Fri 27 Sep 2024
SF Diary Review: EMIL PETAJA – Doom of the Green Planet.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[3] Comments
EMIL PETAJA – Doom of the Green Planet. Ace Double H-70. Paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published back-to-back with Star Quest, by Dean R. Koontz (reviewed here). Never reprinted. Cover artist: Jerome Podwil.
Evidently a sequel to Lord of the Green Planet (Ace, 1967), and a continuation of the adventures of Diarnid Patrick O’Dowd, ex-starman, on the planet Eu-Tarah, protected from the outside by an impenetrable green barrier. Diarmid is now High Lord of the Islanders, having defeated their god-king and creator.
But this very act is leading to the gradual destruction of the green barrier, leading to the challenging appearance of a new renegade starman.
A collection of cultural conflicts has an isolationist theme: the Green must continue to protect the people of Eu-Tarah from the exploitation of space-faring man. Too much scientific achievement is compulsively driving the rest of the universe, without reason or conscience. A similar theme of conflict between opposing societies is carried out by the Islanders and the barbaric Nords.
And then there are the original inhabitants of the planet, who have a part in saying what their world shall become. As a style, Petaja’s SF reads strangely like fantasy.
Rating: **½
September 27th, 2024 at 11:18 pm
I like Petaja, but agree his SF has a strong fantasy element. This one asks some serious questions about science and progress, but hedges answering them a bit.
September 28th, 2024 at 6:51 am
“As a style, Petaja’s SF reads strangely like fantasy.”
No wonder. According to his Wiki page, “Though he wrote science fiction, fantasy, horror stories, detective fiction, and poetry, Petaja considered his work part of the older tradition of ‘weird fiction.’ ” He was a member of the Lovecraft Circle and had correponded with HPL, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and August Derleth, and later was friends with Hannes Bok, Ray Bradbury, Henry Kuttner and many other notables in the field. His early work appeared in amateur journals such as THE CALIFORNIAN, FUTURIA FANTASIA, and THE ACOLYTE. His best-known science fiction books were based on the Finnish national sage THE KALEVALA and his Green Planet Saga had its basis in Celtic legends. Though never a major name in the field, Petaja had a studied and entertaining approach to his work. In 1995 he was named the first ever Author emeritus by the SFWA.
September 28th, 2024 at 10:35 am
Thanks, Jerry. I got busy away from the blog this week, and I never checked Petaja out on Wikipedia. I did know some of this, but only some. What caught my eye the most was this statement: “…and his Green Planet Saga had its basis in Celtic legends.” There were only the two books, but this explains a lot, I think.