unlike, say, the laborious A Choice of Gods).

There's a lot about the world that's hinted at, but not clarified, and I enjoyed the ambiguity. I only wish it had carried through to the end, which felt over-tidy. It's possible I've missed what Simak was going for, but I was expecting something a little more quiet and bittersweet. Instead, a lot of stuff seemed to be racing to wrap up in the last ten pages or so and I wasn't really sold on it.

All the same, and in spite of the ending, I think this is probably among Simak's best. It's an enjoyable and thought-provoking read, exploring spiritual themes and the nature of destiny. I would recommend it to any fan as a must-read.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one odd science fiction novel! I recall reading the thing while travelling in the Mercy Mission van through the wintry countryside considerably north and west of Chicago--probably up to the place where we received our training to teach sex education classes to our boys back on Racine and Jackson. The sentient hobby horse characters, when introduced, brought me up short and I failed to appreciate the allegorical intent--if there was any--of the novel.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

If not for all the "talent" and compassion around him, our hero would have gone nowhere and done nothing. That, and all his "yelling" at everyone kind of makes it a Deus ex Machina with lots of screaming. But the story overcomes these shortcomings enough to make it enjoyable from start to finish.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Destiny Doll is something of an atypical Simak novel. It has elements of some of the pastoral and comfortable settings for which he is noted, but it has more of an unreal feel. The characters are realistically drawn, but they're not the familiar and likable kind he usually created. The story seems more preoccupied with questions of religion and philosophy than with narrative, and the ending is somewhat unconvincing. It's Simak's closest brush with the New Wave, which was reaching its height in the U.S. in 1971 when the novel first appeared, in the Spring issue of Worlds of Fantasy magazine. It was released several times over the next decade by Putnam, Berkley, and DAW with a series of very unappealing covers from some of the best-known artists in the field at the time, including Richard Powers and Frank Kelly Freas, before it seemed to kind of sink into obscurity. It has some interesting bits and some cool robots, but I'd recommend it primarily for Simak completists.

[Steve Rainwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic Simak quest story with religious and philosophic undertones. A wealthy woman hires a fugitive space captain to pilot her ship on a search for a legendary missing explorer. Helping them in the search are a blind telepath and a religious man. The search leads them to a planet in a star system outside our galaxy. After landing, they find themselves trapped on the planet, which seems to have been intentionally designed to draw in explorers and kill them. They befriend a squid-like alien who is also trapped on the planet. Together they try to survive the planet's traps while discovering its secrets. Recommended. I read the 1982 DAW edition with the unfortunate cover art by the usually excellent artist Frank Kelly Freas.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does one expect in a scifi novel? What can we get from reading scifi? This is just one of the books I've read so far by Clifford Simak. I think They Walked Like Men was excellent in how he describes the invading aliens. Here, he was very imaginative and, his ideas are very clear. Much like a H.G. Wells, Clifford Simak can make belief from a simple scientific idea and making it seem real. Destiny Doll was not the everything a mild reader will seek for food for thought; it has character, its own scientific ideals that have shaded into story, whether philosophical misconceptions with lighter thoughts to conceive, and reveals using his like mindedness just as Homer and Odyssey or with his adventure as a Dante Alighieri, and a Milton or even Shakespeare.
Don't miss out on fantastic quick reads.

[Nico Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird book. It combines fantasy with science fiction in bizarre ways, reminiscent of classic Star Trek episodes, featuring a grumpy and more abrasive Han Solo, and a knockoff Ellen Ripley years
before either of their franchises existed. Despite flat characters and clunky prose, the pure ridiculousness of this story makes it rather charming. While this is undeniably the worst Simak novel I have read, it's a light-hearted, goofy adventure, which is exactly what I needed after a few heavy, more oppressive reads.

6/10*

[Percy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in three days flat I could not put it down!!
Stunning, Engrossing, Mind Bending, Bizarro sci fi.
The ending was far too perfect however, and I’m either unsatisfied by it’s rushed-ness or unsure of whether they really are safe after all…

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letto in un giorno, come prequel a "i giorni del silenzio", che inizierò stasera.
Grandioso e stupendo, corale, poetico come solo Simak sa essere.

[Jim Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just OK. I give it 3 stars but that was rouding up from 2.5. I've read a lot of Simak and he does cover a wide range of ideas. There have been many works of his that I enjoyed more than this one. "Way Station" in particular stands out. Simak has been writing since the 1930's and like all SF writers from that period he has written many more short stories than novels. His writing is generally described as "pastoral" and often has more rustic rural settings such as the ending to this one, which I felt was a little bit of a letdown. Is this really Nirvana for a space traveling Earthman many years in our future? But in the case of Way Station the rural pastoral background was perfectly fitted to the story.

