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Hooded Swan #4
The Paradise Game
Book by Brian M. Stableford
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 16, 1974
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About the author
Brian M. Stableford
883 books135 followersBrian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.
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June 18, 2020DAW Collectors #111
over Artist: Kelly Freas
Name: Stableford, Brian Michael, Birthplace: Shipley, Yorkshire, England, UK, 25 July 1948
Alternate Names: Francis Amery, Olympe Chambrionne, Brian Craig, Brian M. Stableford.
Everyone tries to find paradise. If the explorers of the planets could find a world that answered the description, it could be a holiday world beyond price. When the Hooded Swan landed on Pharos, it was indeed all that paradise could be. They came to investigate, they stayed to protect. for unless they played the role of the angel w/the flaming sword, very soon this softest & gentlest world of all men's dreams would become another gaudy hellhole of exploitation. but as Grainger and the crew of teh Hooded Swan were to learn, this world, like the original paradise, had a serpent of its own. And the apple of its tree of knowledge might be found too late to save its star-borne invaders..including its would-be defenders.
The Hooded Swan Series:
1. The Halcyon Drift (1972)
2. Rhapsody in Black (1973)
3. Promised Land (1974)
4. The Paradise Game (1974)
5. The Fenris Device (1974)
6. Swan Song (1975)
Swan Songs (2002)
over Artist: Kelly Freas
Name: Stableford, Brian Michael, Birthplace: Shipley, Yorkshire, England, UK, 25 July 1948
Alternate Names: Francis Amery, Olympe Chambrionne, Brian Craig, Brian M. Stableford.
Everyone tries to find paradise. If the explorers of the planets could find a world that answered the description, it could be a holiday world beyond price. When the Hooded Swan landed on Pharos, it was indeed all that paradise could be. They came to investigate, they stayed to protect. for unless they played the role of the angel w/the flaming sword, very soon this softest & gentlest world of all men's dreams would become another gaudy hellhole of exploitation. but as Grainger and the crew of teh Hooded Swan were to learn, this world, like the original paradise, had a serpent of its own. And the apple of its tree of knowledge might be found too late to save its star-borne invaders..including its would-be defenders.
The Hooded Swan Series:
1. The Halcyon Drift (1972)
2. Rhapsody in Black (1973)
3. Promised Land (1974)
4. The Paradise Game (1974)
5. The Fenris Device (1974)
6. Swan Song (1975)
Swan Songs (2002)
February 26, 2019
Book 4! Another totally satisfactory sci-fi romp. Set on a planet that seems almost too perfect to be true...which means of course there's some dark deadly secret about to be discovered. I did really appreciate the plot of this one (massive star-crossing corporation tries to tame and conquer a world - profit! - but when it discovers what seems to be indigenous peoples, a protest group swoops in (and somewhat naively) idealistically battles for the future of that world) and love how Stableford doesn't make any of these people or groups the "good guys" but exposes the evils and flaws of all of them...as he unwraps another fascinating eco-system on an alien world. Stableford really does like writing about xeno-biology and exploring weird scientific concepts and I highly approve. Need more of this in my sci-fi. Also in other news, Grainger continues to be awesome.
January 11, 2025
After I read *The Halcyon Drift* (the first Hooded Swan adventure), I said that Brian M. Stableford might be the master of the 150-page space opera; but after that - specifically after *Rhapsody in Black* and *The Promised Land* - I started to wonder if he was kind of a one-trick pony which can't put everything he's capable of into on-hundred-and-fifty pages time after time. And then I accidentally read *To Challenge Chaos* (which I thought was the fourth Hooded Swan book) and really bounced off it; I was pretty worried about the rest of the *Hooded Swan* series after that. But I'm happy to say that *The Paradise Planet* has restored my faith in the Stableford Formula, which is sharp, flavorful, and worth your time. I mean, you should read all of the Grainger books, but this is for sure my favorite so far...
As usual, Stableford wastes no time in getting the adventure rolling and kicks the book off with Grainger wandering through a Caradoc Company pop-up town on the planet Pharos, a recently discovered world which has been called a "paradise" planet due to its idyllic ecosystem and little gray-furred bipedal natives. Grainger's boss, Charlot, was tasked by New Alexandria (which was tasked by New Rome) to investigate Caradoc's actions on the planet, specifically in regards to the gray natives, since a group of *Aegis* protestors has been raising quite the fuss about the "atrocities" they've committed. Grainger almost sees an "atrocity" committed when he's at the Caradoc bar and one of the Company brutes tries taking one of the unilaterally female native upstairs to bed, but he intervenes and chases the native on out. Then, when he returns to the *Hooded Swan*, the inconceivable happens: Charlot asks for his help(!) discovering evidence of Caradoc's wrongdoings to shut them out of terraforming and selling out this idyllic ecosystem. He can't ask Eve because she's the monitor for the trip (which means everything she sees will be saved on record, and Charlot may have to stretch enough things where he doesn't want official reporting involved), so that leaves him with Grainger, who also hates the Caradoc Company for everything that happened in *The Halcyon Drift*. He agrees and starts investigating on Charlot's behalf, talking down to the idealistic and foolish *Aegis* protestors and discussing Pharos' natives with scientists while also contemplating the complete lack of parasitic or predatory behavior on the planet...
