Every now and again I have a brief period of time when I find reading anything difficult, for some reason I just don't want to read. I've come to rely on Clifford Simak as an author I can pick up and get me back into reading.

That's the main reason I read this book now. And he didn't let me down, this was a very easy read; no real effort needed to reach the end, the easy style of the writing seemed to drag me through the book.

The book features an astronaut called Carter Horton who is placed in cold sleep and sent out into space with three other people at the beginning of mankind's interstellar explorations. He is awakened on a planet supportive of human life to find he is the only one of the four astronauts to have survived an accident with the cryogenics unit.

With only a robot companion he sets out to explore the planet and soon encounters an alien called simply Carnivore and a device capable of transportation between worlds, the only problem is it is broken. This device will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Stargate film, wathced the television series or even read the books. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an influence on the film.

Once again with a Simak you will find the plot does not hang around. There is so much going on within the 188 pages of this book. If you like sumpuous detail and rich deep characterisations then it might no be your ideal read, but for lovers of short concise fiction this should be a treat.