The Port of Peril

Robert Grandon #3

by Otis Adelbert Kline

When Vernia, empress of Reabon, mightiest land of all Venus, was kidnapped by the strange marauders of the sea, it presented the Earthman, Robert Grandon, with his greatest challenge. On a world replete with terrifying beasts and unearthly antagonists, Grandon had already achieved fame for his swordplay and courage, but the search for Vernia would take him against foes beyond all he had previously encountered. THE PORT OF PERIL, Otis Adelbert Kline's concluding novel of Venusian adventure, amply demonstrates his high skill with fast-action science-fiction.

Genres: Science Fiction, Sword and Planet, Fiction, Fantasy, Pulp, Adventure, Ebooks

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

A popular pulp era writer who served on the original Weird Tales editorial staff & appeared frequently in the magazine's early issues, Kline is perhaps best known for his novelistic feud with Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote "Planet of Peril" (1929) and two other novels set on the planet Venus and written in the storytelling form of the John Carter of Mars novels, prompting Burroughs to write his own stories set on Venus. In return, Kline wrote two novels set on Mars, as well as several jungle adventurers quite reminiscent of Burroughs's Tarzan.

In the mid-1930s Kline largely abandoned writing to concentrate on his career as a literary agent (most famously for fellow Weird Tales author Robert E. Howard, pioneer sword and sorcery writer and creator of Conan the Barbarian). Kline represented Howard from the Spring of 1933 until Howard's death in June 1936, and continued to act as literary agent for Howard's estate thereafter.

Reviews

[Roddy Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one should ever be transported to ancient Mars or Venus, it should be made clear that one's wife or betrothed is highly likely to be kidnapped for various reasons on a semi-regular basis.
Grandon, whose royal Venusian mate was kidnapped in the first book of the series, finds himself about to go off on his honeymoon when his beloved Princess is kidnapped again, this time by the terrible yellow pirates who have recently been making a nuisance of themselves on the High Seas.
It is to Kline's credit that he sustains the excitement and enjoyability of what is essentially the same story repeated once more. Our heroes are pitted against evil toad-people, giant man-eating spider scorpions, white-furred antarctic bear people, and the sinister cat-eyed red-bean chewing yellow men.
It is what it is. Enjoyable hokum.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonstop action all the way

Vernia of Reabon on Venus is abducted during her honeymoon with Grandon of Terra. Of course this leads to a wild chase, battles and chaos that doesn't let up until the end. Nice continuation of the Perilous series on Venus. I love the heroic swashbuckling fights with excellent villains and proper monsters. So much fun. If you love Edgar Rice Burroughs, you'll enjoy Kline.

[Per · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part 1 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 2 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 3 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 4 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 5 - https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
Part 6 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
https://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/OA...

[James T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty torn between 3 and 4 stars on this.

If you like Sword and Planet and/or pirates you’re in for a good time.

It’s got great action, and OAK adds to his world in fun ways. His main flaw is he just isn’t as romantic as Burroughs and can’t write as lovable characters. That said its still a fun time. I think it falls into too many flaws of the genre without enough gems of said genre to quite eek out the 4.

[Reads At · Rating 5 out of 5]

In general I enjoyed this. I found it to be an easy, escapist read.

[Erik Graff · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been going through sites which feature bookcovers on the Web and am currently looking at one that appears to be pretty complete for Ace Books, all neatly arranged in accord with the publisher's listings. Doing so, I've been rather amazed at how very many of their science fiction paperbacks I read as a kid. The titles and authors' names generally mean little, but the covers are evocative of memory. Indeed, there are so many Ace books I recall reading that I suspect that the corporation held rights to the book carousel at Knack's Drugstore in Bridgman, Michigan where I purchased them.

This volume is a typical sword-and-sorcery piece along the lines of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Set on Venus, it's the third and last volume of a series. I didn't know that at the time and may have been more impressed with it if I'd gotten to care about the main character(s) by reading the other two volumes beforehand.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is markedly improved by making it a true sequel to Planet of Peril and dispensing with the introduction of one more new Earthling travelling psychically to Venus. This allows the adventure to start almost immediately. Overall it felt more polished, and this time the digressive adventure onto Weird Monster Island was concluded promptly so that we could move to the more interesting Port of Peril of the title.

What I'm still mystified about is how the series came together with Kline's parallel Mars series. If I'm reading the Gutenberg Australia versions correctly, he does make reference to Harry Thorne (The Swordsman of Mars as well as this series) in terms of events of the Mars series. So the Mars books were written before but published after, or the overarching elements of both series were in his head while writing. I'm very curious which: the latter would be a serious amount of planning.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in Kline's Venus series. Another great Krenkel cover. Pretty good.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good adventure yarn. The weakest of the trilogy because Vernia, who was outsmarting villians in "Plant of Peril," is reduced to helpless Damsel in Distress this time around.

[Phair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was very much into Edgar Rice Burroughs type books back in the early 60s. My diary lists this as 3+ stars.