The Siege of Faltara

by Arsen Darnay

The planet Fillippi produces the much-prized antigravity substance levitron. The corrupt ruling family Contortus, ruling as a brutal dictatorship with slaves and troops drugged by menoma, have incurred the antipathy of the Empire, who send an agent provocateur to Fillippi to foment a revolution. The planet has a strange political system where trial by combat is used, and the agent, Mart, finds a minor family willing to front the challenge to the leadership - Balto Fangano. The challenge is a joust from the backs of the six-legged, three-humped, camel-like tafpa. Meanwhile the puzzle of how the pudgy, infantile boy ruler manages to defeat so many athletic challengers remain - is it drugs or something else?

Genres: Science Fiction

226 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1978

About the author

Arsen Julius Darnay. Hungarian-born writer, in the USA from 1953 and a US citizen from 1961. He resides in Michigan with wife Brigitte Theodora nee Schulz, retired reference publisher, also born in Europe. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 2+ great-grandchildren.
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/B...

Since age 7, he has considered his "calling to be a writer, even poet". His first sf story, "The Splendid Freedom", appeared in Galaxy in 1974; his first novel, A Hostage for Hinterland, set the pattern for much of his work: in a Post-Holocaust USA, where floating Cities depend upon land-dwelling ecofreak tribesmen for the helium that cools their reactors, crisis erupts into a bleak and somewhat metaphysical confrontation, at the end of which the cities die. A similarly abstract dichotomy, set on a Rimworld, is destabilized in The Siege of Faltara (1978). The Splendid Freedom (collection of linked stories, 1980) carries its protagonists, who are linked through Reincarnation, into a variety of Dystopias. Darnay did not publish fiction 1981-2009.

Reviews

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The planet Fillippi produces the much-prized antigravity substance levitron. The corrupt ruling family Contortus, ruling as a brutal dictatorship with slaves and troops drugged by menoma, have incurred the antipathy of the Empire, who send an agent provocateur to Fillippi to foment a revolution. The planet has a strange political system where trial by combat is used, and the agent, Mart, finds a minor family willing to front the challenge to the leadership - Balto Fangano. The challenge is a joust from the backs of the six-legged, three-humped, camel-like tafpa. Meanwhile the puzzle of how the pudgy, infantile boy ruler manages to defeat so many athletic challengers remain - is it drugs or something else? Arsen Darnay has given us an entertaining tale of palace intrigue and imperial meddling that invokes the complexity of Dune without the heft. It’s fast-paced and well-written and not a bad way to spend a day.

[Jesse Toldness · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what it promises, no more, no less. A good, solid adventure tale, fast-moving, with just enough setting to support it, no more.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many interchangeable viziers and courtly intrigue, not nearly enough blue, six-legged camel-horse jousting.

[Gregory Mele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid planetary tale in the Jack Vance style, that reminds one of how much world-building older writers pulled off in 65 - 75k word stories. This is a political revolt tale in plot but has lots of action, not least the strange trial-by-combat system that takes place by jousting on six-legged, blue-furred camel-like creatures. Whacky, but fun.

My main criticism is that there is too much going on for so small a novel. The instigator of the rebellion is doing so to save his own skin and is really an agent of one, multi-planet empire forced to work for another; yet he is mostly offstage and the larger tale of these vast governments and their own cold war seems superfluous to the story, even more so the framing device that suggests all of this is actually some form of entertainment media being sent to us here on Earth as a recruitment device to immigrate to the Outer Rim. A fun conceit for a larger work, or series, but all of which amounts to "right now, in an arm of the galaxy, far, far away".

You don't need to seek this out, but if it comes your way it makes for a good night of escapism.

[Dave Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Jack Vance, try this excellently paced story of revolt against oppression on a magnificently original and vividly described world. Obviously it would never achieve the success of something like Dune because there are no prophecies, no chosen ones, no vague mysticism. Just a tight, unsentimental story with characters who feel far more real and true than any you'll encounter in popular SF.

[Eric N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Political intrigue on an alien world. Ok.

[Jan Van den berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story about a revolt against a dictatorial regime.

[Gerhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice quick read full of intrigue and a very interesting joust at the centre of it...

[James]

Ace Books, 1978. First printing in fine condition. Cover by Boris Vallejo.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what it was about this book, but it just felt as if there was something missing. The characters were barely sketched in and there was very little time spent with any one of them, for a start. And it was never terribly clear how the things that happened caused the other things that happened.

Annoyingly vague.

[Dami (Damiellar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is most definitely no great feat of writing but I really enjoy it and seem to dip into it every year or so (when I happen to see it on the shelves when I'm in the right mood).

I just find it a nice, light read.