Plot and Storyline
Tour guide Fergus Reith arrives on the backward world of Krishna with a gaggle of tourists, the first such group to visit the planet. Though he is woefully unprepared and his charges collectively epitomize the "Ugly Terran" stereotype, he readies for his task as best he can and squires his flock off on their grand circuit of the northern Varastou nations among which the Terran spaceport of Novorecife is situated.
The first portion of the novel is an episodic account of their misadventures cruising down the Pichide River, in the Free City of Majbur, and the island kingdom of Zamba. The next few stops, including a visit to the republic of Katai-Jhogorai, are passed over summarily; the real action begins when the group reaches Baianch, capital of the northern kingdom of Dur. There, while taking the new railway to the end of the line, the party is kidnapped by Barré vas-Sarf, bandit ruler of the restive province of Zir. Barré hopes to use them as bargaining chips in his dispute with Tashian bad-Garin, prince-regent of Dur. Reith escapes, only to be captured in turn by the forces of Shosti, the Witch of Zir.
Shosti is Barré's rival for control of Zir and the leader of a local religious cult; her designs on Reith are quite different, as her prophecies lead her to believe she must mate with a red-haired Terran to engender a savior god. A previous captive, Felix Borel (protagonist of the earlier Krishna short story "Perpetual Motion"), had been executed after failing to impregnate Shosti. Reith reads his own fate in Borel's, knowing Terrans and Krishnans are not interfertile – the latter, while near human in appearance, are an alien species. Once more he succeeds in escaping, subsequently leading a raid to free his tourists from Barré.
Apparently safe back in Baianch, Reith relates his adventures to Tashian, with unfortunate results. The account of Terran-Krishnan biological incompatibility inspires the crafty prince-regent to trick Reith into an intimate encounter with Vásni bad-Dushta'en, Princess of Dur, and then marry her off to him by force. The continuation of Tashian's regency is dependent on Vásni producing no legitimate male offspring, a lack her marriage to Reith will ensure. Separated again from his tourists, Reith grimly sets about planning yet another escape. This he achieves thanks to a fortuitous diplomatic visit to Baianch by Pandr (prince) Ferrian bad-Arjanaq of the island nation of Sotaspé, whom Reith had previously encountered in Zamba. (Ferrian was the protagonist of the earlier Krishna short story "Finished.")
Finally winning back to Novorecife, Reith learns his tour group has returned before him, and most have left the planet. He resolves to depart as well, but reconsiders when the guide of the second tour group to reach Krishna suffers an accident, leaving an opening for an experienced guide...
Fergus Reith would go on to become the main recurring character in the Krishna series, reappearing in a minor role in The Prisoner of Zhamanak, and as the protagonist of The Bones of Zora and The Swords of Zinjaban.
Read more about this topic: The Hostage Of Zir
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)