EARTHWORKS

Four Square paperback, 1967. Cover artwork by Karel Thole.

"Disease-ridden, overpopulated; robots and prison-gangs tending the bare, poison-drenched countryside; the people near starvation. This is the world Knowie Noland, ex-convict, ex-traveller, and captain of the tramp freighter trieste star knows and accepts - because there is nothing better to hope for. 

To the beautiful girl named Justine it is a degrading and inhuman condition which can be overcome by global war - a war she wants knowie to start. 

Knowie has always believed that war was a futile and senseless answer to man's problems. But under Justine's persuasive logic he begins to hope that a shot he can fire will lead to the ultimate death of millions and be the start of a better world for the survivors."