I felt this book meandered a bit and even had a couple of dead ends, especially the initial banishment to the desert planet. The hobbies were interesting but what was their intended purpose in moving the story along? I didn't get a feeling of cohesion from the various plot elements such as the hobbies, the alien city, the centaurs and other alien creatures, the mile high trees that stored "knowledge" and many more. If the characters were supposed to give a "Canterbury Tales" feel I don't think it worked that well.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Destiny Doll is a strange novel of many different parts. It begins as a straight forward quest tale. Mike Ross is an old time spacer running from a failed venture of his. He was a planet finder. He's search for planets that were suitable for colonization and then sell the "rights" to those willing to settle and make a new home. His last sale, however, had a satient species already in residence.
Mike runs back to Earth and no sooner is he landed, he is Offered the chance of a lifetime to pilot a dream spaceship to take a big game extraterrestrial hunter, Sara Foster and her two companions on a quest to find a legendary figure who they believed had found true Nirvana.
The planet they land on must have come out of Simak's dreams. There are trees miles high, their ship is almost instantaneously coated with an unbreakable substance and they are now stranded. They start looking for the mysterious man they've come to find and are involved in many strange adventures.
Clifford D. Simak, still a master of invention, seems to have gone through a time when he was trying to recapture the pulp era space adventures. The writing is excellent as always, the world building a bit less so, though it still comes together for an enjoyable read.

[Rog Petersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
A jumbled lesser work of a brilliant writer.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

After watching a YouTube video on old science fiction book covers, I decided to pick up some from the local used book store. Destiny Doll was in the pile, and became the first in the stack for me to read. I think the book met my expectations. It was bizarre, simplistic, and had a feeling of being slightly outdated. There are touches of misogyny throughout, and the lead character is more of an insufferable dick than a hero. But ultimately, I do not regret exploring the strangeness of it all. It won't go down as a favorite of mine, but I never figured it would. It gave me a glimpse into the science fiction of a different time. To me, that was worth it.

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the first time I didn’t really care for something written by Simak. I found it to be really strange and hard to follow. The basic premise was okay. It’s about an odd assortment of people traveling to a planet that locks them in a tractor beam, lands them, and then seals their spaceship shut so they’re forced to stay on the planet forever. There were robots and weird aliens, as in most of his works. But I found the prose to be rambling and too esoteric, and the characters not all together likeable. It made for a less than enjoyable read.

Come visit my blog for the full review…
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[Ian Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, pulpy sci fi novel; the outlandishness of it all reads like a dream where you're experiencing an array of odd characters all converging under odd circumstances. Simak scratches the surface of some human philosophy (destiny, free will) but not to the extent that it becomes tedious or strained. It has some perplexing plot holes, and the ending is lackadaisical, but it's overall a cool read.

[Chad Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly ... existential.

