Lin Carter

Green Star — (1972-1976) Publisher: On Earth, life held for him only the fate of a recluse — confined to daydreams and the lore of ancient wonders but apparently destined never to share them — until he found the formula that let him cross space to the world of the Green Star. There, appearing in the body of a fabled hero, he is to experience all that his heroid fantasies had yearned for. A princess to be saved... an invader to be thwarted... and otherworldly monsters to be faced! A thrilling adventure in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, as only Lin Carter can tell it! This edition includes an afterword by Lin Carter.

Under the Green Star

Under the Green Star is Lin Carter’s homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs and it’s a quick, fun, exciting adventure with some terrific scenery. Our hero (who’s telling the story in first person) was crippled by polio when he was a child and, as an adult, he’s confined to a wheelchair. He’s wealthy, though, so he has managed to get hold of an ancient scroll that describes the lost Tibetan science of eckankar — soul travel. After years of studying, he manages to free his soul from his crippled body so that he can explore the Earth... and beyond!

It’s not long before he finds himself on a green star which supports a beautiful land where people live in the trees and ride dragonflies. When he gets too close to the crystal-encased tomb of one of their ancient heroes, his soul is sucked into the hero’s body which then comes back to life, fulfilling one of their prophecies. He is now the protector of their beautiful princess and, in his new and vigorous body, he has adventures.

Under the Green Star will likely feel derivative to readers who’ve read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I haven’t, but it did remind me of several other works I’m familiar with: Abraham Merritt’s The Moon Pool (both the story and the writing style are very similar), John Norman’s Gor stories (Earth man becomes a hero on another planet) and Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series (diseased Earth man become a hero in a beautiful land).

The best part of Under the Green Star is the setting: a spectacular shady world with trees that have branches as wide as highways (or maybe the trees are normal-sized and the people are tiny — our hero never learns which is true). The people live in cities high up in the trees because dangerous monsters live on the floor of the forest.

The story is fast-paced and exciting and easily read in a day. Although it was really fun, there are a couple of problems with Under the Green Star. Foremost is the severely exhausting infuriating redundant extreme overuse of adjectives and descriptors:

Her face was fine-boned, heart-shaped, exquisite. Beneath delicately arched brows, her eyes were enormous wells of depthless amber flame wherein flakes of gold fire trembled. Thick jetty lashes enshadowed the dark flame of her eyes, but her hair, elaborately teased and twisted and coiffed, was startlingly white: a fantastic confection of frosted sugar, and exquisite construction of spun silver. Her mouth was a luscious rosebud, daintily pink, moistly seductive. A delicate flower of superb and breathtaking loveliness was Niamh the Fair, when first I looked upon her there on the gilt throne, bathed in shafts of somber and ruby light from the hollow dome above.

That makes me want to gag and effortlessly brings me to my next point: that’s about all there is to the princess when our hero decides he’s in love with her. She looks like cotton candy (and her personality’s about as substantial as cotton candy, too). But, what did I expect? I’ve read enough old SFF to know not to expect much more from this type of story. It wasn’t written for me, anyway.

The Kindle version of Under the Green Star is only $2.69 (at this writing) and I was pleased with its quality. I gave the book only a 3 star rating, but because it’s short, fun, and cheap, I recommend it to anyone who wants to further their education in old SFF. —Kat Hooper

When the Green Star Calls

Wildside Press has recently been producing Lin Carter’s books in audio format and, since I read the first of his GREEN STAR series on my Kindle last year, I picked up the second book, When the Green Star Calls, on audio. These novels are short planetary SF adventures similar to the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In the first volume, Under the Green Star, we met our narrator who has been crippled since childhood. After discovering the ancient Tibetan eckankar, a method of freeing the soul from the body so that it can travel unhindered, he found an exotic planet with a green star, entered the body of one of the planet’s ancient heroes, and fell in love with a princess. While defending her, he died and was abruptly brought back to his unsatisfactory earthly body.

Some time has passed when we meet him again in When the Green Star Calls. This time when he travels to the green star planet, he enters the dying body of a teenage boy. He hopes to find out if the princess he loves is alive, captured, or dead, but he doubts she’ll be interested in his new youthful self.

