The Thurb Revolution

Anthony Villiers #2

by Alexei Panshin

ALIEN ART AND HUMAN ASPIRATIONS COMBINE IN

THE THURB REVOLUTION

The little-known, backwater planet Pewamo seemed an unlikely site for bomb-throwers, pornographers and maniacs- yet ask Admiral Beagle, ever-watchful for the moral safety of his world, and he would tell you that such unsavory individuals were collecting in droves on Pewamo.

Normally Pewamo was the habitat of slumberous vacationers and odd pink clouds that floated idly overhead and didn't bother anybody - but then Anthony Villiers arrived.bringing his obdurately alien companion Torve the Trog, and Pewamo would never be the same again.

Strange sounds were heard regularly in the night. Villiers spoke in riddles when questioned by Admiral Beagle. Torve the Trog rode his speedy red tricycle on obscure missions. And somehow an army gathered around them.

But not even Villiers knew that one of the men he'd attracted was an assassin, sent to kill him...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction, Humor

215 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Alexis Adams Panshin is an American author and science fiction critic.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Exactly the sort of science fiction you'd be unlikely to sneak on to a litfic fan's radar, given it has spaceships and ray-guns and planets with silly names, and, if not quite any talking squids in space, then certainly a giant hairy toad of philosophical tendencies*, whose poetry gives the book its title. Which is a shame, because it's a masterclass in telling a story through implication, the unsaid, and plenty of sly wit, in exactly the sort of way literature is alleged to do better than SF. True, in places it's right on the edge of being a fairly broad comedy, especially once the blimpish Admiral Beagle hoves into view – the sort of thing which used to get more critical respect back in the sixties, when this was published. A Kingsley Amis of less conventional attitudes, say, or a less openly outrageous young Roth. One device is purloined from Wodehouse, then given an entertaining twist; another comes from a comedian even more respected, albeit not always for his comedies. There are wonderful little lines on ever page; I was particularly fond of one character's introduction as "a red-headed young fellow in the nether region between boyhood and sobriety". Even John Waters' famous line about never selling out, but only because nobody was buying, is here first, albeit in a less readily quotable form. And at the heart of it all, Anthony Villiers, a Jeeves in Wooster's clothing, gently spreading beneficient chaos wherever he treads without ever letting on the least intent.

*Said alien is also at one point described as a "furry jackanapes", which if I ever had business cards, I would be very tempted to put on them.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review of the Anthony Villiers trilogy, not just this volume. You can read the books in any order without losing any plot, although there are some amusing references from book to book. As the books go on the tone changes, but I'll discuss that below.

If you only read one book in the trilogy, this should be the one. It's the one I read first and it stands alone extremely well. Being the middle in the set it has the best of both ends of the tone shift that affects the run.

Samuel R Delaney intruduced book one (Star Well) begins with a note. It summed up the series nicely:
[Star Well] is something I have never seen in science fiction before. It is the first in a series of novels that examines the proposition that the world is composed of small communities of mutual interest. When the pith of that statement is bared as astutely as it is in this novel, it does not matter which "small community" you belong to..."

The series follows the adventures of Anthony Villiers: "By avocation he was a traveller. By profession he was good company." He is also Viscount Charteris, although he rarely uses his title. It is a classic space opera setting: aristrocrats travel between worlds, the Emperor manages the next slow decline of humanity into decadence and apathy, and gentlemen of means play complicated games across dozens of worlds in between duels with energy pistols or old-fashioned swords. Aliens that integrate well into human society are appreciated; other aliens are Restricted.

Villiers is a gentleman in "reduced circumstances": he travels following his stipend from port to port so his father can keep him on the move. His travelling companion is Torve, a Trog. Trogs are one of those Restricted aliens. Only a handful have travel permits. Torve is not one of those handful. But Torve is an artist, and his muse requires him to travel. The confluence that results whenever bureaucrats question Torve--an always polite, six-foot tall, very literal-minded, furry frog whose philosophical system denies the concept of causality--are things of beauty.

