The Queen of Zamba

Viagens Interplanetarias #1

by L. Sprague de Camp

Includes the novelette "Perpetual Motion".

Meet Victor Hasselborg, easily the most miserable Private Investigator in the entire galaxy. More comfortable with the dull routine of investigating insurance frauds than interstellar adventure, Hasselborg is bound by duty to chase a runaway heiress across known space to the primitive world called Krishna. Clad in kilt and sword, his hair dyed green, riding a buggy driven by a six-legged monster of a beast, Hasselborg's quest takes him through the volatile world of feudal Krishna politics and into the presence of... The Queen of Zamba.

A rollicking tale of galactic adventure - space opera at its very best, by one of the writers who invented the field.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Adventure, Literature

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sprague de Camp wrote a number of sword and planet adventures under the umbrella of the Viagens Interplanarias tales, and The Queen of Zamba collects the first two: the titular and 'Perpetual Motion', both set on Krishna, a feudal-like planet of hominids, albeit with green hair and reproduce by laying eggs. The humor exhibited here will either make or break this series; for me, I found it a bit too much yuk yuk that has not aged very well (these were first published in 1949).

I read a lot of Sprague de Camp back in the 70s, mostly sword and planet adventures, but also Conan and other fantasy works. Sometimes his works were serious, and some comedies, and this falls into the latter camp; maybe humorous space opera would be the best fit. Viagens runs the space ships, headquartered in Brazil, the dominant economic power of Federated Earth. Earthlings are not permitted to bring new tech to Krishna

The people were endoskeletal, bisexual, oviparous, bipedal organisms enough like humans beings so that one could pass himself off with a little skillful disguise... They had a pre-mechanical culture characterized by such archaisms as war, national sovereignty, epidemics, hereditary status, and private ownership of natural resources.

Digs like this I enjoyed, but much of the humor consisted of sexist jokes and such. The Krishna women go topless and boy does it excite the male humans; they also all seem to want to get married and have lots of kids. Just about every stereotype from the 40s and more. 2 limp stars.

[Mike Sobyra]

This is the second book of this series that I have read. I enjoyed them because whenever I read a book that was written years ago, I try to read it as if I was living back then. I actually was 4 at the time. Not reading much then. Writers write for their time. Few manage to write for future generations attitudes. So, with the culture of the day in mind everything fit together, although I had to make some compromises to my reactions. My only real criticism of this series is the lack of thought put into future technology. Almost 150 years in the future, the ships are small so the cost per passenger must be huge, but not alluded to all. The only real technological advances are faster than light transport and increased longevity. Arms are just the same as 1940's. I can put these things aside, but I'm sure for many this would diminish the experience.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagining myself a young reader in 1941-42, this would likely have been marvelous stuff. It still has some amusing bits, but it only surpasses by comparison to what else was being done then. It is also a tongue-in-cheek pastiche and those are usually very bound to their periods. I've read some of de Camp's high fantasy and he could be quite good. This, while not terrible, is minor stuff.

[James Rickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entire Krishna series is worth reading, and this is one of the best.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out as a normal missing person case. Victor Hasselborg was hired to find runaway heiress Julnar Batruni. Her trail is easy to pick up, as she used her own name to buy tickets off-planet with her lover, one Anthony Fallon. Victor pursues them to the distant world of Krishna, where he runs into a snag.

It seems that Krishna is under a technological interdict, to prevent the warlike natives from gaining the ability to destroy themselves (and others) before their civilizations advance to more peaceful methods of conflict resolution. Thus Victor must shed most of his advanced equipment and disguise himself as a native to search for the lovers. Can a man used to automatic pistols and fast cars survive with a sword and aya-drawn buggy? And once he does find his targets, will he survive his encounter with the Queen of Zamba?

This story is part of the Viagens Interplanetarias setting, created by Mr. de Camp as a way to use many of the tropes of “planetary romance” in a more plausible way than had previously been the case. (Edgar Rice Burroughs, the founder of the subgenre with A Princess of Mars, had focused more on the fiction side of “science fiction” and most authors writing in the same vein had stuck with that.) So the Krishnans, while appearing close enough to Terrans so that they can easily disguise themselves as each other, can make whoopee with humans but not babies. There’s a reasonable explanation for using swords and riding animals when more technologically advanced items exist. And our protagonists can’t just zip between worlds–thanks to relativistic effects, voyages that take months for the traveling characters take years for the people left behind. Even with improved human longevity and safe suspended animation, normal people with settled lives aren’t keen on repeated space travel.

