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Araminta Station is a 1987 science fiction novel by the American writer Jack Vance. It is the first part of the Cadwal Chronicles , a trilogy set in the Gaean Reach, the other two novels being Ecce and Old Earth (1991) and Throy (1992).
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Araminta Station is a 1987 science fiction novel by the American writer Jack Vance. It is the first part of the Cadwal Chronicles , a trilogy set in the Gaean Reach, the other two novels being Ecce and Old Earth (1991) and Throy (1992).
The planet Cadwal is discovered by a member of the "Naturalist Society of Earth". To preserve its natural beauty, the society sets up a Charter to minimize human exploitation. Six bureaus are established, each with a staff of 20 women and 20 men under the leadership of the Conservator, to maintain the Conservancy.
There are three major continents: Ecce, Deucas and Throy. Araminta Station, the main settlement, is located on Deucas, the continent most hospitable to humans. With society members constantly visiting (and often remaining) for "research" purposes, an additional settlement was grudgingly set up at Stroma on Throy.
From the earliest days, the bureau heads recruited close relations and associates for their staffs. Inevitably, the number of family members grew to exceed the Charter limits. On a person's 21st birthday, they are either granted "Agency status", if there is a vacancy and they pass the exams, or they become a "collateral", with much lower status and prospects. Thus, the society of Cadwal is a highly stratified aristocracy, where birth matters much more than aptitude.
In addition to the collaterals, another group not envisioned by the Charter resides on the planet under the same transparent fiction of being "temporary" laborers: the Yips, "descendents of runaway servants, illegal immigrants and others". Yips are issued six-month work permits. Once these expire, however, they are sent back to overcrowded Yipton on Lutwin Atoll. The Yips present a grave social problem to the "permanent" residents, whom they greatly outnumber, and it is no secret that they would like to occupy Deucas.
The novel centers on Glawen Clattuc, an intelligent, capable young man. Glawen's father Scharde foils an attempt by an old family enemy, Spanchetta Clattuc, to falsely inflate Glawen's "index number" and thereby reduce his chances of achieving Agency status. He joins Bureau B, the department responsible for enforcing the laws of the Charter.
Glawen becomes romantically involved with the beautiful Sessily Veder. When Sessily disappears, an investigation suggests she was raped and murdered, her body shipped off-planet in a wine cask. However, there is insufficient evidence to convict the primary suspect, Spanchetta's son Arles.
Later, Glawen becomes acquainted with and attracted to Wayness Tamm, the daughter of the new Conservator. Glawen saves Wayness from a rape attempt by Arles. Then, after the murder of her brother (engineered by a Yip), Wayness reveals to Glawen that while she was visiting Earth, her father's cousin became the secretary of the nearly moribund Naturalist Society and discovered that the Charter was missing (a previous secretary had been a thief and sold the society's assets). Whoever possesses it is the legal owner of Cadwal. She decides to return alone to Earth to search for it.
Glawen is ordered by Bureau B chief Bodwyn Wook to join the Bold Lions (a boisterous drinking club for devil-may-care youths) and travel to Yipton with them on an annual jaunt, using the opportunity to spy on the Yips. He is accompanied by Kirdy Wook, a Bold Lion and also a Bureau B agent. Glawen discovers that the Yips are secretly assembling a flyer (a flying vehicle), most likely to further their goal of seizing Deucas. However, Glawen is spotted. He gets away, but Kirdy is caught and tortured by the Yips. With great difficulty, Bodwyn Wook secures his release. Although Kirdy recovers physically, his mind is severely affected, and Glawen senses that Kirdy nurtures an intense irrational hatred for him.
Glawen travels to a small island for a holiday. To his horror, he discovers that "parties" are being held there in which rich off-worlders are allowed to have their way with young Yip girls, who are then killed. An outraged Bodwyn Wook has them arrested, but is persuaded to allow the wealthy prisoners to pay very large fines instead of being executed in order to pay for desperately needed flyers and weapons to counter the Yip threat.
He sends Glawen off-world to discover the identity of the organizers and, to Glawen's disquiet, orders that Kirdy accompany him. Kirdy eventually betrays Glawen, who is imprisoned by a sect which believes in total equality of the sexes. Their extreme stance has led to a declining population. Their leader informs Glawen that he is to be a sex slave to remedy the situation. It turns out some of the sect members had participated in the "parties" in a prior attempt to solve their dilemma. After six months, Glawen manages to escape and shut down the sect.
