Poco después de situarse en órbita alrededor del planeta Tschai, la nave estelar Explorator IV es destruida por un proyectil. La lanzadera de Adam Reith, que en el momento del ataque se dirigía a la superficie en misión de reconocimiento, resulta dañada por la explosión, lo que obliga al explorador a efectuar un aterrizaje de emergencia. Separado de su nave, Reith descubre un mundo lleno de violencia que está dominado por cuatro razas alienígenas: los chasch, los dirdir, los wannek y los pnume. Para su sorpresa, en él también habitan seres humanos que viven sometidos a esas criaturas.

In response to a signal from a planet over 200 light years from Earth, a ship is sent to investigate. Upon reaching the planet, two astronauts named Adam Reith and Paul Waunder are dispatched in a small scout ship. Soon after, missiles fired from the planet destroy the mothership and damage the scout ship, forcing it to crash land.

Injured, Reith and Waunder are soon captured by a band of primitive warriors. Waunder is immediately beheaded by one of the soldiers. Their teenage leader, later introduced as Traz Onmale, rages against the man and strips him of his rank and status by removing the man’s Emblem.

The scout ship’s crash also attracts the attention of rival clans known as the Blue Chasch and the Dirdir. Each newly arriving group drives away the next until Onmale’s soldiers finally chase the Dirdir away before transporting the injured Reith back to their village. Unfortunately, during the chaos, the Blue Chasch manage to depart with the wreckage of Reith’s scout ship.

Once healed, Reith manages to do exactly what you would expect in any “fish out of water” story—he violates the customs, and questions the beliefs, of Onmale’s people, resulting in a series of misunderstandings, some of which spark violent confrontations.

Eventually, Reith convinces Traz to join him on a quest to recover his scout ship from the Blue Chasch and together, they embark on a daring expedition across the planet. Along the way, they befriend a Dirdirman named Anacho, engage in battle against an insane beast known as the Phung, join a traveling clan of traders and rescue a young woman from a misandrist clan of sadistic priestesses, encounter a clan of sadistic pranksters known as the Green Chasch, overthrow the corrupt chief of a ruined town, and much more…

City of the Chasch is evocative of the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs with Adam Reith and Chasch taking the place of John Carter and Barsoom (as Mars is known to its inhabitants). Jack Vance does an exemplary job of revealing the complex cultures, conflicts, and characteristics of his world as the story unfolds. There are no significant infodumps here, allowing for a reasonably fast-paced tale. While there is nothing spectacular about the story, City of the Chasch holds up as a sturdy SF yarn and is the first in a tetralogy in Vance’s Planet of Adventure series. ( )

Een onderzoeker van het Aarde ruimteschip Explorer 4 komt na een noodlanding op de planeet Tschai. Daar wordt hij eerst de slaaf van de Embleem-mensen, een volk waar bij de mannen geleidt worden door de emblemen die zij aannemen. Na hersteld te zijn van zijn verwondingen dood Reith een tegenstander, en vlucht later samen met de leider van de stam. Zij sluiten zich aan bij een karavaan waarin ook een meisje meereist. Zij is de gevangene van een groep Priesteressen. Het lukt Reith om haar te bevrijden, maar dan raakt hij haar weer kwijt aan de priesteressen.


( )

This was cool, very retro in a Burroughs-esque sci-fi/fantasy mashup kind of way. Pretty light on characterization, heavy on world building and about medium on action. I guess there are more books in the series, but I probably won't get to them, just too many other books out there that I might love. ( )

This is a tough one. Not having read Jack Vance I did not know what to expect. It's pure space opera and a bit adolescent. At first I couldn't get excited and almost put it down. Then the story picked up and became interesting.

I liked it once I realized was reading a more modern Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars. If you like the John Carter stories you may like Jack Vance stories. Similar style and similar hero.

As I read the rating went from 3 stars to 4. ( )