Thus our protagonist, Victor Hasselborg. In some ways, he’s a typical fictional private eye. Disappointed in love, recovering alcoholic, tough talker, will kill if he has to. But he’s also a germ-phobic hypochondriac who is skittish around attractive women who seem a bit too interested, and none too interested in the adventurous life.

There’s also some inventiveness in the general setting–after World War 3, the Soviet Union was gone and the United States crippled to the point it had to merge with Canada to survive. And Brazil became the world’s leading power, aided by having invented starships. On the other hand, people still smoke cigars in this 22nd Century, and the number one occupation of Earthwomen is “housewife.” (A Krishnan woman expresses her desire to become one as the rumors she hears of Earth romanticize the position.)

During the story, Victor runs into treachery and eventually must team up with another Terran in disguise to prevent technological horror from being unleashed on Krishna.

Originally written in the late 1940s, this story was reprinted by Ace Books under the title Cosmic Manhunt and with the ethnicity of one of the characters changed due to politics. This “Asimov’s Choice” edition restores the original title and character.

To fill out the volume, a longish story entitled “Perpetual Motion” has been added. Con artist Felix Borel comes to Krishna to fleece the natives with a twist on the technology ban. He can’t introduce any innovation that is beyond current Krishnan science or technology, but since perpetual motion machines are impossible, they don’t count, right? Felix is not a good person, though he can twist events to make himself look better–right up until his luck runs out. This story shares a minor character with the main event.

This is light adventure and fast reading; even with the added plausibility, you shouldn’t think about the science too hard. Recommended for planetary romance fans. There are quite a few Viagens Interplanetarias stories; I also recommend Rogue Queen if you can find it.

For more pulp reviews, visit SKJAM! Reviews at http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in June 2002.

Any novel which contains the sentence "Thank the pantheon they'd packed his pills and disinfectants, without which he felt half a man!" is worth reading for that alone. Apart from its humour, it reflects the likely attitude of a real Western traveller in a primitive unhygenic environment far better than the vast majority of stories of this type (A Planet Called Krishna basically being a fantasy novel with a thin science fiction veneer).

Victor Hasselborg is a detective who, despite specialising in insurance fraud cases, is hired to find the missing daughter of Syrian businessman Yussuf Batruni. When he discovers that she has fallen for a Casanova and taken an interplanetary trip with him, Hasselborg has to follow, however unwillingly, to the backward planet of Krishna. There, because of the policy of non-interference with the native culture (decades before Star Trek's Prime Directive), he has to abandon his high-tech equipment before having his hair dyed green and a pair of false antennae fitted so he can pass as a native Krishnan. He is at least permitted to retain his pills!

It is Hasselborg's jaundiced reaction to the charms of Krishna which makes de Camp's novel different even now from the usual run of fantasy literature. In style it is reminiscent of Clifford D. Simak, though I think this came first, and it is enjoyable and not particularly taxing. A Planet Called Krishna also began a series of stories set there, now not among de Camp's best known novels but worth seeking out. As Robert A. Heinlein said, "the reader is left with a pleasant glow, a feeling that life is not so bad after all" when they have read one of de Camp's novels.

[Angelica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Before you even start, you already know you'll have to make several concessions. This book was written a long time ago, and in serial form. But even overlooking the problems those conditions would cause, this was not satisfactory to read.

I took way longer than I expected to finish it, simply because it was so boring. The narrative is fractured and simplistic. Everything is old-fashioned, not just the technology, but the ideas, the plot, the humor... (What humor, anyway? I've heard this book is supposed to be funny from so many people, and it's not. It's silly and shallow at best, and outright offensive at worst. The only things that made me smile while reading this were the failed attempts to use Brazilian Portuguese.)

I'll give another chance to this series in the hopes it will pick up on later books, but I'm not very optimistic.

[Thee_Dragonfly · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intergalactic gumshoe travels to an Earth-like planet undercover to find a spoiled girl who's married a local conniving statesman and became queen of a city-state. Easy to read and full of action but so totally unbelievable that a standard sci-fi reader's suspension of belief just isn't enough.

[DMS · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://dms.booklikes.com/post/382175/...

[Il Futuro è tornato]

Ne abbiamo parlato sul blog nell'articolo sul planetary romance:

http://wp.me/p29Hyy-2w

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Victor is so boring he manages to make everything he does seem boring, too. Not one of his best. It's a decent plot and premise, but the guy is like a black hole of tedium.

[Walter Herrick]

Don't really like this author, so giving it away.