Customer Reviews

The Venom Trees of Sunga

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The Venom Trees of Sunga by Grand Master L. Sprague de Camp seems to lie along the border of not only science fiction and fantasy but of the traditional tale and its modern equivalent. While the book is interesting and features some lively characters, I have to admit that I never felt myself fully immersed in the environment of Sunga, a region on the planet Kukulcan. It is a purely alien environment, featuring exotic vegetation and an advanced form of reptilian life possessing a philosophy and lifestyle diametrically opposed to human life. Actually, I should say Terran life, for the natives of this planet refer to themselves as human beings; visiting Terrans are the aliens on this world. This novel features a typical de Camp hero, a scrawny, rather mousy scientist named Kirk Salazar who has come to Sunga in order to complete the research for his dissertation. It is his intention to learn exactly how the planet's native kusis are able to survive in their native forest of venom trees - the nanshin trees squirts deadly acid on any other being that comes into contact with them. As events unfold, the deadly venom of the nanshin trees comes to be the least of Salazar's concerns.

A number of unique characters place themselves in the way of scientific progress in the novel. A famous representative of the Terran Gnostic religion, working in conjunction with a boorish, womanizing brute of a man, is scheming with the local High Chief Yaamo to cut the forests down and make way for an influx of Terrans on the planet. The group of tourists Salazar has joined (as the cheapest way for him to get to Sunga to do his research) can be rather annoying in and of themselves, but the greatest danger comes from Alexis Ritter, a deadly young Terran who serves as the high priestess of a cult of Terrans up in the mountains. Salazar is to have a number of unforgettable adventures with and on account of her.

The basic story itself proved rather boring at times, and it definitely seemed to go out with a whimper as opposed to a bang. The heroic as well as morally questionable acts we find Salazar committing as conditions change do not quite fit with his supposed nature of a naïve, overzealous scholar, leading me to look elsewhere for a source of true connection with the characters inhabiting this alien world. The most interesting part of this particular novel, at least to me, is the race of "human beings" inhabiting the planet Kukulcan. These reptilian natives are referred to as "Kooks," and they are a fascinating race of beings. They express emotions through color changes on the scales of their neck, obey a strong moral code far more noble than that of Terrans, and speak Terran in a clumsy manner that can be comical at times to the reader. The book takes a while to get rolling, due largely to a tremendous amount of alien terms and names thrown at the reader in the opening pages, and the steam the narrative eventually manages to build up begins to fade long before the conclusion, making The Trees of Sunga an interesting but far from compelling read; certainly, it does not number among de Camp's more noteworthy novels.

Kirk Salazar represents the typical de Camp approach to a book: rather than a big, brawny hero, Kirk is a scholar, short and intellectual, set apon the task of figuring out the way the branch climbing kusis manage to live amoung the venom trees in the island of Sunga on the Kukulcan planet. The venom trees having adopted a defense of spraying acid at dangers, including people.

An easy enough task except for the intervention of people, from a land developer who simply wants to cut the forest down for lumber to a quasi-preistess come to reside among a back-to nature cult in the same area. The local dinosauroid natives simply add flavor to the typical mix up of different people striving for different goals, none of which match.

Too bad so few books were written in the setting. It has the classical semi-barbaric atmosphere of old novels (steam engines, great lizards, jungle) with modern themes and prose the reader can relate to.