[Rosewater Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Запись гранадского концерта 2019 года, где, в частности, исполнялся Selva morale e spirituale Монтеверди, подходил к концу, а передо мной лежала закрытая книга, содержавшая три романа Клиффорда Симака, о последнем из которых следовало бы сказать что-то, более-менее напоминавшее бы продукт измышления благодарного читателя и довольно посредственного аналитика; главное препятствие на моём пути оставалось просто незаинтересованностью в теме рассуждения.
Если не пытаться сравнивать категорически положительные впечатления от первого (Time and again, 1951) из прочитанных в этом году симаковских романов, отрицательные - от второго (Out of their minds, 1970), и нечто совершенно само по себе срединное - при чтении "Куклы судьбы": есть ли что либо в последнем романе, достойное усвоения неискушённым читателем, находящимся (предпочтительно) в самом начале своего буквоедского пути в жанре недонаучной фантастики?
С одной стороны нуль без палочки в роли капитана, точное соответствие чьё без труда можно разыскать среди характеров Леонгарда (эпилептоид?), безличный образ женщины (точно фотомодель, способная лишь исполнять задачи фотографа), с каковой ноль без палочки достигает в результате благоденствия, оставив "всё, что когда-то знали, как ребёнок оставляет игрушку, которую он перерос", бессвязная болтовня о многомерности реальности, бессистемность каковой можно оправдать разве что необходимостью держаться характера Майка Росса, внеочередная раса древняя, наследующая ещё более древней, сравнимой с самим понятием древности, воздвигнувшей здание из красного кирпича на окраине белого города.
С другой стороны, вдохновляющие образы Пейнта и Ухаря (к сожалению, не могу отыскать, как они звучат в оригинале), город-ловушка, кентавры (уж не знаю, отчего, но кентавры оказались "глотком свежего воздуха" в сюжетной канве), красноречивый образ монаха Тука, вызывавший у капитана приступы нездорового раздражения, кукла, приобретающая многое с двумя абзацами описания её лица в одной из завершающих глав ("..на лице сделанной ими куклы и удивление, и шок, и страх перед открывшимся им знанием"), относительно зловредные лошадки-качалки.
Таким образом, достойным внимания может служить любой из означенных элементов - и рассуждения о многомерности могут спровоцировать кого-либо на углубление в исследования этой тематики другими авторами (стоит ли говорить о "специалистах"?), в то время как пример застрявшего в пасторали и самоудовлетворении Лоренса Арлена Найта заставит новоявленного мыслителя избегать авторитетности чьего-либо суждения ( в том числе, собственного), даже при наличии "неопровержимого опытного подтверждения".
"Эпохальность" задумки может и вдохновить на создание другого рода объектов искусства по мотивам - однако, при на чайную ложку углубившемся в структуру повествования анализе, можно обнаружить, что этот самый сад-радиоприёмник, предназначенный для сбора, распределения и сохранения информации со всей галактики, вполне может оказаться аллюзией на тайные механизмы власти, использующие информацию с целью направления нереализованных психологически масс к выполнению задач, необходимых для сохранения и совершенствования текущей социо-политической, экономической и здравоохранительной систем. Информация содержалась в семени, да, но некие существа, сторонники и фанатики, селились в древесных стволах и у подножия, в корневой системе деревьев, а неисчислимые грызуны-бюрократы и менеджмент - собирали семена в подземных складах для дальнейшей транспортировки.
В то же время, никакой гарантии нет на то, что капитан Росс смог ясно сознать и разумно трактовать пережитый лично и "разжёванный" для него лично Ухарем 'insight'.
Can i recommend it? I can, but only after reading something randomly discovered on shelf for used books in a store at some of the less known locations of this town you've recently travelled to in search of appropriate quiet for writing a short story or two. Even then you probably never heard of Pu Songling, Strugatsky brothers or even Philip Farmer.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike si trova in esilio sulla Terra. Dopo una brutta faccenda in cui è stato coinvolto, il cercatore di pianeti è stato costretto a nascondersi, ma sente il richiamo dello spazio e delle stelle. L’impasse dura tuttavia poco: grazie all’intervento di Sara, annoiata cacciatrice di mostri alieni, Mike si trova coinvolto in una missione agli estremi della galassia assieme ad altri due particolari compagni – Frate Tuck, alla ricerca della verità, e George, un cieco deciso a seguire la misteriosa voce che gli risuona in testa e gli indica la via. Il pianeta su cui atterranno, di un biancore accecante, si rivela presto essere qualcosa di molto diverso da ciò che immaginavano…

Leggere un romanzo di fantascienza alla fine dell’estate è diventata per me una sorta di tradizione. In un modo o nell’altro, che sia cercato o meno, mi ritrovo con in mano con uno di questi libri – che il più delle volte finisco per adorare.

La bambola del destino è uno di questi. È un romanzo che mi è stato messo in mano e su cui non sapevo assolutamente niente, se non che era degli anni ’70 e che il suo autore ha vinto un Premio Nebula, e forse è anche a causa di questo se mi è piaciuto così tanto. Sì, la fantascienza è un genere che apprezzo, e sì, i classici sono il mio pane, solo che l’insieme delle premesse e il titolo non mi avevano incuriosita, tanto che ho deciso di leggerlo più per smaltire la pila della vergogna che per altro.

La storia si struttura attorno all’esplorazione di un pianeta sconosciuto. Iniziata più come un gioco, un modo per capire dove conducesse la voce con cui comunicava George, la missione si rivela fin da subito per ciò che è: una trappola da cui nessuno può fuggire. Nel corso del cammino, tuttavia, le vicende prendono una piega particolare, mostrando che il faticare fisico dei personaggi tra le ostilità del pianeta è anche metaforico, una ricerca di un qualcosa che non si può esprimere ma a cui tutti – meno Mike – puntano. Ho trovato molto interessante questa metafora, per quanto mi abbia ricordato in certi aspetti altri autori della stessa epoca – uno tra tutti Dick, che però ha dei risvolti più cupi e pessimisti di ciò che, invece, ho letto in Simak. A ciò si aggiunge una costruzione magistrale, con un ritmo perfetto e dove i misteri si affastellano uno dietro l’altro e si sciolgono in un finale del tutto inaspettato.

