Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Ace Books (1978), Mass Market Paperback
Description
Charley Lysidder, the Bajarnum of Beaujolais, was ruthlessly expanding his empire on the Big Planet. The objective of the mission from Earth was to ensure that the whole world didn¿t fall under the domination of the tyrant. But, when sabotage brought down the spacecraft carrying the mission, the priority changed. The survivors of the crash faced an epic 40,000 mile trek to deftly, across the vast and unknown surface of the planet, harassed by monsters and the native people, and by each other.
Media reviews
Like Cabell, Vance in this book (and of course others) declined the chance at world-building, preferring instead to construct scenarios which the reader is forced to accept purely on their own terms. ... Well, that was OK, I guess, quite fun in places, but, er, so what?
Instead of a thinly rationalized displacement of the opulent East or some other mundane historical epoch to an extraterrestrial setting, Big Planet was fully thought through, its ecology, economics, technology, and political organization carefully formulated, so much so that the conviction persists
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that it is not the characters who serve as the book's protagonists, but rather Big Planet itself. ... Within larger contexts of idealism radically challenged and the powerful rendered powerless, Vance makes many telling points as his richly dramatic adventure story unfolds. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member clong
As far as I can tell, this is the book that spawned the "trek across a land which is lined with an unending array of unique cultures that don't know anything beyond their neighbors, a land which is so huge you'd never get to the end" subgenre (paving the way for books like Ringworld, To Your
Big Planet has a few clever turns, but I found much more to dislike than to like (and I have generally been a pretty big Jack Vance fan). The world-building is inconsistent: a couple of the societies are intriguing and original while others are only briefly sketched and couldn't possibly function. My favorite society was the one where everyone lives like royalty one third of the time, but has to live like a servant to royalty the other two thirds of the time. The society which had amassed great wealth by duping people into thinking they offered the only safe passage through a perilous danger (the illusion of which they themselves had created and maintained) was also rather clever.
Vance starts us out with a big cast of characters which, except for our protagonist and the lovely native girl who becomes the party's guide, are anonymous and completely interchangeable. But don't worry about trying to keep track of who's who. . . most of them will be killed off in the first few hundred miles of the forty thousand mile trek to safety that the group undertakes.
By far the biggest problem with this book is the last twenty pages. The ending is ridiculous. It's like Vance suddenly got bored with the idea and said "well enough of this, it's time for the good guy to win and get the girl and everyone to live happily ever after and be done with it." It would have been sooooooo much better if the girl (who to nobody's surprise turns out to have been a double agent who has fallen in love with the man she was supposed to lead to disaster) had sacrificed herself to save the protagonist from the trap she had helped to spring, leaving him alone (or with one or two other survivors) and still facing the final 39,000 miles to safety after only having learned that none of these thirty nine thousands were likely to be much like the first thousand (not to mention the fact that such an ending would have offered the opportunity for sequels).
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Scattered Bodies Go, etc.), a subgenre that I gather is sometimes referred to as “planetary romance.” The story follows a group of Earth based scientists whose sabotaged ship crash-lands on a big planet called, you guessed it, “Big Planet,” leaving them with a couple of high tech weapons, a forty thousand mile trek through barbarian lands to safety, and the knowledge that at least one of the survivors is a traitor. Big Planet has a few clever turns, but I found much more to dislike than to like (and I have generally been a pretty big Jack Vance fan). The world-building is inconsistent: a couple of the societies are intriguing and original while others are only briefly sketched and couldn't possibly function. My favorite society was the one where everyone lives like royalty one third of the time, but has to live like a servant to royalty the other two thirds of the time. The society which had amassed great wealth by duping people into thinking they offered the only safe passage through a perilous danger (the illusion of which they themselves had created and maintained) was also rather clever.
Vance starts us out with a big cast of characters which, except for our protagonist and the lovely native girl who becomes the party's guide, are anonymous and completely interchangeable. But don't worry about trying to keep track of who's who. . . most of them will be killed off in the first few hundred miles of the forty thousand mile trek to safety that the group undertakes.
By far the biggest problem with this book is the last twenty pages. The ending is ridiculous. It's like Vance suddenly got bored with the idea and said "well enough of this, it's time for the good guy to win and get the girl and everyone to live happily ever after and be done with it." It would have been sooooooo much better if the girl (who to nobody's surprise turns out to have been a double agent who has fallen in love with the man she was supposed to lead to disaster) had sacrificed herself to save the protagonist from the trap she had helped to spring, leaving him alone (or with one or two other survivors) and still facing the final 39,000 miles to safety after only having learned that none of these thirty nine thousands were likely to be much like the first thousand (not to mention the fact that such an ending would have offered the opportunity for sequels).