Proceeding from book to book, we get closer and closer to Villiers' own community. The Star Well is a swashbuckling tale of space pirates, con artists, and g-men. The Thurb Revolution is slower-paced; Villiers meets up with an old friend--another aristrocrat--and decides to go camping. Of course, that camping trip leads to a two-world student rebellion, the downfall of a world-wide children's author, a meeting with God, and a change to the line of imperial succession. Masque World puts Villiers among family and imperial delegates, trying to find his elusive stipend check while the people go into hiding from a local fraternal organization's annual game of Marvels and Wonders. And Torve encounters the first bureaucrat who won't simply refuse to believe that he exists.

Oh, and through all three books he wants to know why there's an assassin after him.

These are hilarious books. The humor generally consists of the characters' ability or inability to interact with different communities/cultures (Villiers' most redeeming quality is the fluidity with which he crosses community lines--and take that as you will) or the author's wry and astute observations about the characters, their circumstances, and the reader's own expectations.

The Thurb Revolution opens with these words:

Night is irregular. What is not done in the daytime becomes possible at night: murder and sex and thought.

Go read the rest yourself.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must have read the first in this series for the first time while I was in college. The humor is so dry (or perhaps I am so dense) that I completely missed the satire till I'd completed the book. I had to start over from the beginning so that I could laugh out loud. This is the second in the series, and my only excuse for reading it again instead of #1 is that the room was dark when I pulled it from the shelf and I was too lazy to go back downstairs and look for the one I'd originally wanted. At least 3.5

Anyway, funny and wry and really, any novel that includes a furry frog over six feet tall as a sidekick makes its intentions clear from the start. It is Panshin's longer novel, Rite of Passage that won awards and my absolute loyalty and regular rereading. Still, this is an entertaining read and welcome relief from the political nonfiction I am reading at the same time.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in this series was a thriller, involving criminals and danger. This second book is distinctly different. It includes a dangerous assassin, but he’s merely one of a whole bunch of characters whose lives intersect to form the story; and the story is not really a thriller, it’s an experience—a word that I associate with the late 1960s, when this story was written.

Torve the Trog doesn’t perceive causality as humans do, he thinks that things happen because “lines of occurrence” require them to happen, so his behaviour seems strange because his rationality is alien. If you look at this story from his point of view, you can see all the characters following their own lines of occurrence, which come together perhaps accidentally into a quite satisfying climax and resolution.

This time, Villiers acquires a larger and more diverse group of associates than in Star Well, and they spread themselves out in the open air, mostly in the countryside. I can imagine both books as cinema, but the first is indoor cinema, in rooms and corridors, while the second is outdoor.

Which do I prefer, the first or the second? It depends on my mood at the time. I’m very happy to have both of them—plus the third volume, of course.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty transparent parody of a certain, already past dead and burried period of social and military history which could be subsummed as "Imperial Western Hegemony" and a pretty well-disguised parable on life, where nothing we do truly matters in the long term, and everything we do actually matters for our circle and for the lives of those who we may think are "too far", "too indifferent" or "too important" for us to reach out and touch. This is a classic piece of Science Fiction as it should be, and probably, and intriguingly, a series which influenced a number of the Wes Anderson's movies metathemes.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
Alexei Panshin's The Thurb Revolution
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 29 - March 1, 2024

I've only read one bk by Panshin before this one: Rite of Passage. That was 10 yrs ago! To quote from my review of that:

"Time to read yet-another SF author whose work I haven't previously read. This one was the winner of a Nebula Award, an award I respect since I usually agree about the merit of the work so honored. In this case, I, perhaps, agree a little less - there are some aspects of the work that are remarkable but it mostly strikes me as a novel-w/-SF-trappings." - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

The same criticism applies to this novel but now it worked in favor of my liking it more. The story is strangely gentle, it's a character-study of a plethora of types in conflict w/ each other &/or managing to work together. There are things like a talking conscious cloud, space travel, & accepted assassination - but none of these things seems overly contrived to exoticize the story - instead, everything seems 'normal' w/in the environment depicted.

