The re-reading took a short hiatus because someone gifted me a book. That in itself was pleasant. Even better was that the book in question was written by David Drake.
The Jungle is, unsurprisingly from Drake, a work of military science fiction. What is a trifle unexpected is that the setting is not original to him. Instead, he places his story in the setting created by Henry Kuttner (and, perhaps, C.L. Moore) in the novella Clash by Night (1943.) Venus is the sole human populated planet, having luckily been settled with underwater domes and seeded with Earth flora and fauna before Earth was destroyed in a nuclear catastrophe. (A concern of science fiction writers in the first half of the Twentieth Century was not nuclear war, but nuclear power plants running amok, in a sort of runaway chain reaction. c.f. Blowups Happen by RAH.) The domes are independent “keeps.” They settle disputes by hiring mercenary companies to fight naval engagements.
Drakes novel involves members of one such mercenary company, the crew of a hovercraft which is wrecked on the shore of an island. With its communications balloon destroyed, the crews’ only hope of rescue is reaching the top of the island which is high enough to transmit a radio signal. The island is the eponymous jungle, swarming with mutated animals and plants of terrestrial origin. Drake leans into the danger, horror, and action. (Think Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong then quadruple the threat.) The story bounces around chronologically, providing character backstories and explaining and expanding upon the Venus Kuttner described. The puzzle pieces fit beautifully, the final picture they create more than worth the time involved.
Clash by Night is stylistically different. Reading it after Jungle indicates that Drake took some liberties, and viewed the political situation through another lens. But none of that interferes with the quality or entertainment value of either story. Clash also features mercenaries, though it plays out the scenario and subsequent battle, rather than concentrating on a survival story. A brief section in Clash featuring a shipwreck and traversing a shoreline probably inspired Drake’s plot for Jungle. Kuttner, as you’d expect, writes a solid yarn, his philosophizing a bit more concentrated than Drake’s, who dilutes it more throughout his narrative. Of course, Drake had more room.
Both stories are well worth the investment of your time. If you want a more speculative time investment, pick up a copy of Twilight Times: Dekason. Get it soon, before the second book arrives.