After the Caradoc man from the bar ends up ...
For the first time in my reading of Grainger's adventures, this book didn't feel too short; it was the perfect length and didn't spend too much or too little time on any one subject. Of course, I wouldn't have minded if more time was spent on the rest of the *Hooded Swan* crew, but the concepts don't feel short-changed like they sometimes do, and Stableford is still able to pack a lot of punch into this book. Not only is there the whole thing which simultaneously belongs in both a literary SF novel and an episode of the original *Star Trek* series, but there's also a smattering concepts which authors can write entire books about (like Eve being a "monitor," which D. G. Compton did in *The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe*), but which only served to enhance *The Paradise Game*'s plot framing. The political relationships are also pretty well-drawn, and unlike occasions in past books, I never felt that the relationships or the physical/action framing of the prose was blocky at all. Stableford's a good, smooth writer who weaves everything together with a perfectly weighted blend of introspection, action, dialogue, and action.
Mentioning the political relationships does remind me that *The Paradise Game*, just like its predecessors, does a really good of building upon the other books in the series. Not only is the integration between Grainger and the wind a nice evolution from the last book, but all the other happenings of the other books are neither forgotten nor overly dwelled on. You're not getting ham-fisted synopses, but these characters are still thinking about everything else you've read them going through before, whether that's the worms from *Rhapsody in Black* or the Anacaona from *The Promised Land* or, importantly, the Caradoc Company, as seen in *The Halcyon Drift*. They play a pretty important role in this book, and their relationship with Grainger is neither overlooked or exaggerated. The way that the Paradise Planet itself rears its head in the book does force them and the *Hooded Swan* crew together in a unique, carefully considered way, and even though the way that reminded me of a standard *Star Wars* original series adventure, they didn't feel cheap or overplayed, even though most of the thrust against them was due to greater philosophical differences between their desire to take over worlds for profit and Charlot's love of knowledge.
Also, I really liked how, at the end of the book, we get glimpses into a greater plot arc happening over these books. Maybe I'm expecting too much out of the *The Fenris Device* and *Swan Song*, but this book's little coda between Grainger and sets the scene for an epic conclusion to Stableford's themes of human-alien technological union. It promises not to be overly sentimental and positive, but I also doubt it will be dour, just like how Grainger insists that he's this dour, brutal man, until his actions between him as being of neither the dark nor the light; Stableford makes sure to keep that same view in his space opera stories, and that balanced perception is one of the reason I'm getting a kick out of them four volumes in.
I've long hoped to give a Hooded Swan book an 8.5/10, and I think this is the day! I hesitated for a little bit, but really, I can't find anything bad to say about this book, and I think that for what this book is - a 150-page space opera adventure - it's an excellent example of craft and storytelling. It's not epic and galaxy-spanning, but it renews my hope in this series, which I thought was going to incrementally slide downhill; I now have a lot of hope for the final two volumes. I do think you should read the other books and not jump straight to this, but when you look at all the color you can find in a short runtime with these books, if you could pull yourself to read the *Expanse* series - as a side note, *The Paradise Planet* is like a fleeter, more inventive version of *Cibola Burn* in some ways - you can read these books, and I hope you do. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you just in time to talk about *The Fenris Device*...
