The novel “A Heritage of Stars” by Clifford D. Simak was published for the first time in 1977.

Thomas Cushing wants to discover the secrets of humanity’s technological past. Studying at the university, he found a record dating back a thousand years that reports stories that were already centuries old concerning the total destruction of technology. The chronicle also reports the story, maybe just a legend, concerning the place of going to the stars, where human beings were leaving to reach distant worlds.

Thomas wants to rediscover the past and is determined to find out if the place of going to the stars there really exists, hoping he can still find ancient technological artifacts and even alien creatures. In his journey through the territories of a world that can’t recover from the disaster that wiped all the old technologies, he meets a strange woman considered a witch, a robot who survived the destruction and other creatures, human and alien.

“A Heritage of Stars” is one of the novels written in a time when Clifford D. Simak had become quite pessimistic. In this case, the negative consequences of the technological growth led at a certain point to a refusal so deep that people destroyed not only the machines but also all the books and manuals that talked about science and technology. At that time, humans travel among the stars but after that destructive fury they returned to the level of the middle ages.

Many centuries later, Thomas Cushing is a young man who has learned to read and write only because he had the opportunity to study at the University. In what is perhaps the last real school left in the world, however, people learn very little compared to ancient times. The world’s population is in fact formed in prevalence by illiterate peasants.

The University is a citadel that remains fairly isolated from the villages in the area, as if it were the only way to defend what little is left of the ancient culture. There are indeed dangers because life in the world of “A Heritage of Stars” isn’t generally very nice. Clifford D. Simak loved the pastoral settings but even in his stories that had a pessimistic vision of technology he didn’t offer praises of the good old days.

In the pastoral society of “A Heritage of Stars” people have to work hard to survive and they’re likely to die from common diseases. Thomas Cushing knew all too well that life and isn’t interested in remaining closed in the University but is looking for something better. When he discovers an ancient record that shows the history of the place of going to the stars he can’t help starting a journey to search for it.

Thomas Cushing’s quest contains elements typical of Clifford D. Simak’s stories. During his journey, he meets people with various mental powers, a robot and several aliens. All this is told with the essential style of a writer who learned his job at a time when novels were limited in length.

Thomas Cushing seeks a new beginning for humanity but finds something different from what he expected. His journey leads him to discover emotions and humanity, a term that should be meant in a broad sense, not technology. Of course, not everything is nice during his search because he and his fellow travelers have to pass through areas that have long returned to being wilderness.

In the future described in “A Heritage of Stars” there are bands of robbers in search of villages to plunder and travelers to rob but also superstitious people ready to kill anyeone who is considered somewhat different. It’s addressing these and other hazards that Thomas Cushing and his fellow travelers reflect on the problems of humanity. Again, those are typical elements of Clifford D. Simak, who wasn’t certainly a writer of hard science fiction.

Overall, “A Heritage of Stars” is a really good book that I recommend in particular to anyone interested in learning about the works of Clifford D. Simak.