"Night is irregular. What is not done in the daytime becomes possible at night: murder and sex and thought." - p 7

This didn't come across to me as sensational, just philosophical - & that's characteristic of the whole novel.

"The companion was a bulge-eyed alien named Torve the Trog.

"Thurb," said Torve the Trog, as was his wont.

"Torve was a white-bellied, brown-furred toad, six feet tall. His eyes were a unique blue. He and Villiers traveled together. If you asked why, Villiers might say that friendship was the key." - p 8

Goofy? Yes, a goofy I like.

"Villiers was an excellent fast bowler, less excellent slow. Slow bowling was called for here, however, the boulder making brisker measures impossible. It took him three balls to gently better Sergei's shot." - p 10

This bk was copyrighted in 1968. A friend of mine named John Sheehan invented what I 1st heard of as "Slow Bowling", probably in the 1980s. In it, the bowler tries to roll the ball so slowly that it hits the center pin, knocking only it over, & then stops. Doing this at an actual bowling alley will lead to exasperation on the part of the employees given that they then have to walk down the alley & retrieve the ball.

"Frobb is no more accurate a representation than thurb. The true sound of Frobb is a pulse-note to stir the heart. That Villiers was unstirred now, had been unstirred throughout their mutual acquaintance, and no doubt would remain unstirred, feast or famine, high water or low, may mean only that he was Frobb-deaf." - p 14

Cf tone-deaf.

"Successful robbers must be sturdy mature men in peak physical condition—it is an occupational requirement. A murderer, on the other hand, can be a two year old child or a bed-bound grandmother." - p 28

In fact, it's a little known statistic that the most murders are committed by old people on their death beds - like President Ronald Reagan.

"Yagoots and their otherwise named brethren are a historic commonplace. They are walking horses of a prosperous society—decorative but useless.

"They are gentry playing town or maison. Where they are many, they dress down. Where they are few, they dress up. In either case, they mainly occupy themselves by rolling hoops or flying kites.

"But this isn't fair. The elaborately dressed young lout who boxes the Watch or plays catahouch with old men in the street is a stereotype. There is more to yagootry than incomprehensible nihilism. Sai Din the Mundu was a yagoot, And Duncan McGub, and J. W. v. Goethe. They all rose to better things.

"Yagoots are primarily a symptom of societal malaise. Those who become yagoots are both those who can offer nothing to society and those to whom society offers nothing." - p 39

I'll bet you didn't know that about Sai Din the Mundu!

One of the SF 'touches' that I like the most is the idea of closed worlds.

"Within the bounds of the Nashuite Empire there are many worlds that only a limited number of men are allowed to visit. Within the bounds of the Nashuite Empire there are five thousand worlds that are totally closed. Once there were more than three times that number, but times alter and men learn to cope with the unknown." - p 48

One of the comical villains is Admiral Beagle. He's stalking Villiers & follows him to the resort planet that Villier's set up camp on.

""I wish transportation to Green Mountain Resort."

""If you go out to the main road, Green Mountain is a mile to the right. If you go to the left, it's on the order of ninety miles. You can walk the distance or ride a bicycle."" - p 70

In other words, it's on an island. But you got that w/o my telling you.

Panshin's sense of humor is a large part of why I enjoyed this bk so much.

"The Nashuite Empire is vast. There are enough planets within its nebulous and fluid borders that merely to number and name them all would be the occupation of months, the hobby of years. Most of these planets, of course, are uninteresting, undistinguished and uninhabited. Hoever, the only man to attempt to visit those remaining, the legendary Kazumatsu Ohno, died at the age of seventy-three of nervous exhaustion and chronic acute diarrhea with his life's work only half done. Now, that is vast." - p 74

But, perhaps more than anything else, I enjoyed this bk b/c of the pace of it, the way it managed to be relaxed in the midst of a potentially dramatic plot, the casual feel of it despite its fairly packed content, the asides.

