Customer Reviews

The Starmen of Llyrdis

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Leigh Brackett was a prolific writer for pulp science fiction magazines, especially Planet Stories, in the 40's and 50's. The Starmen of Llyrdis reads like an expanded pulp tale. To a generation used to 500 page novels, it's a quick read. Character development takes a back seat to action, and scientific details are brushed over in favor of adventure and G-rated romance. But Action and Adventure are good things, and Brackett keeps the reader entertained as the tightly constructed story moves along.

The gist of the story is that an Earthman, Michael Trehearne, discovers that there are human-looking aliens from the planet Llyrdis trading on Earth. They are the only race genetically capable of withstanding space flight, thanks to a mutation engineered 1000 years ago by a Llyrdian named Orthis. Michael for some reason has the same mutation, though, so he returns with the aliens to Llyrdis. He learns that Orthis had intended to share the mutation with all races, but was chased off Llyrdis so that his home planet could maintain a monopoly on interstellar trade. As Michael experiences the star trade first hand, he becomes sympathetic to Orthis' point of view, and he and a band of others set out to fulfill Orthis' dream to make spaceflight available to all.

It's not a classic, but it is a quick, fun read from a different era of science fiction. Enjoy!

Starmen is a standard 1950's space opera, with all that entails - originally published in a pulp magazine (Startling Stories I think, which I am sure was much the same as Amazing Stories, or Planet Stories, or what have you) and then published as a book by Gnome Press, and later as an abridged version in an Ace Double. I think this Ballantyne 1976 edition is the full version, at 150 pages.

Ok, I have called it standard 50's stuff, but that's not to damn it, not at all. For a start, its Leigh Brackett, so there is a harsh - almost cruel - edge to a pretty standard story: Michael Trehearne has always felt out of place, and this wanderlust has led him through a string of jobs - culminating in being a test pilot - and to Brittany in search of his roots. What he finds is that he is a throwback to genetically modified stock: a starman, able to endure the "ultra-speed" of interstellar (as opposed to in-system) space travel.

The starman are respected traders - not planetary rulers, or running an evil empire - but they do maintain the monopoly, and this monopoly is based on the work of an ancient scientist who wished to make it available to all the races of the galaxy, but was prevented by the earliest starmen, ages ago.

Trehearne is the first crack in that monopoly, and that is the crux of the novel - his life is in danger, there's a pretty girl who is dangerous too, and a secret Orthist cult seeking to make the star-faring mutation available to all.

This is a fun romp, pulsing with energy, written with cinematic vividness. There are rough edges, sure, but that only adds to the charm: this is gritty stuff, not processed into blandness, for all the tale is formulaic. Maybe you wont be surprised by the plot, but the writing will wow you so much you wont care.

I'm an interstellar trading lord, how about you?

An earth man finds out that we aren't alone, and he is one of the few that has the genetics for space travel.

Therein lies the conflict, this genetic issue. Those that have it, and the conservative faction would rather like to keep their moneymaking and power monopoly thanks very much, while a rebel group would like for everyone to eventually be able to do space in a big way. The previous leader of which has disappeared into the depths of space.

Still, pretty reasonably handled by Brackett, and worth a look.

3.5 out of 5