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Planet of Adventure

Planet of Adventure is a four-book series of science fiction novels by Jack Vance, which relate the adventures of Adam Reith, the sole survivor of a mission to the planet Tschai.

The planet Tschai is occupied by four alien species, as well as by various human races, some of which live as slaves or clients of the aliens. Each of the four novels relates Reith's adventures with one of the species, and is named after that species. In order, the books are:

City of the Chasch
Servants of the Wankh
The Dirdir
The Pnume
The Vance Integral Edition restores the author's preferred titles to the first two books: The Chasch and The Wannek. Vance changed the name of the alien race in the latter case on learning of the unfortunate connotations of the original title in British slang.

The insect-like Pnume are the original inhabitants of Tschai. They look back on a history ten million years long, and were forced underground by the coming of other species. The somewhat reptilian Chasch arrived a hundred thousand years prior to the tale's present, and are divided into three warring factions, the decadent Old Chasch, the Blue Chasch, and the barbarian Green Chasch. The predatory Dirdir and the amphibious Wankh (or Wannek) are comparatively recent arrivals and constantly at war with each other.

The human client races, the Pnumekin, Chaschmen, Dirdirmen and Wankhmen resemble their alien patrons to some degree. This is due to selective breeding, surgery and the learned desire of the humans to emulate their respective master race. The Pnumekin are kept docile with drugs, and the Chaschmen through the religious fiction that their dead are born again as Chasch. The Dirdirmen believe themselves to be degenerate Dirdir and strive to minimize their differences. The Wankhmen, on the other hand, act as the interpreters of the Wankh and effectively manipulate the alien race to their own advantage.

Adam Reith
Vance packs more action in a few paragraphs than most authors can include in a chapter. In the series' opening, Adam Reith sets out from an exploratory vehicle over an unknown planet from which an SOS signal was sent millennia before; the main ship is destroyed in a suprise missile attack and Reith's scoutship is forced to set down on the planet.

This occurs in one or two pages, followed by a four book epic describing Reith's attempts to find a way to return to Earth. Reith is a man of singularly strong will, and overcomes four different alien races on the planet Tschai in his efforts to escape this highly alien planet.

Vance's depiction of the human race after thousands of years on Tschai is masterful in showing how foreign humanity can become to our current culture, but his description of the four non-human races on Tschai is breathtaking; the alien races are motivated by drives almost imcomprehensible.

Reith's presence on Tschai proves to be world-changing, and this series lives up to its name as the Planet Of Adventure.