Highway of Eternity
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Two present-day investigators race across time to escape malevolent aliens from the future and their terrible “gift” of immortality in this novel by a Nebula Award–winning author. What is the price of eternal life? Secret agent Jay Corcoran is about to learn the answer when his investigation into an inexplicable disappearance carries him and journalist friend Tom Boone hundreds of years into the past. Corcoran and Boone’s powerful extrasensory abilities lead them to an advanced transportation system through time, and back to the bucolic eighteenth-century English countryside. There, they discover a family from the distant future hiding from the Immortals—an alien race that, many centuries on, is seducing human subjects with the promise of eternal life. But at the cost of the corporeal self, there is no place in the aliens’ future for anyone unwilling to exist as mind alone. Now that the Evans family’s sanctuary has been breached, escape is the only answer—for Boone and Corcoran as well—and the only way out is forward . . . far forward. But racing through space and time can be a hazardous occupation, especially with monstrous beasts, killer robots, and Immortal body-destroyers waiting at every juncture. The last novel from acclaimed science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and numerous other awards, Highway of Eternity combines breathtaking action with provocative ideas and unparalleled ingenuity, the hallmarks of Simak’s exceptional art. It is a fitting finale for the man who stands alongside Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke as one of the true giants of speculative fiction’s Golden Age.
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I ran across Clifford Simak years ago, and thought of him as the decent, but not compelling author of books such as [b:Project Pope 352124 Project Pope Clifford D. Simak https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1275447958s/352124.jpg 342352]. Then, this year, I read his excellent [b:All Flesh is Grass 876268 All Flesh is Grass Clifford D. Simak https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1233845467s/876268.jpg 2490608], and immediately went looking for more Simak to read.Unfortunately, this book is a bit uneven. Some is excellent, but then there's this book. It's not bad. Despite an array of oddities and adventures, it still has Simak's usual understated feel, and it has plenty of ideas. What it doesn't have is the feel of a complete novel.There are two problems. The first is that the pieces simply don't add up, nor do they leave a satisfying, intriguing enigma. Simak presents a number of disconnected items, and largely leaves them that way. There are suggestions that he at some point intended more, but he doesn't follow through, even by way of hints and innuendo. There aren't so much loose ends, as a puzzle with a lot of the pieces missing, including the edges. The second problem is that the story tends toward the philosophical, but doesn't commit. There are moments of introspection or discussion that verge on depth, but never quite reach it. Simak usually draws on ‘average person' characters. Here, he introduces a cast that we're told is largely above average, but there's really not much evidence of it, including in their grander speculations. The book would have worked better as straightforward adventure or as more profound philosophy, but is trapped in a grey and bland middle region that doesn't hold the reader's attention.All in all, readable, but in no way special. There's far better Simak out there.
