Clifford D. Simak does definitely deserve his Grandmaster Award, for his CITY, if nothing else...
And I was fascinated by SPECIAL DELIVERANCE, and wanted to figure out why all these disparate people had been kidnapped. I suspected the reason about a third of the way through, but still wasn't positive until the last few pages. All wrapped up neatly.
That said, however, this book does move a bit more slowly than I prefer, so I'll only give it 3 stars.
From back cover:
It all started when Professor Edward Lansing wanted to know who really wrote that great term paper on Shakespeare and learned that his student had bought it from a slot machine. Going to investigate, the good professor found the machine, which gave him two keys and sent him in search of other slot machines. The third machine he tried took his money and transported him to a strange new world.
Here Lansing meets up with an odd assortment of fellow travelers--including a take-charge Brigadier, a pompous Parson, a female engineer, a lady poet, and Jurgens, a caretaker robot--all of whom are as mystified as he. Plucked from their own timelines, they were players in a game without rules and, seemingly, without a goal.
Thus begins an extraordinary quest by these unwilling adventurers, one that leads them to an immense, featureless blue cube and into an ancient and mysterious city, tempts them with even stranger worlds, and, finally, provides them with a life-or-death challenge...
And I was fascinated by SPECIAL DELIVERANCE, and wanted to figure out why all these disparate people had been kidnapped. I suspected the reason about a third of the way through, but still wasn't positive until the last few pages. All wrapped up neatly.
That said, however, this book does move a bit more slowly than I prefer, so I'll only give it 3 stars.
From back cover:
It all started when Professor Edward Lansing wanted to know who really wrote that great term paper on Shakespeare and learned that his student had bought it from a slot machine. Going to investigate, the good professor found the machine, which gave him two keys and sent him in search of other slot machines. The third machine he tried took his money and transported him to a strange new world.
Here Lansing meets up with an odd assortment of fellow travelers--including a take-charge Brigadier, a pompous Parson, a female engineer, a lady poet, and Jurgens, a caretaker robot--all of whom are as mystified as he. Plucked from their own timelines, they were players in a game without rules and, seemingly, without a goal.
Thus begins an extraordinary quest by these unwilling adventurers, one that leads them to an immense, featureless blue cube and into an ancient and mysterious city, tempts them with even stranger worlds, and, finally, provides them with a life-or-death challenge...
Classic Simak
From the back cover: It all started when Professor Edward Lansing wanted to know who really wrote that great term paper on Shakespeare and learned that his student had bought it from a slot machine. Going to investigate, the good professor found the machine, which gave him two keys and sent him in search of other slot machines. The third machine he tried took his money and transported him to a strange new world.
Here Lansing meets up with an odd assortment of fellow travelers - including a take-charge Brigadier, a pompous Parson, a female engineer, a lady poet and Jurgens, a caretaker robot - all of whom are as mystified as he. Plucked from their own timelines, they were players in a game whithout rules and, seemingly, without a goal.
Thus begins an extraordinary quest by these unwilling adventurers, one that leads them to an immense, featureless blue cube and into an ancient and mysterious city, tempts them with even stranger worlds, and, finally, provides them with a life-or-death challenge...
Here Lansing meets up with an odd assortment of fellow travelers - including a take-charge Brigadier, a pompous Parson, a female engineer, a lady poet and Jurgens, a caretaker robot - all of whom are as mystified as he. Plucked from their own timelines, they were players in a game whithout rules and, seemingly, without a goal.
Thus begins an extraordinary quest by these unwilling adventurers, one that leads them to an immense, featureless blue cube and into an ancient and mysterious city, tempts them with even stranger worlds, and, finally, provides them with a life-or-death challenge...
Clifford Simak quickly gets you off to an unknown world transported for unknown reasons and swept togther within a motley group of time travelers. Its a great trip through interpersonal relationships on an Other World. As always, Simak brings you out of it all with a great ending.
Intriguing book about various people who are transported to a mysterious land.
A good read. A bit of a picaresque novel as an assortment of characters are transported (without being asked first) to Somewhere Else and have to chase down information and figure out what's going on. Gorgeous (and spot on) cover painting. I like Simak for his essential decency; there's always at least one normal human being in his stories and even the robots have their heads screwed on straight.
