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jeriendhalRe-read this one after having sit on my shelf for well over a decade. It was worth it. :)
Summary: Two years after having crash-landed on the icy world of Tran-Ky-Ky, travelling salesman turned adventurer Ethan Fortune is well and ready to return to warmer planets, as is his companions Skua September, a man who's personality matches his oversized frame, and Walter Milliken, a schoolteacher who turned his book learning into a chance for the catlike natives of Tran-Ky-Ky to join the Humanx Commonwealth
Two years after having met their human friends, Hunnar Redbeard and the rest of his crew are ready to finally pilot their marvelous "icerigger", the Slanderscree, back to home port to report their adventures and return to long absent family.
Too bad there's a third party on Tran-Ky-Ky now who wants to change the world for the better. Better for themselves.
I remember reading this third novel of ADF's Icerigger trilogy when I was in my teens and being a bit annoyed. Gone was the rollicking adventure from the first two books, to be replaced by a set of villians with a scheme that wouldn't have looked out of place in a James Bond movie. Upon re-reading it I think I'm mature enough to realize the villians really weren't the main focus of the story. They drive the plot, but the real conflict is between the Tran and the forces of "Civilization" in general.
I have to wonder if Foster's inspiration for this novel had anything to do with his growing infatuation with Africa and its myriad of cultures, not to mention their own troubled history of contacts with European and American civilizations. The Tran can stand in for any number of native peoples, initially appearing to Ethan as fractious, violent and primitive. But primitive doesn't mean "stupid" and while Hunnar his fellow Tran find friendship with the stranded humans, they always were portrayed as having their own agendas that parallel, not hang on, their human companion's actions.
At the center of things is the question of who decides what's best for the Tran. Ethan and his friends have certainly changed them. The introduction of advanced sailing tech and crossbows have given Hunnar's home government a leg up on their neighbors, which was frankly done so the three humans could have a chance at getting back to the small Commonwealth research station that's their ticket home. But the tech was offered freely, with the explicit assumption that whatever the Tran wanted to do with it after the humans reached Brass Monkey is their own business. Even in book two, when Ethan pushes Hunnar to form a world government to be able to petition the Commonwealth for full member status, it was to insure that the Tran are able to determine their own fate.
But in this book the enemy is a secret research station "Traniforming" the planet to raise it prematurely to the temperate state it would normally assume as it swung sunward in it's long elipitcal orbit. Though their intentions are stated to be in the natives' best interests, their actions reveal their callous contempt for the local "primitives", setting up a puppet "Emperor" to serve their interests, as many a former colonial power has propped up local dictators to make sure the flow of valuable metals and minerals keeps coming to the Western World.
Fortunately the Tran have better luck at self determination than many ex-colonial nations. Such is the advantage of being science fiction.
Summary: Two years after having crash-landed on the icy world of Tran-Ky-Ky, travelling salesman turned adventurer Ethan Fortune is well and ready to return to warmer planets, as is his companions Skua September, a man who's personality matches his oversized frame, and Walter Milliken, a schoolteacher who turned his book learning into a chance for the catlike natives of Tran-Ky-Ky to join the Humanx Commonwealth
Two years after having met their human friends, Hunnar Redbeard and the rest of his crew are ready to finally pilot their marvelous "icerigger", the Slanderscree, back to home port to report their adventures and return to long absent family.
Too bad there's a third party on Tran-Ky-Ky now who wants to change the world for the better. Better for themselves.
I remember reading this third novel of ADF's Icerigger trilogy when I was in my teens and being a bit annoyed. Gone was the rollicking adventure from the first two books, to be replaced by a set of villians with a scheme that wouldn't have looked out of place in a James Bond movie. Upon re-reading it I think I'm mature enough to realize the villians really weren't the main focus of the story. They drive the plot, but the real conflict is between the Tran and the forces of "Civilization" in general.
I have to wonder if Foster's inspiration for this novel had anything to do with his growing infatuation with Africa and its myriad of cultures, not to mention their own troubled history of contacts with European and American civilizations. The Tran can stand in for any number of native peoples, initially appearing to Ethan as fractious, violent and primitive. But primitive doesn't mean "stupid" and while Hunnar his fellow Tran find friendship with the stranded humans, they always were portrayed as having their own agendas that parallel, not hang on, their human companion's actions.
At the center of things is the question of who decides what's best for the Tran. Ethan and his friends have certainly changed them. The introduction of advanced sailing tech and crossbows have given Hunnar's home government a leg up on their neighbors, which was frankly done so the three humans could have a chance at getting back to the small Commonwealth research station that's their ticket home. But the tech was offered freely, with the explicit assumption that whatever the Tran wanted to do with it after the humans reached Brass Monkey is their own business. Even in book two, when Ethan pushes Hunnar to form a world government to be able to petition the Commonwealth for full member status, it was to insure that the Tran are able to determine their own fate.
But in this book the enemy is a secret research station "Traniforming" the planet to raise it prematurely to the temperate state it would normally assume as it swung sunward in it's long elipitcal orbit. Though their intentions are stated to be in the natives' best interests, their actions reveal their callous contempt for the local "primitives", setting up a puppet "Emperor" to serve their interests, as many a former colonial power has propped up local dictators to make sure the flow of valuable metals and minerals keeps coming to the Western World.
Fortunately the Tran have better luck at self determination than many ex-colonial nations. Such is the advantage of being science fiction.
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Date: 2009-09-04 07:27 am (UTC)You have me intregued. I'll have to look out for it.
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Date: 2009-09-04 08:14 am (UTC)I'll check out my local used bookstores for you, and see if I can't finally get your care package off to you. :)