Clifford D. Simak
"You mean," asked Carol, "that there might really be a Devil?"
"Two centuries ago," said Maxwell, "people asked, in exactly the same tone of voice as you are using now, if there actually were such things as trolls and goblins."
"And ghosts," said Ghost.
from The Goblin Reservation
Clifford Simak is most often described as the "pastoralist" of science fiction, and it's an interesting label. I'm not quite sure what it means, but I read Simak for a particular feeling. I mean, great stories, fascinating ideas, and always a light, humorous touch — Simak was a newspaperman (the dated word for a journalist suits him; he died in 1988), and his stories are always very readable. But above all, there's a ... call it a mood ... a gentle, timeless, autumnal sort of mood / style, that is ... I think the word is soothing.
Way Station is maybe my favorite, and a lot of people's favorite. I'm not sure why. But there's something very attractive about the idea: a man comes back from the American Civil War and is recruited by an alien to run a galactic transfer station — a stop on the way for aliens traveling across the galaxy. For over a hundred years he maintains the station, meeting many alien species, for he doesn't age while he is inside his house, that has been converted into the way station.
The Clifford Simak Fan Site is at: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~brams007/simak/default.htm
Some quotes and links to excerpts can be found at: http://www.natur.cuni.cz/~vpetr/Simak1.htm
