I Read Books: Skylark of Valeron
This, the third in the Skylark series (previously reviewed on this site are the first novel, The Skylark of Space, and also the second, the confusingly named Skylark Three) opens to reveal that Richard Seaton’s Nemesis, Marc C DuQuesne did not die at the hands of the Fenachrone supermen in Skylark Three*, but instead was able to steal a battleship from them before their planet was destroyed. DuQuesne then goes to Norlamin, lies to the locals, and claims to be an employee of Seaton and Crane, whereupon they give him a very powerful spaceship with all the technology from the previous book. DuQuesne then conquers the Earth, and becomes very popular by abolishing war and crime, and creating full employment by building a defence system for the planet.
But what are Seaton and Crane up to? They were deep in intergalactic space chasing the Fenachrone at the end of Skylark Three; their velocity is so great that it’s easier to visit a new galaxy than turn around and come back. They encounter mental beings of no physical form, the “Intellectuals,” who decide they want to recruit Seaton. To escape Seaton and company rotate Skylark Two (Skylark Three’s lifeboat) into the fourth dimension.
The fourth dimension is an extremely wacky place. You can reach past the outside of sealed objects (Seaton uses a tin of tobacco to demonstrate). More annoyingly the four-dimensional beings use shock tridents that reach inside the humans’ bodies and grasp nerve junction to control them. Also the three dimensional matter is much denser than the local stuff; the land appears to be flat; light comes from the surroundings and vanishes leaving the night pitch black. Finally time is all messed up; they’re only supposed to be there for one ten thousandth of a second yet it feels much longer.
When they come out they find themselves very lost, not recognising the nearby galaxies. Seaton realises that he will have to, at the very least, rebuild his Fifth-Order Projector to find their way home, and probably go further and build a Sixth-Order one (which operates on the frequency of thought). Fortunately his time in the fourth dimension has given him some ideas on how to do that, which is just as well as he needs to come up with something to deal with the Intellectuals. However he needs a stable planet and a nearby white dwarf star (for the heat/pressure to make a neutronium lens).
They find such a planet, Valeron, only it has recently gone through a close pass with another star leading to the death of most of the inhabitants (humans), and has also acquired a new planetary neighbour whose atmosphere is made up of chlorin** (sic). Unfortunately the inhabitants of this planet “Chlora” are amoebas who promptly lay siege to Valeron. Just as things are getting a bit hairy for the defenders Seaton and the Skylark arrive and save the day.
Seaton goes on to build what he wants to call Skylark Four (to get the accuracy they want it would need measuring circles four light years across, but that turns out to be impractical so it’s a sphere only one thousand km across) but Dorothy, his wife, insists it has a better name so it becomes Skylark of Valeron. Now to deal with the Intellectuals, and also DuQuesne, the very popular total ruler of Earth.
Read This: For more space adventures; the fourth dimension sequence in particular is full of cool ideas.
Don’t Read This: If building bigger ships and greater technology is boring.
* The book, not the ship. DuQuesne never boards Skylark Three (the ship).
** Word tried to autocorrect this to chlorinE. And just now lower cased that E. Well done, but not in this case.
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