The third book of Otis Adelbert Kline’s Venus trilogy is The Port of Peril. For some reason it is the only one of the three that takes the definite article.
Robert Grandon once again takes center stage. While I do miss the immediacy of the first-person narration of the second book, Port is a significant improvement over the episodic travelogue of Venus that was the first book. Port is decidedly more plot drive, a plot that Kline never loses sight of. The focus avoids the scattershot, kitchen-sink approach of the first book, while still allowing room for world building and showing off new civilizations and creatures. Though the plot is yet another variation on rescue-the-princess, it holds up. The pace of the action keeps the pages turning. And there’s a happy ending for all, except the thousands of slaughtered villains, whose endings were probably not happy.
So, slight, lightweight, and derivative — admittedly derivative. There are worse ways to kill a few hours. Do I recommend the series? No. But I wouldn’t discourage your reading it.
I would, however, encourage your reading of Twilight Galaxy: Long Gambit. I think you’d enjoy it (the first stars have appeared in the sky of Amazon.) And, frankly, with the job search entering the sixth month, my mortgage payments could benefit from receipt of my side of the book-for-money transaction. Tacky and commercial. But true. Happy reading.
