Voodoo Planet

Rating: 3.5* of five

A novella really, and a weird cross between science fiction (space travel, other planets) and fantasy (magic, telepathy). A true old-fashioned one-sitting read.

Dane Thorsen, Free Trader of the ship Solar Queen, returns to your screens as a tag-along to Captain Jellico's eagerly anticipated vacation to Khatka. He has corresponded for some time with Asaki, a Ranger of very high status on Khatka, in his other-hatness of xenobiologist. Asaki has headed up the creation of a no-kill big game reserve on his homeworld, which happens to be in the same system as the Solar Queen's penalty planet of Xencho. (In Plague Ship, the Solar Queen was "sentenced" to spend two years as a mail carrying ship for one of the huge trading show more corporations, Combine.)

Since space travel takes extended amounts of time, all spacers have hobbies; Jellico, a long-time spacer, has become a renowned xenobiologist due to massive time to study and experiment aboard ship as well as freedom to explore many different planets as a trader. The Khatkans are descended of African Terran roots (they sound like Maasai to me) and happen to land their colony ships on a planet with very African climate and geography. Keep in mind this book was published in 1959 by a white librarian lady. This was some avant garde stuff!

Add in Grand Master Norton's already extant Negro (in the parlance of the times) characters, explicitly stated to be normal members of the Solar Queen and Spacers' Guild crews, and you have jaw-droppingly ahead of her time thinking evident here. Asaki is explicitly stated to be Jellico's equal. He is regularly deferred to by the Queen white and Asian crew members. There are 21st-century authors who don't do as well as Grand Master Norton does in this sixty-year-old tale.

The story, well, the story is the story and it's creaky. No notion of satellite mapping, no personal computing power, etc etc blah blah blah. The plot seems to be a bit, well, slapdash; are we fighting a sorceror, a crafty mind-gamer, an interplanetary smuggling ring, our PoV characters' personal nightmares? Sorta kinda alla the above. In just over 100pp, that is way too much to handle effectively.

But hellfire, y'all, it's not like stuff coming from mighty modern pens is perfect, and this lady was born 106 years ago, so what say we smile for the fun turns of phrase (particularly love her regular use of "Not so!" for the much less sparkly "No.") and the amazing inclusiveness of her vision? Let's carp less and crow's-foot some smile, hmm? show less

Some of the tech didn't age well, not being able to survey a planet or communicate without there being some solid reasons sounds a little strange, but this story of a break on a jungle world, Khatka, that was inhabited by people from Africa. Invited there by Chief Ranger Asaki they see at first hand poachers and a bit of a political battle between Asaki and Lumbrilo, a shaman who is willing to use a variety of tools, both chemical and psychological to defeat his enemies and our friends from the Solar Queen are in the way.
It's interesting to think, as another reviewer I saw said, that this was originally published in 1959; the locals from Khatka aren't depicted as savages or strange just as people, both good and bad, adapted to their new show more world but People all the same, and this is treated as matter-of-fact.
I liked it, somewhat dated and I did want more from this story, it felt a bit rushed, but it is a novella so it's short by it's very nature. I really should root out some of my other books in this series and read them. show less

Another installment with the sympathetic intergalactic free traders from the Solar Queen at the centre, this is more Tarzan than Star Trek. The Queen-team comprised of Dane, Jelico and Medic Tau visits a planet ruled by a (very advanced and noble!) hunter-gatherer-society where they become unvoluntary part of the power-struggle between the chief ranger Asaki and witchman Lumbrilo.

Lots of magic disguised as science (hypnosis, drugs and psychological terror), survival after wrecking in a hostile jungle against alien fauna and a very stalwart fight against a band of poachers later, and the outlanders have successfully solved Asaki's authority problem.

Predictable but fun.

t as a stand alone book, is just okay. When you add it in to the Solar Queen adventures, it gets a little better. It does read quickly, but it will not be an earth shaking experience since it doesn't develop the story due to length.

A blending of fantasy and science fiction that just left me feeling like I was watching an old episode of Star Trek where they all transported to a fantasy world where everything gets strange from there.

More of the traders on the Solar Queen. There is a voodoo magic showdown at the end of this one, yay! I guess originally published with Star Hunter, because that's how people get novellas published.