As usual, Stableford wastes no time in getting the adventure rolling and kicks the book off with Grainger wandering through a Caradoc Company pop-up town on the planet Pharos, a recently discovered world which has been called a "paradise" planet due to its idyllic ecosystem and little gray-furred bipedal natives. Grainger's boss, Charlot, was tasked by New Alexandria (which was tasked by New Rome) to investigate Caradoc's actions on the planet, specifically in regards to the gray natives, since a group of *Aegis* protestors has been raising quite the fuss about the "atrocities" they've committed. Grainger almost sees an "atrocity" committed when he's at the Caradoc bar and one of the Company brutes tries taking one of the unilaterally female native upstairs to bed, but he intervenes and chases the native on out. Then, when he returns to the *Hooded Swan*, the inconceivable happens: Charlot asks for his help(!) discovering evidence of Caradoc's wrongdoings to shut them out of terraforming and selling out this idyllic ecosystem. He can't ask Eve because she's the monitor for the trip (which means everything she sees will be saved on record, and Charlot may have to stretch enough things where he doesn't want official reporting involved), so that leaves him with Grainger, who also hates the Caradoc Company for everything that happened in *The Halcyon Drift*. He agrees and starts investigating on Charlot's behalf, talking down to the idealistic and foolish *Aegis* protestors and discussing Pharos' natives with scientists while also contemplating the complete lack of parasitic or predatory behavior on the planet...
After the Caradoc man from the bar ends up ...
For the first time in my reading of Grainger's adventures, this book didn't feel too short; it was the perfect length and didn't spend too much or too little time on any one subject. Of course, I wouldn't have minded if more time was spent on the rest of the *Hooded Swan* crew, but the concepts don't feel short-changed like they sometimes do, and Stableford is still able to pack a lot of punch into this book. Not only is there the whole thing which simultaneously belongs in both a literary SF novel and an episode of the original *Star Trek* series, but there's also a smattering concepts which authors can write entire books about (like Eve being a "monitor," which D. G. Compton did in *The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe*), but which only served to enhance *The Paradise Game*'s plot framing. The political relationships are also pretty well-drawn, and unlike occasions in past books, I never felt that the relationships or the physical/action framing of the prose was blocky at all. Stableford's a good, smooth writer who weaves everything together with a perfectly weighted blend of introspection, action, dialogue, and action.
Mentioning the political relationships does remind me that *The Paradise Game*, just like its predecessors, does a really good of building upon the other books in the series. Not only is the integration between Grainger and the wind a nice evolution from the last book, but all the other happenings of the other books are neither forgotten nor overly dwelled on. You're not getting ham-fisted synopses, but these characters are still thinking about everything else you've read them going through before, whether that's the worms from *Rhapsody in Black* or the Anacaona from *The Promised Land* or, importantly, the Caradoc Company, as seen in *The Halcyon Drift*. They play a pretty important role in this book, and their relationship with Grainger is neither overlooked or exaggerated. The way that the Paradise Planet itself rears its head in the book does force them and the *Hooded Swan* crew together in a unique, carefully considered way, and even though the way that reminded me of a standard *Star Wars* original series adventure, they didn't feel cheap or overplayed, even though most of the thrust against them was due to greater philosophical differences between their desire to take over worlds for profit and Charlot's love of knowledge.
Also, I really liked how, at the end of the book, we get glimpses into a greater plot arc happening over these books. Maybe I'm expecting too much out of the *The Fenris Device* and *Swan Song*, but this book's little coda between Grainger and sets the scene for an epic conclusion to Stableford's themes of human-alien technological union. It promises not to be overly sentimental and positive, but I also doubt it will be dour, just like how Grainger insists that he's this dour, brutal man, until his actions between him as being of neither the dark nor the light; Stableford makes sure to keep that same view in his space opera stories, and that balanced perception is one of the reason I'm getting a kick out of them four volumes in.
I've long hoped to give a Hooded Swan book an 8.5/10, and I think this is the day! I hesitated for a little bit, but really, I can't find anything bad to say about this book, and I think that for what this book is - a 150-page space opera adventure - it's an excellent example of craft and storytelling. It's not epic and galaxy-spanning, but it renews my hope in this series, which I thought was going to incrementally slide downhill; I now have a lot of hope for the final two volumes. I do think you should read the other books and not jump straight to this, but when you look at all the color you can find in a short runtime with these books, if you could pull yourself to read the *Expanse* series - as a side note, *The Paradise Planet* is like a fleeter, more inventive version of *Cibola Burn* in some ways - you can read these books, and I hope you do. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you just in time to talk about *The Fenris Device*...
September 4, 2023
I read this without having read the first 3 in the series, but apart from having to piece together who was who, that didn't matter too much (the 'wind' is enigmatic, but explained towards the end of the book).
The writing somehow 'feels' 70s, but the characters and technology don't, and the story kept my interest, with rather an inventive situation. Decent if somewhat light.
The writing somehow 'feels' 70s, but the characters and technology don't, and the story kept my interest, with rather an inventive situation. Decent if somewhat light.
