Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
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| Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus | |
 1984 edition by Del Rey Books. |
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| Author | Isaac Asimov |
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| Cover artist | Darrell K. Sweet |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lucky Starr series |
| Genre(s) | science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday & Company |
| Publication date | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 186 |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids |
| Followed by | Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury |
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1954. Since 1972, reprints have included a foreword by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Venus have rendered the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate.
In his autobiography In Memory Yet Green, Asimov notes that his original version of the novel was rejected by Doubleday and had to be extensively revised before it was accepted. "On the whole, Doubleday was justified, for Lucky Starr, in this particular adventure, was needlessly close-mouthed, allowing his sidekick to think he was an utter bastard, when I was merely trying to keep things from the reader. I had to rewrite in such a way as to keep things from the reader in a subtler fashion and more in keeping with Lucky's character."
Contents |
[edit] Setting
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus was written in the mid-1950s, when little was known about Venus apart from its mass, volume, orbital characteristics, and the fact of its unbroken cloud cover. Asimov assumes that Venus has a temperate climate, with a period of rotation of 36 hours, a planet-wide ocean covering the surface, and an atmosphere that is 90% nitrogen and 10% carbon dioxide. He also assumes that the planetary ocean is covered with blue-green native vegetation, and that native animals inhabit the ocean. These animals, many of them phosphorescent, include an aggressive carnivore called an orange patch that shoots a jet of water at its prey, and the V-frogs, small sticklike animals that the human colonists keep as pets.
Asimov's Venus has a human population of six million living in some fifty domed cities on the ocean floor. The largest Venusian city is Aphrodite, with a population of a quarter million. Venus' chief exports are fertilizer made from the native vegetation, and animal feed derived from cultivated yeast.
[edit] Plot summary
Shortly after returning from the Asteroid Belt, David "Lucky" Starr learns that there is trouble on Venus. His Science Academy roommate Lou Evans had been sent to investigate, but the Council of Science office on Venus has requested that he be recalled and investigated for corruption.
As Starr and John Bigman Jones are being shuttled down to Venus, their pilots suffer an episode of paralysis, and Starr is barely able to keep their craft from smashing itself against the surface of the Venusian ocean. Afterwards, the pilots have no memory of the event.
Upon reaching the Venusian dome city of Aphrodite, Starr and Bigman meet Dr. Mel Morriss, head of the Council of Science on Venus. He explains that Venusian scientists are perfecting strains of yeast that can be processed into luxury foods for export. However, for six months there has been a growing series of incidents of bizarre behavior among the human colonists, like the episode Starr's pilots experienced. Morriss believes they are being telepathically controlled by an unknown enemy. Evans was sent to Venus to investigate, but he has been found with stolen data concerning a secret strain of yeast, and is under arrest. When Starr confronts him, Evans admits to having stolen the data, but refuses to say why. While Starr is still questioning him, word reaches them that a man is threatening to open an outside airlock, which will allow the ocean to flood Aphrodite.
Starr, Bigman, and Morriss go to the airlock to deal with the crisis, where they meet the city's chief engineer, Lyman Turner. Turner is the inventor and owner of the only laptop computer in the Galaxy, which he carries with him everywhere he goes. While Bigman makes his way through the ventilation ducts to cut power to the airlock door, Starr realizes that the airlock crisis is a feint. He races back to Council headquarters, but is too late: Evans has escaped custody and left Aphrodite in a submarine.
Starr and Bigman pursue Evans in another submarine, eventually finding him. Evans tells Starr that the source of the telepathic control is the V-frogs. They have been causing the blackout episodes among the human colonists. He tested his hypothesis by stealing the data on the yeast strain, and then concentrating on them. Shortly afterward, there was an accident involving that strain, confirming Evans' hypothesis. However, the V-frogs were able to prevent Evans from communicating his findings to anyone. The only reason he is able to talk to Starr and Bigman about it now is that the V-frogs have trapped them all beneath an enormous deep-sea dwelling orange patch, from which they know there is no escape.
Starr refuses to accept their fate. He leaves the submarine and uses a massive taser to destroy the orange patch's heart, killing it. He returns to the submarine, and takes it to the surface of the ocean, where he intends to communicate his findings to an orbiting space station to be relayed to the Council on Earth.
On the surface, the V-frogs fight to keep Starr from contacting the space station. They communicate telepathically with him, telling him they intend to take over the minds of the humans on Venus. Initially they are able to keep him away from the radio, but he is able to distract them long enough to get his message out. Returning to Aphrodite, Starr and the others find the V-frogs attempting to keep them out. Starr and the others return, and Starr explains to Morriss that the V-frogs are actually nothing more than telepathic amplifiers, being used by a human being to try to gain control over the rest of humanity. Specifically, it is Turner, who has configured his laptop computer to control the V-frogs. Bigman destroys the laptop, and Starr takes Turner into custody.
[edit] Themes
In Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus, Asimov returned to a recurring theme of his work - the use of mental powers to influence or control the actions of others. As far back as "Half-Breeds on Venus" in 1940, Asimov was writing about telepathic Venusians mentally controlling a native sauropod. The character of the Mule from the 1945 Foundation story of the same name, and Joseph Schwartz from the 1950 novel Pebble in the Sky could also use their mental powers to control others. Later, Asimov would introduce the mind-reading robot R. Giskard Reventlov in the 1983 novel The Robots of Dawn, and the telepathic world-entity Erythro in the 1989 novel Nemesis. Asimov's science-fictional mentor, John W. Campbell, was fascinated by the idea of telepathy, and as the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, he was able to ensure that his fascination was reflected in the stories his writers wrote and his magazine printed.
Asimov also created a number of alien creatures to populate his Venusian ocean, and this was not a common theme of his. Asimov's works invariable centered on the interactions of sentient beings, usually humans or robots, or occasionally intelligent aliens, with his fictional worlds serving only as backdrops. For Oceans of Venus, his only novel-length work set on that world, he hearkened back to the works of Stanley G. Weinbaum, whose imaginative alien ecologies made him a major figure in the science fiction field during his brief writing career in the mid-1930s. In his anthology Before the Golden Age, Asimov wrote that Oceans of Venus was "a conscious imitation of the spirit" of Weinbaum's 1935 story "Parasite Planet", which was also set on Venus.
The growing Cold War background of the Lucky Starr series is also present in Oceans of Venus, though here it serves as a red herring, causing Mel Morriss to wrongly suspect a Sirian plot behind the growing troubles on Venus. Asimov also repeats a plot twist from David Starr, Space Ranger, momentarily throwing suspicion on one character before revealing that the actual villain is someone else.
One final unusual aspect of Oceans of Venus is the brief appearance of Lyman Turner's wife in chapter 7. Mrs. Turner is the only female character to appear in the entire Lucky Starr series.
[edit] External links
A review of Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus by John H. Jenkins.
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