"Torve, having packed his tricycle, pointed at the upper meadow and said, "I go to think the sun down."

"(In passing, let us note that this was a lie. Torve had no character in the presence of jellied whiteworms. Whiteworms glacé. Whiteworms in sweet cream sauce. When jellied, the opaque white of the worm turns translucent amber, an inner radiance that lends fire and warmth to any sauce. Torve had discovered an opened jar of whiteworms at Green Mountain, and hooked it. He meant to gobble it all in secret shame and could hardly wait to begin crying at his own weakness. This speaking figuratively, of course. In actual fact, he could hardly wait to lower his nictating membranes, but it comes to the same thing.)" - p 80

"Admiral Beagle did not believe in altruism. He believed in solid rational motivations like hate and greed and fear. He had risen to commodore by showing the knee to superiors and the boot to inferiors." - p 83

He's an untertan, a type that's my archnemesis &, apparently, Panshin's too.

Then there's the music.

"Villiers nodded to Ralph, and the mandolin joined. Villiers hung his spoons from his fingers and began to click a rhythm. Kazoo, tooting a grainy melody. Clear mellow notes from the gently tapped tub, plus some sour ones. Hoomp, fump, fump from the jug. Twang, twang. Thurb, tinkle, boing, fump, twang. Music, by heaven. Music." - p 98

The conversation gets to women. Unknown to the speaker, one of the people addressed, assumed to be a man, is a woman.

"From my own experience, however, I can't speak well of women. Most of those that I've met have been maumets."

""That's harsh," Villiers said." - pp 99-100

&, what?, pray tell is a "maumet"?

"1 obsolete : a false god or idol
2 now dialectal British
a: an odd figure : PUPPET, EFFIGY, IMAGE, DOLL —used also as a generalized term of abuse or contempt
b: SCARECROW
3 archaic : a fancy pigeon with dark eyes and white or creamy feathers"

- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...

Wow! That's right up there w/ "Toxic Masculinity" but funnier.

& what about names?

"There is a long-standing split among philosophers on the subject of names. Realists take them seriously, believing them to be ends, believing them to be things. Nominalists take them lightly, believing them to be means, believing them to be convenient labels. Every man in the world is either a Realist or a Nominalist. Give yourself a test: if someone called you a gigger or a fell-picker, and you knew it wasn't true, would you hit him or smile? That's how easy it is to tell." - p 105

Yes, but what about the maumets? Are they only in those 2 categories too?

I like this bk b/c I basically agree w/ the following philosophy:

"Learning, playing and loving, and combinations thereof, are a good way to spend a lifetime. Admittedly, a difficult regimen, but nonetheless not beyond attainment.

"Start with playing." - p 112

The assassin gets nearer.

""That's Solomon 'Biff' Dreznik."

""I'm prepared to believe you," Kuukkinen said, "but the name is unfamiliar to me."

""Then you know Villiers less well than I thought. Dreznik is an assassin. He was killed three years ago in an attempt on Villiers' life. I'll wager he's the man in black who opened Morris, and he's been to Duden and back."" - p 121

But What about MAKING? you ask, What does the author have to say about MAKING?

"The human animal's most distinguishable characteristic is his need to manipulate objects. He has to do it. He can't help himself.

"Given this need, men react to it in three ways:

"Some justify their tinkering with the notion of progress. Manipulations become the rational attempt to reach the ends of more and larger, bigger and better. There are many men of this sort in the service of the Nashuite Empire. They are happy or not as they succeed or fail, and ultimately they are all unhappy.