Grande merito della riuscita della storia va comunque a Mike, che è la perfetta voce narrante. Cinico, violento e incapace di ascoltare gli altri, nel corso della storia va incontro a un difficile percorso di cambiamento, fatto di momenti dolorosi e di una solitudine profonda. Alcune delle riflessioni da lui proposte mi hanno spezzato il cuore, come dopo che abbatte l’albero o a pochi capitoli dalla conclusione, così come il modo in cui si rapporta con alcuni dei personaggi. Uno è sicuramente l’alieno Hoot, col quale crea un rapporto che nella conclusione mi ha commossa, ma anche ciò che instaura con Sara non scherza – e non ricade solo nel becero colpo di fulmine tra le stelle. In generale, ho trovato tutti i personaggi ben gestiti e interessanti, figure su cui avrei voluto sapere sempre di più, e ciò vale anche per quelli a cui viene dato uno spazio minore come George e Frate Tuck, cosa che ha di certo contribuito a rendere ancora più complessa e stratificata l’opera.

Dal punto stilistico non posso negare di averlo trovato un po’ vecchio in alcuni passaggi, soprattutto nelle parti descrittive, ma allo stesso tempo penso che questa caratteristica sia anche un grandissimo punto di forza. Una scrittura più moderna non sarebbe riuscita a rendere lo stesso senso di claustrofobia, di terrore e solitudine che permea queste pagine e che le rende ancora più potenti, soprattutto nella conclusione. Oltretutto, nella seconda metà non sono più riuscita a staccarmi, tanto da finire il libro in una manciata di ore.

È stata una piacevole scoperta, che non posso che consigliare.

4.5/5 ⭐

[david james · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read and reviewed another Simak novel, Cemetery World, this time last year and remember giving that book 3 stars and saying that it was OK but I remember reading better books by him when I was younger. This wasn't one of them.

Apart from the rampant misogyny and total lack of depth of any of the characters (partly a symptom of the times, partly Simak's style it seems) the book was just not coherent enough, and for a stand alone short novel, just left too many things unexplained.

The main character, the narrator (the book is written in the first person) is such an angry steroid throwback that you find it hard to believe that any space agency would allow this moron into space, let alone meet alien intelligences. He shouts at everyone he disagrees with, doesn't listen to anyone else, and is so overtly aggressive and forceful it's a wonder he's lasted two minutes in space without being shot with a laser gun. Upon meeting an alien 'gnome' one of the first things he does after failing to understand him his to pick him up and throw him across the room. His reaction to an massive four mile high alien tree that is totally unknown to him and that is shooting seeds at him is to chop it down with a blast from his laser. His reaction to one of his colleagues not doing his job properly is to say 'And, so help me Christ, you do one more stupid thing and I'll get down and beat you to a pulp'. I could probably find another twenty similar quotes in the book. Pulp is exactly what this book is. It didn't need an editor, it needed some lighter fuel and a match.

There are other inconsistencies and needlessly unexplained events that added nothing to the book by being there. Why did the alien 'horses' look like rocking horses and why did they call themselves 'hobbies'? Where were they from? What happened to the 10th hobby? Were the vibrations causing the 'killing wave' in the city genuine or made up by the gnome? What is the purpose of the 'screen' allowing you to view and enter other worlds? Why was the hero such a douchebag? What's the deal with the red brick house and the space in the roof where birds apparently flew from one dimension to another? If the 'hero' is the first person narrator how is he telling this story to us when he disappears to another reality and never returns? Why did I think it would be a good idea reading this book? It's a relatively short book at 189 pages, but I've read much shorter books that managed to fit a complete story into it. This book spent too long on the 'hero' character being a dick and not enough time on explaining what was happening.

I'm not sure whether I should try another Simak novel after this offering but I do wish I hadn't found this book in an old pile of unwanted ex-library books.

[Big Enk · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

An enjoyable piece of pulp writing from the middle of Simak's writing years. It has a wonderfully bizarre setting and creatures that, combined with solid pacing, make it easy to read and continue reading.

