Way Station is a novel by Clifford D. Simak published in 1963 that first appeared under the title Here Gather the Stars as a two-part submission to Galaxy Magazine in the summer of that same year. Simak had already published multiple short stories and novels. He had also picked up his first Hugo Award for the novella The Big Front Yard in 1959. It was the book which would become famous as Way Station, however, which elevated him to the front ranks of the science fiction genre and became the work for which he is still best known.
After winning the most prestigious award for science fiction writing in 1964, in fact, Way Station would two years later rank twenty-seventh in a poll of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. Two decades later, it would rise two spots before falling to the thirty-first spot in a 1998 poll. Even at its lowest spot, Way Station ranked significantly higher than two landmark works in the genre: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (adapted into the film Blade Runner) and Frankenstein.
In 2019, Netflix announced that the rights to a film adaptation had been secured by Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho production company. Before becoming best known as visionary who saw in Robert Pattinson the ideal Batman for a gritty reboot, Reeves had already established his credibility within the science fiction genre by directing Cloverfield and the last two entries in the Planet of the Apes trilogy of the early 21st century. Apparently, taking over the reins of reinventing Gotham City proved to be a nail in the coffin for the Netflix adaptation; however, since as of 2022 there has been forward movement on the planned movie version of Way Station.
Although not a hefty tome by any stretch, there is enough story and enough characters in the book to imagine that a creative team could flesh the bare bones of novel into a more robust five or six episode limited series rather than simply satisfying expectations with a single film. Since the story of the overseer of a secret way station for space travelers from across the universe is not action-oriented, but depends heavily on quiet scenes of conversation, one might even actually be hoping that the lack of movement is precisely because nobody involved has figured out how to make an action-oriented science fiction film out of it. Unlike many science fiction classics, Way Station is a true novel and not a movie treatment masquerading as a novel.
