The Goblin Reservation

Clifford D. Simak

A few hundred years in the future humans have expanded out into the universe and rediscovered their own roots on Earth. Goblins, trolls, banshees, and the little people have once again been found and protected. Professor Peter Maxwell has studied them in his supernatural studies.

Maxwell was on his way to another planet where dragons have been reported. He never made it. Instead he was kidnapped by aliens on a crystal planet. He was offered the total knowledge of two universes for the right price. He now hurries back to the university to convince the head not to pass up this opportunity.

Back on Earth he discovers a duplicate of himself returned earlier and died in an accident. Now he has to convince the people and little people he knows he is alive and has important information. He meets a woman with a sabre tooth tiger, aliens on wheels, a Neandrathol man brought back in time, a ghost, and various other people. He has to find a way to get the knoweldge for the crystal planet.

What an imagination! Simak took ideas from both the fantasy and science fiction arenas and wound them together in a believable tale. In his future magic and science go together. When I was still trying to understand what different parts had to do with each other, he was skillfully weaving them together.

World Enough, and Time by James Kahn