Way Station

By: Clifford D. Simak

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

Length: 7 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth's only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy.

BONUS AUDIO: Way Station includes an exclusive introduction by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Mike Resnick.

©1963 Clifford D. Simak (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1964
• All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels (Locus Magazine)

Not that great for a science fiction "classic".

Not that great for a science fiction "classic". Worth the read if you are a sci-fi fan, but I was expecting more from this Hugo award winner.

Lord of the Rings Abstract

It feels like an inaccurate abstraction of Tolkien’s work. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Mr. Simak appeared to have progressive leanings. I thoroughly enjoyed his work a few years ago before progressivism superimposed itself into the zeitgeist and I started scrutinizing EVERTHING.

Simply a Classic

I completely enjoyed this little book. This is not a very deep book, but it is a well written little story. I had not read this before and was pleasantly surprised. It is somewhat of an expanded short story but a short novel is nice now and then.

Slow story, clunky dialog

This story felt much longer than the stated runtime.
The prose could have used a good editor. The dialog is very stilted, and the narrator brings out all the flaws. This book was not written to be read aloud. By the second hour, I was tired of hearing the word "for." As in, "Enoch was sad, for he could no longer see humanity." A variation of that sentence using the word "for" appears hundreds of times in the book.
The author would often cluster the same word three or four times in several adjacent sentences. I kept wanting to scream "use a thesaurus!"
So much of the dialog was stilted and clunky it reminded me if reading the dialog in the old testament Bible.
The plodding plot and dry characters weren't enough to rescue it for me. The only reason I finished was the story wasn't too long.

Quaint Palate-Cleanser

I loved the charming tone of this story, imparted by the 19th century protagonist, a quiet man entrusted with the upkeep of a Galactic way station. The language used is calm, and refreshingly free of techno-babble, preferring to remain vague on the workings of alien tech. The narration provided by Eric Michael Summerer, is likewise sedate and not given to emotional outburst. The character voices are differentiated nicely with occasional minor accents, but nothing too jarring.

With the exception of perhaps only 2 or 3 scenes, the entire action of the novel takes place in one room of one house, where we learn the secrets kept by the way station keeper, our protagonist Enoch Wallace. The plot's conflict is high-stakes, but resolved rather too quickly and tidily for me. In fact, that leads to my greatest criticism of the story: that the situations, characters, and their motivations are all too altruistic and uncomplicated. Overall, however, I enjoyed this quaint 'palate-cleanser' read, and think it provides just the right amount of wish-fulfillment and wonder.

Sparks immagination

OK it is a dated story.It was written some time ago.
The ideas interest me.

Perhaps this is a story better read. The narrator seemed to detract from the story. I will listen again and if I can find a copy in my local library, read this one.
The idea of a 'way station' is interesting to say the very least. The ideas of the story represent themselves at different times to me while I am doing something elce..This story sparks my own creativity. Within the story is a caution about responsibility for our own creations...Interesting.


The mode and style of intergalactic travel presented, the problems of longevity, the gift of the 'less fortunate', the responsibility of creation and the nature of friendship are all here.
Just as interesting is the the time this was written. The 1950's saw mass media reporting on, and, ordinary people photographing UFO in our skies.
I understand why it won awards. This is maybe better read in a book. Yet I possibly would not have selected it from my local council Library. If Science Fiction interests you, yes get the audio. If you are looking for pure escapism, well maybe your credit is better used on another audio book. The 3 stars is more this an audio book.
It is a gem.

if you're 16.. ?

nice idea for a scifi story. gets a bid stereotype and flat after the first few chapters. the end is very predictable.. narration was a bit 'childlike' all in all still ok.

Sci-fi ideas that resonate even 50 years later

Any additional comments?

Science fiction comes in many guises. Way Station is a less common variety, for the entire novel takes place on Earth, very few aliens are involved and there are no big space battles. However, what it lacks in those areas, it makes up for in ideas. The main character is the only human alive who knows that a panoply of inhabited planets exists, trading with each other and co-inhabiting the galaxy in (relative) peace. As the caretaker of a hidden portal that just happens to be located on Earth, he has lots of time between alien arrivals and departures to ruminate on the state of Planet Earth. Brought up on a farm, he is in tune with nature and takes walks every day during which he marvels again and again at the beauty and wonder of the living things around him. But he also has occasion to wonder at the violence of human beings, both as individuals and as nations. When mutual nuclear annihilation of humanity grows from a threat to a virtual certainty, our hero asks his alien overseers for advice and the option they offer is a chillingly final solution.

The parts of the book that describe the natural world are lyrically written, some of the most beautiful passages I have ever read describing our planet. The science fiction parts are not as detailed, for instance, there is practically no attempt to explain how the transportation device works…it might as well be magic, as far as the protagonist knows. And we see very little of the alien life that seems to be teeming all around our corner of the galaxy. The ending is a bit obvious, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a very good example of idea-based scifi.

As I read this novel, originally published in 1963, I couldn’t help thinking about the social and political realities that were whipping up the globe at the time—the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War are obviously weighing heavily on Simak’s mind. But the book also was an influencer. I couldn’t shake the idea that it must have influenced Gene Roddenberry as he was developing his ideas for Star Trek, primarily the Federation of Planets and transporters. There’s also a great description of something that any Trekkie would immediately identify as a holodeck, and which anticipates today’s first-person shooter video and online games. All of which makes this a good read, even 50 years after it first saw print. [I listened to this as an audio book narrated by Eric Michael Summerer]

Really enjoyed it!

I went into this book expecting to be disappointed but was completely intrigued by the concept. I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Slow but magical

This is an example of classic science fiction. It might also be called a work of "spiritual fiction".