Where the Evil Dwells

Definitely not Simak's best work. Where the Evil Dwells is a competent quest fantasy novel. Our hero Charles Harcourt sets out with his wacky buddies into the Empty Lands (which are not really Empty so much as they are inhabited by Evil) on a quest to rescue the soul of a great saint, which has been imprisoned in a prism by a powerful evil wizard. Oh, and they need to rescue Harcourt's true love, Eloise.

On the way they meet and fight with such original creatures as dragons, trolls, harpies, unicorns, ghouls, gargoyles, imps, and goblins. Yay. Also, they meet one poor outcast troll who has lost his bridge. Did you know that trolls can only live under bridges? Not only that, but they can only live under bridges made by somebody else--they can't build their own bridges to live under. And why do trolls live under bridges? Why, because that's where trolls live, silly. Things don't have to make sense when you're writing hack fantasy stories.

Nothing special about this one. Simak writes some great science fiction with influences from fantasy, but this pure fantasy novel is merely average.