"Some others see that more and larger, bigger and better are not ends at all, but mere vague points on an infinite line to nowhere. These men are unhappy, too, because they need reasons for what their hands choose to do, and without the notion of progress, they have none." - p 122

Villiers, sly one that he is, has laid traps, ostensibly to catch local wild life but really to catch people trying to assassinate him. It looks like Claude, the Plonk cloud, might interfere.

"It looked fine from there but for one small thing. Claude the Plonk hovered just above and showed no sign of withdrawing.

"Ordinary and innocent is the way things should look. An ordinary and innocent appearing trap loses something by having a small pink cloud hanging overhead.

""Scoot," said Villiers. "Go on move."

"It didn't." - p 132

The problems some people have. There's even an ad for a sequel, I'd read it.

"Who would want to kill a nice man like Villiers? Amidst courtliness and crime, love and the Descent into Respectability, he tries to find out in the third Anthony Villiers novel, MASK WORLD." - p 159

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something nice to be said about genteel, clever behavior in a light comedy-SF, and it's mostly the fact that we hardly see anything like it in today's literature.

Why can't we have genteel social commentary anymore?

Oh, right, because that life seems to have moved on. And yet, this IS very nice.

The kind of revolution in this novel is probably not what you think. It's a handful of young men rebelling against a stodgy old general. The revolt is limited to running away, writing articles, and a bare minimum of a bear-trap.

And above all, POLITE SOCIETY.

I didn't realize I needed this.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to Star Well has Villiers on a recreational planet camping with an old friend, but they are soon joined by a host of eccentric characters. The tone is extremely light and comic, making this a pleasant read. However, the lack of any substantial plot makes this book less compelling than Star Well. The next entry in the series, Masque World, seems like it will be a more direct sequel as there are plot elements in The Thurb Revolution that are unresolved.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 1994 booklog says this one was arch, silly and fun. I remember nothing about it, except that Torve the Trog is prone to saying "Thurb" repeatedly.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this one better than the first book. Loved God the pink plonk.

[Aidan · Rating 3 out of 5]

odd book, kind of fun, I didn't seem to fully absorb what everyone else did. Very easy-reading!

[Brent Winzek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very weird... but also charmingly whimsical.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another find from a Borderlands books sale. Alexei Panshin is best known for Rite of Passage and and critical tome that looks at the works of Robert Heinlein. I remember (I'm sooo old) and the Anthony Villiers books were first published as part of Ace's big science fiction series push. That push included English translations of Perry Rhodan, a resurrection of the Professor Jameson stories, Hannibal Fortune Agent of TE.ER.R.A, and Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure.

But, if this one book is any indication it was likely the best of those series. I saw one on-line review that called it a wonderful comedy of manners. Now, I've read one Jane Austen book and Lois McMaster Bujold's Civil Campaign A comedy of manners, to say the least I was skeptical.

Well, this book was amusing if not funny. In so many ways it reminds me of Foundation. No, not the epic scope, this book is not epic. It is how Panshin pulls the reader into a story that is almost exclusively multiple scenes of talking heads. This is the second book of a trio, and perhaps some back story from the first book would have been helpful. What game is the traveling Villiers involved in? Why is Torve's race restricted to a small number of planets (The Trog is travelling illegally).

Why is the banter so amusing? I really can't explain it. In part, because I find humor to be a taste that varies from person to person. Perhaps it is how the unfailingly polite Villiers always seems to win his argument. Or, is it seeing God put in its place?

If you find one of these out of prints books I say give it a try. I'll be keeping an eye out for them at used book stores.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is indeed short so eating dessert first is an appropriate religion for many.Life is indeed short so eating dessert first is an appropriate religion for many.

[Dt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the three that I have read so far - am planning on reading it again - then can expand on this.

[Bill Meehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the 1st book Star Well, The Thurb Revolution is a short, easy, and fun read.Good characters, especially Admiral Beetle in this book, a far too conservative censor. Looking forward to book 3.

[Mo]

still not sure how I felt about this...