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LibraryThing member EmScape
A commission is sent from Earth to Big Planet to investigate the new Conqueror and see whether there should be any kind of intervention. Unfortunately, the ship crashes due to sabotage and the group sets out on a 40,000 mile journey to the other side of the planet and the safety of Earth Enclave.
Now that I think about it, I was enjoying it just fine until my favorite character died [I don't consider this a spoiler because you don't have any idea who my favorite character is.] and now I'm just pissed. And sad. I don't want to talk about this anymore.
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Not Everyone Is Going To Make It. Danger Lurks At Every Corner. Fantastic Creatures Abound. I gather this is an early example of the Quest through a Strange Land type of novel, so you can't fault it for being unimaginative, and some might call it a progenitor, but unfortunately it's not one of the first that I read.Now that I think about it, I was enjoying it just fine until my favorite character died [I don't consider this a spoiler because you don't have any idea who my favorite character is.] and now I'm just pissed. And sad. I don't want to talk about this anymore.
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LibraryThing member wjohnston
Not sure where I heard about this one; maybe Damon Knight's "In Search of Wonder." I thought it sounded interesting and I finally found a copy.
It's a quick read. It strikes me as a proto-Ringworld - the planet it takes place on is literally a big planet (maybe Jupiter size or larger), and the
It begins with a ship crash, and the survivors needing to get to the one place where Earth has a presence. So they travel through various territories, and then the plot takes a twist and gets resolved neatly and quickly. I'm not a huge fan of the abrupt ending; on the other hand, if this had been written today, I could see where you could stretch it into a huge series of 'Song of Ice and Fire'-length tomes.
There are some troubling racial undertones (not particularly surprising, and not too prominent). I think there was room for Vance to stretch it out a little bit, but all in all it's a fun read and I'm curious to read the follow-up (which stands on its own as it only shares the setting of Big Planet).
It's a quick read. It strikes me as a proto-Ringworld - the planet it takes place on is literally a big planet (maybe Jupiter size or larger), and the
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descendants of the colonists have formed different societies, and there are nomads and lawless bands and so on. There is little or no metal in the planet itself, so metal from offworlders carries immense value.It begins with a ship crash, and the survivors needing to get to the one place where Earth has a presence. So they travel through various territories, and then the plot takes a twist and gets resolved neatly and quickly. I'm not a huge fan of the abrupt ending; on the other hand, if this had been written today, I could see where you could stretch it into a huge series of 'Song of Ice and Fire'-length tomes.
There are some troubling racial undertones (not particularly surprising, and not too prominent). I think there was room for Vance to stretch it out a little bit, but all in all it's a fun read and I'm curious to read the follow-up (which stands on its own as it only shares the setting of Big Planet).
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LibraryThing member questbird
It was a pleasure to find a Jack Vance book which I hadn't read before. This is a famous planetary romance, set on the eponymous Big Planet. This world is huge, lacking in metal, and filled with disparate wacky cultures and individuals self-exiled from Earth. But Earth maintains a watchful presence
The characters in the Earth party are led by Claude Glystra. All are rather briefly sketched; more attention is paid to the landscapes, piquant places and golden sunsets of the Big Planet.
This book reminded me of Vance's Planet of Adventure which shares similar themes and is the superior of the two in my opinion. However Big Planet was a moderately enjoyable read with many memorable encounters.
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there nevertheless, watchful for tyrants like the Bajarnum of Beaujolais. A party of Earthmen set out to correct the behaviour of this Bajarnum, only to crash land due to treachery forty-thousand miles from their destination.The characters in the Earth party are led by Claude Glystra. All are rather briefly sketched; more attention is paid to the landscapes, piquant places and golden sunsets of the Big Planet.
This book reminded me of Vance's Planet of Adventure which shares similar themes and is the superior of the two in my opinion. However Big Planet was a moderately enjoyable read with many memorable encounters.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1957
Physical description
224 p.; 17.5 cm
ISBN
0441061710 / 9780441061716
Local notes
Omslag: Vincent Di Fate
Omslaget viser en stor planet og billeder af en mand, en kvinde, en kriger og et dinosauruslignende dyr
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser en stor planet og billeder af en mand, en kvinde, en kriger og et dinosauruslignende dyr
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Similar in this library
Series
Pages
224
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |