So the first thing that I did after moving to Ferndale last month was find a coffee shop to my liking. The Black Drop fit that bill. I haven’t quite got the names down of the coffee people there, but one of them makes the bestest latté I’ve had since Hines Public Market Coffee shut down a couple of years ago. I spend several hours there every day.
This will be the death of me, not the least because just around the corner is Michael’s Books. It’s a pretty decent, if unspectacular, bookstore. What will kill me about Michael’s though is that they set out on the sidewalk each day a number of books for free. Many used stores put out bargain books outside. Michael’s just puts all the stuff they won’t be able to sell. I walk by muttering to myself don’t look, don’t look
every time. I do though. And I’ve nabbed at least a dozen books so far. Given that I have around 300 unread books already, I do not need more. I’m not quite an addict, but it’s hard to tell the difference. Cemetery World is one of my pickups from the Michael’s Books free boxes.
I have to admit I’d never heard of Clifford Simak before. My first impression from viewing the cover is he was a golden age writer who lasted a while, but never reached the heights of popularity that Heinlein or Asimov did. Turns out he did win a few Hugos. Somehow I missed him though. Until now.
10,000 years in the future, mankind has populated thousands of worlds. Little is known of the original home though. After the apocalypse war that scattered humanity, few have returned. Few except the business known as Cemetery. For a small fee, they will inter the remains of your loved on Earth. Fletcher Carson is an artist. He wants to make art based on Earth. He bribes his way aboard a Cemetery ship to Earth, packing his artistic recorder Bronco (a semi-intelligent but sentient robot) and Elmer, also a sentient robot but originally from Earth. Cemetery doesn’t really want Carson there unless he is willing to make propaganda art. Joining Carson after a discussion gone bad with Cemetery’s local honcho is Cynthia Lansing, an archaeologist seeking a mythical trove of historic artifacts.
The book is mostly Carson and Lansing blundering from one encounter to another with the long-lost descendants of the humans left on Earth now gone post-apocalyptic wild, some leftover war robots, as well as Cemetery’s agents and a time-traveling alien and his coterie of human ghosts. Will they discover what it is that Cemetery is hiding? You can be pretty sure they will.
The story has only a little bit more depth than the Heinlein-style young adult science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s. But it’s still fun adventure. I particularly enjoyed the idea of Earth as a giant cemetery, with rows and rows of grave markers for the galaxy’s rich and famous (it costs a lot to be buried there). A lot of the plot is a choppy mish-mash of tropes, and that detracted some. In addition, the prose is pretty atrocious. But it’s easy bubblegum sci-fi, so I was able to deal.
Title: Cemetery World
Author: Clifford D. Simak
Cover artist: Vincent DiFate
Imprint / publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Format: Hardcover (book club edition)
Length: 186 p.
Publication date: 1973
ISBN-10: 0-399-11071-2
LC classification: PS3537.I54
Just finished reading Cemetery World (hardback with the exact same cover art your copy has!) You summed up my feelings on this book very well. Love the 2 war machines and the metal Wolf! And I would love to go to Alden, sit in a garden and watch a beautiful pink sunset.
I bought my copy in 1993 at an antique mall of all things. Dug it up after moving and decided to finally read it after 16 years of gathering dust.
Hi, I saw your review on Library thing and follwed it here.
I do have this book on my shelf and have read it but it was a while ago so its due a re-read. Simak was a late bloomer as a writer,previously a newspaper worker he didn’t begin writing till he was in his 30s, and his SF has been described as ‘pastoral’,meaning its largely earth based and set in the country with nature an important part of the scene.
Hi! Your review brought back some fond memories. Cemetary World was the first book I read by Simak. I started off reading the story in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine back (I think) in the early 1970′s. I finished when I found a copy of the actual book on my local library’s shelves. I also enjoyed the image of the Earth a a giant cemetary. Instead of a morbid impression it makes me think of the mystery of some ancient ruins and what might be found there.
Thanks again.
Paul
For some reason i’ve always had this story stuck in the back of my head, and i feel a draw to buy it for some reason. Dont ask me why cus i dont know. But the i first read Cemetary World back in high school in 86 or 87. The story really stuck in my head and has always been there in my mind. Its strange cus of all the sci fi books i’ve read in my life so far its the one book that stands out the most. I guess it had a profound effect on me and it still does.