(no subject)
13. URN BURIAL, Robert Westall, 1987
This book was a pleasant surprise: I actually quite enjoyed it. I finished it in one sitting, about 2 hours, and was thoroughly entertained the whole time. It’s set in a small English village; a teen Shepard named Ralph finds an alien coffin up on a hill, and there’s a cat-like alien and some weapons inside. Opening the coffin sends a radiation signal which unfortunately brings another race of aliens rushing to look for the grave. These ones are dog-like. Yes, cats and dogs. The story is, there was one god who created the whole universe, and on each planet a different mammal prospered. Earth is the ape planet. Anyway, there’s a big complicated history between the different races and all kinds of things going on: we are not actually meant to follow it all, it is meant to be beyond us. It does not concern the humans of the story, though they are inextricably bound up in it simply because they are there.
I think reading too much into it would probably be a mistake; it generally follows the battle-ground earth storyline, with different alien races slugging it out on our turf. I can tell you, I’m not sure authors could get away with some of this stuff these days. Poor Ralph gets teleported back and forth from random spaceships and, for god’s sake, they’re cats and dogs! But it is very enjoyable.
It’s also kinda scary. The dog-race has their scouts in the village which Ralph encounters, and he’s terrified and so are we. There is a definite tension maintained throughout the whole story that was fantastic. It was quite a ride, really. And it was very easy to get caught up in the POV, in the place; everything was kept very tight to Ralph and his sharp telling of the story.
And actually, the alien races are quite endearing. I love the cats, all their tail shaking and ear twitching. Ah! And on their spaceship they have a magical healing chamber. Ralph is found to be severely lacking in ‘essential nutrients’, of course, this is poor rural England. “WHO IS POISONING THIS APE?” demands the chamber. It was hilarious.
There were a few lengthy character exposition paragraphs that were annoying, and the English slang dialogue swayed between annoying and acceptable. Apart from that, there aren’t really any faults with this book. I don’t believe it was meant to be taken seriously; it’s just the story of one village’s encounter with some rather odd alien races, and it’s fun and enjoyable, end of story.
I do want to add that there was definite anti-nuclear sentiments, and also some brief but telling mentions of the bad things that Hitler did. You see, the cats are a rather lenient race, they don’t kill the dogs if they can help it, an d they’re very friendly and stuff. Ralph, on the other hand, has the opportunity to destroy all the dogs forever and end the conflict permanently, and he is tempted to: but then he remembers the Jews, and decides to leave them be. It’s a bit odd, seemingly out of place, but it does make me think that there is a message of tolerance in this book. That’s nice.
7/10