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Jun 24

I can't see out of this thing, make sure the waiter brought my cake!Click for full image

Lauren Comments: This cover does in fact show a scene from the book, but I think maybe there could have been a better choice. I look at this cover, and all I can say is: What?? If you haven’t actually read the book, it makes no sense at all.
Published 1988

Awesome hat!
Many thanks to Lauren.

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 6.18 out of 10)
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32 Responses to “Highway of Enternity”

  1. SI Says:

    Was that type of hat ever in fashion for secret cults? If so.. awesome…

    Their just isn’t enough robe wearing in todays society.

  2. Little Mi Says:

    Love it!
    Fleeing from the dead gift of immortality to some nice little cafe for and chat, some chili and then maybe a tour on one of those little train things you get on piers. A great day out for all the family!

  3. Little Mi Says:

    That should have said ‘for a chat’…obviously… damn, it’s too early in the morning for this…

  4. Little Mi Says:

    ..and dread not dead…god, I’m going home…

  5. SI Says:

    Its ok Little Mi, you just need more coffee. Like me!

  6. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Is that the dread gift of immortality in the background, then? That thing that looks like a steamroller stuck in a train carriage?

  7. Tommi Says:

    Sure is a dread gift if all you get to do is a sightseeing trip on one of those umbrella carts down a straight road in the desert with the occasional stop-over at some unbranded, robot catered road-side-cafe with a guy in a burka.

    Especially if you’re McGuyver: http://bit.ly/b29iwB

  8. SophaLoaf Says:

    @Tommi I second that MacGuyver!

    My first thoughts were since when do MacGyver and Orko holiday together?

  9. Tom Noir Says:

    I don’t know who this guy is but he appears to be having tea with the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter.

  10. DeadRobot Says:

    So, in the future, the Sorting Hat decides what you are going to order for tea?

    (Again with The Prisoner-esque stripey transference -wat up with dat?)

  11. DeadRobot Says:

    Damn you Tom Noir! I will eat your soul!

  12. SI Says:

    “So… you just going to sit there or help me get this traffic cone off my head?”

  13. David Traver Adolphus Says:

    Really a wonderful book, one of my favorite Simaks. When I was 18 and bought it new, it seemed like a perfectly acceptible cover.

  14. CSA Says:

    Its an evil wizard version of the UK 80s shows Knightmare.

    “before you, a tiny robot holds a tray”
    “you may take either; the magic wand of doom misiles, the grapes of doom, or the French toast of doom. Choose carefully”

  15. Herm Says:

    What caster level is the wand?

    Also, cute doggy. Considering his/her prominence, I hope s/he has a bigger part than George does in Alan Dean Foster’s Taken trilogy.

    (Listen, I once bought a book because it had a red panda on the cover, only to find out [i] it was an Anne McCaffrey and [ii] there were no red pandas whatsoever in there, so I’ve been burned before, OK? 😉

  16. DW Says:

    It looks like Christopher Lambert chillin’ with the black wizard from Final Fantasy 1, while a robo-servant brings them a bucket of tasty KFC chicken.

    The far future is… strange… and very ’80’s

  17. hampshireflyer Says:

    There’s some bizarre perspective going on there if the bloke/witch/black mage/oh whatever in the hat is actually taking something from the robot’s tray.

  18. Unk Says:

    If you ride on the canopied, house-tank-train and let us serve your dog for desert to potential candidates, then you too can be one of the headless immortals!

  19. jimmay Says:

    Is that a member of TISM ?

  20. Tom Noir Says:

    @DeadRobot: You may have my soul, but I’ll still have said “Sorting Hat” first!

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAH

  21. A.R.Yngve Says:

    The publisher suggested the following sequels, which the author for some reason turned down:

    RUSH HOUR OF FOREVER
    OVERPASS OF INFINITY
    FREEWAY EXIT OF BEYOND
    PARKING LOT OF THE GODS

  22. Kathleen Says:

    I think that’s the robot from Buck Rogers.

  23. NMM1AFan Says:

    Darn. I actually have that book. I remember reading quite a few Simak novels from the library when I was a kid.

  24. Karl Says:

    “I ain’t ascared of no witches! Hah! I just pulled your hat down over your face! What’re you going to do now, huh?!?

  25. e.lee Says:

    ‘Highway of Eternity’? But this cover depicts the Futuristic Motorway Service Station of Overheated Cafeteria Fare!

  26. lctwice Says:

    Consume mass quantities!

  27. anon Says:

    A man and his dog negotiate with Vader Wizard.

  28. Tat Wood Says:

    Nobody tell Harlan Ellison, but they’ve remade ‘A Boy and His Dog’ with Orko from ‘He-Man & Masters of the Universe” gone over to the Dark Side.

  29. Hammy Says:

    Okay. I’m going to be *that guy* (not to be confused with That Girl, really).

    “Enternity”?

  30. JJYoyo Says:

    I think Highway *to* Eternity would make a better title. The Highway *of* Eternity is the Garden State Parkway coming back from the Jersey shore on summer Sunday afternoons.

  31. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @JJYoyo: The *Interstate* of Eternity is I-5 between Sacramento-SF area-LA-San Diego on holidays in warm weather. Sometimes even during cold. At least with the GSP, I presume there’s the famous exits where you could get off and find a gas station, a bathroom and some fast food, maybe even a diner.

    Not so I-5. Sure, it’s flat and straight, but for much of its rural length, you’re lucky to get a gas station and fast food (in the same building) every 30 miles, and the occasional rest stop. And the terrain is boring; you can spend an hour at max speed looking at nothing but alfalfa or lettuce or almond trees. Occasionally a crop duster will fly overhead, spewing chemicals.

    It’s freezing in the winter, broiling in the summer, and the most excitement you get it the occasional herd of cows and some damn fine split pea soup. And in/near major cities, it crawls like the GSP. Frankly, the whole damn thing from Vancouver to Tijuana alternates between boring and congested. With occasional surprise mountains.

    The Freeway of Eternity is 101 between Hollywood and the Valley, at any time. It’s not great up the west side of the SF Bay either.

  32. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @GSSxn—As someone who lived in L.A. for the final 18 years of the last century, it was with a flood of memories that I read your freeway remarks. Your obvious first hand and thorough knowledge of the subject brought those beasts back to life for me, for I did often think of them as living entities, with a not-so-funny sense of humor. Let me add for the record the useless “Sig Alerts,” the ever-broken “information” signs on the Santa Monica, and above all the “Crossover of Doom” on the 405 going North, trying to exit at Sepulveda to get onto Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood by cutting through an unending stream of maniacal vehicles merging from the right.

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