Way Station

Way Station is a 1963 science fiction novel by Clifford D. Simak, originally published as Here Gather the Stars in two parts in Galaxy Magazine in June and August of 1963.

Way Station won the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Plot summary

Enoch Wallace, an American Civil War veteran, is chosen by an alien called Ulysses to administer a way station for interplanetary travel. Wallace is the only human being who knows of the existence of these aliens, until almost a hundred years later, when the US government becomes aware of and suspicious about his failure to age or die. At the same time, a powerful artifact sacred to the aliens for whom Wallace works is stolen, and Wallace becomes convinced that the Earth is about to be consumed by a nuclear war.