The book depicts a life of Enoch Wallace, the U.S. Civil War vet, who’s been chosen as a keeper of galactic way station deployed in his farmhouse in a secluded rural part of Wisconsin. As the story unrolls, we realize that the main character is 124 years old, except he looks like the guy in his thirties. The secret of that youthfulness lies in the house, a.k.a station—so long as he’s inside, he never ages, not for a second.

A century back, an unknown being approached Enoch and told him that the Earth was about to become a stopping place for many travelers from distant stars who journeyed to this corner of the galaxy. From that time forward, Wallace has been in charge of meeting spacefarers and sending them further to their final destination by the means of a wondrous device, the materializer, as he labels it. The whole process is somewhat reminiscent of cloning. The body of a transported creature is put to death and dissolved in a special solution. Meanwhile, the vital force of that living thing—its memory and personality—in a snap of the fingers, reaches a receiving machine, where an exact copy of it materializes.

During all those years, he met all kinds of alien races and received lots of gifts. He’d been diligent in his job and journaled his experience each day until he discovered that the world was moving towards a disaster. Another war loomed ahead, the one that would put an end to humankind and throw those survived back into the Stone Age.

Simak raises an important question of human barbarism, the constant striving for more effective and gruesome means to destroy life. Through the eyes of the main character, he ruminates over lost opportunities and unlimited potential humankind would possess had it combined all its knowledge and experience.

A passage from the book that touched a chord with me:

“We realized that among us, among all the races, we had a staggering fund of knowledge and of techniques - that working together, by putting together all this knowledge and capability, we could arrive at something that would be far greater and more significant than any race, alone, could hope of accomplishing.”―Clifford D. Simak, Way Station

Way Station is the second Simak's book I've read. It was a fascinating read that left a deep impression and got me thinking. I spent the next few days musing over the story—a strong indicator of quality.

Conclusion: Tons of philosophical stuff, a marvelous yarn, and not overly techy sci-fi which is usual with Simak's stories. Five out of five. Highly recommend this piece of literature for everyone who loves old-school sci-fi.

As a final note, here is some wisdom from the tale:

“Here lies one from a distant star, but the soil is not alien to him, for in death he belongs to the universe.”―Clifford D. Simak, Way Station