A review by sbenzell
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
3.0
The first book I've knocked off the remaining top 100 scifi book list I've been working through in a while.
A refreshing, palette cleansing book, packed with positive and uplifting ideas about a future liberal galactic community and the Earth's potential place in it. It's sort of a first-contact story, and sort of a "Culture" novel -- in fact I've heard it referred to it as an unofficial work in that series given its vision of a basically happy and cooperative liberal galactic community in the early stage of its civilizational life cycle.
The actual plot is a bit predictable, and the syntax a bit simple, but the big ideas are great and uncynical.
I wonder if the fact that I find the "three body problem's" vision of a Hobbesean international community more compelling is just showing how cynical I have become...
A refreshing, palette cleansing book, packed with positive and uplifting ideas about a future liberal galactic community and the Earth's potential place in it. It's sort of a first-contact story, and sort of a "Culture" novel -- in fact I've heard it referred to it as an unofficial work in that series given its vision of a basically happy and cooperative liberal galactic community in the early stage of its civilizational life cycle.
The actual plot is a bit predictable, and the syntax a bit simple, but the big ideas are great and uncynical.
I wonder if the fact that I find the "three body problem's" vision of a Hobbesean international community more compelling is just showing how cynical I have become...