June 2, 2012
he fourth book "The Paradise Game" beings with the Hooded Swan is on the planet Pharos, so that Charlot can mediate a dispute between the Caradoc company and a group called Aegis. The Caradoc company found a planet and began modifying it on a large scale into Paradise, for sale to the ultra-wealthy. Unfortunately, after they had begun, they discovered the planet was already inhabited by an intelligent, though primitive race. Caradoc claims to have signed a treaty with the aliens that promises eternal cooperation with Caradoc's goals. Aegis is a public interest group trying to fight on behalf of the aliens. Grainger saves a female alien from Caradoc employees. Charlot ask for help from Grainger because he want to know how can he rid Caradoc off the planet. As Grainger investigates he learns that death seems to be completely unknown on the local life of Pharos, and that it's in complete balance. He and Charlot hypothesize that the development of a mutational filter now controls evolution there, rather than the traditional natural selection, and it has nudged the environment into complete stability. He learns that there's a secret Caradoc battleship in orbit, just waiting for justification to land, and secondly, Johnny's found a hole which contains an interesting fossil... a large predator with claws and teeth, suggesting that the world was not always so peaceful. Before Grainger can discover what this means, he learns that one of the natives has been murdered, by Varley. While the authorities take him to the Hooded Swan, Aegis, in a frustrated attempt to protest what they see as bias in Charlot's investigation, causes an explosion that destroys some of Caradoc's equipment. Varley escapes in the confusion, and, using the hunt for a fugitive as a pretext, the Caradoc troops are called down. Grainger and Eve are later caught by Varley in the woods, who demands to be turned over to the Hooded Swan, rather than Caradoc. On the way back, he dies from some unknown infection. Later, it's learned there's sickness suddenly reported by many people on the planet, although none as serious as Varley's. It's Grainger who puts it together. The mutational filter has adapted itself to humanity, and it triggers the viruses in the human body to become fatal whenever it detects violent emotion. The entire colony is quarantined and everyone has to try and reign in their emotions, and Grainger, with the help of the wind, comes up with a theory that helps Charlot develop a workable cure, although there are some deaths in the meantime.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2016
Fourth in the six-book Hooded Swan sequence by Brian Stableford, The Paradise Game (1974) is another intriguing space opera offering an alien planetary puzzle.
Space-pilot Grainger, still lumbered with the mind-parasite or symbiote ‘the wind’ has landed on Pharos, a planet that appears to be paradise. Unpolluted, with no large predators, no disease, indeed no death, it seems truly ideal. That’s why the Caradoc Company wants to take over the planet, to make money, of course; future wealth is in the service industry. The only indigenous natives are quite obliging about the project. However, conservationists in the guise of the Aegis group object strongly, even resorting to explosive sabotage. Charlot, Grainger’s boss, has been tasked with the job of arbitrating and determining if the Caradoc claim can succeed.
Yet again, Stableford has created interesting aliens and a planetary life-system. The natives ‘were humanoid, curious, gullible and all female… Her skin was covered in light gray fur. Her face reminded me of an owl, with huge large-lidded eyes. The eyelids moved slowly up and down, so that one moment the whole of the eyes were exposed, the next only a half or three-quarters. She had a sort of mane of lighter fur or hair descending down her back from the crown of her head, starting off in between her small pointed ears. Her arms were thin and short, and she walked with her legs permanently crooked. She was naked, but thick hair covered her loins.’ (pp9/10)
The natives have ‘no generic name for themselves, and they have no word for death.’ (p42)
Of course, no paradise can be perfect. Eden had its snake. Grainger wondered what lingered in the verdant vegetation of Pharos. ‘It’s always darkest before it gets even darker.’ (p45)
Stableford likes word-play and one of the lawmen on Pharos is Keith Just. He goes further, ‘Four of them. And Just.’(p113) Four Just Men, no less? Edgar Wallace would smile, I suspect. And his final two words in the story hit the right note, too!
As in earlier adventures, ‘the wind’ is instrumental in resolving the puzzle for Grainger. There’s also a good assessment of his relationship with the symbiote: ‘my relationship with the wind became a matter of vital necessity…’ (p133) ‘In a way, he was more me than I was.’ (p134).
Inventive, as usual, and worth reading for that reason.
Space-pilot Grainger, still lumbered with the mind-parasite or symbiote ‘the wind’ has landed on Pharos, a planet that appears to be paradise. Unpolluted, with no large predators, no disease, indeed no death, it seems truly ideal. That’s why the Caradoc Company wants to take over the planet, to make money, of course; future wealth is in the service industry. The only indigenous natives are quite obliging about the project. However, conservationists in the guise of the Aegis group object strongly, even resorting to explosive sabotage. Charlot, Grainger’s boss, has been tasked with the job of arbitrating and determining if the Caradoc claim can succeed.
