First published 1980
Enoch Wallace walks his neglected farm carrying the same rifle he bore in the Civil War. His neighbors see an old hermit who never seems to age. They cannot know that inside his house, beings from distant worlds materialize in special tanks. An alien called Ulysses recruited Enoch more than a hundred years ago to operate Earth's sole galactic way station. Enoch monitors the comings and goings of his extraterrestrial visitors while charting Earth's progress. His data reveals a terrible truth: humanity faces extinction. The alien civilization offers assistance, but their proposed solution may prove worse than the catastrophe itself. When Enoch uncovers a galactic horror beyond Earth's borders, he must choose between his loyalty to his alien patrons and his love for his doomed planet.
Genres: science-fiction, classic-literature, speculative-fiction, adult-fiction
Vibes: contemplative, melancholic, philosophical, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, humanity-at-stake, impossible-choice, lone-guardian
Setting: Earth, Enoch's Farm
Period: 20th-century, American Civil War era
210 pages · Paperback · Collier Books
Content warnings: death