He then returns to Cadwal and finally identifies Sessily's murderer: Kirdy Wook. Kirdy had been jealous of Glawen from childhood. Kirdy attempts to kill Glawen on a beach, but Glawen lures him out into the water; a weak swimmer, Kirdy is dragged out to sea by the undertow and drowns.
Glawen has also uncovered the organizer of the sex parties. Floreste is an dramatist who will go to any lengths to fund his dream: the construction of a magnificent new Orpheum. Condemned to death, Floreste refuses to divulge any information until Glawen threatens to sue and seize his hard-won funds as damages. Glawen's father Scharde, a senior Bureau B agent, is missing and presumed dead in an accident while on patrol, but Floreste confirms that he is actually a prisoner. He also inadvertently gives Glawen startling news as to who is really leading the Yips.
Unspiek, Baron Bodissey, is a fictional character referred to in many of the novels of speculative-fiction author Jack Vance. Within those novels he has the status of an authority, but he is sometimes referred to with amusement or scepticism. Like the 'mad poet' Navarth, he first appeared in the Demon Princes sequence but also is alluded to in a number of other unrelated stories. Unlike Navarth, the Baron never appears in person in these novels, but his monumental, many-volume work Life is frequently quoted. The lengthiest citations from it appear, with varying degrees of apparent relevance, as epigraphs to various chapters in the Demon Princes novels. Otherwise, the Baron and his work are occasionally referred to in passing or quoted by characters in the tales. Fictional reviews of Life also appear in The Killing Machine and The Face, usually dismissing it as snobbish, elitist and pretentious; one reviewer expresses a desire to thrash the Baron within an inch of his life before buying him a drink.
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Big Planet is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance. It is the first novel sharing the same setting, an immense, but metal-poor and backward world called Big Planet.
The Great Fetish is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in two parts, as "Heretic in a Balloon" and "The Witches of Manhattan", in the issues for winter, 1977, and January/February, 1978, respectively. It was subsequently published in book form in hardcover by Doubleday in 1978 and in paperback by Pocket Books in 1980. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. It has also been translated into German.
Rogue Queen is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the third book in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1951, and in paperback by Dell Books in 1952. A later hardcover edition was issued by The Easton Press in its The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1996; later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books (1965) and Signet Books. A trade paperback edition was issued by Bluejay Books in June 1985. The first British edition was published in paperback by Pinnacle Books in 1954; a British hardcover reprint followed from Remploy in 1974. The novel has been translated into Portuguese, Italian, French and German. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. Arc Manor's Phoenix Pick imprint reissued the book in both trade paperback and e-book format in January 2012.
The Continent Makers is a science fiction novella by American writers L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories in the issue for April, 1951. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It has also been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.
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The Viagens Interplanetarias series is a sequence of science fiction stories by L. Sprague de Camp, begun in the late 1940s and written under the influence of contemporary space opera and sword and planet stories, particularly Edgar Rice Burroughs's Martian novels. Set in the future in the 21st and 22nd centuries, the series is named for the quasi-public Terran agency portrayed as monopolizing interstellar travel, the Brazilian-dominated Viagens Interplanetarias. It is also known as the Krishna series, as the majority of the stories belong to a sequence set on a fictional planet of that name. While de Camp started out as a science fiction writer and his early reputation was based on his short stories in the genre, the Viagens tales represent his only extended science fiction series.
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Son of the Tree is a science fiction novella by American writer Jack Vance. It was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine, June 1951, and in book form as half of an Ace Double in 1964 together with The Houses of Iszm. The version that appears in the Ace Double is still less than novel length at about 31,000 words, but is essentially the same as the original magazine version. Son of the Tree was re-published as a stand-alone volume in 1974 by Mayflower.
"Git Along!" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It is the second (chronologically) set on the planet Osiris, as well as the second to feature the interstellar con-man Darius Koshay. It was first published in the magazine Astounding in the issue for August, 1950. It first appeared in book form in the anthology The Outer Reaches, edited by August Derleth, published in hardcover by Pellegrini and Cudahy in 1951, and was gathered together with other Viagens stories in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and German.
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The Cadwal Chronicles are a trilogy of science fiction novels by American writer Jack Vance set in his Gaean Reach fictional universe. The three novels are called Araminta Station (1987), Ecce and Old Earth (1991) and Throy (1992).
Ecce and Old Earth is a 1991 science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, the second novel in the Cadwal Chronicles trilogy, set in Vance's Gaean Reach. It follows Araminta Station (1987) and precedes Throy (1992).
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