Highway of Eternity

1.75


"The cable reached Boone in Singapore: NEED A MAN WHO CAN STEP AROUND A CORNER. CORCORAN."


So begins Highway of Eternity, in some editions mis-published as Highway to Eternity (an amusing flaw, considering that in the book a character is corrected on the difference between the two). A man who can see round a corner into another dimension needs another man who can step around a corner into another dimension. A curious start, and to give any further synopsis would be pointless.

Genuinely. It's just too bonkers to relate concisely. Suffice to say though: there is time travel, interdimensional travel, a ghost, aliens, monsters, telepathic spider-bots, sentient trees, pastoral rambling, spiky blobs, liquid schematics, rabbit-sheep on show more picnics, talking hats, and so much more... but if you've read much Simak before, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

This is a classic case of Simak's best and worse traits competing with one another, which sadly weighs too much towards the latter. Dialogue is not his strong point, but he often gets away with it being slightly stilted due to his beautiful prose and marvelous ideas. Here the characterisation is at peak cardboard-cutout, the dialogue is hilariously bad, and the plot is bonkers without a clear sense of irony. That being said, some of it is very readable in a space-opera kind of fashion. During the early portions, it's easy to sink into his bursts of pastoral description and forgive the dire clunkiness that just pours out of character's mouths. But as it goes on it just gets too complicated, too silly, with too many characters trying to dish out too much information that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Sporadically fun, drenched in whimsy, regularly clunky, sometimes pretty, sometimes tedious. A strange, semi-readable mess that is hard to dismiss in its entirety in spite of being unsuccessful on the whole. show less

This science fiction novel from 1986 features a couple of 20th-century guys with some odd, unexplained abilities who stumble into some other people who come from a million years in the future (although they don't much act like it) and have fled back in time to escape from a world in which aliens have talked most of humanity into becoming incorporeal entities. Then they're all attacked by some kind of monster and end up fleeing to various different times and places.

Simak has written some good stories. This novel, unfortunately, is not among them. There are some scenes or ideas, I guess, that are mildly interesting, but mostly it all just feels like a bunch of random thrown-together stuff that never adds up to very much, despite the show more attempts of an exposition-laden twist ending to tie everything together and explain it all. On top of which, it's got some of the clunkiest, most painfully stilted "as you know, Bob" dialog I've encountered in recent memory. Oh, and a bad take on the concept of evolution, too. A very common bad take, it must be said, but one I find I've lost my patience for. show less

I really don't know what to think about this one. I've become a fan of his works, but this last one, written two years before his death, neither feels like he's losing his spirit or a swan song.

Instead, it feels like a rather awesome adventure through time in the far past and the far future, relying on an average joe who's doomed to see the incorporeal spirits of what may well be fourth dimensional beings who are ourselves after being seduced by aliens in the far future after losing our drive in a perfectly conquered material universe.

It sounds pretty awesome, right? And it is, to a point, but the philosophical questions about who we are and why we gave up and then the single family who said no to the aliens comes back to ask another show more question... are we worthy to change our fate, or should we pass it on to our brothers?

Being in the deep past, and after interesting adventures with killer robots and translators with the wolves, the question then slides to our brothers... Will the wolves inherit the legacy we eschewed?

It's interesting and it's gratifying to dog lovers and it harkens beautifully to [b:City|222093|City|Clifford D. Simak|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1386912951s/222093.jpg|2774993], a novel about humans who've died, leaving robots and telepathic canines to ask what it was all for.

In this respect, it is a companion to that classic novel, but perhaps not fully satisfying on its own except if you don't mind open questions at the end. And maybe that's kind of the point. If the greatest members of humanity can't answer it, then can anyone?

I'm on the fence with this one. I think it is great and also not so great. It certainly left me very thoughtful. show less

I am a big Simak fan. This book was interesting but certainly not my favorite. Oddly this one has stuck with me long after reading it. I'm not sure if it's because I liked it or because it disturbed me. A little to long for the story but as always Simak has a big imagination. It is better then 3 stars yet it bothers me to give it 4 stars.

If you liked “A Voyage to Arcturus” (David Lindsay), the “Out of the Silent Planet” series (C. S. Lewis), and “The Dungeon” series (P. J. Farmer) then you’ll probably like this book. You’ll have to engage your ‘suspension of disbelief’ function right at the start, and continue to do so while Simak starts the story—but it gets heavier as the something-shy-of-a-dozen characters are presented and then isolated in separate chapters whose stories almost come together at the end—to almost explain everything (anything?). While I’m too old for this kind of story now, I believe that it would have been one of my favorites if it had been published (and read) in 1966, instead of 1986.

Simak is the foremost writer of fantasy fiction that isn't bsased on tghe "normal" fantasies such as werewolves, vampires, zombies et al. He goes places only an imaginative intellect (such as myself, dare I say it?) could follow. Here we met a family of humans frp, one million down the road from our present. The lack of five stars above comes from the fact they seemingly have not changed a bit in one million years. They are in hiding from the Infinities, a race of spiritual beings who want to make humans incorporeal as they are.. They have to leave their English estate of the 18th century quickly, and they travel in their time machines up and down the timeline, winding up at a town existing on the Highway of Eternity. Along the way they show more meet and befriend Horseface, a rather uigly-looking bi-ped who commands a net of the galaxy that maps where they want to go; the Hat, a spirit that comes and goes inside of a suit of clothes that is closed to outside air, and when The Hat leaves the suit behind,. Wolf, the now tame earth being, plays with it as a dog does with a rubber ball. The book is filled with imaginative beings and p0lot twists and it would be impossible to say much more without giving some key things away. It is a must read if you want something out of logic and out of this world. show less

Best for those who are already fans of Simak.  There is Time Travel, but it's not of interest of itself but rather just another sort of transportation.  People (and robots, and aliens) also have different forms of inter-planetary travel, but, again, not a significantly interesting method of transportation.  The characters are somewhat stock and include some of Simak's favorite, including the robots (and, here, another type of machine) that have feelings.