A group of mismatched adventurers band together to traverse a wasteland in search of a fabled university. This book is trying to be a grand quest but it missed the mark somewhat. There is some creative settings in this but not much by way of plot or dialog.
re-read 2/24/2023 ( )

Pseudo-alternate Earth story, with magic and elves/gnomes/trolls/hell-hounds/etc. and buddy-trip to complete a task/gain some knowledge. Short, but charming and comfortable. ( )

This fantasy novel (or maybe science-fantasy novel, depending on your definition) from 1975 starts out with a scholar who finds some long-lost secret writing. Based on what he reads in it, he sets out on a trek into a magical wasteland that people don't usually come back from, in search of... something. Honestly, his motivations are kind of vague. On the way, however, he's joined by a motley gang of companions with various other (mostly also not very convincing) reasons for coming along.

Clifford Simak wrote some fun and interesting stuff, including one or two works that might be legitimately considered as minor SF classics. This... was not one of them. It's not actively offputting, exactly (with the exception of some stilted dialog and one weirdly disturbing scene involving the fate of a bad guy). But it is incredibly slight, and features a series of utterly disjointed adventures that never feel like they add up to anything. Actually, it occurred to me about three quarters of the way through that what it really feels like is an account of someone's homebrew D&D adventure, one run by a DM who's put a lot of effort into creating a setting with plenty of weird stuff to encounter, but who's interested in plot only as far as it gives the characters some vague reason to go wandering around. And while those can sometimes be fun to play, they're generally not nearly as interesting to read about. ( )

Arnoldo Mondadori -Urania

This slow starting p-ilgrimage through the wastelands came out in 1975 and Stephen King's desert books came out just after that. We know these two read each other, and if they borrow from each other it matters not, as the two minds and styles are wholly different. Stay with this book the first 20 pages and you weill be hooked. Ifr you give it only five to ten pages, you may miss a good read. ( )