Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance
"Planet of Adventure" is the first novel in a series by Jack Vance that centers around the planet Tschai, which serves as a complex battleground for four alien races and genetically manipulated humans. The story begins with an exploration ship from Earth being destroyed shortly after arriving, leaving only scout Adam Reith as the survivor. As he navigates this strange world, Reith encounters various groups of humans who have retained their original forms, contrasting with those modified to resemble their alien overlords. Among his allies are Traz Onmale, a former bandit leader, and Anacho, an exiled member of the Dirdir race. Reith's journey includes leading a rebellion against human oppressors and uncovering the intricate dynamics between the alien races, including the Chasch and Wankh. The narrative explores themes of power, exploitation, and rebellion, culminating in Reith's quest to return to Earth while liberating those oppressed on Tschai. The story also features elements of romance and tragedy, particularly highlighted through the character Ylin Ylan, and culminates in a dramatic struggle for freedom against multiple alien factions.
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Planet of Adventure
First published:Planet of Adventure (1984, as tetralogy); previously published as City of the Chasch (1968), Servants of the Wankh (1969), The Dirdir (1969), and The Pnume (1970)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—planetary romance
Time of work: At least two centuries in the future
Locale: The planet Tschai
The Plot
Planet of Adventure was the first of Jack Vance’s longer novel series to be completed. As it begins, an exploration ship to the planet Tschai, dispatched from Earth in response to radio signals transmitted centuries ago, is destroyed by a torpedo from the planet’s surface shortly after sending out a scouting vessel. The only survivor, the highly trained scout Adam Reith, quickly learns that Tschai is a base for four alien races (one indigenous), none able to dislodge the others because of their capability of mutually assured destruction. Each race dominates a group of humans who have been manipulated genetically to physically resemble their master race. Reith spends the majority of his time moving among various groups of semi-independent humans who were brought to Tschai in the distant past and have not been artificially reshaped.
In City of the Chasch, Reith quickly makes friends with the former chief of a nomadic bandit tribe, Traz Onmale, and an exiled Dirdirman, Anacho. Reith thus learns intimately about both types of humans on Tschai. He also meets another staple character of the planetary romance, the exotically beautiful female (in this case, Ylin Ylan), whom he rescues from several situations of sexual peril. In order to get to his missing ship, Reith must lead a rebellion of subject humans, first against their despotic human masters and then against the Chasch themselves. When invited to remain as leader of the now liberated humans, Reith decides to continue his quest to return to Earth.
After finding his spacecraft gutted, Reith and his friends in Servants of the Wankh accompany Ylin Ylan to her people, the Yao. They are one of Vance’s typical human societies, stratified rigidly into castes, motivated solely by self-interest, and governed by bizarre rituals and customs. For example, Ylin Ylan, suffering a loss of face when Reith courts another girl, falls prey to a murderous frenzy known among the Yao as awaile and commits suicide.
Reith and his companions, attempting to steal a spaceship from another alien race, the Wankh, are taken prisoner. The Wankh communicate by an almost unintelligible system of chimelike sounds, and only the Wankhmen can communicate with them. Reith nevertheless is able to prove that it was the Wankhmen who destroyed the Earth ship in order to prolong the Wankh war with the Dirdir, thus maintaining their own monopoly on translating for the Wankh. The Wankhmen consequently are banished from the Wankh fortresses. As Reith observes, whereas the Chasch exploit humans, ironically it is the Wankhmen who have been exploiting their “masters.”
The Chasch and the Wankh are incomprehensible races; the Dirdir, descendants of leopardlike predators, are more familiar to humans. To raise the funds to build a spaceship, Reith and his companions in The Dirdir hunt for sequin-bearing rock, sequins being the main form of monetary exchange on Tschai. The drawback to this plan is that these rocks are located in the Carabas, the main hunting preserve of the Dirdir. There, the Dirdir are able to revert to their ancestry by hunting—and eating— human prospectors. Characteristically, Reith turns the tables on the Dirdir and preys on them. Reith must then enlist the help of an intermediary, the amoral Aila Woudiver, who subsequently betrays Reith and his companions to the Dirdir. Reith outwits them by appealing to the pack instincts of the Dirdir and showing them that it is they, and not the humans, who act like animals.
Woudiver’s last act of betrayal is to sell Reith to the mysterious indigenous inhabitants of Tschai in The Pnume. These creatures, who with their human analogues live in a vast complex of tunnels underneath Tschai, consider themselves the historians of the planet. In escaping from them, Reith befriends and then becomes involved with a Pnumekin girl, Zap 210. Most of the novel’s action takes place on the planet’s surface. Reith again outwits the inhabitants of various human societies on Tschai. Before departing for Earth, Reith makes one final act of liberation, freeing Zap 210 and all the Pnumekin from their alien domination.