In the first two Planet of Adventure books, Earther Adam Reith’s space ship is shot down while approaching Tschai. He crash lands and discovers a world of bizarre societies where the descendants of abducted Earth humans have been bred into servant races for the Wankh (yes, I know), the Chasch, the Dirdir and Tschai’s native race, the Pnume. Reith has to navigate the strange cultures of Tschai and somehow build a spaceship to return home.
THE DIRDIR is easily the best book in the series: Reith launches a scheme to buy and assemble a spaceship on the black market, financing it by hunting the avian-evolved Dirdir while they’re out hunting men (“You say they carry the valuables of their victims on their person as they return to the camp?”). This, of course, proves harder than it looks … The Dirdir are the most interesting of the alien races on Tschai which helps makes this book a winner.
On the brink of departure, Reith’s treacherous associate Woudiver sells him out to THE PNUME, scholars who want such a unique creature preserved in their underground museum, Foreverness. Reith escapes the Pnume accompanied by Zap, one of their human servants. Can they stay out of reach and make it back to his launch site?
The Pnume underworld is creepy and their culture’s handling of knowledge (“That’s a Class Twenty secret!”) is interesting. Once we’re back on the surface, however, things get too quiet and the slow and the final wrap-up seems a little abrupt — no showdown with Woudiver. We never do learn who shot Reith’s ship down in City of the Chasch. I do like Zap’s treatment of the repressed Zap, though, and I’m surprised to actually have an oblique reference to menstruation in the book.
THE SNOW QUEEN’S SHADOW by Jim C. Hines is the finish in a four-volume series (which I haven’t otherwise read) wherein sword-and-sorcery versions of fairy-tale princesses battle against evil (Hines says his daughter going through a Disney Princess phase inspired this). Here, shattering Snow White’s mirror liberates a demon that turns people cold and vicious whenever the shards scratch them—and with the help of Snow’s ice magic, a lot of people get scratched, leaving Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty struggling find some way to stop their buddy. Downbeat end but a good read, and I give Hines extra points for making this easy for a new reader to follow (I’ve seen too many writers who don’t).
#SFWApro. Covers by HR Van Dongen, all rights remain with current holders.
