The Man Without a Planet

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The Man Without a Planet
The Man Without a Planet-Time to Live.jpg
Cover from first publication, in The
Man Without a Planet/Time to Live
Author Lin Carter
Cover artistPeter Michael
LanguageEnglish
SeriesHistory of the Great Imperium
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Ace Books
Publication date
1966
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages113
OCLC 6215401
813.6
LC Class PS3553.A7823
Followed by Star Rogue  

The Man Without a Planet is a science fiction novel by American writer Lin Carter, the first in his History of the Great Imperium series. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in December 1966 together with the unrelated John Rackham novel Time to Live as the "Ace Double" anthology, The Man Without a Planet/Time to Live. The anthology was reissued in trade paperback by Wildside Press in August 2018. The Carter work has since appeared in stand-alone editions from Moewig (in German translation) in January 1985 and Gateway/Orion (as an ebook) in May 2020. [1]

Contents

Plot summary

The Man Without a Planet is set in the Year 407 of the Great Imperium (A.D. 3468), "in the fifth year of the empery of Arban IV, of the House of Tridian." [2] Raul Linton, late space navy commander and hero of the Third Imperial War, wanders the Inner Cluster of stars, disillusioned and seeking a new purpose. He is shadowed by Pertinax "the Snake," a spy of the Imperium Government convinced Linton is a traitor. Meanwhile Sharl of the Yellow Eyes seeks to recruit Linton into a scheme to restore the exiled Queen Innald of Valadon to her throne, which may make him a traitor in truth.

Relation to other works

Carter projected his History of the Great Imperium as a series of eight to twelve stand-alone novels collectively covering thousands of years of an invented future history of the galaxy. [2] Of these, only three, The Man Without a Planet (1966), Star Rogue (1970), and Outworlder (1971) were published, though critic John Clute includes two additional Carter science fiction novels, The Star Magicians (1966) and Tower of the Medusa (1969) in the series. [3]

Reception

John Clute, briefly assessing Carter's science fiction corpus, notes that his "History of the Great Imperium sequence ... adheres moderately closely to sf protocols and to the 'feel' of sf." [3]

References

  1. ↑ The Man Without a Planet title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  2. 1 2 Carter, Lin. "Author's Note" in Star Rogue, Lancer Books, 1970.
  3. 1 2 Clute, John. "Carter, Lin" (entry in SFE: the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, updated 14 April 2025.
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