Viagens Interplanetarias - Reception

Reception

Critical response to the series has been mixed. Commenting on The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, P. Schuyler Miller wrote "Here you will find entertainment, ideas skillfully played with, precise care for detail and consistency, but actually not too much plot-suspense. So logical is the development of most of the stories, that the experienced reader knows what must be coming next." Of the setting, he observed that it allowed "ample room for swashbuckling, skullduggery and horseplay, in which de Camp deals deftly from time to time," but noted that "ut of this setting, on the other hand, has come just one really memorable book--'Rogue Queen.'"

In other reviews of the same collection, Mark Reinsberg wrote that "De Camp's style is adroit and witty as he develops science-fiction take-offs on themes like sea piracy, head hunters, the wild west, and jousting knight-hood," and noted that "he tales are spiced with glamorous other worldly women." He also rated it "robably the most entertaining collection of 'tomorrow tales' by an individual author" published in 1953, whose "yarns kept the reader laughing over space pioneering in the 22d century and a marvelous pair of interstellar swindlers named Koshay and Borel." The English Journal stated that "or fantasy, irony, and imagination these stories are remarkable." The Los Angeles Times noted that in postulating the rise of Brazil as a world power, de Camp "develops an interesting and not too improbable theme."

On the other hand, Boucher and McComas felt "the stories of the Viagens Interplanetarias have usually struck us as pretty routine work unworthy of L. Sprague de Camp, but devotees of the series will welcome the collected volume." Groff Conklin assessed it as a "cream-puff-light book of space opera ... ine stuff for bedtime, but I do feel that the stories were written with the left hind paw of an immensely brilliant fellow who just wasn't trying hard. Perhaps we should call it 'relentlessly light reading!'"

Early reviewers of the first Krishna novel, The Queen of Zamba, were not terribly impressed by the book. J. Francis McComas called it "a tedious account of a private eye's quest through space for a runaway heiress," with "he chase ... a pretty drab affair, without the wit and charm usually found in this author's work." Groff Conklin characterized it as "a cops-and-robbers adventure," rating it "fast-moving and moderately sophisticated entertainment, bubble-light through not bubble-headed, and considerably below the author's best." Anthony Boucher described the novel as "a fairly primitive and predictable adventure story which is 'science fiction' because it is said to happen on the remote planet Krishna."

Later critics struck much the same note. William Mattathias Robins called it "a simple detective adventure in an exotic setting." Colleen Power wrote more charitably that "hile the novel seems dated, with its tough-talking detective slang and philosophy, satire combines nicely with comic swordplay to present the reader with a short, light science fiction detective novel." David Pringle characterized it as "ight-hearted planetary romance -- or fantasy in an ostensibly science fictional setting."

Both Boucher and Robins note the novel's primacy in the Viagens series, suggesting they see its primary significance in the establishment of the setting.

Reviews of Rogue Queen were largely positive. Anthony Boucher praised de Camp for "producing a science-fiction narrative which is entirely about sex, and, surprisingly, non-pornographic," characterizing the narrative as "that rarest of collector's items: a completely new science-fiction plot." Later he and J. Francis McComas rated Rogue Queen as "he most interesting recent fictional extrapolation," noting that "ively and unusual thinking, a vigorous plot, and a most appealing non-human heroine make the best de Camp novel in many years.". Groff Conklin described the novel as "without doubt the best item de Camp has yet developed out of his concept of Viagens Interplanetarias", lauding "he meticulously scientific way in which de Camp develops details of this culture on a far-distant planet to parallel a bee society fascinating," with "he story of how this is accomplished ... made so circumstantially real, so humanly plausible, that the book becomes a sheer delight to read." P. Schuyler Miller also called the novel the series's "most handsome dividend," finding it "by long odds the best of the Viagens stories, worked out with the de Campian flair for meticulously ridiculous logic." The reviewer for Startling Stories characterized the book as "another in the same vein" in the author's "growing list of gentle satires," with "he story ... relatively unimportant, ... there only as a vehicle for the author to ride in while he pokes fun at humans and their frailties." Villiers Gerson called it "an ingenious, amusing tale" in which "hat clever science-fiction writer ... for once blended satisfactorily both gimmick and characterization."

Commenting on later novels in the series, Lester del Rey in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact wrote of The Hostage of Zir that "here's only one way to describe ; it's a new Krishna novel. And like de Camp's other popular Krishna novels, it's a wry and wacky story of a human forced to contend with the semicivilized and semihuman cultures of an alien world where Murphy's law always holds good, and nothing ever goes according to plan. You could call it sword-and-sorcery, since swords are buckled with a touch of swash, and human science is a sort of magic to the too-human but egg-laying Krishnans. But the adventure is always cock-eyed." He concludes that "f you've read and enjoyed the other stories of Krishna, you'll want this one. If you haven't read any, this is a good one to start with."

Don D'Ammassa, addressing it and other late entries in the Viagens series, writes "he quality of the series remains undiminished in volumes, which combine good-natured mayhem and a crisp, exciting narrative style.