The Goblin Reservation

I bought this book back in 1977, having already read it previously. But somehow I came to remember it later as a dud, so I haven't reread it for decades. Coming back to it eventually, I find it's not really a dud, it's quite readable and amiable, but it seems an oddly aimless story; the kind of story you might tell when you've been drinking multiple doses of strong liquor distilled by a Neanderthal, in company with a ghost and a friendly sabre-toothed tiger. In those circumstances, it would surely seem like a great story that needs to be told.Maybe Simak wrote it all down and sent it for publication before he sobered up.The typical Simak hero is lonely, alienated, more or less outcast from humanity. The hero of this story, Peter Maxwell, falls into this category in some ways, but only through temporary circumstance. For most of his life, he seems to have been friendly, sociable, and very much accepted by his fellows; and he still has friends, even in his temporary difficulties. This is a relatively mellow Simak story.It reminds me of Zelazny's [b:Doorways in the Sand 61998 Doorways in the Sand Roger Zelazny https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327915592l/61998.SY75.jpg 759315]: both books are pleasantly zany and involve a university, and aliens in quest of a mysterious artifact. I think Zelazny's book is better, but I wonder whether it might have been partly inspired by Simak's (published 8 years earlier).