What do you think?
Rate this book
Del Whitby #3
Under a Calculating Star
They had landed on the forbidden planet of Boroq-Thaddoi. They had made their way across the snow-covered desert and the vast graveyard of mangled spaceships. Now they stood gazing with awe at their destination, the Citadel.
The Citadel was unique in the galaxy. Some mad, brilliant architect might have dreamed this blending of the arts and materials of a hundred civilizations into a single monstrous edifice, but no known race could have erected such a thing. It dwarfed the nine walls of Skix, the great corridor on Clotho, the ageless pyramids of Xhanchos, even the legendary cities of Old Earth in the proud and violent centuries before the exodus. It was the monument of giants.
Somewhere in the perilous labyrinth behind these towering walls lay the secret that had eluded and destroyed all searchers for thousands of years... The secret that had to be found before the Great rebellion could begin...
The Citadel was unique in the galaxy. Some mad, brilliant architect might have dreamed this blending of the arts and materials of a hundred civilizations into a single monstrous edifice, but no known race could have erected such a thing. It dwarfed the nine walls of Skix, the great corridor on Clotho, the ageless pyramids of Xhanchos, even the legendary cities of Old Earth in the proud and violent centuries before the exodus. It was the monument of giants.
Somewhere in the perilous labyrinth behind these towering walls lay the secret that had eluded and destroyed all searchers for thousands of years... The secret that had to be found before the Great rebellion could begin...
160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1979
42 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 1, 2019
This is a space opera & yet Morressy adds in a fable element & turns it into a morality tale. It's kind of a hokey world in some ways. A galactic civilization that has reverted to barbarism. They fly spaceships, but can't build them any more. They were all built by the vanished humans of Earth who are mostly cursed for lording it over them for so long. There are many races & they can usually interbreed, but Earth men found them. They also found remnants of another star spanning race, but no one really knows if there was only one or not.
There is a lost treasure, pirates, slavers, & even barbaric planetary tribes/races. Guns are mostly a lost art, but there are plenty of swords & some nifty, high tech gadgets. Into this mess comes Jorry, a schemer, who is after a long lost treasure. To this end he's recruited various companions. We follow them through various trials to a great conclusion.
It's been a long time since I last read this, at least a couple of decades. I should read more of his books. I mostly remember his fantasy books, but he's done great with SF.
There is a lost treasure, pirates, slavers, & even barbaric planetary tribes/races. Guns are mostly a lost art, but there are plenty of swords & some nifty, high tech gadgets. Into this mess comes Jorry, a schemer, who is after a long lost treasure. To this end he's recruited various companions. We follow them through various trials to a great conclusion.
It's been a long time since I last read this, at least a couple of decades. I should read more of his books. I mostly remember his fantasy books, but he's done great with SF.
March 28, 2014
One of the first books I ever read, I am still using it as a measure of adventure. And of course I like it!
November 13, 2015
Kian Jorry had made and lost fortunes. Presently he owned the Seraph and with a crew of seven more set out to recover the Leddendorf fortune on the quarantined world of Boroq-Thaddoi. Thwarted before they could get to the vast treasure Jorry and Axxal head to Xhanchos to sell the baubles that they managed to salvage. When they get there they find the Xhancholians have been overthrown by their former slaves. There is political unrest because there is not harmony among the slave races. The Skorat and their leader Gariv are taking this chance to put themselves in power. Jorry meets with Gariv and is rather taken with his concubine. Meanwhile Axxal is walking around town and meets with some of his fellow Quespodons. Seeing that they have earned their freedom just to be dominated by a new bunch he decides to help them.
Jorry is an adventurer and he treats people more as tools than as friends. Perhaps it's a trait of the k'Turalp'Pa. He got a reasonable amount of wealth when escaping Borog-Thaddoi. Easily enough to retire, but the lure of the uncountable riches always drove him further.
Axxal may be the real hero of the story. The Quespodons have always been derided for their lack of intelligence, but that may have something to do with the home planet. Axxal is a twelfth generation emigrant and is learning that he is as smart as anyone. Now he has to become a leader.
If you're looking for a fairy tale, this isn't it. It is not a disappointment because characters are true to themselves. If I'm going to recommend John Morressy it'll be his Kedrigern stories, or the Ironbrand, Graymantle, Kingsbane trilogy (which I read eight years ago -- I don't remember the plot or the characters, but do remember I really enjoyed them.)
Jorry is an adventurer and he treats people more as tools than as friends. Perhaps it's a trait of the k'Turalp'Pa. He got a reasonable amount of wealth when escaping Borog-Thaddoi. Easily enough to retire, but the lure of the uncountable riches always drove him further.
Axxal may be the real hero of the story. The Quespodons have always been derided for their lack of intelligence, but that may have something to do with the home planet. Axxal is a twelfth generation emigrant and is learning that he is as smart as anyone. Now he has to become a leader.
If you're looking for a fairy tale, this isn't it. It is not a disappointment because characters are true to themselves. If I'm going to recommend John Morressy it'll be his Kedrigern stories, or the Ironbrand, Graymantle, Kingsbane trilogy (which I read eight years ago -- I don't remember the plot or the characters, but do remember I really enjoyed them.)
April 20, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"After finishing John Morressy’s Frostworld and Dreamfire (1977), I tracked down another volume of his Del Whitby sequence. Although far from as engaging and emotionally affective as the former, Under a Calculating Star (1975) provides the historical background to the Morressy’s weirdly primitive far future [...]"
"After finishing John Morressy’s Frostworld and Dreamfire (1977), I tracked down another volume of his Del Whitby sequence. Although far from as engaging and emotionally affective as the former, Under a Calculating Star (1975) provides the historical background to the Morressy’s weirdly primitive far future [...]"
March 3, 2015
1978 grade D
Read
May 2, 2019I have the german edition: Labyrinth zwischen den Sternen
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews