Book Review: Planets for Sale by A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull
Evana Travis was supposed to be traveling to live with her sister on Doridora III. But there was a reason this spaceflight was so inexpensive. After Earth had finally gotten its act together and improved working conditions to be actually comfortable, the stream of immigrants to the Ridge Worlds had dwindled. So the Ridge Worlds had come up with a new gimmick, cheaper-than-cost outbound flights…that didn’t go where claimed! Instead, each shipload is sent to a world that needs more people, in this case Delfi II.
We will eventually see that this isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to Evana, but her troubles are just beginning. Fresh off the ship, Evana is abducted and injected with a seven-day poison that only her captors have an antidote to. These men want her to become private secretary to Artur Blord, top “operator” of the planet. This is more easily accomplished than Evana would have thought, as Blord has a well-known type.
Artur Blord is intelligent, handsome, super-competent and astonishingly rich, so it’s no surprise that Evana starts falling in love with her boss. Too bad her mission is to betray him!
This is a fix-up novel from several short stories written at least in part by Edna May Hull van Vogt, wife of A.E. van Vogt. They were originally published under her name alone, but his writing style is pretty obvious from time to time in the narrative. Possibly her main contribution is that Evana and other women in the stories get to actually do things.
Make no mistake, Artur Blord is the star of this book. He’s almost always two steps ahead of the competition, so prepared that he has a selection of corpses stored away in various locations just in case he ever needs a decoy corpse. One of his few worthy opponents is the Skal, a seemingly immortal lizard-thing of immense mental powers who develops a grudging respect for Blord.
Oh, and one of Blord’s amazing talents is that he’s still friends with all of his exes!
The book comes within an ace of passing the Bechdel Test. Two named women have a conversation about science…but we don’t see it, instead Evana tells Blord about it later. (And no, it’s not just because Blord is the hero, we have several scenes with Evana or Marian (the scientist) alone or talking with men who aren’t Blord.)
The Ridge Stars are not a friendly place for women overall; polygyny is a recognized thing but not polyandry, and sex slavery for women only is a repeated plot element. (Blord’s against it, but he can’t be everywhere.) Brainwashing technology exists, and both good and bad guys use it.
The final storyline ties up the various plot pieces nicely, and Blord realizes that the Ridge Stars will have to move on to a more civilized way of life as he himself is settling down.
While as mentioned the women in the story do get a look in, this is very much a book for readers who like their heroes omnicompetent and beholden to no lesser men. There’s a smack of protagonist-centered morality too, Blord lying and murdering when he feels the whim doesn’t stop him from being treated as a paragon by the narrative.
Recommended with reservations for those who like van Vogt’s style.
