An alternate history fantasy in which Rome remains a successful empire but the dominant religion is Christianity? Okey doke.

From 3, to 2, to 1, this progressively slipped lower than my expectations. While Simak hints at some interesting, deeper themes initially, he declines to venture further and instead keeps his gang of misfits strolling through "The Empty Land" aimlessly, seeking something we have no reason to believe is significant, pursued by "The Evil". You could probably use this as a case study of how not to write a story, as the entire thing is so clumsily put together. While it makes use of cliches, this is more in terms of the generic world-building, monsters and basic quest kick-off; but in terms of how things play out, a carbon copy of a classic fantasy work would have been much better. Towards the end, things just happen with no real rhyme or reason, events contradict former events, characters contradict themselves. This is worse than a first draft. I knew Simak was meant to be uncomfortable within the fantasy genre, but I didn't think it would be this bad. If anything I would have thought he'd fare well, being a soft science fiction writer who is well-regarded for his pastoral prose. Scene-setting and mysterious, Lovecraftian writing are often where he shines, and there is only one sequence here that really comes close to that. As a Simak fan I did find it readable and enjoyed the odd turn of phrase but this is easily one of his worst books. Wrapping stories up has never been one of his strengths, but here the effort is stupendously bad. I thought there might be some kind of twist that would bring things into the realm of science fantasy, as I'd read somewhere that all of Simak's "fantasy" had some hint back towards his sci-fi roots, but if it was there it went flying over my head. The magic seems to be pretty explicitly magic to me.

In my opinion, Destiny Doll is a much better example of Simak trying his hand at fantasy. Though it is largely science fiction, it parallels a lot of what's in this book, only it is executed much better. A quest narrative, a strange world, mythological creatures, religious and philosophical commentary and a band of misfits. ( )

Fantasy is clearly not Simak's best genre, but this is an interesting diversion. A bit of alternate history, a bit of sword and sorcery, and a quest that might not be a good idea. I like the little twists -- people aren't quite what they seem, the evil is more out of place than really evil, and the goals, when attained, have a different worth than expected. ( )

Interesting read from one of the Old Masters. ( )

Interesting read from one of the Old Masters. ( )

A quest-fantasy story where a group of people in Medieval Europe go into a mystical land where magical creatures and danger abound. It is a very typical fantasy story that is not well written. The dialogue is poor and the plot and characters are not interesting. The plot is straight-forward. Evil is just evil. And the religious aspects are more annoying then plot moving or thought provoking. ( )