Clifford Simak’s "Legacy of the Stars," a summary

The action takes place in the distant future of North America, a millennium after the collapse of industrial civilization, when humanity has descended into barbarism and forgotten its previous technological achievements. The only remaining center of ancient literacy is the University of Minnesota on the banks of the Mississippi, isolated from wandering tribes by a massive defensive wall. The science fiction novel was published in 1977.

Forgotten Manuscripts and the Call of the West

Thomas Cushing diligently tended potato patches by the riverbank for five years. An elderly couple, Monty and Nancy Montrose, took in the forest wanderer, taught him to read and write, and welcomed him as their own son. A chance discovery in a library desk shattered their peaceful life. The young man pulled out a stack of worn sheets of paper with the small, cramped handwriting of the historian Hiram Wilson, who, in 2952, had recounted the story of the great disasters. The one and a half pages recounted the legend of the Star City, hidden somewhere in the western lands. His foster parents understood their foster son’s turmoil and blessed him in his search for the legendary refuge.

Ruins of an ancient city

On a dark night, a traveler crossed the Mississippi on a raft made of logs. The ruins of ancient high-rise towers loomed ahead. A hidden crossbow went off on a forest path, plunging a heavy arrow into a tree trunk just above Thomas’s shoulder. The dull beat of drums could be heard. In a hollow among the fires, the townspeople danced furious rituals around a shining pyramid constructed from the polished brain cases of dead robots. The spectacle instilled a chilling fear. Before dawn, the fugitive left the city limits and took refuge in the dense lilac bushes of an ancient estate.

There, the fugitive was ambushed by the grumpy old woman Meg. The hill witch immediately declared that she sensed great deeds in her guest. Fearing an invasion by a mounted horde of nomads, the healer forced herself upon Thomas as his companion, along with her skinny old horse, Andy. The pack horse carried blankets, a supply of dried meat, and an ancient pair of army binoculars. On the night road, the travelers came across a warm, rounded boulder about a meter high. The old woman sensed the alien, icy consciousness of the Living Stone, preserving memories of distant cosmic abysses.

Rollo the Robot and the Discovery of the Map

In a windfall on the slope of a river valley, Thomas discovered a man of steel, pinned beneath a thick maple branch. The robot, Rollo, had lain trapped there for eighty-seven days after a fierce hurricane. Saving its hull from destructive rust, the mechanism had learned to extract bear fat, overcoming its basic prohibition against harming living beings. The iron companion eagerly joined the expedition. Next to the robot, the Trembling Snake — a glowing ribbon woven from sparks — danced joyfully. Rollo kept the polished brain of his fallen comrade in a leather satchel. Touching the metal shell with her fingers, Meg sensed the living, lonely consciousness of the walled-in prisoner.

The detachment moved northwest along the riverbed of the forested Minnesota River. Rollo warned his friends of an approaching nomadic war party. The fugitives waited out the danger on a willow-covered river island while fifty mounted warriors made camp on the bank. In the morning, Thomas found a leather satchel containing the plundered goods at an abandoned fire pit. A topographic map of South Dakota lay among yellowed children’s books and knives. A trembling finger traced the marker "Thunder Bluff" beyond the Missouri River. The cherished goal now had precise geographic coordinates.

Wanderers of the Endless Plains

The plain stretched to the horizon. In the steppe, the friends encountered two unusual wanderers. The gray-bearded elder Ezra stood barefoot in the earthen pits, listening to the whisper of wild sunflowers. His granddaughter, Elaine, sat beside him. The old man possessed a rare gift for listening to the world of plants. The girl, meanwhile, gazed vacantly at the distant stars. The travelers joined forces for the long journey. Silently at their heels glided the Pursuers — purple clots of darkness, absorbing the thoughts and spiritual experiences of the people.