Yet again, Stableford has created interesting aliens and a planetary life-system. The natives ‘were humanoid, curious, gullible and all female… Her skin was covered in light gray fur. Her face reminded me of an owl, with huge large-lidded eyes. The eyelids moved slowly up and down, so that one moment the whole of the eyes were exposed, the next only a half or three-quarters. She had a sort of mane of lighter fur or hair descending down her back from the crown of her head, starting off in between her small pointed ears. Her arms were thin and short, and she walked with her legs permanently crooked. She was naked, but thick hair covered her loins.’ (pp9/10)
The natives have ‘no generic name for themselves, and they have no word for death.’ (p42)
Of course, no paradise can be perfect. Eden had its snake. Grainger wondered what lingered in the verdant vegetation of Pharos. ‘It’s always darkest before it gets even darker.’ (p45)
Stableford likes word-play and one of the lawmen on Pharos is Keith Just. He goes further, ‘Four of them. And Just.’(p113) Four Just Men, no less? Edgar Wallace would smile, I suspect. And his final two words in the story hit the right note, too!
As in earlier adventures, ‘the wind’ is instrumental in resolving the puzzle for Grainger. There’s also a good assessment of his relationship with the symbiote: ‘my relationship with the wind became a matter of vital necessity…’ (p133) ‘In a way, he was more me than I was.’ (p134).
Inventive, as usual, and worth reading for that reason.
June 25, 2014
It's a planet that resembles a garden of Eden... which makes it very valuable for the Caradoc company to slightly terraform and then sell as a playground for the very rich. There's just one problem... there's already an alien race living there, who seem utterly peaceful and compliant. So compliant that the Caradoc company has produced a contract between them pledging complete acceptance of and cooperation with anything the corporation decides to do. Star Pilot Grainger's boss, Titus Charlot, is trying to find some pretext to kick Caradoc off the planet, and, since Grainger has a score to settle with them, he's more than willing to help. But this Paradise isn't all what it seems, and misunderstanding that might prove deadly... for everybody.
Another in the Grainger/Hooded Swan series that combines space opera with biological mysteries. My usual disclaimer applies: I have a particular fondness for this series that may not make me entirely objective about it's quality, so take your chances. This one is one of my favorites of the cycle... you get Grainger working more or less peacefully towards a common goal with the guy who is normally something of an antagonist, you get some classic SF tropes with a threat that may be old hat now but is still rather cool, and you get some surprisingly still timely-feeling ruminations on corporations acting in their own best interests at the expense of everybody else and government not being able to effectively reign them in. It's not an environmentalist polemic, either... there's a "protect the natives at all costs" group that the main character ridicules like he does almost everything else, not so much for their ideals but for their unwillingness to find legitimate evidence of poor behavior by the company and how they portray their message hurting their cause (and I'm not sure I entirely agree with all of his assessments of them, but that's okay).
Four stars, I really enjoyed revisiting this one.
Another in the Grainger/Hooded Swan series that combines space opera with biological mysteries. My usual disclaimer applies: I have a particular fondness for this series that may not make me entirely objective about it's quality, so take your chances. This one is one of my favorites of the cycle... you get Grainger working more or less peacefully towards a common goal with the guy who is normally something of an antagonist, you get some classic SF tropes with a threat that may be old hat now but is still rather cool, and you get some surprisingly still timely-feeling ruminations on corporations acting in their own best interests at the expense of everybody else and government not being able to effectively reign them in. It's not an environmentalist polemic, either... there's a "protect the natives at all costs" group that the main character ridicules like he does almost everything else, not so much for their ideals but for their unwillingness to find legitimate evidence of poor behavior by the company and how they portray their message hurting their cause (and I'm not sure I entirely agree with all of his assessments of them, but that's okay).
Four stars, I really enjoyed revisiting this one.
January 23, 2017
A minor refinement of the series formula, with a fantastic central premise and a great biological mystery at its core. Most of the characters take a back seat this time, but the emotional and intellectual challenges facing Grainger have only ramped up. Better than the series entries preceding it, solid in idea and execution, and constantly inviting you to read on. A great entry in the minor canon of morally ambiguous, biology- and anthropology-driven sf.
September 14, 2012
This is a great mystery! I enjoyed this books so much I found the other books in the Grainger/Hooded Swan series. A good read for sure.
May 8, 2015
1981 grade C+
series book G4
series book G4
December 21, 2024
Old style SF but a good read - could do with a re write to modernise it but the story and charters are good
December 1, 2014
Another fine entry in the classic but still-relevant Hooded Swan series.
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December 8, 2018I have the german translation.
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