I knew what I was in for with When the Green Star Calls — a fast pulpy adventure requiring few working synapses, so I read it when I was in the mood for that sort of thing, and it was indeed entertaining. Besides the beautiful scenery, there’s also a decaying city to explore, mutant vegetable vampires, man-eating insects, and mad scientists.

Lin Carter’s narrative is sometimes repetitive, the dialogue is sometimes stilted, and the writing is sometimes overdone to the point of hilarity. For example, a map is a “cartographic guide” and a hairless man is not simply “bald,” he’s “devoid of hirsute adornment.” And then there are comical sentences like this one: “...he had an indescribable accent I can only describe as the Laonese equivalent of cockney.” I think these little kinks make the story even more fun — it‘s just so pulpy.

Wildside Press is new to audiobooks. They’re using Audible’s new do-it-yourself ACX system with narrators I’ve never heard of, so I was concerned about the quality of the production. At least in this case, I needn’t have worried. When the Green Star Calls was narrated by Joel Richards, who isn’t going to be declared my favorite narrator any time soon, but who was quite pleasant to listen to nonetheless. Some of Mr. Richards’ dialogue was stilted, but that could very well have been Lin Carter’s fault. Overall, this was a nice performance and I will definitely be picking up some more of Wildside Press’s offerings at Audible. When the Green Star Calls ended, kind of annoyingly, on a cliffhanger, so I’ve already downloaded the next adventure: By the Light of the Green Star. —Kat Hooper

By the Light of the Green Star

By the Light of the Green Star continues the adventures of the crippled man from Earth who has taught his spirit to travel to an unknown planet where he inhabits healthy bodies and has exciting adventures. The previous volume, When the Green Star Calls, ended on a cliffhanger. Our hero is still in the body of the savage youth and he’s still trying to rescue the princess who he loves but who will not know him if he even manages to find her.

The story continues to be told in the first person, but our hero, who is now stranded with some unscrupulous companions on the dangerous forest floor, also narrates the events occurring simultaneously to the princess who is now a prisoner in a city in the air. Our narrator justifies his omniscience by saying he heard her side of the story later, but it doesn’t really work — it’s rather clumsily done.

But, this isn’t a novel to expect better from. This is something you read just for mindless entertainment, and mindless entertainment is something that By the Light of the Green Star does quite well. This time we get to visit an ornate flying city, fight giant worms, ride huge birds of prey, drink from cup-sized acorns, and travel down the river on a canoe made from a gigantic curled up leaf. The princess spends most of her time being a laboratory specimen. It’s nice to get to know her better (she actually has a personality!) and we meet several other fun heroes and villains.
This is the third GREEN STAR novel (there are five in the series) and though the adventure is still fresh, there is much repetition in the narrative. I haven’t decided if I’ll read the next installment or not. If Wildside Press produces it on audio, I probably will.

I’m glad that Wildside Press is starting to put old SFF on audio. These productions are well done and I plan to listen to several more I’ve seen in the Audible catalog. This is a great way for busy people to easily consume some classic SFF. —Kat Hooper

Stand-alone novels:

Tower at the Edge of Time — (1968) Publisher: MAN OF THE SWORD. Thane, the restless outworld warrior, was a man of blood and steel, a man of strange powers strangely acquired. His body was god-like: bronzed, lithe and powerful; his pale eyes warned that he could explode into limitless fury at any moment. Thane was a warrior, but he was also a seeker, for only he could find the secret of the Time Treasure. No one else in the universe could cross the Abyss of the Ages and go where no man had ever been before, where none should ever go again.

The Black Star — (1973) Publisher: The creator of Jandar and Thongor opens up an awesome new world of adventure with Diodric the Warrior.

Found Wanting — (1985)  Publisher: He knew his name, Kyon. He wore the garb of a gardener — but that was all he knew. The city of Urbs was a maze of wonders and terrors. Kyon had to do something, to go somewhere, but no one would tell him. And it was important!

Lost World of Time — (1969) Publisher: Destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy, the warrior Sargon strode through the gates of Chalsadon-the last refuge of a once-proud empire. Only Sargon, a Barbarian and an Outsider, could stem the slaughter. Only he could wield the deadly golden maul, covered with the dust of centuries. Only he was fated to test the necromancy of Shadrazar, the beautiful Black Lord of Chaos. But Sargon was mortal...