A HERITAGE OF STARS

Again, an odyssey through the heartland of a post-technological America, not quite as pallid and mechanical as Simak's Enchanted Pilgrimage (1975)--not quite. And again, Simak assembles a would-be-picturesque motley crew: young student searching for a long-ago Place of Going to The Stars, kindly old witch, bear-hunting robot, etc. Simak has fallen into an appallingly flaccid style unredeemed by any particular expenditure of energy on his people or situations. About the only thing that ever threatens to come alive in this apathetic plod from Minneapolis to Thunder Butte is an occasional description of the South Dakota prairie and uplands. A far cry from what this author is capable of.