A group of adventurers quest for a prize of unknown value and identity. Their only direction is from a blind telepath who has a connection to an unknown entity across the galaxy. The journey brings them to a planet that latches to their craft with a tractor beam and bring them to a towering, silent, glittering white city that is patrolled by creatures that resemble wooden horses. There are giant intelligence collecting trees, an octopus/centipede creature who has the powers of a demigod, roving bands of centaurs that play polo in the desert, and robotic rocking horses entities that serve as a mode of transportation. Not the weirdest book that I've read, but within the upper percentile for sure.

The first three quarters of Destiny Doll is mostly an adventure story. It hits a lot of the beats that you would expect but doesn't feel especially bland doing so. Towards the end, the story evolves into a more reflective work, as the main character is forced to question his choices and tie the pieces of the mystery together. Both sections were enjoyable for their own reasons, but neither stood out as excellent. The ending left me feeling unsatisfied. There's some pretty big reveals towards the end, regarding the treasure the group set out looking for and the planet itself, neither of which are explored to any degree. The novel finishes too abruptly.

The characters, unfortunately, are forgettable. The insufferable main character, Captain Ross, is especially grating, as he complains ceaselessly about his companions. I'm sure that there is some thematic reasoning for this, but I simply couldn't stand it after the first quarter of the book. It's hard to find a character interesting if they exclusively whine all the time. The rest of the characters are not memorable but are all unique compared to each other and serve their role well enough. The prose is passable but unremarkable. Certain passages, when Simak tries to write with style, either come out sounding like trite, feel awkward in their structure, or are

There's a lot of discussion in the book of about personal fulfillment, as each character in turn finds their own personal version of nirvana. What can we do to help each other find that place where we feel called too? What should we do if we don't agree with someone else's destiny? How can we find our own nirvana if we feel lost or alone? I'm glad that there is some form of theme, even if it's not it isn't the best explored.

Not the worst novel from Simak, but not the best either, though I would say that it slides somewhere towards the positive end of that spectrum.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

8+ I was very enthusiastic about 'Waystation' by Simak, and about a short story I read recently in an anthology. The short story featured characters shifted in time and thus living parallel to other people, which seemingly was a theme Simak was fascinated by. But what I enjoyed most about both works was the pastural nature. They were set in the United States 'of old', with farms along old, dusty roads, with isolated communities dealing with the intrusion of something new. The descriptions perfectly conveyed the elegiac atmosphere. This novel has no pastoral scenes and there's no farm in sight. Also the protagonist is not a sympathetic loner, just trying to live his life, but a hard, tough man with lots of prejudices and a temper. He is more of an anti-hero than a hero.
But, lacking the aspects that I have learned to enjoy most in Simaks worlk, there is still the imagination of this author that is not afraid to bring together SF and fantasy. Not only is there a quest narrative, but there are space ships coated with unbreakable crystals, robotic creatures shaped like rocking horses, a squid like alien, giant trees with complete ecologies inside, and centaurs playing polo with the braincase of a robot (and that is not all ...) And the more philosophical side of the author comes through as well, with the plot of this novel leading to an almost religious revelation of another reality - with the quest nature of the story what it is, I had to think of religious allegories like 'The Pilgrims Progress', that are also structured around a clearly delineated journey. Not that the metaphor is spelled out here. But the book, with all its ideosyncracies, suggests a deeper meaning underlying it all. Certainly there is a message here (if that is the world) that if one focuses on survival only, without looking out for ones fellow beings, one will not be able to see the reality that is beyond our own.
Up till twenty pages to the end I wondered if Simak would be able to bring all the disparate elements of the story together into a cohesive whole. And he tried to - most elements become clear - but the way in which he manages this is not the most elegant. It's all because of hints in an old document and the protagonist wondering about it and I would have prefered these solutions to be part of the story itself. I had the distinct idea that most elements of the denouement were an afterthought for the author (Oh, I also have to give an explanation for this!), while not needed for the main thread of what he was wanting to tell (a story about different realities layered one above the other).
But, I must say, it was entertaining, surprising, with characters that were distinctive and not cardboard cutouts and it managed to make me think. So, not a classic per se, but for those who read classic SF and are fans of e.g. 'Waystation', this is worth seeking out.

[Nadya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well here ends my adventures with Simak (cause I’ve run out of his books). This one was definitely one of my favorites, like Cemetery World. I really loved the world and the whole sci fi nature of it. Also the romance actually had some substance for once which I appreciated, as well as Sarah, the female lead that finally had some character. I really liked the philosophy mixed into this and just the general story that answered enough questions to make sense but still left room for thought. Overall a pretty good ending to my Simak adventures.