The second volume of Otis Adelbert Kline’s Venusian ERB homage series, Prince of Peril, follows the exploits of Prince Zinlo of Olba, formerly Harry Thorne of Earth. In length, and as an episodic, one-damn-thing-after-another travelogue of Venus, it is similar to the first volume, Planet of Peril. However, while the first outing did not do much for me, the second scored some points.
Why? I believe it was the switch from third person in volume one to first person in volume two. There is something about the immediacy of a first person narrative that conveys greater verisimilitude. Third person depictions contain an inherent filter, a distancing. When what is being described is, perhaps, a trifle incredible, even a little silly, that third person distancing allows an easier detachment from suspension of disbelief. But with first person, I, the narrator, am telling you, the reader, directly what is happening to me. There isn’t some other notional person –who wasn’t even there — telling you what happened to someone else. So the great dinosaurs, ape-men civilizations, immortals in robot bodies, coincidences, etc., read as more plausible because there is one less step between the action and the reader.
There was one particular bit of action that I truly enjoyed. The firearms used on Venus shoot glass projectiles that contain either explosives, knockout drugs, or deadly poison. At one point, an antagonist of our hero is handling these projectiles manually, having been deprived of his gun. He is either throwing the knockout gas projectiles or stabbing with them. And in the process he accidentally pierces his own skin, becoming unconscious. It was so utterly human. I appreciated this, having recently finished the third book of Jonathan Mayberry’s Kagan the Damned series in which an army of heroes are all armed with weapons coated with an immensely potent poison. And not one of them ever accidentally nicked himself, not even in battle. That one incident in Prince of Peril added a note of reality that helped me encounter, without batting an eye, a two-mile high building and androids drinking battery acid for breakfast.
So, yes. I had a bit more fun with this one. Next up, The Port of Peril.
The release date of Twilight Galaxy: The Long Gambit is only days away. It is available for pre-order, or you can help make a big splash on the 29th. I think you’ll like this one. In the meantime, I just completed editing the third book, in response to the structural editors notes. That one should land near the end of the year. Happy reading.
