This is one of his quest-type stories; with a typical hodgepodge of characters. We start with Fletcher Carson who is traveling back to Earth to create a piece of art.  Earth is all but abandoned due to devastating nuclear war several thousands of years before.  Mankind is everywhere among the stars but for those with enough money and sentimentality, their dead are sent back to Earth for burial. And there is, of course, a large corporation quite happy to take their money and provide a beautifully manicured cemetery that looks really, really lovely in pictures.  The corporation manages travel so that family can never quite afford the passage to accompany the body or be able to travel at the same time as the body.  It keeps things tidy that way. And no one has a complaint. And no one ever suspects that Cemetery has a hidden agenda.

Fletcher, accompanied by a robot that will record everything so that he’ll be able to make a compositor; a type of art that incorporates the entire experience.  He also has with him what is probably the last native of Earth, an eight-foot-tall engineering robot (because what Simak story doesn’t have a robot), Elmer, that was fabricated on Earth at the end of the wars.  Upon Fletcher’s arrival, he meets the current director of Mother Earth, the corporation that manages the planet-wide Cemetery.  The director is very heavy-handed and tries to force Fletcher into accepting their “help” which is code for “we want to control what you do.” Fletcher manages to avoid the pressure and upon leaving the meeting, he is met by a young woman who has also managed to avoid Cemetery’s offer to help. The young woman, Cynthia, is on a hunt for a particular treasure and brings with her a recommendation to Fletcher from a respected colleague.  With brutish force coming their way from the irate Director; they all flee. 

Cynthia is following an old family legend of an encounter between her ancestor on Earth and a creature dubbed the Anachron. Family legend implies that this Anachron was, in some way, a self-appointed custodian of ancient and precious relics from all over the Earth; possibly all through time, as well.  The location she is looking for is near the Ohio River and she hoped that Fletcher would be amenable to accompanying her.  He doesn’t exactly believe there is anything to the legend but circumstances have thrown them together so he doesn’t say no; after all, he just planned to tramp all over Earth and it doesn’t matter where he goes.

Fortunately, Cynthia foresaw the need for camping gear so they are not completely unprepared to live rough.  Fletcher is aching to see the ‘real’ Earth, that which is not manicured and full of bodies. But he is woefully unprepared for such sights as an autumnal hillside full of trees…or mechanical wolves stalking them. 

The little band gets split up after spending the evening with some simple village folk. Obviously there were some survivors of the wars, not everyone could afford paid passage off-planet.  But without an infrastructure, civilization had reverted to a simpler system.  Someone throws a bomb onto Fletcher’s compositor robot, Bronco, someone who traded for some fine whiskey from Cemetery.  It’s only a bit damaged but the group can’t easily carry it very far; so Elmer decides to return to the village to get tools and instructs the three left to leave the village and get as far away from Cemetery as possible.  One more detail about their sojourn in the village; it was the first time they met the Census-Taker and its attendant ghosts.  Because, after all, this is a Simak story and along with the token robot, we must have a ghost or two and a strange, mysterious character.

During the village episode, the little group was surprised by a monstrous creature running through the woods and tearing them the hell up.  Elmer was almost certain it was an old war machine, just like the ones he used to repair.  How one could still be functioning was beyond their imagination; it had been thousands of years.  Elmer also confided that the machines were run by human brains, several in each machine; one would wonder how sane the machine could still be.  So, of course, it was no real surprise to learn the Cemetery had something to do with it.

After repairing Bronco, the group is distressed to smell woodsmoke, an indicator that they are not alone in the woods.  Understandably, they are shy about encountering more humans; the one’s they’ve met have been less than friendly.  And they are not wrong; these were sent after them by Cemetery.  After Elmer scares them off, they discover the band of rough men have a number of trunks left behind.  Out of curiosity, they open a few.  In most they discover plates of refined metal; obviously the men were grave robbers and stealing metal from coffins – no infrastructure to mine metals.  But one of the trunks gives them quite a pause; it is full of fragile and precious artifacts – which Cynthia takes as possible proof of her legend.  These men must’ve found the cache somewhere.

But after such a long day and so much violence and running around, the humans are completely played-out.  Elmer and Bronco decide to spend the sleeping time by scouting ahead for better quarters and stowing the artifacts.  But while they are gone, Fletcher and Cynthia, sleeping in a cave, are visited by the mysterious Census-Taker.  It addresses them in a friendly fashion and explains what the ghosts are; but not so much about what or who it is. But after defending them from the mechanical wolves sent by Cemetery, it convinces them to leave the cave; leaving behind a note for Elmer. Later the Census-Taker confides that it knows two of the three wolves met with some unfortunate accident.  It was not exactly comforting to know that one wolf still remained; sufficient for dealing with the two fragile humans.  So, it was with some astonishment, they were met in the morning by the remaining wolf…who wanted to play fetch and get pets.
And then the story got really weird.  I think I want to leave a little mystery; there’s a weird interlude caused by the ghosts and time travel that was just bonkers.  But necessary to get to the end.  And it wasn’t going to be easy – finding an ending that didn’t allow Cemetery to continue fleecing people or hunting them. 

I can’t quite say what it is about Simak’s writing that appeals so much to me.  The characters and dialogue are simple; even stilted or formal.  But that difference gives his book a unique flavor.  There is no real depth to his characters; most are only known to the reader by their dialogue.  There is little internalizing.  And world-building, though Simak does use it in some of this stories, wasn’t much used.  Simak was very, very fond of pastoral scenes so many of his stories are set in what looks like the Midwest.  This book had one significant element that I cannot recall ever being used in any of his other books: a tiny bit of romance.  He generally has at least one female who is usually strong-willed and capable; interesting for the times.  But romance was not in his wheelhouse.  I’m only about halfway through reviewing all his books so maybe I’ll find romance again. ~~ Catherine Book

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