Urn Burial is a 1987 young adult science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Robert Westall

Robert Westall

Robert Atkinson Westall was the author of many books, mostly children's fiction, though also for adults, and non-fiction. Many of his novels, while supposedly aimed at a teenage audience, deal with many complex, dark and in many ways adult themes...

. It involves alien races who resemble cats and dogs.

Overview

In a small village in northern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Ralph, a young shepherd, discovers a weird pile of stones. By digging into the stones, he discovers a strange "sleeping" creature with ointments and a dangerous weapon buried alongside. Before he knows it, he has awakened a dangerous and terrifying secret that has been hidden for thousands of years.

Setting

Westall has set Urn Burial in the Pennine chain of northern England, near the Scottish border. The Cumbrian fell country is an isolated land of rain, prehistoric ruins, and heather. The sheep that run loose on the steep hills are still a major source of income, and shepherding is a respected profession. Life remains rather primitive on the fells, but the homes have electricity and running water and the shepherds reach their flocks on motorbikes.

External links

• Urn Burial at Fantastic Fiction