Customer Reviews

The Water of Thought

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This is am amateurish book that has a variety of good qualities to it. Most notable actually are the illustrations by Janet Aulisio (of FASA/Shadowrun fame), which make it worth picking up. One can empathize well with planeteer Boris Brazil, though one also becomes tired of the variety of `natives' on the planet. This novel is, principally, about conflict in a lack of resources.

Originally published in 1965 as half of an Ace Double, this novel was reprinted in slightly longer form, with illustrations, in a Tor Books edition in 1980.

Old-fashioned space adventure features "Planeteer" Boris Brazil (!), visiting backwater colony planet with intelligent natives whose rituals center around a liquid with unpredictable effects on the "earth-descended." After another planeteer drinks the Water of Thought and goes berserk, Boris follows him into the wilderness, and ultimately learns what the water is and how it works on the native species.

Short on characterization, long on action and ideas, this is a fairly entertaining early 60's potboiler; not particularly well-written but readable.