futurista

A blind man navigates an interplanetary journey for himself, a priest, a huntress, and a mercenary pilot based on the directions from the imaginary friend in his head. The pilot thinks the blind man is quite mad until a beacon leads guides them onto the planet the blind man has been searching for. The city they land in seems strangely empty. The buildings are all extremely tall and coated in a hard white substance. The trees of the city are even taller. They're soon greeted by robotic hobby horses that lure them away from their space ship just in time for an insect to cover their spaceship with the impenetrable white substance that seems to be on everything in the city.

As with most Simak novels, this one is filled with pastoral scenes and robots which co-exist beside humans. The story also features a dial-a-newly-formed-planet machine, a mile-high tree that throws deadly fruit, an alien with 3 selves, centaurs, a rhyming robot, weeping snails, a sad doll, and a paradise that isn't.

I can never resist a Simak book. This book was quite worn and was broken into at least 6 parts when I got it, but it still read the same. It was a thoroughly enjoyable novel.