The travelers crossed the turbulent Missouri River on a raft made from driftwood. Andy boldly plunged into the water and was the first to scramble onto the sandbar. The lonely peak of Thunder Bluff loomed ahead. On the distant hills, five emaciated horsemen barred the way. The leader of the guard declared the plateau to be the sacred resting place of the mythical Sleepers, whose peace protects humanity from total annihilation. Negotiations were interrupted by a huge grizzly bear leaping out of a ravine. Andy’s horse and the robot Rollo boldly attacked the beast, sending the terrified guards fleeing.

Cliff Protective Belt

Dozens of Living Stones rolled out onto the plain, pushing the intruders back toward the ring of Trees. Colossal trunks, tens of meters tall, formed a solid, impenetrable wall. Ezra called out to his fellow forest giants, and Meg begged for salvation. The branches suddenly parted, revealing a dark corridor. Passing through the thicket, Thomas felt an invisible touch on the deepest corners of his soul. The trees acknowledged the young man’s thoughts and allowed the travelers to emerge onto a sunlit, grassy slope.

That night, a flock of flying metal cylinders surrounded the camp. The vocal devices vied with each other in shouting fragments of memories of alien planets, crimson sands, and extinct races. During the day, the Explorers appeared on the mountain path — two iridescent spheres with eyes wandering across the surface. The alien visitors had been observing the extinct civilizations for centuries, arguing fruitlessly with the local caretaker. The spheres admitted that they considered humanity’s demise final, but listened with interest to Thomas’s discourse on the laws of biological evolution.

The Riddle of Star City

Majestic stone buildings towered on the plateau’s flat summit. In the dim light of the main hall, the travelers were greeted by the Venerable Elder — a massive robot of ancient design. The ancient guardian dispelled misconceptions about launch sites. Humanity had abandoned expensive manned expeditions even before the global collapse. Engineers had created thousands of compact automated probes that had collected treasures of knowledge from across the galaxy. All the collected data was collected in the city’s gigantic electronic storage facilities.

After the death of its creators, the repair system failed. The Guardian lacked the technical skills to repair the complex electronic components. The station became an impenetrable crypt of forgotten secrets. The situation was saved by the healer Meg. Taking the polished robot brain from Rollo’s bag, she directed a unified mental beam into the electronic arrays. The freed machine mind deciphered the symbols, revealing clear images of extraterrestrial mathematical laws, blueprints for superluminal engines, and methods for manipulating probabilities.

Captured by the Mad Wolf

Thomas set off to the foot of the plateau to negotiate with the nomads. He needed to gather hundreds of intelligent kozhukhs and train local healers. A vast camp, led by Chief Mad Wolf, lay spread out across the steppe. The fearsome leader sat in a chair covered with an antelope hide, listening with disdain to the messenger. The chieftain flatly refused to hand over the sacred relics and accused the university visitor of awakening the Sleepers. The warriors bound the young man with rawhide thongs and tied him to a post in the center of the camp.

A heavy, leaden cloud covered the western horizon. Flashes of lightning lit up the sky. A whirlwind of dancing Trembling Snakes emerged from the darkness, followed by Andy’s galloping horse and Rollo, armed with a spear. The shadows of the Pursuers and the tumbling rainbow orbs of the Explorers followed. The frightened herd of horses rushed through the camp, crushing the savages’ tents. Rollo, with a deft blow of his hunting knife, cut the bonds on Thomas’s wrists. Amidst the rumble of thunder, the friends safely took refuge behind a wall of friendly Trees.

The path to new knowledge

Golden autumn bloomed the shores of Minnesota. The party briskly marched back to the stone walls of the university. Rollo scouted ahead, Andy frolicked nearby with a flock of loyal shadows, and the sparks of the Snakes danced in the air. Following behind rolled the spherical Explorers, determined to meet the university scientists. Meg clutched the living brain of a robot, which had become her inseparable mental companion. In the spring, the caravan from Minnesota would return to Thunder Bluff to unite the forces of scientists and healers for the sake of restoring intelligent life on Earth.