Glory Planet

by A. Bertram Chandler

Mystery and intrigue on the waterways of the planet Venus

The Venus colony was settled and thriving, when suddenly all communication from Earth ceased. No messages. No transports. Nothing.

Insistent that science had lead their home into the depths of nuclear war, the colonists rejected technology, burning books, killing scientists, and hunkering down in the safety of a the newly formed Venusian theocracy of Beulah Land.

Only the city-state of Albany remained independent. Their machines were tolerated as a necessity--until airplanes, gunships, and weapons started patrolling the border. With war between the colonies imminent, Saint-in-Charge Adelie Dale and First Mate Whitley of Beulah Land's Richmond Queen must make heads-or-tails out of the hazardous Venusian politics . . . before a greater enemy obliterates them all!

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Arthur Bertram Chandler (28 March 1912–6 June 1984) was an Australian science fiction author. He also wrote under the pseudonyms George Whitley, George Whitely, Paul T. Sherman, Andrew Dunstan, and S.H.M.

He was born in Aldershot, England. He was a merchant marine officer, sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troopships. He emigrated to Australia in 1956 and became an Australian citizen. He commanded various ships in the Australian and New Zealand merchant navies, and was the last master of the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne as the law required that it have an officer on board while it was laid up waiting to be towed to China to be broken up.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is clearly dated and still misogynistic even though it was trying not to be. That was the time it was written in, so I tried not to hold it against Chandler too much. Still did though. I'm not sure why I thought I should read this though because the uber-religious society was the cherry on top to annoy me.

It is obvious from the book description that either the entity coming in is alien or human. Well, it's human. In fact, it's an Earth that is now ruled by women with men being the ones oppressed by society. And, of course, one of the women fall in love with the main character because he's so manly in the way we know it now, but in a way men are not at home because: matriarchal society. And it's so, so stupidly done. I've read books where the societal script is flipped like that and it doesn't feel like Chandler tried to think through how it would play out through society beyond a few surface details.

Really, it ended up being a confirmation that a male-led society is better because while women managed to pick up the pieces of society on Earth and rebuild, they largely made the same mistakes of overpopulation. And that's why they suddenly showed up on Venus again (and destroyed everything because they weren't prepared enough to come in and conquer fast, which was also unbelievable). I shouldn't have put that in parenthesis because that alone was ridiculous. The point of the book is that the level of tech on Venus is pitifully low. The people from Earth did not know that though, so they should have been prepared for a far higher level of tech and therefore should have been over-prepared to conquer Venus.

And I doubt the overpopulation bit alone. Women are far better at managing population once we're assured the children we have will survive and we can control our own reproductive capabilities. Why? Because we are the ones that have to be pregnant for nine freaking months!

So it ended up being insulting and unbelievable. Since everything else felt poorly thought out and the plot was meh, it was overall not so bad I quit but not really worth reading either. I'm sure Chandler has done better in his other books.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost colony of steam-powered riverboats and a revivalist religion 0n a cloud-shrouded Venus. Then spaceships come.

Chandler wrote some great space-opera and alternate history. This is not one of them. The setup and characters go from mediocre to maudlin. Even the physics and technology, stuff that Chandler often handled well, don't really work. Why do these people do what they do? Because Plot demands it. And even then, I'm not sure where the plot has dropped them.

Like Laumer's Embassy, Chandler's completists will want to read this, but most people can find something better. I love most of Chandler but this misses the mark.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

It achieves the rare quality of being so bad it's good. Curiosity kept me reading!

It's a book impossible to write today. Charming in its basic and plot-hole riddled story of a lost colony where two factions battle it out: religion vs technology in a landscape of post apocalyptic savagery after the self inflicted collapse of technological society.

That's a pretty neat setup already but the culmination of their war is interrupted by a scout ship from earth where women have taken over by killing and subjugating men and now want to do the same here. If this isn't enough to make you want to read this book then sadly there's little else to convince you because it's a terrible book beyond this setup.